Sunkosi River and into India

The rafting trip was a really cool experience. It was a mixture of rafting, nature, culture, adventure, relaxation, teamwork, and campfire bonding.
The group consisted of 6 tourists and 6 crew members (2 of which were training). We had 2 rafts. One for all of our gear and the other for us. Then 2 safety kayakers.
I am always a little weary signing up for multi day group ventures. 10 days on a raft with people that suck would not be a fun scenario. Fortunately, the group came together well.
The first girl I met was a Canadian named Danica. We had a lot in common because she had also been traveling solo for a year and was on her last month. We instantly got along and exchanged travel experiences and compared emotional feelings such as getting through homesickness and the excitement of learning about new cultures. We had some good laughs right off the bat. Especially about how unattractive traveling can make you. If only men knew our potential beauty with a hair dryer, make-up, manicures, and form fitting cute clothes. But hairy legs, dirty clothes, and bug bitten out of shaped bodies were our lives right now. It was just humorous and refreshing to meet someone on the same wavelength as me.
Then there were 2 New Yorkers named Dan and Mike. Dan had been traveling and working abroad for 2 years. He has no intentions of going back to the States anytime soon. Mike just quit his job and bought a one-way ticket to meet up with Dan and live the traveler lifestyle as well. They were both really nice guys and it is always a pleasure to meet cool travelers from the US. Matt was this Aussie bloke that was on the last leg of his 16 month around the world trip. He had been all throughout the Middle East so it was interesting to here his stories and perspectives on those countries. He carries a guitar with him and wrote some cool songs during his travels. We spent almost every night listening to jam sessions around the camp fire. When Matt is not being a singer songwriter, he is a "wordsmith". He is very clever at combining 2 words in almost any case scenario. For instance, Brandy and Tang is a wonderful campfire drink that he coined "Brang". There was also the horrendous "wand" which is wind and sand combined and becomes very annoying when attempting to set up camp. Last, but surely not least was cute little Eimear. She was an Irish girl who had been working in the United Emirates for a year teaching English and was finishing up a 4 month trip through India and Nepal. She was one of those people who had he odd ability of retaining what she calls "useless information" such as song lyrics, movie quotes and any other corky thing you can imagine. I spent a lot of time laughing at her random blurbs about some movie made in the 1980s that none of us had ever even heard of. The group dynamic was pretty cool because we were all around the same age and all on long term travel trips.
We loaded up our rafts and got a safety briefing. We were all a little nervous since 2 people had died on the river a week ago. The rapids were rated up to 4-5+ so we were not sure what to expect. However, the first 3 days were pretty calm which gave us time to build our confidence up. Finally, we were off on the Sunkosi River and going out into the wild.
10 days sounds pretty intense for rafting, but most of the river was pretty calm with sporadic rapids here and there. Much of the time was spent floating down and enjoying the peacefulness. The river runs straight down the middle of Nepal and by the end of the trip we rafted almost 300 kilometers. All along the river we passed small villages and were able to catch a glimpse of the real Nepalis life. We were miles away from roads, tourist agencies, or guesthouses. Throughout the trip we passed villagers bathing themselves with river water, women washing clothes, kids swimming, and men fishing. The fisherman were hilarious because they would always be wearing small underwear. Some of them strapped a wooden box to their back with a battery inside and electrocuted the fish. Their friends would stand around with nets and collect the ones that floated up. One time we passed a crowd of people surrounding a pile of logs that were burning on the river bed. Our raft guide, Denish, explained that the villagers were cremating a dead body, as they do in the Hindu culture.
The river and the scenery were beautiful and I was looking around in awe trying to soak up the nature around me. Since we were on the water most of the time, I wasn't able to take a lot of pictures.
Each afternoon we would pull up to a white sandy beach to set up camp. It is pretty unique how many untouched beaches Nepal has with being a landlocked country. We joked at how we couldn't wait to go back home and be like...."yeah, some of the best beaches are in Nepal..." and then wait for people to be like....ummm there isn't an ocean anywhere?
A few days into the trip, we approached the 5+ rapid where the people had died. We pulled over to check out the rapid and see if it was something we could do or not. You could tell the crew was a bit nervous. One of them named Cita was having a hard time because it was her friend that died there. After 30 minutes of discussion, the guides decided it was too dangerous to go down. There were 3 major holes in the rapid and if the raft where to get stuck in one it could be extremely dangerous. We understood the circumstances and agreed to walk around. The rafts, however, needed to be guided by ropes through the rapids as they were far to heavy to carry around. When the crew attempted to get the first raft down, someone slipped and the current grabbed the raft. There were 2 people still in it as it headed straight for the rapid. Instantly, the crew went into action as the ran along the raft with safety ropes and watched as the 2 on board navigated around the holes. Luckily, they made it down safely and everyone cheered from the sidelines and sighed with relief. Everyone was super cautious with the next raft and it ended up getting lodged into a rock and stuck for a good while. We ended up having to unload a lot of things and carry them down to get the raft out of its position. All in all....it was an eventful rapid even though we didn't officially go down it.
After a few days we were getting a bit comfortable rafting and maybe even a little too confident. There was a 4+ rapid that we were up against and we were ready for something exciting. Matt was in front next to Danica and I was behind him. We hit this massive wave straight on and the raft went up almost vertical. Matt was almost swept away with the water, but we all managed to stay in the boat. As we rounded the wave we were all excited and cheering and even taunting the rapids to give us some more. Out of nowhere the raft nailed a rock and all of a sudden Matt went flying out of the boat. It all took us by surprise and I don't think I will ever forget the look on his face as he went soaring into the river. I started laughing hysterically and even almost peed my pants, but I knew that we needed to do a safety rescue to get him back in the boat. Danica and I had our paddles all over the place and as we lifted him back in we rammed his face right into the handle of the paddle. Still, we were laughing and Matt ended up dragging himself into the boat pretty much. All this happened in about 10 seconds and just goes to show that you never know what can happen. Fortunately,there were no major injuries during the trip.
I shared a tent with Danica and we spent a lot of time talking and hanging out. I noticed that she was running out of energy quickly and not feeling 100% during the trip. In talking, she confided with me that she was actually diagnosed with breast cancer before she left to travel. She is only 23 and it is an odd case since she is so young. Back home, she had a lot of crazy things going on in her life at that time with her family and past relationships.....then with the diagnosis on top of that, she felt a need to get away for a bit and spend a year abroad. My first reaction was why didn't she immediately start getting treated for it. She explained to me that it was in the first stages and even though her doctor didn't recommend traveling, she didn't think much would spread over a years time. Danica is taking medicine weekly to stabilize the cancer. Normally she rests a lot and takes naps to combat the side effects, but there wasn't too much time for that during the rafting trip. I couldn't believe it when she told me and it put all my travels and experiences in perspective. How differently you would look at things if you had cancer while traveling.....
Danica chose not to tell anyone in her family and only her doctor and a close friend back at home know about it. She has told a few people in traveling. She isn't scared to talk about it, but just doesn't want people to treat her differently for it. Traveling was a choice she made and she wanted to get away for a bit before dealing with the treatments and the other issues going on in her life. Once I knew the whole background, it made more sense to me why she needed to get away for awhile. I asked her if I could talk about it in my blog and she said it was ok. In fact, she enjoyed talking to someone about it and getting it off her chest. I find peoples stories and reasons for traveling so interesting and I wanted to emphasize the unique individuals I have come across on my journey. I only knew Danica for 10 days, but she has a wonderful soul and a compassionate energy. I hope all of her treatments go well and her future is filled with many more trips and experiences ahead.
The Sunkosi River trip happened at a perfect time for me. I had been having a wave of homesickness and it was really refreshing to be around people who were on similar trips as I was. Being surrounded by nature really does something for the soul and I was feeling nice and refreshed when it was over.
Our group parted ways and it was sad to say goodbye. Sharada, the woman at the tourist agency that I worked with, invited me to stay at her home for my last night in Kathmandu. It was really nice to be able to be invited into a locals home. She made an amazing dinner and we sat around her kitchen table talking about my trip and the Nepali culture. This will not be my last time to visit Nepal...there are so many other places I want to explore. And a little thing called the Mt Everest base camp that I need to hike someday :)

I am now 4 days into India...
India was the whole reason I started this trip. I had wanted to visit a place so different then anything I had ever known and India seemed to pop in my mind anytime I visualized that place. Since I couldn't take too much time off of work, it was my desire to visit this country the led me to save money and leave my life in ATX for awhile. Then, somehow...my trip turned into this wild and crazy round the world expedition, but here I am now.....in the place that started it all for me. My mind is mixed with so many emotions and I can't believe that I am finally here.
Eimear, the Irish chick who retained useless information, happened to be on the same flight as me into Delhi. Thank goodness for this because she had already spent 4 months traveling in India and knew how it all worked. For the first day and a half I walked behind Eimear as she whisked me through the streets and haggled for cabs and hotel rooms. She told me about the ins and outs and it really helped me to get my barrings straight. When we arrived our first night, it was right in the middle of the big Hindu festival called Diwali. I am not sure the whole background of this holiday, but it is translated into the "Festival of Lights". People drape lights all over their homes like we do for Christmas, and then they shoot fireworks all over the place throughout the night. It all sounds lovely, right? Well, fireworks combined with India equals WAR ZONE!!!!!!! The first few hours of being in Delhi consisted of me running and dodging fire crackers (more like fire missiles) flying down the streets. As we were checking into our guesthouse, the men at the reception stopped in the middle of our check-in and went into Hindu prayers for about 15 minutes while we sat there. I was like...what the heck is going on?.. we are in the middle of checking in and these guys stop to chant and light incense and hold hands. Eimear didn't seem the least bit surprised and gave me the "Welcome to India" look. After sorting out the cost of accomodation and waiting for them to finish their prayers we finally got situated into our rooms. We met some really cute Dutch and English boys who invited us out to dinner and to check out the Diwali festival. Once again, we were back in the streets and I felt like we were in the Desert Storm War with fireworks and dust surrounding me. Honestly, I was scared that one of us was going to get hurt. There was no police or safety people around and clearly no regulations on how to shoot off the fireworks. All I could think to myself was.."welcome to India Andrea...this is what you asked for....a place far different then you even know!"

I had signed up for a 21 day tour through the tourist areas of India. I was hesitant about doing it because I knew I was going to be spending far more money then I would if I were on my own. But a few months ago when I signed up for it, I was intimidated about traveling alone in India. I said goodbye to Eimear and went to meet up with my group. There were only 3 other people in the group. Emma, a girl from England and then Steve and Debra, a couple from Australia. They are all very nice and I think we will get along great.
After only 2 days on the tour, I realize that it was a good idea. India is very intense and there is so much going on around you at any given moment. I am glad that I can just follow a group around and enjoy getting used to my surroundings for a few weeks. It can get really exhausting and frustrating having to figure out directions, prices, transport, and everything else when you are alone for the first time in a new country. So....I am looking forward not having to worry about that crap for a bit and just enjoying the country.
Our first day, Digvijay, our guide, took us to a few places around Delhi. Our first stop was the largest Muslim Mosque in India. It was beautiful, but I was a bit put off at the entrance. There were all these men barking at us to pay rupees for every little thing. We had to pay to bring our camera in, pay to have them watch our shoes while we go inside, pay to wear the mandatory robe around our clothing and so on. I decided not to bring my camera in because it wasn't worth the $6 it would have cost and I didn't want to give them my money anyways. After the Mosque, we went to a Sikh temple. This was a completely different experience to the Muslim Mosque. We were asked to take our shoes off and put a scarf over our head, but no one asked for any money for it. Once we were inside, we were invited into the worshipping area and we were able to sit down a listen to the live music and watch the Sikhs praying on their knees. It was such a lovely and peaceful setting and I could have sat there for hours watching the people coming through to pray. I honestly don't know too much about Sikhism, but my guide describe it as a mixture of Muslim and Hinduism. Obviously, there is much more to it, but I won't try to explain it all in this blog. Besides the religious aspect, the Sikh community is well known for opening their doors to their own worshippers and outsiders as well. Behind the temple was loads of dormitories and apartments that they open to people for free or small donations. Also, there is a large dining hall where they serve meals for free or small donations. We were able to go into the kitchen and help the ladies bake bread and see the huge pots used for cooking for 100s of people. Mainly, it is other Sikhs that come to use these facilities. And you will never see a Sikh begging on the street for food or money as they are always taken care of at the temples. Apparently, they are a very wealthy religion and put the money back into its worshippers in this way.
The traditional Sikh men are very intimidating at first because they wear stark white linen clothing with blue turbans. Most of them have long facial beards. Across their shoulders they wear a knife much like you would if you had a sword. This is the traditional dress and both men and woman would wear the knife in the past for protection. Nowadays, the knife is simply worn for traditional reasons. When I would walk by these men I was scared to make eye contact, but when I did their faces lightened up and they gave me a head nod and gentle smile. Unfortunately, I connect men in turbans with war and terrorism, which is a terrible thing for me to think. Obviously, there were so many good people around the world practicing different religions and it was really neat for me to have a peak.
I realize that them welcoming outsiders in to view their religion is a way to gain followers and spread their word. Don't worry...I am not planning on converting into Sikhism. However, I was very impressed with the temple and facilities they provided. It was also nice to not have to pay to learn about and view these things as the previous Mosque had done. Pictures were allowed to be taken, but I felt that it would be disrespectful. It would be like someone walking into a Catholic church mass and snapping photos....so I just walked around admiring this religion that is so foreign to anything I have ever seen before.
We took a 17 hour train ride to a city in Rajasthan called Jaisalmer. This is the largest city closest to the Pakistan border and is smack dab in the middle of the desert. The town is actually a huge fortress that was built in the 12th century. Today, the fort is still in tact and one of the few forts in the world that is still inhabited. 1/3 of the city still lives and works within the fort. Our guesthouse is inside the fort and we are literally sleeping within the walls of this ancient city. It's sand colored and the light of the sun reflecting of the sandstone is a site to see. Tomorrow we will spend a few hours learning about the history of the fortress. I am so excited to finally be in India....I think the next few weeks will bring many interesting experiences. Well, that's it for now...hee hee....sorry for the long blog :)

Annapurna Base Trek

Ok - I have a quick update since my last blog. Apparently, the Muslim dude from Tajikistan is a legitimate person. He asked to be my friend on facebook and his profile page checked out. Either that...or he is one hell of a con artist :) So...with that said, perhaps I may have over reacted a tiny bit when I was with him. But given the circumstances and the dodgy characters around that area of town, I think it was pretty understandable for me to have my guard up. There is no doubt that the other men that approached me where touts of some sort.
I just really hope the Tajikistan guy never finds my blog.....because, well...that would be a bit awkward.
Let me first begin with saying that Nepal is awesome. I will be as bold to even say that I think it is my top favorite country....tied with Ecuador of course. This will not be the last time I visit, there is so much more that I need to explore.
My guide's name was Nyrma. It was really nice to have him along for the hike because there were certain parts where I did not see other people for awhile. However, turns out I paid a lot of money for an "English" speaking guide who admitted to me (well along on our trek) that in fact, he does not speak very much English and actually studied French. So....that was a bit frustrating for me since the whole reason I hired him was to teach me about the culture and chit-chat along the way. Nonetheless, it was good to have someone around. Plus, he carried my bag the entire way.
We started off our hike in a small town called Naya pol. As I mentioned in my last blog, there was a Hindu festival taking place. Goats were sacrificed and most of Nepal, besides the tourism jobs, were on a 3 week holiday. Within the first 15 minutes of walking we came upon a small crowd. I peaked through and saw that there was a headless goat laying on the dirt pathway. One man had a blow torch and was burning the hair off of it. It was a startling sight for me. I met a girl once in Laos who watched villagers butcher and take apart a cow in the middle of town. I asked her if it freaked her out and she responded nonchalantly with "You should be able to kill the animal that you eat." I agreed with her statement and admitted that my knowledge of meat was reduced to sanitary packages at supermarkets. Sure, during my travels I have visited open markets where I have seen meat hanging on hooks in 100 degree weather. I have also seen large pigs roasting over a fire while people peeled off the skin to eat. But the blow torching of a headless goat in a pile of dirt was a new site for me. I quickly made a mental note to stick to a vegetarian diet along the trek. It actually wasn't going to be difficult to eat vegetarian. The primary meal for the Nepalis was a dish called Dal Bhat. It consists of a heaping portion of rice with a side of fried potatoes, spinach, and some sort of chutney. Then there is a bowl of watery lentil soup that you pour over the rice. If you order this dish, you can have all of the dal bhat that you can eat. It is what the porters live off of and is actually quite tasty. Since meat is rarely eaten, the people get most of their protein from lentils. It is a good high energy meal. For curiosity though, I did try a piece of goat later in the trek. It was fatty and tough. I also had soup one night and commented on how good the sun dried tomatoes where....only to find out that I was eating dried yak meat. But for the most part, I stuck to a vegetarian diet.
The trekking routes weren't open to tourism until the late 1950s. The routes were basically "super highways" that the porters and villagers used for trading. Still today, these routes are filled with porters and pony caravans carrying supplies from village to village. Most of it now is catered to tourism, but it is neat to know that there is so much history in the steps that we were taking.
Later on in the day, we came across a Nepalis family coming down a steep hill. They were taking a break on the side of the path. I noticed a large basket tied to the back of one of the younger man. The older mother was tending to the basket. As I came around the family I looked and saw that in the basket was a grown man who appeared to be physically and mentally disabled. They cut out the front part of the basket for his legs to hang out. This family must have been heading into the city, perhaps to celebrate the Hindu festival....and they were carrying their grown son in a basket the entire way there. Physical or mental disabilities are a life changing struggle for families anywhere in the world. In America, though, we have resources and government help (handicap accessible areas, community programs and schools etc.) In the Himalayan villages, there are no such programs or help. How difficult it must be to live each day with those sort of problems. My admiration went out to the family carrying their son down the steep steps of the mountain.
The first few days of hiking, we crossed through the low level mountains in areas of lush green and rushing rivers. It was beautiful, however, the weather was a bit cloudy and I still had not seen any mountain peaks. It was 2 weeks before the height of the hiking season....and the rainy season had dragged a bit longer then usual. I was really hoping that this wouldn't ruin the mountain views I had ahead of me.
The next morning we woke up at 4:00am. There was a viewing at the top of this place called Poon Hill. It was supposed to be outstanding for sunrises. I strapped on my headlamp and we began the 1 hour walk up the steep hill. The whole way up, the sky was filled with clouds. I was really disappointed inside....was I really not going to see any mountains on my Himalayan trek? I spoke to the mountain, cloud, and sun gods as I hiked up. I just told them to give me a view....the tiniest view and I would be happy. When we arrived to the top it was still dark and you couldn't see much. After a few minutes, Nyrma pointed out into the valley and when I turned my head I saw my first mountain peak. It was a dark shadow against the slightly lighter sky. The clouds appeared to be rolling off the mountain like a wave in slow motion. I had the biggest smile on my face. It was day 3 and I was seeing my first glimpse of the almighty mountain range. I sat on a tree stump and watched for the next hour as the sun made its way up and the clouds slowly descended from the sky.....it turned out to be an extraordinary view. As the sun rose you could see the light hitting certain edges of the mountains and they appeared to be glowing. Hello Himalayas! (there are pics on Picasa of the views)
When we returned I ordered a yummy pancake with peanut butter on top. Half way through eating it I came across a fly that had gotten stuck in the batter. In fact, most of the meals I had, contained strands of hair or pesky little insects in them. We used to joke in Ecuador that it wasn't a genuine Ecuadorian meal unless you found a strand of hair in it. It is much the same here in Nepal. Everything is cooked to order in these small kitchens with gas cookers. The Nepalis woman have long dark manes of hair and some of the houses have no windows to block anything from coming in. The meals were good and hearty, but you always had to have an inspection before eating.
As we continued walking this day, I noticed that my breathing was getting harder and harder. We were now around 3000 meters (almost 10,000 feet). The previous days I was pretty impressed by my fitness level and how good I felt walking. But on this day, I was not as cocky....the altitude was making it a bit more difficult.
At this point I was walking with a Finnish and Australian guy. They both had guides as well. We stopped in a little down for a rest. There was this little baby monkey sitting on the chair. Unfortunately, the locals probably bought the monkey to use as a way to get the tourists attention. I went to pet the monkey and give it some love as I rested. When I sat down, it climbed into my lap and fell asleep....it was so sweet. There were a few kids in the town and I practiced my Nepalis phrases that I had studied. I asked them how they were and what their names were. They just giggled and laughed at me.
To help Nyrma practice his English, I tried to ask him questions as we walked. One day I asked him if he had a girlfriend. I thought it was a reasonable and normal thing to ask. He turned really red in the face and laughed and then told me that he had a wife...not a girlfriend. "Oh that is fantastic....do you have kids?" I replied. He laughed more and conversed with the other Nepalis guide that was near us. Then he looked at me and in broken English said "My wife told me not to never trust other women."....then he started walking faster and I was a bit confused at the sudden awkwardness. The Australian's guide spoke really good English and told the Aussie that my guide thought I was hitting on him. Which is not at all what my intention was and I didn't think that I gave the slightest hint to that idea. As it turns out, many of the Nepalis guides sleep with the foreign woman on the treks. This was news to me and I thought it quite hilarious that my guide thought that I was pursuing him.
Nyrma may have been good to his wife, but the Australian's guide on the other hand was what we would call a "player". He had local girlfriends in most of the small villages and a fiance back in Kathmandu. I guess those type of men live all over the world :)
For a few days the Australian guy hiked with me. Unbeknownst to me, there were hand signals and secret conversations between him and our guides about him trying to hook up with me on the hike. After several days of walking together, the Australian guy told me that our guides were surprised that we hadn't slept together yet. This statement took me by surprise and I just sat there staring at him and wondering why in the world he was saying this to me in the first place. He went further on about how he could tell that I wasn't interested in him, though. I still stayed quiet as I wasn't sure what type of response he wanted...he was right, I was not interested in him like that. A few moments later he went on to say "In fact....I am not interested in you either. You seem like a nice girl, but I probably wouldn't sleep with you. I'm sure you don't hear that very often from men, do you?" At this point I was really in shock by the ridiculousness of this Ham of a man. He went on...."But you see that Chinese girl over there? I could seduce her in 10 minutes I bet."
Uhhhhh was this guy serious? He was also right again. Most men don't tell me after knowing me for 2 days whether or not they would sleep with me. I don't think that is a very normal conversation to have. I just gave him a weird smile and walked to another table and sat down. What a class act this guy was...it was when I realized that you can get stuck on these treks with the most unusual people. Here I was trying to be "one with nature" in the Himalayan mountains and somehow it turned into Sex Trek 2009!
I had decided to keep walking and doing my thing. I was not going to converse with this guy unless he started the conversation. He was really beginning to annoy me. But for some reason he trotted along next to me and continued to talk as if the prior conversation was nothing awkward or weird for him. I gave him one word answers and tried to concentrate on my steps.
When we arrived to the town where we were staying the night, the lodge was full. It turned out that I was going to have to share a room with the Australian and another Finnish guy. I was pretty thankful there would be 3 of us in the room. This lodge was packed with people from all around the world. There was a Korean family, a Romanian couple, a Spanish man, 2 German girls, the Finnish, the Aussie, and me. We all sat around a big table for dinner and had fun playing cards and chatting with one another. The Australian wasn't annoying me as much now that we were in a big group and I had other people to talk with.
The next morning we were going to do the long walk to the Annapurna Base Camp. We needed to go up 1000 meters. This is the day that a lot of people got altitude sickness so we were going to be taking it nice and slow. Once again, the Australian began his walk with me. I tried to not let him annoy me this next day. He was definitely a true class act and someone I would never be interested in, but all in all he was harmless. In chatting with him, it helped me forget the steep mountains we were ascending. Throughout this day it wasn't the altitude that got to me, but I developed a killer cold instead. My throat got sore and I sneezed and coughed constantly. I think the constant change in temperature and rain and my lack of proper clothing led to my sickness. We arrived to the top of the base camp at 4320 meters (14,000 feet). Because of the weather, you could not see any of the glorious mountains. To make matters worse, the lodge was booked up again. Even the dining halls were booked. It turned out that we would have to sleep in a tent that night. To avoid sleeping in the same tent with the Australian, I got set up in a tent with 2 Korean girls and a Chinese girl. I tried to speak to them, but they were very shy and didn't say much in return. Throughout the night I could hear the wind howling and the mountains roaring. Several times I heard avalanches in the distance...it was if the mountains were alive. Mother nature will you humble you so quickly in these moments.
In the middle of the night I had a weird stomach pain and realized I needed to rush to the bathroom. As I hobbled out of the tent I looked up to see the cloudless sky and the Annapurna mountain sanctuary surrounding me. No one else was around and I could not believe the site. It was astonishing. After I went to the bathroom, I sat at a table for a few minutes and enjoyed the view. Little did I know, it would be the only time I would see the mountain range like that....the rest of my time there would be cloudy.
The next morning was a cloudy sunrise. At certain points you could see glimpses of the mountains but it was nothing like the site from the previous night. Since I was ahead of schedule, I decided to stay another night at the base camp. It would give me a chance to relax and improve my health. The Australian and other people that were hiking the same days as us moved on down the mountain. I walked up to the lookout point to have some time alone and watch the passing clouds. There was a monument lined with Buddhist prayer flags dedicated to all of the people who died in Annapurna. One of the most famous climbers in the world, the Russian Anatoli Boukreev, died in 1997 by an avalanche there. Many people have perished in these mountains. In fact, while I was trekking there was a Korean climbing expedition with 6 men. 2 of the men went missing a few days before I had arrived to the base camp. They were nowhere to be found and it was thought that they were killed by an avalanche as well. After days of missing, they were pronounced dead.
As I watched the mountains come in and out of view, an Austrian man walked by me with a cello case. He climbed this tall rock and set up his instrument. Finally, he began playing the cello. I just sat there staring at the massive mountain range covered in patchy clouds and listened to him play....it was one of those surreal moments in life where you aren't really sure what is real or not. I was alone in the middle of the Himalayas listening to a live session of the cello!
The weather didn't improve too much that day but it was nice to rest and I met some really interesting people. It was a shame to not see the whole mountain sanctuary during the day without clouds, but there was nothing much you could do about it.
Nyrma and I set off down the mountain. What took us almost 6 days to climb, would only take 3-4 days to get down.
There was a bit of drama with my guide because the agency had told me that it would take 12 days to do the entire trek. Well...turns out a blind turtle could have done it faster then 12 days. We would walk for a few hours and then Nyrma would try to get me to stop and stay the night somewhere when it was only 12pm. I told him how I wanted to keep walking until well into the afternoon. Also, he was not honest with me about distances to the next towns to discourage me from wanting to continue walking. If I hire a guide next time in Nepal, I will underestimate my walking time. If I take longer, then I will pay for those extra days. I didn't know anything about the trek an assumed that 12 days would be fine. But at some points I felt as if I were being held hostage on the mountain because Nyrma would not let me do what I wanted. I knew the distances were possible and that he was just trying to keep me on the trek for more days. Finally, I told him that I would be fine to take my own backpack and continue walking without him. With his lack of English and telling me white lies about distances etc, it was difficult at some points of the trek. But, I realized that he was only trying to make a living. And he was taking me on the number of days that his boss had paid him for. Finally, I told him I would pay him for the 12 days but to please get me down in 9. It was a lesson learned on my part and I don't falter him for trying to do his job. Overall he was a nice guide.
The trek was amazing and if I didn't have a tour booked for India in a few weeks then I would extend my visa and do another trek. There is so much more to see in Nepal. Someday I would love to come back and visit all of the small villages where the tourists don't come to. This way I could grasp the culture and the people better.
Now I am in the enchanting town of Pokhara. It is much more chilled out then Kathmandu. Tons of hippies flock here for meditation, yoga, and drugs. The weather hasn't been too good though, so I have spent most of my time reading and journaling. In a few days I will be going on a 9 day river rafting excursion. There will be 8 of us in the raft. Last week 2 people died on the river we will be going on. The company did not have safety kayakers and the raft went down the rapids anyways. The boat flipped and the guide and another person were killed. I was a little worried when I heard about the news, but the company I am using has safety kayakers and the best equipment. It is also a reputable company in Lonely Planet. As my stomach nerves were getting to me about the rafting, I went online and read the news. There was a devastating Typhoon that blew through the Philippines and a horrible earthquake in Sumatra Indonesia. 100s of people died instantly. People die everyday and you never know what could happen tomorrow. I started coming to grips with the rafting....everything will be ok and it will be an amazing experience to raft through Nepal miles away from any civilization.

Kathmandu, Nepal

I landed in Kathmandu at 12:35pm and it wasn't until 2 hours later that I felt like I took my first breath.
On the airplane ride there, I sat in between a Nepalis man named Sabin, and a Danish girl named Kristina. Sabin left Nepal when he was 12 and studied in England. He now lives and works in Sydney and was going home to visit his mother who was sick. I took the opportunity to ask Sabin some questions about Nepal and learn a few basic words. He was very kind and open with me. I had read the night before that there were over 100 different ethnic groups throughout Nepal. I asked Sabin which group his family was from. They are the Newar ethnic group, which is the original people from the Kathmandu valley. Kristina was a 28 year who was part of a tour group going to Nepal. She had done a lot of traveling in her lifetime and we got along really well. It was too bad that she was part of a tour group, because I think we would have traveled well together. Plus, she studied Spanish in Ecuador and we both shared a common love for the country.
When we landed, the airport looked like an ugly prison. We all walked across the tarmac runway to the building and lined up for the security to take our temperatures and fill out Swine Flu forms. Then we hit up the visa line. The women working in the airport were all wearing brightly colored sarongs and a lot of the men had red powder across their foreheads. I am not sure what I was expecting in Nepal. All I had imagined and prepared myself for was hiking in the Himalayas with hill villages and Sherpas. It hadn't occurred to me that we were in a country right next to India....and that the Hindu culture would be thriving. After the long visa line, I went to get my luggage. The last line was the customs area with the luggage. As I approached, there were 100s of people in line with strollers holding luggage 10 feet high. It was a mess. People were yelling and talking and I had no idea which line to get in or what was going on really. As I walked through the area, people kept pushing me forward and nodding at me to continue up to the front. In a line that I expected to take 2 hours to get through, I somehow managed to squeeze through in 5 minutes. I think the immigration was more concerned with Nepalis people returning then a lone white female backpacker. I walked out to the exit to see the pick-up area of the airport filled with taxi drivers, hagglers, touts, and people basically screaming in your face. It was a bit overwhelming. Amongst it all was a sign with my name on it. I made eye contact with the guy and we exchanged smiles to confirm the communication. As I pushed my way through the crowd, I found the guy and he took me to his car. Right as we opened the back door, a man came up behind me and grabbed my bag. He threw it into the car that I was half way inside already. My hand was still attached to the bag and I went flying into the car with my bag. As I situated myself, he leaned into the door and said "tip-tip". He was actually asking me for a tip for doing a job that lasted about .002 seconds and that I was well capable and in the process of doing myself. I was holding onto the bag when he threw it in for crying out loud. "I have no rupies yet, I just landed....I"m sorry", I replied. "Tip-tip mam, you need to give me a tip...you can give me Australian Dollars it is ok." Meanwhile, 4 other men were surrounding the car and watching the dialogue between us. The driver was getting into the front seat and not defending the situation at all. I ended up reaching into my bag and giving him a $1USD. I gave it to him knowing very well that it was way too much money, but since men were surrounding the car looking at me I decided it was worth a $1 to get my door shut. I sat back as we drove through the city. The streets were intense. We were driving down narrow dirt roads creeping our way around food stalls, bicycle riders, motorbikes, and other cars. There didn't seem to be much order with the driving....basically it was whoever could inch their way further and further through open spaces while honking continuesly. For the 45 minute cab ride I didn't take my eyes off the window. So much was happening around us that I couldn't even process it. On the side of the streets there were woman wearing the bright sarongs and dots on their head. Naked kids were running around the doorways and people were selling all sorts of goods and produce from blinkats on the dirt sidewalks. Some people had starkly dark skin with sand or green color eyes. The people were very different looking, very exotic, and some of them (men & woman) were beautiful. You could tell a distinct difference in the people and that they came from different ethnic groups. Some were very "Indian" looking while others had a mongol facial structure or SE Asian appearance. Old men were wearing traditional nepalis topi hats and walking casually down the street. I am not sure the correct term, but medicine type looking men....or shamanistic men were walking barefoot through the streets with brightly painted faces and tribal outfits. Hindu is the primary religion and it is apparent on every street corner and throughout the people walking by. There are also a lot of Buddhists and the religions coincide and mix through all the different ethnic groups. Once we arrived to the hotel, I went to my room dropped my bags sat on the bed and took my first real breath since I had arrived. As I layed there for a few minutes decompressing all that I saw, I started laughing out loud as I thought to myself "we sure as hell aren't in Kansas anymore...are we Andrea?"
That afternoon I walked through the streets to browse the shops and get some things booked with my tour agency. My friend Brad recommended this woman named Sharada to help set me up with a rafting tour and find a guide to hike with. She was a really nice lady and I immediately got a good vibe from her. Walking through all of the streets was way more intense then driving through them. I can't emphasize enough how disorderly the traffic jams appear to be, but somehow people manage to work their way through. After walking for a few hours I realized that I was completely lost. I didn't take note of where my hotel was and all the streets looked the same to me. I tried my best to look like I knew where I was going and discreetly look at my map from time to time. A man came up to me and asked me how long I had been in Kathmandu. I told him I had just arrived and he said he had just arrived 3 days ago. He was hoping I could tell him some things about the tourist sites. His name was Firdaus and he was from Tajikistan. He spoke really good english and seemed well educated. It looked like he had been doing some shopping as he was holding a few bags at the time. I told him I was lost so he volunteered to walk me to my hotel. It was about 7pm and there were tons of people still out and about so I found nothing peculiar about him accompanying me. I was actually really fascinated because I had never met anyone from Tajikistan before so I drilled him with questions about the landscape, government, religion, food, and culture. He was really nice and explained everything to me. Turned out he worked for the UN development for Tajikistan and was in Nepal for a conference. When we got to the area where my hotel was, we decided to grab a bite to eat. We continued chatting. During dinner he asked one time if I liked to smoke hashish (weed). He had heard that there was some good stuff in the area and was thinking about getting some. A lot of travelers smoke weed so I didn't think the question was that unusual. I told him that I actually wasn't too interested in doing it. I had just arrived this same day and I didn't like messing with that kind of stuff in a foreign country.....especially when I didn't have my barrings straight, yet. The more and more we talked, the more he started acting more interested in me. He would compliment me and say how he was glad that we met and it was such a nice surprise for him. He seemed nice, but I wasn't interested in him like that and was just trying to have a good chat and eat some dinner. I asked for his email though so we could be facebook friends. As we left the restuarant the exhaustion of the travel day started to hit me. He wanted to continue hanging out and pressed the hashish question to me again. I told him he was free to go and find some, but I was probably heading back to the hotel. I mentioned that I was going to try to site see the next day and wanted some rest. He was planning on site seeing the next day as well so I told him that maybe we could meet up and split the cost on transport. It was at this time that things turned a little weird. He kinda avoided the conversation about meeting the next day, but continued to press hanging out this night. He kept saying how he wanted to spend time with me since he was leaving the following afternoon. I was like...thats cool, but we can hang out tomorrow bc I am tired now. He got a weird look in his eyes and wouldn't accept that I was heading to bed. Since I didn't want hashish, he suggested that we buy some beers and the market and find somewhere to hang out. It got awkward and finally I just shook his hand goodnight and I left. I really didn't think much of it....I thought he was a bit weird for coming on as strong as he did. I wasn't sure if he was going to meet me the next day because he seemed to only be interested in hanging out that evening. So, I went to bed not worrying too much about....if he was there tomorrow then cool, if not then whatever. That night I plug his email into facebook, but nothing turned up. As I went to sleep, I wondered just how genuine of a person he really was.
The next morning I stopped into Sharada's office to finalize some plans. I told her that I was going to meet this guy to go see the sites. She stopped working on what she writing and put her pen down. "Who are you going to meet?", she asked. I explained to her the story and how he helped me back to my hotel and we had dinner etc. That it would be nice to site see with someone and split the cost of the cabs. She crossed her fingers on top of the desk like a principle and said "No Andrea, don't go with him....don't go anywhere with anyone that you meet out there in those streets. It doesn't matter what they tell you or where they are from. There are a lot of bad guys out there. You need to do the sites alone. Don't listen to what anyone tells you and accept any invitations like that." I sensed something weird about the guy towards the end of the night, but it was good to have Sharada reiterate that there are some nasty people lingering around. If he was a con artist, he really posed himself well with his shopping bags and knowlege of Tajikistan. Also, he expressed tourists statements about the city of Pokhara in which he was visiting for the seminar and how nice the lake was and beautiful the city was. With his odd hashish remarks, perhaps he was trying to get me into some sort of drug deal in which I would have to pay off the cops and in return he would get a kickback for setting me up. Or, maybe he was planning to drug me and steal my money. Who knows?
I left Sharada's office and walked past the meeting spot that we agreed on just to see if he would turn up. He was nowhere in site. I never received an email or anything from him again. The next day 3 seperate incidences of good looking, well spoken men approached me. They either had the story of how they were students trying to learn english and would like to spend the day with me chatting. Or that they would like to show me around the tourist sites. I just ignored them and went on my way. I felt foolish and dissappointed in myself. I had been traveling for 11 months and I could have potentially fallen into one of the biggest tourist scams. it is an unfortunate situation because I love talking to people and learning about their lives and cultures...and where they are from. But I won't be able to be as open in Nepal or India....especially not while I am traveling alone. It sucks and is frustrating because now I am going to view that all the locals are talking to me because they have an agenda - or they want something from me.

Sharada had given me a 2 day itinerary for all of the site seeing in Kathmandu and surrounding areas. She assured me that I could do it all on my own by walking and taking local buses. The first place on my list was the small town of Bhaktapur which was 12 km outside of the city center. It is under Unesco world heritage and has been well preserved to show the architecture and culture of historical nepal. All I had to do to get to the city was walk about 30 minutes through Kathmandu to this local bus station. It seemed simple enough to me. Well, within 10 minutes I was lost again roaming through the streets. With the madness of the crowds and traffic, it was all I could do to stay on my feet and keep walking....it was making it difficult to look for street names and markers. As I got further and further out of the tourist district, seeing westerners became far and few between. I was now amongst the inner city workings. People blatently started at me as they walked by as if I were an exhibition in a museum. I kept listening to Sharada's voice in my head as she told me it would be no problem to do all of this on my own. I was a little skeptical of her advice at that moment in time. Luckily, I stumbled across a clock tower that I knew was close to the bus station. From there, I pushed my way through the masses to the corner where I needed to catch the bus. There were dozens of rickity old mini busses with people yelling schedules and destinations in Nepalis. Locals were jumping on and off the busses as they were still moving down the street. There were no westerners in site and I questioned whether this was the correct bus station. I walked up to a small kid....he must have been about 12 years old. He was haggling people to get onto the bus he worked for. I pointed to the city on the map and he nodded yes and started pushing me onto the bus. " Wait, wait....how much is the ticket", I asked. "50 rupees mam". Sharada had told me to pay no more then 25. "How about 25 rupees?" The kid rolled his eyes....nodded yes again and threw me into the bus. I thought it was a little rude that he rolled his eyes....I figured he was frustrated that I knew it should have been lower. We waited about 20 minutes until they filled every inch of space on the bus up. Disabled and blind people would bored the bus asking for change from the locals. Everyone just ignored them. We drove by slums where kids were flying kites, women were chatting with each other, and the poor were digging through mounds of trash. Once again...my eyes were glued to the window as I watched the organized chaos happening around us. It was so different then anything in the western world. An hour had passed, and since the town was only 12km away I decided to ask the guy next to me how close we were. He said a few more minutes. The kid came around to collect the money. The kid was yelling 50 rupees again at me and some of the others. I guessed that maybe it was the correct fare after all. I handed him a 50 and then he gave me 35 rupees back in change. Ooohhhhhhhh....he was saying 15 rupees the entire time. No wonder the little weezle rolled his eyes at me. He must have thought I was crazy when I was like "make it 25 rupees and I will get on." So yeah....I felt like a dumbass...

The city of Bhaktapor was enchanting. It was so much quieter and low key then Kathmandu. In the city square there are no cars allowed so you can walk freely among the cobble stones streets without fear of getting run over. The city reminded me of Siena, Italy....or Cuzco, Peru. All the buildings and narrow streets were old and miedeval looking. I found myself walking for a few hours and letting myself get lost in the small and humble town. I peered into windows of houses and saw artisans at work. There were wood carvers, rug weavers, painters, paper makers, and pottery throwers. I wanted to take pictures of everything but I felt that it was not appropriate at that time...since the people were in their homes working. Instead, I just absorbed the elements around me. At one point it started to rain so I stopped into a small restaurant, ordered a pot of tea, and journaled as I watched people walking by me. I could have stayed in the town much longer, but I needed to get back to Kathmandu before it got dark. At my rate of getting lost....I needed ample time to find my way home again.
The next day was much better for me. My sense of direction was improving and I was feeling more confident in my step. I had to go get a hiking permit at this office which was next to the bus station from the day before. As I jumped into the crowds and meandered through the streets, I came upon a guy who looked very lost. He was pale white with blond hair and blue eyes. He was holding a map and stress was across his face. He made eye contact and headed over in my direction. When he asked for help I wasn't sure if it was some silly scam again. He told me he was trying to find the permit office. Since I was heading to the same office I told him he could come with me. His name was Andy and he was from Norway. When I told him I was from Austin he got a huge smile on his face and told me he was a musician and his band went to SXSW music festival a few years back. I figured at that point that he was probably harmless and was just a lost tourist after all. Andy was super nice and we walked through the city together chatting it up. He was impressed with my "sense of direction" and I had to laugh and admit that the day before I was a mess and had no clue what I was doing. On our way to the permit office we turned down a street and were bombarded with 100s of goats. They were tied up and people were sheparding them around. As it turns out, there is a huge Hindu festival here right now and the goats were actually going to be used in animal sacrifices in the Hindu temples. It was weird walking through them and knowing that they only had days or hours to live before they were slaughtered in the name of religion.
I had decided to do an 11 day trek in the Himalayas. I was hoping to meet some other travelers doing the same trek on the same day, but I never ran into any. Since I was unfamiliar with the terrain, royally out of shape, and a solo female, I decided to hire a personal nepalis guide. It was an expense I had not planned on, but after a lot of thought, I realized it would be a good way to learn some culture and help to give back to the Nepalis economy. Sharada set me up with this guide named Nyrma. He was 26 and when I first met him he was extremely shy and turned red in the face when I talked to him. I was a bit concerned about how the next 11 days were going to be. Sharada assured me that he would open up on the trail.
So...that is where I leave you now. I am in the town of Pokhara and tomorrow I will be setting off with my personal guide into the mountains of the Himalayas. I am really excited to get out into the nature and seperate myself from the modern world for a few days. My poor body is going to have a rude awakening, but it will be some much needed excercise.

Me, Myself, and Thailand

I woke up the morning of my flight to Bangkok and realized I hadn't planned or booked anything for Thailand. I had been so used to traveling with people and figuring it out as we went, but here I was....going to a new country all alone. I hadn't read up on the culture, the currency, or how to get into the city from the airport. All of a sudden a wave of anxiety went through me. I whipped out the Lonely Planet and read up on everything on the flight in.

I think I was more nonchalant with Thailand because I had heard it was an easy country. They have been catering to tourism for decades and it was a comfortable destination for a lot of travelers. In fact, according to the guide book, it is a great country to start off your SE Asia journey. Exotic yet comfortable enough to get your barrings straight. Well....looks like I did SE Asia backwards then. I arrived to Thailand....my last country to visit in SE Asia.

It was actually a bit of a travelers high landing in a foreign country at 10pm with no accomodation. I hailed a cab and told him to take me to a popular backpacking strip in the city. I had heard a few horrors stories about cabs scamming you for more money, so I instantly wrote down all of his numbers and licensing information. My Grandmother Galant's adamant philosophy of "Trust No One" kicked in. Like I said....it had been awhile since I was alone and I was a little more paranoid then usual.

But alas....I made it safely to the inner city. I walked around the streets for a bit pricing out different hotels. I had really lived it up in the Philippines with the Boyce's home and nice hotel in Boracay...so for some reason I decided to stay in a shit hole to bring me back down to "backpacker" status. For about $4 a night I found a room that was about the size of my closet at home and all it contained was a bed. No trashcan, no night table...nada. Just a bed with a bottom sheet on it. There was a communal bathroom downstairs that didn't look like it had been cleaned in a few weeks. I even did an experiment to prove the point to myself. I put a couple strands of my hair on the shower wall and it never moved during my 3 days of staying there. I knew that most of the nastiness on the walls had been there for quite some time. Needless to say.....it was gross and brought me back down to my dirty backpacking ways.

My first day in Bangkok was so refreshing. I was completely on my own in this very large and dynamic city. I spent hours walking the streets. There is a famous street called Khoa San Road, which is where all the backpackers hangout. It is a site in itself, with 100s of tourists walking around and vendors selling all sorts of crafts. Music is blaring from every bar and restaurant and you could get any type of food from around the world. There is a mix of hippies, backpackers, holiday goers, sex tourists, families, couples, and anyone else in between walking througout this area. I spent some time there sipping on fresh fruit smoothies and people watching. Near Khoa San Road there is this major holy area....its basically like the Vatican City, but for Thai Buddhists. A lot of people come here for there religious pilgrimage. In the sweltering heat, I wandered my way to the area. Apparently you can't have your legs showing within the temple walls, so I was given this thick sarong to wrap around my waiste. I already had pit sweat all the way down to my abdomin so you can imagine how thrilled I was to put more clothes on. I joined the mass crowds into the area and was overtaken with tall golden stupas in every direction. The design, architecture, colors, and statues are so different then that of the christian religions. If I wasn't so hot I could have spent a lot more time looking at everything. The most famous site in the area is the Emerald Buddha. There was a really long line coming outside of the temple to get a glance of the Buddha. I was starting to get in an ornery mood from the heat and crowds, but decided I better take a look at it since I was here. When I finally made it inside the temple I was overtaken by the site. The Buddha was not very large, which surprised me. But it was high above everyone pearing down over its believers. Surrounding the buddha was what seemed like 100s of golden statues and other Buddhas. For a few moments of time, I forgot about the sweat and the crowds and stared in amazement around me.

After the heat stroke that I almost had in the holy area, I decided to check out the shopping district and mega malls since they had airconditioning. I hopped in a tuk-tuk and had one of the neatest 40 minute rides. As we flew through the city streets we passed by schools, hospitals, and neighborhood districts. We weren't in the tourist part of town anymore and it was really neat to look down the ally ways and see the workings of daily life. One thing that really stuck out to me was the immense propaganda for the Thai Royal family. On every street corner and in each business there were pictures of the King and Queen. There are even stores where you can buy Royal Family parafanalia like lifesize cardboard figures. Thailand is a constitutional Monarchy and according to Wikapedia, The king has reigned for more than sixty-three years, making him the longest reigning Thai Monarch and the longest reigning current monarch in the world. It appears that the people really respect the Royal Family and it is really frowned upon to disgrace them. I read in the papers about an extreme activist being inprisoned for saying malicious remarks regarding the King. Here is a picture of a sign of the Queen overlooking a major intersection.

The shopping district was pretty impressive with modern mega malls and cinemaplexis. Coincidentaly I found my favorite make-up store, MAC, in one of the malls and I happend to be low on my concealer. MAC was right next to The Outback Steakhouse. I couldn't imagine eating at an Outback in Thailand with all of the good local food around. Another surprise was the Dairy Queen I stumbled across. I am not sure about you, but I pretty much thought there were only Dairy Queens in small rural Texas towns. so when I stumbled across one in the middle of Bangkok I had to indulge myself. I try to steer clear of the western food chains, but DAIRY QUEEN?? Seriously? Needless to say, the western culture had leaked in all around me.

Watching movies in foreign countries is a weird pleasure of mine because I like to see how their movie theatre experience is and it gives me a few hours that I can vegg out. The only English speaking movie at that time was one called The Orphan. I bought the ticket and then walked past a billboard for it to then realize it was a scary movie. Greeaaaatt....nothing like being alone and watching a horror film. So on the ticket was a seat number. There were only about 5 people in the theater, but the usher walked me to my correct seat number and motioned for me to sit down. The previews were absolutely hilarious. In between an American film preview, they would show a Japanese film preview. It was always these intense martial art fight scenes and then a moment of saddness and despair as they zeroed in on one of the characters dramatic eyes...BACK to the kung fu drop kicks....then slow, melodramatic music as one of the men dies. Symbols of the language were flying across the screen which I did not understand, but somehow I knew exactly what they were saying by the emotional faces. After the previews, a sign on the screen read "Please pay respects to your royal majesty". Everyone stood up in the theater. The Thai National Anthem started playing as a photo montage of the King was presented on the screen. I quickly stood up to pay my respects and not stick out like a stupid Farang...or (white tourist). Who could have imagined all the cultural experience in simply going to a movie. In between my travels through Bangkok, I managed to see not 1, but 4 movies :) and I ate Dairy Queen twice....shhhhh!

I had heard from a few travelers that a town in Northern Thailand, Chiang Mai, was a really good place to chill out for a few days. I bought a ticket for a 15 hour sleeper train in 2nd class. This meant there was no A/C, but I would have a fan. Now is probably a good time to bring you up on my latest bowel movement issues. I know...I know...some of you cringe when I bring up my bathroom situations, but it is amazing how big a part it is in traveling...well, at least my traveling anyhow. So my last few days in Laos and through my 2 weeks in Philippines I had been batteling constipation. I still can't decide which is worse, diahrea or constipation and I suppose it is all relative on the specific situation and/or location. But needless to say....a lot of food was going in me and not a lot was coming out. That always puzzles me. Well, for whatever reason...perhaps it was the spicy chicken soup I ate an hour beforehand, my stomach gave me a nice haunting rumble the moment I boarded the train and we departed the station. I immediatly chewed 3 pepto tablets and sent happy thoughts to my tummy convincing myself that mind over matter could solve this problem. The rumbles, which felt more like birthing contractions, came about every 4 minutes. I had even gotten to the point where I was counting the seconds on my watch to get me through each session. Sweat was running down my face and I knew there was going to be a date with the bathroom at some point along the journey. Finally, after about 3 hours of trying to remain calm, I made my way to the 2nd class bathroom. It, of course, was a squat toilet. I had gotten to a bad point of being sick and tried to do what I could to feel better. The "squatting" position wasn't working for me to well because being that far down sent a wave of nausia through me. In the midst of it all, we passed a street light and I saw the light come up from the hole I was peering down. Turns out the squat hole went right down onto the tracks.....I felt bad for whatever town we were passing through. Chills were going through my body and my stomach was hurting uncontrollably. I wanted so bad to lay on the ground and wait for the next round of contractions, but this was not the type of bathroom floor you could lay down on. I grabbed onto the "oh shit" handle that they had next to the hole since the train is constantly moving all over and hung there like dead weight. I started crying......I knew this moment would pass, but it was such an unfortunate situation that all I could do was cry and wimper to myself. After being in the bathroom for about an hour, I felt that the worst of it was over. I walked back outside and glanced at myself in the mirror...it looked as if I had just taken a shower with my clothes on from all the sweat. Fortunetaly though, the rest of the train ride I was able to sleep...
It was Sunday when I arrived to Chiang Mai, and that is the day for its weekly night market. The town center was filled with vendors of all types. At the start of the market there was an announcement through city wide speakers and everyone stopped and became silent. Then the National Anthem began and I realized it was another "majesty respect" moment. I was beginning to get used to this custom. The market was really neat because it wasn't a market for tourists....but for the locals. Yes, there were other tourists around, but 95% were other Thais. They had everything from art work, jewelry, clothes, furniture, and foods. Behind the vendor stalls were rows and rows of chairs with people getting foot massages. For $2 I got a fantastic foot rub while watching the streams of people shopping in front of me. There were street perfomers of all kinds....musicians, mimes, and dancers. Some people were disabled or blind playing instruments. I noticed the locals giving them all money. It was a lovely first evening in Chiang Mai and I got a really good vibe for the city.
The next day I scouted out the town and found a yoga studio that had really good prices. I had been craving to excercise these past few months and decided this would be the perfect time for yoga. I took a yoga class each day I was there and it felt really good to do something positive for my body.
One night, I decided to buy a ticket to a Muay Thai fight. I am not really into violence and fighting, but this is a big part of the Thai culture and I wanted to see what it was all about. It actually turned out to be a really unique experience. There was this sense of spirituality and ceremonial practice that coincided with the fighting...it seemed much more then just aggressive violence. Before each match, the fighter does what is called the Ram Muay ritual dance. It is like this aesthetic, dance-like ritual, which seemed to last about five minutes. There was a live band next to the ring that would play music during the ritual and fight. The tempo would change in accordance to what was happening in the ring. It was really awesome! There were a total of 8 fights which included fighters aged 11 to 30 something and even some woman as well. Each fighter had their own strategy and style....some fights started off intense from round 1 while others worked there way into it. I sat next to the bookies and was able to watch them gamble on each match. It was a very entertaining evening.
While in Chiang Mai I also decided to take a cooking course for a day. I know nothing about cooking, but surprisingly it was a lot of fun and I learned a lot. We started out at an open market where my teacher, Boom, taught us about thai foods. We bought all of our fresh ingredients that we were going to cook with that day. We cooked up 8 courses and I learned all about the different sauces and vegetables. I can't wait to cook some of those things when I get back to Austin. The picture below is of me in cooking action....I almost singed the eyebrows off the girl next to me. Who wants to come over for dinner when I'm cooking????
There is this place called the Tiger Kingdom where you can go and play with live tigers. I had never been up close and personal with a tiger before so I fell into the tourist trap and paid a lot of money to hang out with them for 30 minutes. It was pretty cool and I got some neat photos, however, you always have to ask yourself how right the situation is that the tigers are being captive for tourist enjoyment. On a positive note, the area they were in was clean and roomy and all the tigers looked healthy. The trainers treated them kindly from what I could tell..... Then my tuk-tuk driver took me to a place called the "snake farm". Contrary to the tiger kingdom, this place would have had PETA up in arms. It was one of the weirdest yet entertaining experiences I have had in a long time. First of all, there were no other tourists there. Just me. There was this stadium type show room where they did snake performances. Before the show, I walked around the area to view weird exotic animals, reptiles, and birds locked in busted up cages. Finally, it was show time and since I was the only tourist there all eyes were on me. I sat down and watched in weird amazement as these Thai men taunted and flung deadly snakes around the room. The host of the show was this short little man who had the weirdest english accent. Almost like he studied english from a radio advertisement personality. He turned on some denomic techno music really loud and then after about 5 seconds he would turn the music down and say something like "snake is very poisonous". Then turn the music up loud, then turn it down again and say "snake can kill you", then music up again...down again... "5 hours from hospital we are"..music up and down.. "very very poisonous"....this went on throughout the entire show and I wasn't sure what was more entertaining....the snakes or the weird announcer guy. They definitely did some crazy stuff like kissing cobras on the back or catching the snakes with their teeth. It was weird.....very very weird. After the show my tuk-tuk driver asked me if I wanted to go see the monkey show, but I just told him to take me back to my guesthouse. I had seen enough bizarre animal stuff for one day.

I had been riding solo for a few days and I decided that it was time for some socializing. I decided to go to this bar that was famous for its live music. It's kind of funny, but one of the hardest things for me to do is to walk into a bar all alone and hang out. It's not like anyone is meeting me there or I know where I am or what I am doing.....it is just me walking into a weird black hole of unknowningness. I get real self conscious, which is silly, but that is how I feel. Anyways, there I was drinking a beer and jamming out to some tunes while I looked around to everyone else in their groups having conversations. I scanned the room and found another girl chilling by herself as well. I sayed hi to her and asked her some stupid question about the band to start conversation. Turned out she was alone too so we started chatting it up. A group of french guys sat next to me to share my table and we started chatting as well. They bought tequila shots for everyone and that is when the party started. Before I knew it, I was on the dance floor hanging out with tons of people I hardly knew. The night went on and on and eventually I went to a lounge next door to sit down and drink some water. I ended up chatting with a group of local people. One was a lady boy who took the night off.....she/he was dressed as a man, but had the same mannerisms as a female. Normally she dresses as a woman, though. I also met a local Thai girl named Nine, we got along really well and we ended up hanging out for a few days as she showed me around the city. I went out not knowing any one, but had local friends by the end of the night.
Nine was 31 but looked a few years younger then that. She left her small village and poor family in her early 20s to move to the big city. She found a job and saved money and put herself through school. She spoke decent English and was very intelligent. She loves photography and is now studying to be a photographer. We had a lot of fun together and if I stayed in Chiang Mai longer I think we would have become good friends. One night she took me to go see her ex boyfriend's band play at this restaurant. When I met him, I was surprised to see that he was an older, chubby Australian man. It is very common for western men to live in SE ASia and have Asian girlfriends. Most of the time I pass it off as nasty men praying on beautiful young girls....and the girls simply looking for someone to take care of them financially. So when I saw that there was a similar situation with Nine, I decided to ask her some questions about it. First of all, as I mentioned before, Nine didn't seem to be the type that needed taking care of....she had an independent spirit about her. I asked her if she was attracted to Western men more then Thai men. She explained to me that she had more freedoms when she dated western men. In the Thai culture, there are a lot more limitations and cultural restrictions when dating. She explained that she was attracted to Thai men, but did not fancy the lifestyle that it would give her. Since she had left her village and done so much on her own, she enjoyed the "western" dating culture better. It made more sense to me....and as the night went on, I realized that the chubby older guy was actually really nice. And I could see how she enjoyed his endearing personality.

Chiang Mai was a great city. I enjoyed being on my own again, doing some yoga, and spending some time researching my future travels. I was pretty tempted to stay there for my entire duration of Thailand, but decided I better go check out one of the islands (since that is what Thailand is famous for). I figured one week relaxing in a bungalow would be good before heading to Nepal.

A few years back, my friend Brad spent a lot of time on the island of Ko Tao. He became really close to a Thai family that owns a resort there. I decided to go check out the resort and say hello to the family for him.

Ko Tao was the perfect place to chill out in for a bit. Most backpackers hit up some of the other "party" islands...and even though there is partying on Ko Tao, you are also able to just relax and take it easy.

The family that ran the resort was really excited when I mentioned that I knew Brad. He spent several months on the island and was able to develop a strong relationship with the people. Unfortunetaly, I was only going to be around for a few days and knew that I would not have the same experience as him.

Each morning I tried to go for a walk around the hills of the island to try and get some excercise. There was this killer hill that Brad told me he used to attempt to run up every day. I was amazed that he could run up this hill as I could hardly even walk up it without taking a break. It felt like it was a mile long and neverending up this mountain. I was also a little worried because in about a weeks time I would be hiking the Himalayas in Nepal....the fact that I could hardly "walk" up a hill freaked me out a bit. I did a lot of hiking in New Zealand and had really strong legs then, but that was about 6 months ago...and well....I'm not in as good of shape anymore. Anyways....enough about that.

I stayed in this really cute bungalow at the resort. I had a deck with a chair and would spend time reading and writing. About a minutes walk away and I was on the sandy beach and the resort pool...it was nice.

The only thing that was weird was that I was surrounded by lovebirds. Young couples everywhere were kissing and frolocking in the ocean. I seriously felt like I was in a movie because everyone was beautiful, tan, skinny, and in love. Meanwhile, I was this pudgy single girl laying on the beach in solitude writing in my journal like a freak! I had to chuckle about it from time to time.....and I told myself that someday I would come back. Yes, I would come back with my lover and I would be thin and tan and we would frolock in the waves at sunset. But this trip was not meant for that.....this time it was just me, myself, and Thailand :)

In a few days I will say goodbye to SE Asia. I learned so much about the history and culture of the countries that I visited. The food was AMAZING and the people were great. I would love to come back someday to see some of the areas I didn't get to this time.

I am really looking forward to Nepal though....the scenery, people, culture, and lifestyles are going to be like nothing I have ever seen before.

"Holiday" in the Philippines

My 2 week "holiday" to the Philippines was a blast. You may think it is selfish of me to call this a "holiday" as I am traveling around the world. But travel and vacationing are completely different things. Travel is exhausting, complicated, but rewarding. Vacations are relaxing, easy, and kill a lot of brain cells.
My friend Jeremy came to visit me. If you remember from my "Prince and the Pauper" blog, he likes to travel well. He also has a college friend that works in Manila named Eric Calhoun and then my friends parents (the Boyce's) live there as well.
When I arrived to the airport, the Boyce's picked me up. Actually, their driver, Mario drove me back from the airport. The Boyce's have been residing in Manila for 5 years working for Emerson (a US company). Life is very different in the Philippines for them. They have a personal driver, cook, maid, gardner, and pool guy. It was a bit overwhelming for me to come from the backpacking lifestyle to this situation. Joan Boyce explained to me that it was a little strange for them at first as well, but that it is how the culture is. It isn't just the expats that have the working help either. The Boyce's lived in a very nice subarb and said that it was 95% Filipino. Some houses had security guards out front and tons of workers in the yard etc. It was just the way the society worked.
My experience in the Philippines was a unique one. I spent it from the perspective of the expat life....it was interesting to visit a 3rd world country from that point of view. Honestly, it was hard for me to come to grips that the place was at 3rd world status. We visited mega malls with stores like Gucci, Prada, Louie, etc. We dined at upscale restuarants and everything was in English. But as soon as you got out of the "comfortable" areas, it was poverty stricken. With the few days I had in Manila, I tried my best to get a glimps of the culture and history. I didn't even skim the top of it though. But here is what I absorbed.
First of all, the Philippines is so different from any of the other Asian countries I have visited. They say...(which by the way, when I say "they", I mean LonelyPlanet guidebook) that you think you have seen SE Asia until you get to the Philippines. Well, they were right. It is this weird mixture of Spanish (yes spanish!) and American influences. Spain conquered the islands in the 1500s and then America purchased Puerto Rico, Guam, and Philippines for 20 million in 1898. The Americans pushed the english language and developed much of the urban areas of the country that are used today. The sad part of all of this, is that the Filipino culture itself has always been on the backburner and most of the progress comes from America. After WWII they gained their own independence, but it is clear today, that America is still a big presence.
So back to why it is so much different then the other Asian countries I have visited. Instead of monks walking around everywhere, you see priests. The spanish missionaries converted every island except for one, which is muslim. It is interesting how much a religion can define a culture. It doesn't have the same vibe as Cambodia or Laos in regards to the spirituality of Buddhism.
My favorite thing so far is the transport. Here, they have what is called a Jeepney. They were built in the 1950s. The front part is an American jeep from WWII and then they expanded the back into a bus. For 7cents you can go 5 blocks. This is how all the locals get around. Each Jeepney driver jazzes up the truck in their own custom-built way. They have names like "Elmer Gonzales" on the front and "In God We Trust" down the side. Some are super pimped out with shiney clean tires and music blaring and then others are pretty run down. Here is an example of one.
If I ever come back to Philippines I want to take tons of photos of the jeepneys and make a picture book. They each had their own personality and I loved it!!!
Mario, the Boyce's driver, took me and Jeremy around town for a few days. We went to the famous "Greenhill's Market" where you can barter and buy knock-offs of whatever you can imagine. Since I live out of a backpack I don't purchase many items, but Jeremy went to town. He was trying on sunglasses, shoes, Lacoste shirts, and flip-flops. I think he spent about $30 and walked out of the place with multiple bags. Joan also took us to her DVD dealer. Jeremy bought tons of DVDs for about $1 a pop. It was hilarious because the vendors have all these hand signs and eye movements with each other to communicate if the police are coming to invade and do a round up. Nothing happend when I was there, but Joan said one time there was a raid and within 30 seconds all of the DVD stores were packed up and on the move. It is a blackmarket business!!
Next we went to the American Cemetary. It was humbling to see all of the graves and lists of people that died in WWII in the Philippines. During WWII, Japan took advantage of the war going on in Europe to invade the Philippines. Many people died, but the invasion wasn't successful. I didn't really know about all of that side of history so it was pretty interesting.
For dinner a few of the nights, their cook Lisa would make an outstanding meal for us. I couldn't imagine having my own personal cook each night. Every day they would wash and iron our clothes. Even my underwear was ironed!!!! And not to mention, I had my own room for the first time in 6 months!!! It was a nice few days in Manila....like I said, the perception was interesting...3rd world country, but the poshest I have traveled since I started my journey.
For 2 days, the Boyce's took us a few hours away to this place called Puerto Galera. It is this gorgeous fishing and beach island where you can scuba dive. I have not been diving in 5 years so I was a little worried about getting back into it. Luckily, I felt relaxed underwater and rememberd just how amazing scuba diving is. The marine life was awesome! I saw tons of nudibranchs (little colorful snails), coral reef fans, lion fish, eels, etc. The colors were so vivid. On our 3rd dive we went to this place called Verde Island. Normally you have to be a little more advanced to dive there, but no one said anything to me. When we got down in the water they realized the current was super strong. We were being pushed out everywhere and trying to stay together. It was a pretty intense dive and Jeremy said it was one of the hardest he had dealt with. I was excited that I handled it so well. The reef that we were on was filled with 1000s of fish. I was swimming amongst them and thought to myself, if I were ever a fish...this is the place I would want to live. It was AWESOME! Here is a pic of a nudibranch.
After Puerto Galera, we headed back to Manila to meet up with our friend, Eric Calhoun. We were going to go with him to this destination party island called Boracay. Just google image Boracay to see what type of place this is.....freaking awesome!!!!
We were flying on this super sketch prop plane called SeaAir. We said our Hail Mary's and borded the plane. It was definitely a scary take-off and landing, but we made it ok.
As I mentioned before....we were on "Holiday", so we splurged for a nice hotel and ate at swanky restaurants. The beach was gorgeous!!!!!! Seriously, if you ever need a place to relax and beach it up, come to the Philippines. We spent our days lounging on the beach, drinking cocktails, and getting massages. The massages are so cheap here that I decided to get AT LEAST 1 a day. I'm talking hot rock, thai, swedish, body scrubs....anything you want...they got it over here for cheap!
On the beach, we met a few local waiters who hooked us up with drinks. We tried to give them a tip, but they just said they would rather come party with us and buy them a few drinks later instead. The next day we met up with them and they showed us the town...all the hip bars and fun places. It is always cool to go out with a local.
We decided to go scuba diving one day. It was another interesting dive for me. I was swimming around when all of a sudden this trigger fish started biting on my flippers. The fish was about 2 feet long and angry. Apparently, I swam over its nesting area and it was full-on attacking me. I screamed and tried to swim away but it kept coming after me...finally I got out of the nesting area. After the dive, the instructor said I was lucky that it did not bite my flesh, because it would have been a big chunk out of my leg. I am really glad that did not happen....not sure how well I would have remained calm in that situation. I have been more concerned about my breathing technique and boyancy, that I forgot about the possibility of getting attacked by some sea creature.
After relaxing for a few days, I decided to take Jeremy and walk around the island. I knew there was more to it then just the touristy spots. We found our way to where the locals lived. Like I said before....step a little bit outside the comfort zone and it gets rough real fast. It was neat though to see the "local" part of town.
Philippines has been a fun 2 week "holiday". I really enjoyed the people and getting to see a bit of the culture. But most of all, it has been nice to see some familiar faces. Two weeks just isn't enough time to get a grasp of a country, so I hope to come back here someday.

Well, only a few more days of the nice life and then I move on again. I am going to spend some time in Thailand on my own. I am looking forward to getting back on my own again. I am hopeing to do some site seeing, yoga, and preparing myself for Nepal and India. Time flies by soooo fast, but there are still some amazing countries ahead of me.

ChillLAOt!

At the end of my last blog, I mentioned how we were going to be taking a 24 hour long bus ride across to the border of Laos. All of the sleeper buses were booked so we bought cheap "sitting" bus tickets. We knew it was going to be a rough ride, but I had no idea just how rough it was going to be.

A minivan loaded with other tourists picked us up at our hotel to take us to the bus station. We got dropped off at the station and this local guy whistled us over and said we needed to walk to another area. We all grabbed our bags and followed him past the station down these back alleys to this desolate corner in a warehouse district. There were about 15 tourists and we were all wondering why we were not at the station anymore. A few minutes later a busted up bus came barreling down the road. We loaded on and a guy working the bus motioned for all of us to go to the very back seats. Normally, you can spread out and sit wherever, but he was very adamant that we all squeeze together at the back. Laura and I got stuck on the very back row with 3 other people. This is the row that sits right over the engine. An Australian girl, named Belinda, was one of the people on the back row with us…we would all become very close through this bus journey.

Our tickets said that it would be an aircon bus, but there was no air conditioning. Some of the seats we were in were broken, so those people tried to move to the seats up front. The guys working the bus however, would come storming back yelling in Vietnamese at them and motioning them to get back in the other seats. They would even come and grab peoples arms and throw the bags to the back of the bus…it was very aggressive and I was beginning to wonder what kind of bus we were on. I felt like Rosa Parks in the back of the bus because there were locals in the front seats, but the white people had to go to the back. No one knew what was going on and why the bus crew was so mean to us. There was no English spoken...we sort of felt like prisoners…it was all very confusing. After driving for a few hours, we pulled over to a shop and the bus guys started loading goods on. They loaded on bags of rice and animal feed all down the aisles and in the other seats. It was to the point where we had to crawl on top of these bags to even get out of the bus. They put bags under our feet as well so we just basically sat on top of them. Every few hours we would stop and load more bags on. At one point, we pulled over on the side of the road. A few of us got out to use the restroom. We waited at this point for awhile until another truck pulled up next to us. The bus crew started loading all of our bags that were on the bottom storage onto the roof. Then they loaded a lot of coolers from the truck onto the bottom. We had no idea what was in the coolers. After they filled the lower part of the bus up, they chained it together and locked it. Then one of the guys took a hammer and busted the lock in so there was no way to open it. I am not sure what was going on, but it appeared that we were “smuggling” something across the border…..why would they bust the locks in? And why did they make the cooler transfer on the side of the road miles away from any town? It was weird.

At about 2am we pulled over for a rest stop and saw 7 other tourists on the side of the road with their bags. Apparently, they were on a bus to cross the border, but the bus dropped them off 1 hour ago and told them to wait for another bus to pick them up. They looked a little freaked out like we were and weren't sure what was going on. They were going to be getting on our bus. I had no idea where they were going to sit as the rest of the bus was filled with cargo. They ended up having to sit in the aisles and riding on top of the bags of rice. The ride was 24 hours long with no aircon and we were crammed on top of each other surrounded by cargo. Since we were sitting on top of the engine, we were sweating profusely. I had to close my eyes and meditate to a happy place for hours at a time so I wouldn´t go crazy. In all the months of travel, this was the worst bus trip so far. But alas…..we crossed the border and arrived to Vientiane, Laos. The one positive thing out of the bus journey was that we met Belinda…aka “Super Onesy” (which I will explain later in the blog). Laura, Belinda, and I would end up traveling together through Laos.

The vibe and culture in Laos is a complete polar opposite from Vietnam. It is like all of a sudden you can take this breath of fresh air, release the tension in your shoulders and relax. I absolutely loved my time in Vietnam, but it is a fast paced hustle and bustle type atmosphere….in Laos….you just chill out! There was no traffic, no honking, and no vendors at every street corner hustling you for a buck. In fact, if you wanted any type of service you had to go looking for it yourself. Even in the restaurants, you had to get up to tell the waiter you were ready to order or wanted the check. Some people refer to the Laos people as “lazy”, but I think they just relax and take life at a slower pace. I was immediately drawn to the vibe and knew that it was going to be an enjoyable, slow paced month of travel….a much needed time to chill out after Cambodia and Vietnam.

In Vientiane, we all found a dorm room for really cheap. I had not stayed in a dorm room since Australia so it was kind of fun for a change. Ah…the dorm life. You meet so many interesting characters when you stay in a dorm. This particular room had 18 beds in it. To my left I had the new age hippie girls who had dreadlocks, hairy armpits and nose piercings, but all of the latest technology like cell phones and iPods. They had these banjos and musical instruments that they would spend hours tuning and talking about playing, but never actually played them. To my right I had the Nigerian who would dress in a suit everyday and stroll around town. He would also talk on his cell phone in a very loud voice at all hours of the night. Then we had the Chinese, who we nicknamed “plastic bag man” because he wrapped everything he had into little plastic bags and felt the need of wrapping and un-wrapping them all the time. Word of advice….if you stay in a dorm, avoid plastic bags as they can be really annoying. Then there was this other Asian guy who had his bicycle and had cycled through 35 countries already. And let us not forget the crazy Australian man who looked to be in his 70s. He would sit on the balcony next to the no smoking sign and puff on marijuana joints 24 hours a day. Tons and tons of characters…..

One day I went to go visit the COPElaos rehabilitation center. It is an organization to help Laos victims that have been injured by UXOs (Unexploded ordinances) from nearly 100 years of warfare. During the Vietnam War, there was a “secret war” that took place in Laos. There were strict regulations on where the Americans could drop bombs in Vietnam, but there were no regulations in Laos. To demolish supply routes and combat Viet Cong in the Laos territory, the Americans bombed the hell out of Laos. In fact, Laos is the most heavily bombed country in the world! Unfortunately, the American public would not be aware of this until many years after the Vietnam War. So many bombs were dropped that it is said that spanning 9 years, a plane would drop bombs every 8 minutes. Of all the bombs dropped, one-third did not explode. This has made for a very messy situation. The bombs have made much of the land unusable for crop growing, and to subsidize their income, villagers now collect scrap metal from the UXOs to sell on the black market. Each year, there are many deaths and injuries due to the UXOs detonating when tampered with. Most of the injuries happen to small kids who are curious about the foreign metal objects stuck in the mud. It is really sad because even though the wars are over…Loatians still live with the atrocities of the aftermath…much like the Agent Orange in Vietnam. The rehabilitation center is a place for victims to go and get wheelchairs or prosthetics made for them and to spread awareness to villages about how dangerous the UXOs are. I watched an amazing documentary called “Bomb Harvest” which won a few awards. If you get a chance you should check it out to get a better understanding of the situation over here. Also, if you are looking for an organization to support and maybe donate money to this holiday season, COPELaos is legitimate and I truly believe they are making a lot of progress to spread awareness, help victims, and deal with the undetonated bombs still in the country.

In Laos, there is a government run curfew each night for 11:30pm. All bars and restaurants close at that time and you must return back to your guesthouse. But the curfew doesn´t stop locals from enjoying Beerlao and one of their favorite activities…bowling. We decided to hit up the local bowling alley one night. It was absolutely hilarious….they blare western hip-hop music, drink beerlao, and bowl for hours. I forgot to bring socks, so when we arrived; I had to buy a pair of socks at the alley. Once again, I was reminded how big I was compared to Asian people. The socks barely fit around my feet. In fact, I had to cut the ankle part so that it did not cut off my circulation. Ahh……the joys of being a fat American in an Asian country.

After Vientiane we headed North. There is this infamous party town in Laos called Vang Vieng. It is world famous for its tubing. You rent these tubes and go down the river and the locals throw a rope to you and pull you into their bar. I have met a few travelers along the way who said it was the most amazing week of partying they have had....and that the town changed their lives. I have done my fair share of partying in my days and was pretty sure this place was not going to change my life....but why not check it out for a few days, right? The busride was only a short 3 hours. This peculiar guy sat next to Belinda. I think he had a really bad case of ticks and possibly teret syndrome. He was constantly making weird noises and doing these hand motions all over the place. I thought to myself how difficult it would be to travel alone with a problem like that. As we arrived into Vang Vieng, he got up and stormed to the driver....all of a sudden he began yelling histerically " Let me off this fucking bus you fucking crazy people...I know you are trying to kill all of us. I know what you are up to. Let me off this bus. FUCKKKKK.I am going to the police...I know you are trying to kill me. Let me fucking off NOW!" The bus stopped and he got off and started walking calmly down the street. I was in shock at the situation...I had no idea what this guy was about to do. Clearly he had major issues going on and even though I sympathize that he has a disorder, he probably should not be traveling alone. I was really glad he was not on the 24 hour busride...that would have been interesting.

The town of Vang Vieng was this weird vortex of tubing, partying, and re-runs of Family Guy, Simpons, and Friends. It seriously felt like going to a circus on hallucinogenic drugs. Because of the government curfew, everyone partied by day and slept at night. Apparently, about 15 years ago it was a famous town for foreigners to come visit, get high on Opium and chill out for weeks. There was even a spread in National Geographic about this lush "off the beaten path" chill-out town. However, once the government cracked down on the drug use, the town had to find another way to make a living....so they turned their market towards partying and tubing for young backpackers. After a few days though, I started to see how the whole town really worked. When you get to a bar or restaurant, they will hand you 2 menus. One is the food menu and the other is a drug menu. You can get "happy" pizza or shakes, opium, marijuana, or mushrooms. I am not big into the drug scene, but if you were...then this place would be heaven. Then the bars choose between playing re-runs of Family Guy or Friends. And you then sit for hours vegging out at the TV. Some of the bars have negotiations with the police and pay them a certain amount of money each month to stay open past curfew. If the owners think the police are nearby, they will pick up the drug menus and stop dealing....However, if a policeman catches you smoking a joint or doing drugs of some sort, you can either pay them $500 out of pocket, or go to jail. There is a little bit of corruption going on. The tubing is even crazier....it is like tubing in the Guadalupe but on steroids. The bars on the side of the river are insane....with mud wrestling pits and colossal rope swings. I stuck to drinking the booze and hung out on the sidelines in awe of the craziness happening around me. All I could think about was how easy it would be to get seriously hurt.

There are foreigners chilling in this town for competitions on duration. For instance, there is this guy named Trent who has been tubing for 265 days straight. His goal is to do it for a full year....tube everyday for 1 full year!!!!!!!! I couldn't even imagine. Then we met this girl named Becky who had been tubing everyday for 80 days. I mean, don't get me wrong....the tubing was a blast and this town is a party haven, but to stay there for that long did not make sense to me.

After a few days in town we had met so many people and had our local hangouts. I would walk down the street saying hi to new friends and I felt this weird acceptance. If it was this easy to fit in....then I could begin to see how it may be hard to leave for some people. I would walk into bars and the owners would come up and put there arm around my shoulder to say hello....we were getting free drinks and hanging with locals. I knew it was time to leave before it got too comfortable. Vang Vieng is a wild town...not like anything I have ever seen. I am glad we checked it out and I had a blast, but it was time to move on....

We decided to continue up north to get back into the culture and Laos life. We headed to Luang Prabang, the enchanting city that is under UNESCO World Heritage for helping to preserve the culture. The town is beautiful. It is filled with french colonial buildings, temples, and the Mekong River. There are 1000s of monks walking around each day. At night, there is this night market that sells textiles and goods from the nearby villages. There are food stalls at every corner and you can eat like a king for only a few dollars a day. I spent my days here strolling the streets, visiting nearby waterfalls, and riding bicycles. It is such a pictruesque city and I am glad that it is under the UNESCO World Heritage. This means that they are doing what they can to preserve the culture, architecture, and local traditions. There are regulations on the amount of cars and trucks in the area and building styles etc. So much changes in underdeveloped countries when tourism is introduced, that I think it is good that they are working to keep the charm of the city intact. One day I was walking through a Wat...or temple...and noticed a group of young monks working on cutting some wood. The monks must have been around 12 years old. I was trying to find a particular building and decided to see if the monks could help. I had no idea what the etiquette was in talking to monks...I knew that I was not allowed to touch them, but I figured it was ok to ask for directions. I walked over and pointed on the map and asked in English where the building was. All the boys were kind of giggly and tried there best to help me. We exchanged a few words but I felt funny so I didn´t pry to much in the situation. As I was walking off...I had to laugh...they seemed like ordinary 12 year old kids to me, but they were monks! It is a normal thing for men to join the monkhood for a period in their lives. Some do it for only a few months, while others dedicate their lives to it. During the rainy season (when there is not much work in the fields), families will send their kids to be monks for a few months because they will get educated and fed well. It is rainy season now...so the temples were filled with them. I have tried to take some pics of the monks and there are a few photos on Picasa.

After days of wandering around the world heritage city, we hopped in a minivan that would take us to a town called Luang Namtha 9 hours away. It was another interesting transport experience. After about an hour we had a flat tire. The driver fixed the tire and Laura mentioned how now we had no spares left. I thought to myself that the chances of another blow-out was extremely low. Well...it wasn´t 1 hour later that all of a sudden I heard this loud pop and then the van started rolling unevenly. Conveniently, we had the blow-out right next to a tire store. I truly think that the tire store set up booby traps for passing cars to create business for themselves. It was all just to perfect of an accident. We sat in the town for 2 hours while they worked on the tire and waited for some part. Finally, we were on the road again. Driving through the small villages was a sight to see. When it is raining, naked kids play and splash in puddles everywhere, men fish off the side of bridges, woman nurse their babies while selling vegetables on the side of the road. You see the daily village life while looking outside the windows while traveling. A few hours later we were flying through a village and there were all of these kids on the side of the road waving to us...all of a sudden a dog jumped out into the road. The driver tried to miss it, but there was no way around it. Thump Thump and then a howl beneath our feet. We totally hit and killed a dog in front of about 20 village kids. I was mortified.....it was awful! We kept on driving.

Luang Namtha is a northern town known for its trekking and rafting tours. I was interested in doing a trek into the hill tribe villages to see what their culture and life was all about. Our first day in town, Belinda had this great idea to rent motorbikes. It was only $4 to rent a bike for 1 day. I had been avoiding renting a bike because of my segway accident a few years ago. I just don´t have the confidence on things like that. Belinda assured me that it was super easy and a total blast. We went to the rental place and the lady asked me how much experience I had. I told her I had never driven a motorbike in my life...and did not know how to drive manual either. You think that would be a clear sign not to rent to bike to me, but instead, the lady just smiled and said "I teach you". Next thing I knew, I was on this bike going down her driveway wobbling from side to side. I really didn´t feel comfortable, but Belinda kept telling me that it gets easier the faster that you go. FINE....I decided to just do it. There was not a lot of traffic in town and I was just going to take it easy. Well Belinda was right. After a few minutes, I built up my confidence and was having a total blast on the bike. We cruised through all the town streets then went and visited temples and villages outside of town. I have totally been missing out on not renting bikes before. It is much easier then driving a segway. At the end of the day, we had gotten pretty far out of town and needed to head back before sunset. Belinda turned her bike around, but then all of a sudden her handle bar got stuck and she lost control and crashed straight into the ditch. She flew off the bike into the side of the hill. It all happend so fast and I was so worried that she was hurt. I ran over to see if she was ok. She popped up and said she was fine and was more concerned about her bike. She couldn´t afford any major damages. I knew that she was in a bit of shock, but at least she wasn´t too hurt. The bike was mostly ok except the basket was banged in pretty good. Once we knew the bike was ok and that she wasn´t hurt badly, we both started laughing histerically. It was one of those laughs like...holy shit...that could have been real bad. Belinda was wearing this one-piece demin outfit where the shorts and shirt are all connected. We call these "onesies". I kept replaying her accident in my head and seeing her fly off the bike in her onesy. That is when I nicknamed her "Super Onesy". THANK GOD she was ok!!!! After the accident we went back to the hotel and woke Laura up from her nap to help us make-shift the basket back to the way it was. We got it back to almost normal and they didn´t notice anything when we returned it.

The following day, Laura and I set off for a 2 day trek to visit local hill tribe villages. Belinda stayed behind because she didn´t have any hiking gear. We were joined on the trek with a french gay couple. When I first introduced myself I asked them what their names were. In thick french accents they told me their names. I had NO IDEA what they said. In my head I was like"yeahhh...no idea what they just said...not even going to try". After a little while though, I finally asked them to write their names down for me since I am more of a visual learner. They were Fred and Oliver....hahahah...just goes to show how thick the accent was that I couldn´t figure out those simple names. They were a very nice couple and since Laura knows french she was able to translate conversations between us.

It is the rainy season now so the trek was extremely muddy. We slipped and fell down paths and stepped in mud that covered our shoes. Another downfall to the rainy season was leeches. I felt a few on my legs and would try to get them off. At the end of the day when I took my pants off, I had leech marks all over my legs.....soooo gross!

The hike was a very unique experience. The hill tribe that we visited was named Lanten. The villagers are very poor and they spend their days harvesting and growing crops, raising farm animals, and maintaning the village. There is no electricity and they bathe and drink water from the river. I took this time to ask questions to our guide, Ef, about the villages and the Laos government. The villages used to burn down forests to grow crops and then after the season was over, move to another area and repeat the cycle. The government finally cracked down for environmental reasons and now give the villages a small sum of money so they do not move around so frequently.

As for the government, I think Laos is similar to Vietnam in that they are called Communist countries but that it is merely a title and free market situations exist. In the reading I have done, Laos receives a huge amount of financial aid from other countries including the US. Without this aid, they would be one of the poorest countries in the world. To try and help the country from the inside out, the government began introducing free markets so that they can improve and compete with the rest of the world. I have really tried to read books about the wars, governments, and histories of the countries I have visited....trying to better understand it all. Eventually, the communist governments seem to turn back to free markets in order to give the people a better quality of life. At least that is the conclusion that I have come to at this point...I still have much research and learning to do.

Fred and Oliver had done a lot of traveling and been to many villages in Nepal and Burma. Oliver brought balloons for the kids and crayons and paper to draw and interact with them. I was told not to bring things to the villages so that the kids don´t have expectations from foreigners. Tour companies suggest bringing toothpaste or pens for school. However, whether we are supposed to or not, they LOOOVVVEED the balloons. All the kids came running out of their huts waiting to get a balloon. I have tons of pics of the kids on Picasa that you can check out. Most of the kids are naked or wearing really torn clothes so keep that in mind when viewing the pics.

We learned about the rituals with coming of age, marriage, and village leaders. I tried to ask the guide as many questions I could think of....I was just fascinated with the basic lifestyle. In all of my travels, the one thing that has been the most apparent is that we are all still human. No matter how much money you have, your education, your religion, or government.....we all still laugh, cry, love, hurt, want, and need. For me, this village was one of the closest things that I have seen where they spend each hour of the day getting their basic needs met...Food, Water, Shelter. It is so different then the life I live back home. We have so much time on our hands that we create activities and material goods to satisfy us. We struggle with obesity, stress, depression....This village doesn´t even have electricity!

Ef lived back in the city. He was better off then the villagers, but still did not make much money. I think he said that he makes a few $1000 a year. It felt weird when he asked me how much my camera cost and I told him it was $400 because that is a huge part of his annual income. Ef also asked me a lot of questions. He wanted to know what it felt like to fly in a plane, see snow, and be able to travel between different countries. He explained to me that I am able to visit his country, but that he would never be able to come to the US. You could tell that Ef understood the world a little more then the villagers did. His job was to be a tour guide to foreigners who flash money around like it is paper. Meanwhile, he tries to work enough to afford school and english classes and still lives at home with his family at 25 years of age. It is always hard to talk to locals when they start to compare their lives to yours. I do not have a lot of money for an American...but in Laos I am extremely wealthy.

My time in Laos has been interesting and entertaining. Everyday it seems something interesting happends. On a different note though, there are some things happening back at home that I am missing. My dad´s fiance has just been diagnosed with breast cancer. I had prepared myself to miss good things, like weddings, birthdays, and my nieces growing, etc....but I didn´t prepare myself to miss situations like this. The hard thing with travel is you are away from family and home. I wish I could give Jatana a big hug and let her know I am thinking about her.

I have a few more days in Laos and then I part my ways from Belinda and Laura. My friend Jeremy is meeting me in the Philippines for a 2 week "holiday". After that, back to flying solo ...........