Hey Friends and Family,
I know you're all checking the blog EVERY day for pictures of Nepal........or you're bored at work right now and looking for ANY sorry excuse to get distracted. Either way, welcome! I'm glad you're looking at the blog now. And rest assured there are pictures, but first, let me finish the story of our trip that Isaac started while ignoring me at the airport in Dhaka. :) Seriously, Isaac, I need more attention......just kidding, it's nice to get breathing room sometimes and your socks are smelly.
Anyway, after we finally arrived in Kathmandu, where our guide was supposed to meet us, we noticed that no one was there with those misspelled name signs. I was really looking forward to something like Issac and Rebookoo Curry. Asians love to misspell our names.....and other English words in general. Ok I'm sorry, I digress. So our guide wasn't waiting because we were 4 1/2 hours late! And I'm brilliant so I didn't get the phone number of our guide. We ended up hiring a NEW guide because if we wanted to do the trek we had planned we had no time to lose.
We had to run around Kathmandu and get new trekking permits so I had to walk around the city to get my picture taken since I don't have extras with me at all times. Isaac, on the other hand, always carries passport size photos around in his wallet so he can have them available in case people want a teeny tine autographed photo of him.
I learned on the journey to get a passport photo that it is not a good idea to wear short shorts in Kathmandu......or to be white. It makes you stand out/look skanky. So, Mom, put away the daisy dukes when you go to Nepal! Unless you want to get stared at/yelled at by creepy Nepalese men.
Once we got photos, passes, and a new guide we were forced to drive 5 hours to get to Pokhara, where the trek started. I slept the whole way, but Isaac is a giant and didn't fit too well in the Suzuki. :(. We did make one stop on the way at some random house that was actually a restaurant and Isaac and I got to sit on a rock while the driver and our guide ate with these shirtless old men and some goats. This one old guy took a fancy to us and decided to strike up a conversation in Nepalese. It lasting a surprisingly long time considering neither Isaac nor I said anything.
Finally, we ended up in Pokhara and I took a cold shower because there was no hot water. Awesome. The next day, the trek started and the real fun began!
The first 2 days of trekking were great! They were challenging and I definitely got a workout but it was pretty cool. We hiked for about 5 hours each day. On the night of day 2, our problems started. I don't know what we ate, but something didn't sit well. I didn't sleep at all that night and Isaac woke up at about 4 in the morning to throw up. It was ok, though, because we were supposed to wake up at 4:30 to hike to the top of Poon Hill for the most amazing view of the trip.
It was a bit of a struggle with our stomach issues but we made it! And we got some awesome pictures. Afterwards we hiked back down to base and took a 2 hour nap. We woke up and were supposed to walk 3 1/2 more hours to get to the next tea house but Isaac was REALLY suffering so it took us about 6 hours! It was painful. We made it to the next town and went to sleep right away at like 4 pm. We woke up for about 15 minutes to TRY to eat but it didn't really work.
The next day, we felt a bit better and kept hiking. That evening we took a trip to a hot spring which was Isaac's favorite part. It made him miss Korean Sauna. He said he wished he could get naked with the other men. Isaac loves getting his naked on.....with other men. :) The Sauna was really nice, especially because it meant I didn't have to take a cold shower.
We had a few more days of hiking and I learned a few things on the way.
1. I can no longer complain about having to weed the backyard when I was growing up because weeding in the middle of the mountains looks WAY worse.
2. I can also no longer complain about doing ANY kind of yard work as a child because I saw a child cleaning up cow poop WITH HER BARE HANDS. I don't know what they were going to use it for but I think they burn that crap (hahaha LITERALLY!) to cook and heat things up. Delicious. Seriously, this kid was probably 4. So, thanks dad, for not making me clean up poop with my bare hands!
The last 2 days of hiking were much better than when we had stomach issues and we ended our trip in Pokhara and then flew to Kathmandu to catch our flight back to Bangkok. In Bangkok we tried to get some money from Thai Airlines for our crappy travel/missing our guide because we ended up paying the OLD guide for the flights we missed AND for our original trekking permits. Of course the day we decide to wait in the complaint line is when Europe decides to cancel all of their flights so everyone and their mom was waiting in line because they couldn't fly to Europe. It was also cool because after asking 3 people if we could just mail in our information and being told "no", we found out that we needed to fill out a form and MAIL IT IN! We're still waiting to find out about whether or not Thai Airways will give us some money. Keep your fingers crossed! We're hoping for some flights to Australia.
Alright, by now you're either bored, or you need to get back to work. Seriously Dad, get to work! So, I'll end there and leave you with a bunch more pictures!
Love,
The Thai Curreys
