Nepal

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

Travel Woes

> Becky and I are sitting here in the 'international' airport in
> Dhakka, Bamgladesh. When we got to the airport this morning in
> Bangkok, the lady at the ticket counter told us to wait a minute.
> She let us think there was some computer error and that was why she
> didn't tag our bags. Turns out the plane that normally flys Bangkok
> to Kahtmandu was broke like a joke and the replacement plane was
> smaller which means the plane was overbooked. After 20 minutes or so
> a guy tells us that he is going to have to reroute us, whilst at the
> same time showing us an envelope stffed with money! Well, we both
> find this pretty comical but decide to go with it.
>
> So now here we are, sitting in a dumpy old airport waiting to catch
> our connection to Nepal. What was it worth to us for this three hour
> delay? How bout 300 bones! Nice.
>
> Of course we still have to figure out what to do once we get to
> Kahtmandu since we were suppsed to catch another puddle/mountain
> jumper once there... And who knows if the guy supposed to pick us up
> will still be there. But, as we say in Thailand, Mai pen rai - no
> worries.
>
> iBeck

Ps - I would have included a pic but my iPod touch has no camera.
Thanks for nothing Steve Jobs!

Blago

(yes the title of this Blog is named after Rob Blagojevich in honor of his new spot on celebrity apprentice. THANK GOODNESS HE'S BACK IN THE SPOTLIGHT!)

Anyway let's get back to business in Thailand. I would like to apologize to all of my fans about totally slacking off in the blog writing department. Isaac has totally been carrying all of the burdon of blog writing and I am sorry. I told him that it's because he's so much more talented and prettier than I am but he only accepted that excuse 100 times. His ego really needed the boost. He feels much better about himself now so I guess I should just write on the blog.

I can't think of too many exciting things that are going on over here except we did have some awesome political turmoil a few weeks ago. I don't really think I should give too much info because I don't want to end up like Claire Danes in that movie: Brokedown Palace. Anyway the short version is that these people are dressing up in red and they don't like the government so they have parades and stuff. I got to see one of the parades on the way downtown on saturday. They were all happy and carrying flags and riding in the back of pickup trucks and on motorcycles. It reminded me of baseball parades except there are no grenades at baseball parades........at least I don't think..........

Anyway, don't worry. They only throw grenades at banks and I don't think I look like a bank, although Isaac may beg to differ.

In other news, Isaac and I spent a really nice day at the mall all day on saturday which was great for our relationship. haha that was a JOKE! Going to the mall together all day with your husband is NEVER a good idea. Nothing makes men crankier than having to spend more than 30 minutes in the mall without buying electronics or going to the movies or something. The good news is that I got a new outfit despite the fact that Thai stores don't carry clothes that are anywhere CLOSE to my size. I felt like I was shopping at children's stores. Actually, maybe I was in children's stores. I still haven't learned how to read Thai. dang.

Isaac and I ended up splitting up (he went to look at cameras, we didn't break up! Don't worry, Dad, we were able to salvage the marriage. You still have your favorite child, Isaac.) and we met up at this student exhibit at the mall of artwork by kids from our school. It was the perfect combination of sexual stuff and swears. Honestly, one of the paintings just had the F word written all over it. Another one was a naked female body being ground up in a meat grinder. It was pretty interesting/disturbing but I guess it was a memorable artistic experience. Nothing says art like the F word and nudity. All of the meat grinder art made us hungry so we went to Outback for steak. Mmm beefy.


Random story: On friday we had a few wierd encounters with our neighbors and Isaac took a video to share so let me take some time to explain. When we arrived home from work, we noticed that there were all these people in front of our neighbor's house and they had built this 2 story shrine thing with gold and money all over it. They also had these gigantic speakers and a band in the street and they were playing music and whatnot. We figure that they were finally welcoming us into the neighborhood. It took them long enough. Sheesh! We're still waiting for them to drop of the gold and money at our house.....

ALSO, when we got home we found some OTHER neighbors in our yard and they seemed to be telling us that there were 4 snakes in our front yard. We looked around and couldn't find them anywhere so hopefully they're in the house. Last time there was a snake in the house, I ran at Isaac with a knife. Really it was just a coincidence. I happened to be chopping up vegetables when I saw the snake and I didn't want to drop the knofe because, obviously, I didn't want the snake to use it against me! OBVIOUSLY. Isaac freaked out about the knife and totally overreacted. But he did use his snake charmer skills to get the snake out of the house........after moving every pience of furtniture and running around like a little girl. He's my hero! I love you baby! :) Seriously.

Ok I think those are all of the stories I have for now. Hopefully I won't wait 4 months before my next blog.

Thanks for reading!,
Becky

There goes the Mooban!

On Monday of this week, a tent was put up in the road in front of a house. We thought it was a little odd, but then again, A LOT of things we see daily are a little odd. We thought that someone just wanted a car port or something. Then yesterday (Friday), we when were coming home from school we figured out why they needed the tent...kinda. There was some kind of a ceremony with dancing, and music and flames. It was interesting to say the least. We tried to capture some of it in the video above without being rude.

In other news, Becky alerted me to people taking our Mangoes this morning again. I sprang into action and told those fools off! Not really, I told them that they need to give us half of what they pick. It works out well for us cause its not easy getting to the Mangoes. Everybody Wins!

Love,

iBeck

Get your hands off my mangoes!

The picture above shows a lone mango in a tree. There are actually two mangoes, as you can see in the picture below, taken from the second floor of our house.

You might be wondering why there are so few mangoes on that tree. The reason is that there is thievery in our neighborhood. Becky has thrice seen women with the most jimmy-rigged devices you have ever seen trying to get to our mangoes! The first time it happened, she said, "I saw Lek (our neighbor) in our yard with some other lady when I got home. I think they were getting mangoes from our tree."

Now, full disclosure here, I didn't even know we had a mango tree. I mean, I knew there was a tree, I just didn't know it produced mangos.

Back to the story. I asked Becky what she said to them. And do you know what my brave little buttercup said...Nothing. Absolutely Nothing. Thats right, for all the ways that Becky and I are the same person, we are different in so many other ways. One of those ways is confrontation, which I, quite frankly, find delightful and relaxing.

The second time Becky was at home alone again and some women were climbing on our wall/fence to get to the fruit. This time Becky got bold...and went upstairs so the 5'0" Thai woman couldn't see her in the house. Wouldn't want to disturb the woman stealing our mangoes!

Finally, the third time we were both home and Becky alerted me to the situation. I snapped into action and told Becky to get my camera. Alas, as soon as I walked outside, the woman decided she didn't need any mangoes and left. Its a shame becuase I have been working on my Thai. I was going to tell her every Thai word I know: left, right, stop here, strait ahead, thank you, no thank you, and of course "will you be my girlfriend" - taught to me by my 8th grade students.

Heres the point. If you want to protect your mangoes, don't expect your wife to do it for you!


In other news, the mullet is gone. This is one case where I really wish I would have trusted Becky with my mango/head. I decided that I could shave my head myself, which I have done in the past. This time things started off well. I went all the way around with a #2 guard on the clippers. I took off the guard for a second to clean it and accidentally put it back on backwards with the #1 guard now attached to the blade. Ooops. Becky and I had a laugh and both decided that it was a pretty classic accident that happens to everyone when they shave their head. Har Har.

Then this. After I had almost finished on the #1 guard level, I decided that the blades needed some oil added. So I added oil. Then I immediately put the blade back to my head. Yes, there is one important step missing. I didn't put any guard back on. So that means I have a "0" level hair-cut which is baciscally bald. There was actually a conversation between Beck and I about weather I could just leave the patch right in front of my head or shave it. I had to shave it.

At this point, five days later, it looks respectable again.

Here is the damage below.

Me recreating the look on my face immediately after the first swipe.

PS - Check out the cat planning her escape in the background.

Gone Fishin' - 2010 Mekong Classic

First things first, then onto the fishing!

I have a pretty tried and true method when it comes to hair cuts. I try to only pay for one haircut a year...or less. The last haircut I paid for was a day before my wedding in June. So what does that mean? My hair was out of control. I needed a new do before we hit the lake to fish.

Enter my beautiful wife turned barber, Becky. While it would be easy to just give it a buzz all the way around, we were a bit more ambitious. Becky decided to give me a style that would really help shape my face.

I think she did a great job. Don't you?

Now onto the fishing!

The 3rd annual Mekong Classic was this Saturday at a small lake here in Thailand (so not really Mekong at all). Becky did this last year and I have been pretty excited about it since then knowing I would get to go this year.

I am going to let the pictures pretty much speak for themselves. It was incredible, sometimes taking 20 minutes or more to real these monsters in.

We literally walked up, I grabbed a pole and reeled this little guy in.

Yes, that is the same haircut. Business up front. Party in the back.

Actually the last fish that Becky caught. She finally decided to pick this one up.

Good thing I've been getting to the gym lately.

A little bit bigger now, but...

Becky with a big one now!

Some team work is needed. This was about 10 minutes in and the fish might have been further out that when she started.

The reward was worth the work though.

A 60kilo/130lb MONSTER...That weighs more than Becky!

This is just another reason to come visit us in Thailand.

Love,

Isaac and Becky

No more stinkin' clothes!

Don't worry. I will still be wearing clothes. At least as much as I currently do. No, I am talking about smelly clothes. Becky and I have endured our clothes smelling anywhere from tolerable to down right nasty...like moldy poop. I have never smelled moldy poop, but I have smelled its annoying uncle, aka my clothes.

Well, it only took half a year for Becky and I to problem solve that the problem might just be the washers that our maid was using as they are probably a hundred years old, never cleaned and used by everyone in our full on Thai neighborhood. At any rate, this last weekend I finally had enough...thats right, I opened the tight as a pickle jar fold of leather that is my wallet. Cheapness has its limits, and mine is apparently smelling like a hobo. My ridiculous lack of a haircut combined with the smell was making people wonder what kind of a wife Becky is to let me out in public like that.

So without further ado, I would like to introduce the blog followers (Mom, Mom2, and uh...me) to our brand spanking new washing machine. If this doesn't work, I'm leaving Thailand!!!!!