Nepalese (Not So) Flat (Part I) – from Kathmandu to Pokhara

(September 1 - 7) Welcome back friendly readers! I hope you are all doing very well, and I would love to hear from you when you have a spare minute or two. So as a fair warning, I spent a great deal of time in Nepal, so there will be a lot of blogging about it. Hopefully you find it as intriguing as I found the country. Nepal was mind blowing, and I honestly don’t even know where to begin, so you will have to bear with me.

Nepal is a small country with a population of 30 million sandwiched between China (Tibet is just across the border and many refugees now call Nepal home) and India with a large friendly population and a HUGE number of mountains to hike, rivers to raft, and temples to visit. Although Nepal is one of the poorest countries in the world the energy is high and the locals in good spirits. The currency is the Nepalese Rupee (1USD = 71 Rupees) and Nepal relies on tourism and local agriculture to sustain itself. Buddhism is by far the main religion and as a result the Buddhist culture is very prevalent as temples, prayer flags, and monks are seen throughout the country.

Becky and I arrived after our crazy long night in the Bahrain airport and let me tell you the Nepal airport could not have been more opposite. We quickly got visas (luckily) and then headed to a large baggage room with an old school conveyor belt and tons and tons of locals jockeying for position. Luckily Becky and I tower above the majority of people and had practice working together in these situations. After watching ridiculous amounts of TV boxes come off the belt (not sure what was in them) and very little luggage, we finally saw our two huge body bag suitcases and breathed a huge sigh of relief. We would in fact have clothing for our trek.

After sleeping excessively we decided to brave the streets of Kathmandu; Nepal’s bustling (and I mean BUSTLING) capital. Cars, motorbikes, tuk tuks, bike rickshaws, and pedestrians crowded the dirty narrow streets lined continuously with tightly packed shops, restaurants, and guest houses. There are only a few key types of shops that carry identical goods: trekking, Buddhist souvenirs, mini markets, laundry services, T-shirts, and tourism services. After souvenir shopping it was time to do some sightseeing.


If you arrive early we recommend you check out Durbar Square, home to the palace of the Kumari Devi, who is considered to be a living goddess. She became the current living goddess at four years old and will remain the goddess until she is about twelve. She is now six years old and appeared in the window to look down on us for a moment. Interesting to say the least. We took a bike rickshaw through the crazy streets of Kathmandu and managed to survive, as did the small man hauling the two of us. The square had a variety of temples and people scattered about, many selling goods. Later that night we tried momos and Everest beer for the first time. The momos are fried or steamed dumplings served up with a sauce and can be pretty good at the right restaurant.



The next day we were on the road in a giant crammed bus that only Africa and Asia can produce. We whipped through dangerous mountain roads and got stuck in traffic thanks to monsoon created landslides covering the road. The scenery was gorgeous. It was mountainous and green as far as the eye could see, and I constantly stared out at the tiered farming and little towns. At one point I hopped out to whitewater raft the Trishuli River for 33km (20 miles) while Becky joined our awesome driver Indra in our hired car. The rafting was great with more of the same amazing scenery but from the river perspective. There were so many shades of green that I was reminded of the kids in elementary school with the box of 168 Crayolas that included twenty plus greens. We also passed so many monsoon generated waterfalls that I lost count. Eventually the sun even decided to come out and illuminate the river and mountains. I must say that not all of the riverbed was pretty, at one sad point there was a section about five feet by fifty feet of trash along the bank of the river. Very depressing to see. The rafting was fun and the rapids were III and III+ often with five to ten foot tidal waves, some holes, and tons of water.

We wrapped up the day with our drive up to the small quaint town of Bandipur. We strolled through the quiet little town filled with kids playing games and greeting us with Nameste (pronounced nam-es-tae)! The mountain views were great, and it was nice to see a quieter side of Nepal.



It was now Saturday morning, so we made the drive past rice patties and colorful towns to Pokhara. Pokhara is the last large city (400,000 population) before the Annapurna Mountain range (34 miles including six mountains above 23,000 feet) treks begin. The Annapurna Mountain peaks are actually the most dangerous peaks in the world to summit with a 40% fatality ratio. We wandered the town and eventually had to rent a wooden boat to paddle around the amazingly calm lake, Phewa Tal. Sadly there were no Annapurna views since they were engulfed by clouds. Later that night we got the unfortunate news that a plane had gone down near the Lukla airport (where we were scheduled to fly for the Everest trek) killing fourteen passengers.

We got up at 5AM Sunday, September 5th hoping to see the Annapurnas but again we were denied. We eventually took another boat ride across the lake to hike up to the Peace Pagoda. It was extremely peaceful, and we were better able to see just how big the city of Pokhara was. Of course the clouds still mocked us as they blocked the mountain range views. We devoured some great Korean food (I was in heaven with my bulgogi) at a local restaurant and then watched a movie in the hostel as it furiously down poured.

On Monday we visited the Tibetan settlement of Tashi Palkhel where we were invited to sit among the monks in the temple during their afternoon chanting and worship. It was a moving experience and the chants were harmonious and enjoyable with drums, horns and shells played. I loved sitting in a row with children as they diligently read their prayers aloud and occasionally flashed a smile our way. We were also able to see women walking around praying with handheld prayer wheels as well as a small room with a big colorful prayer wheel that people walk around and spin as they pray. We visited the rest of the small poor town meandering though the alleyways of stone homes and talking with people selling Tibetan goods. It was definitely a unique experience I will not forget.




After more monsoon rains and no Annapurna views Monday night we had to brave the dangerous mountain roads for an eleven hour ride to get back to Kathmandu in time to meet our trekking group. Luckily it became sunny and the treacherous drive was slightly less dangerous. We made it back exhausted but happy. Until next time…Sarah.

Desert Mirages?? - Dubai (UAE)

(August 27 – 31) Okay, I am behind in writing this blog, so I have been anticipating writing the Dubai portion for a while now. When I think back to my pre-arrival in Dubai I am not even exactly sure what I expected. Ultimately the words that come to mind after being there a few days are: rules, skyscrapers, desert, malls, hot, opulent, and westernized. Allow me to explain and tell a couple of key stories based on the rules of Dubai.

Dubai is in the United Arab Emirates and is on the Persian Gulf. It has a great deal of wealth from its oil reserves and has grown rapidly in recent years. Its currency is the Dirham and is pegged at 3.67 DHS to $1 USD. Dubai has a population of 1.8 million and nearby Abu Dhabi has another 1.5 million people. Take a wild guess as to what percentage of the people are foreign ex-patriots. If you guessed 80% you are correct! I must say that the growth has halted due to the recent economic collapse, and Becky and I marveled at the construction crane graveyard. The cranes all sat idle throughout the city and property values have been slashed in half.

There were seven lanes of traffic each way (I am used to five in LA which I thought was extensive) and way too many large fancy malls for my liking. My US comparison would be a combination of Florida and Vegas, because there are stone colored buildings, beaches, and skyscrapers all in the middle of the desert. Finally, rules prevail in Dubai despite the huge ex-pat community. Becky and I took note of or “experienced” the following rules:

Rule #1: The “Women’s area” of the trains are for women only. Okay fine. This rule is straightforward and not the end of the world since they have co-ed cars as well. Too bad the women’s car was not obviously marked. Rule Broken: Becky and I met a fun South African guy who was telling us about surfing and Dubai when the train pulled up and we all boarded. After two minutes we had train security tell us our new friend could not be with us. Punishment: it took further explanation for us to realize we were on a women’s only car and that we all had to move to the co-ed car.

Rule #2: No revealing clothing. This rule means that although it is 120 degrees plus in the desert you must have clothing past your knees and covering your biceps at all times. Anyone who knows me knows that temperatures above 85 degrees (It’s too HOTT ta be ALIVE!) make me want to cry unless water or a/c are involved. We knew this rule, so Becky and I were never caught showing too much skin.

Rule #3: It happened to be Ramadan still which meant there was absolutely no eating or drinking of any kind from sunrise until sunset. People can receive very large fines for breaking this law. The vast majority of restaurants were closed, so food was hard to come by. After nearly starving and passing out the first day we problem solved and bought snacks at markets and went to bathroom stalls to do what we termed secret eating. We became good at secret eating, getting more complicated foods to eat and finding the best bathroom stalls available. Rule Broken: we got a bit too comfortable one day when we went down a dark empty hallway near a bathroom we had secretly ate in earlier. There was no one around as the mall was nearly empty, so I quickly ate a pepperoni stick and had a sip of water. This took two minutes at most, and we walked down two more hallways to leave the mall when we were suddenly approached by a no fun security guard making a strange motion around his mouth. Becky thought she had something on her face, but I instantly knew the jig was up. Punishment: Mr. No Fun must have seen us on the security camera and he told us that eating was not allowed. I promptly replied “no problem,” meaning I was sorry and it would not happen again. This was lost in translation as Mr. No Fun suddenly retorted, “actually it IS a problem” in his harshest voice. I stammered, “ah what I meant was I’m sorry.” We managed to escape without further punishment, and Becky and I nearly died laughing in the parking lot at the whole turn of events.

Rule #4: No food or beverages on the train. I understand this rule and can live with it. It is often a rule in public buildings or transportation around the world. Rule Broken: unfortunately there was little signage again and Becky and I were so excited it was sundown, so we could have water in public. We both had giant smiles and two beverages in hand as we boarded the train. Suddenly it was game over as we were approached and told to get rid of it. Punishment: there was some chugging and sad faces before they were tossed away.

Rule #5-7: No naughty movies (aka above rated PG or PG13) can be brought into Dubai. Luckily Becky and I were movie free when entering the country. No drugs can be brought in either, which I completely understand, although it applies to more than just the hardcore illegal ones we normally think of. No swearing. That’s right, I kept my language in check (“eat a bag” is not swearing) and we did not have any run-ins with this rule.

We honestly felt like we were ten years old again and living with excessively strict parents (our parents were certainly never this strict!). We did do/see some other stuff aside from just breaking rules.

Fancy malls visited: (3) Emirates Mall (highlights: got my netbook which has an Arab keyboard, performed secret eating for the first time in a bathroom stall, saw Inception – secret snacking, snowboarded indoors at Ski Dubai), Meracato Mall (highlights: pedicure (California Coral) and place we got caught eating), and Dubai Mall (highlights: similar to Mall of America but bigger - waterfall, aquarium, ice rink, giant candy and book stores, and we saw the movie Salt where we performed secret eating with six other westerners and the movie ushers trying to catch us).


US Restaurants attended: (4) TGI Friday’s (poor), Tony Roma’s (acceptable), Subway (solid), and CPK (LOVED the Ramadan set dinner menu).

Actual sights seen: We took pictures of the Burj Al Arab Hotel which is the famous seven star hotel that looks like a sailboat. Room prices range from $2,000 to $17,000 per night! We walked through the Bur Dubai Souk near the water, which was an underwhelming night market with stalls and overly aggressive shopkeepers. Becky went to Abu Dhabi and saw the $4.9 billion Sheikzayed Grand Mosque without me since I felt very sick that morning. She came back amazed and her pictures are impressive. The walls have extensive mother of pearl on them and 1,200 Iranian women made the largest rug in the world which is at the mosque.



The highlight of Dubai had to have been our overnight desert safari. We got in a four wheel drive SUV and tore through the red desert sand dunes with three other SUVs. Due to the fun driving two of the other SUVs ended up with flat tires that had to be fixed in the sand. The red sand glowed as the sun began to set and we flew over and slid down the dunes while Arabian music blasted and Becky occasionally screamed. We nearly rolled over at times and it was exciting to say the least, a real live desert rollercoaster. We arrived at a random spot in the middle of the desert where we tried sand boarding (not much fun - I barely moved), rode a camel ever so slowly in a circle, got traditional henna tattoos, and ate delightful Middle Eastern food (more kebabs and hummus). The other car loads packed up and took off, since Becky and I were the only crazies that voluntarily spent the night in the desert. The two Alis hung out with us (mostly telling us that western women spend their husband’s money excessively etc) and then we eventually slept outside since it was unbearably hot in the tents. We were woken up around sunrise, ate breakfast, and flew through the dunes once more en-route to Dubai. We were so hot and gross so we snuck into the pool bathroom (Becky scoped it out before) at our old hotel on the roof for showers; it was a real mission impossible style event.


Finally, we took a late flight to Bahrain where we spent the night in the airport sleeping on a string of hard chairs while the 3AM cleaning crew worked around us before our early flight to Kathmandu, Nepal. Himalayas here we come! Until next time…Sarah.