Red Bull and cigarettes. Beer too.

My tolerance for alcohol has gone up again. This doesn't mean I can drink more; I just don't get red in the face and pass out, as easily. The alcohol tolerance started out because I was with Manu and Carlos who, like all Spanish, know how to party. After they left Kathmandu I took a bit of a break. Then I landed in Bangkok.

From the airport I shared a taxi with three others - an Israeli guy, German girl, and a Belgian girl. I'm horrible with Israeli names so I don't remember the guy's name and he ended up staying at some other guest house. Andrea (German) and I hung out together quite a bit. She reminds me of one one of my most favorite peeps, Kirsten J. Fisher. Since Oktoberfest is starting up we decided to have a few drinks on Kho San. I used to do little but a little wouldn't do it so a little got more and more.

We started out slow sharing a large beer (650ml) over some spring rolls and papaya salad. The order of events after that are blurry because of the events of last night. Before I get to that, I remember walking up and down Kho San quite a few times and exploring some of the side streets. We stopped off in at least two more places and ended the night at a bar on the east end of Kho San with live acoustic music. The three guys playing and singing were quite talented and had the whole place singing along. We got back to the guest house after one and I fell asleep with the iPod on shuffle. I now know it has at least nine straight hours of battery life when fully charged.

The morning after wasn't too bad. Since we stuck to beer I didn't have a hang over. Andrea and I spent most of the day figuring out our travel arrangments. Andrea doesn't have a lot of time in Thailand so she had to take a train leaving last night.

I don't usually drink alone but I was bored and went back to the same bar. The music last night wasn't as good as the previuos night. I think the transgender waitress was hitting on me, especially since I told her Andrea already left and wasn't my girlfriend. It was buy two beers get the third for free but I don't think I got that deal. Grrr.

I walked back to the guesthouse and ran into Ann (Belgian) who was lost and stumbling about. She had had quite a bit to drink and couldn't find the guesthouse. We were standing two buildings away from it.

I guided back, bought her a water, then walked her up to her room. We had a bit of a discussion about which floor she was on. The drunk girl was wrong. I told her to drink water before she passed out. She didn't listen. An hour or so later I went to make sure her door was locked. It wasn't and the water was unopened. I locked and shut before going back out.

When I first put Ann in bed I walked out to the all night internet shop to email pictures to a woman I sat next to on the flight from Delhi. On my way there I was asked if I wanted to buy a rain coat. Interesting question, but I had to answer no. The two who solicited me were a brother and sister from Israel Ohad and Noa. They are a friendly pair so I felt obligated to help them sell the rain coat. This was to be the beginning of a long night.

Shortly after I sat down we were joined by two guys from Switzerland, Julien and Xavier. Ohad went to get his guitar and we made up the raincoat song:

Cheap cheap don't you want a rain coat
Green green beautiful rain coat

I pulled myself away from the group for fifteen minutes to email the pictures and when I got back Han, a Korean guy, joined the group followed by a Canadian girl and her Finnish boyfriend. Julien ran off and brought back beers for everyone and Noa suggested we had enough of a global representation to start a new U.N. We got kicked out of our spot some time around one or two in the morning. That's when I checked up on Ann and decided I smelled really bad and needed a shower.

The party moved around the corner and more people came and went. Somebody bought a bottle of whisky and we were all sipping from it. Songs were sung in various languages including Hebrew, Arabic, and Korean. All the while we were smoking like chimneys. At three thirty I opened my eyes and found everyone straing at me. Noa told me I fell asleep. That and Juliens downward turn towards sloppy drunk made everyone decide it was time for bed.

Bangkok isn't as bad as I thought it would be.

Good grief

Charlie Brown inspired moment.

Kathmandu is boring the pants off of me. I'm glad I'm off tomorrow to India. I got in touch with Saurabh from Delhi who I met in Leh. Should make my day in Delhi more bearable. Then I fly to Thailand and the islands!

For a bit of down home flavor I'm reading Cannery Row after having finished Midnight's Children. It's wierd reading the old American dialog. The slang is entertaining.

Chitwan

I came back to Kathmandu only to leave three days later for Chitwan National Park. The two major cities in Nepal, Kathmandu and Pokhara, don't offer much. They are a haven for travellers and cater to travellers meaning the food sucks and there are tons of shops selling the same things. Chitwan was not too exciting, but it got me out of Kathmandu.

Manu and I left Carlos behind cause he was getting all spiritual and stuff by doing yoga and reiki. We'll not speak of this anymore.

Upon arriving at the lodge in CHitwan, we were greeted by a guy bearing an uncanny resemblance to Jeff Goldblum and he will be known as such for the rest of this entry. Jeff booked us our bus tickets out and sold us on doing a canoe ride with a four hour jungle walk and an elephant ride. The first day was for exploration and we quickly discovered the only two roads in Chitwan help nothing remarkable so we drank, smoked, and napped. Then the rain started.

The monsoon doesn't seem to be over in this part of Nepal. The rain came down hard for probably twenty minutes then not so hard for another forty minutes. The storm passed us but as night fell the lightning surrounded us. There were flashes all night, some so bright I had to close my eyes. Nature put on a show for us that night. It was clody so no stars were visible, but as Manu and I walked back to our, tiny specks of light could be seen flying around. Fireflies! Their presence made the absence of stars a moot point.

The next morning we woke up and found out we were doing the jungle walk with three older Spainiards staying at the lodge. We checked in with the cops/military in the area and I was again mistaken for Nepali when they asked where the fifth tourist was. As we walked to the canoe something that may have been a crocodile was spotted. Manu insists it was a log.

The canoe trip was ok. We saw a few species of birds, but nothing else. The jungle walk on the other hand was shitty. After instructions about what to do if animals charge us we entered the jungle. We didn't see anything. The only thing we encountered were leeches. The jungle leeches were bigger than the leeches on the trek. I managed to get two crawl in my shirt and find a nice suckling place in my right armpit and one on my lower back. The reaction the leeches got from the older Spainiards made any chance of sneaking up on a rhino impossible. One of the two women screamed at the top of her lungs and the other two ran in place like the flash dance chick.

Neither Manu or I were too thrilled with our company. Besides their reaction to the leeches they were slow. I don't know how much area the walk was supposed to cover, but we probably only walked two kilometers. My mind is now in the metric. Sorry American friends.

The walk ended and we rented bikes to try to find a traditional village three kilometers away from Chitwan. It was noon so I suggested we wait until later in the day to go because of the heat and humidity. It was (ready?) around forty degrees with probably one hundred percent humidity. We decided to take a siesta.

While I slept another storm rolled in. When I woke up, two hours later, the rain which had stopped for an hour, started up again. We returned the bikes without having ridden around much. That night no lightning, stars, or fireflies.

The next morning we rode on square plaform on top of an elephant. My ribs and arms are still bruised. The first hour of the ride was uneventful. THings got a bit uncomfortable when the driver started to beat the elephant on her head when she decided to stray from the path. His tool was a metal bar with cloth taped around it to make the beating gentler. I wanted to grab it from him a few times and beat him with it.

I don't know if the elephant was pissed from the beatings or if she's just a bitch but she didn't get along with any of the other elephants. While in the jungle she charged and one of them and we were taken for a ride, but nothing happened except them making a lot of noise. Another almost elephant fight ensued when we were crossing the river. Again nothing happened.

Upon crossing the river she started running again which made the driver yank on her ear with the hook end of his beating tool. She stopped, but there was blood on her ear, then we saw what she was running at, a rhino.

The rhino sat there watching us taking numerous snap shots and kept an eye on the elephant in case she decided to get fiesty again. She didn't and we left the rhino to its meal. Not five minutes later we ran into two more rhinos. We snuck up, as only an elephant can sneak up, on the rhinos in some trees. She was a little startled and picked up some of the brush with her trunk and swung it in front of her. Manu and I talked the previous night about who would win in a fight between an elephant and rhino. We didn't really want to find out while riding on top of the elephant. Fortunately the rhinos wanted nothing to do with the elephant and walked away.
Nothing much happened after.

The last night in Chitwan was clear so the stars were out in numbers. We could see the Milky Way faintly and the fireflies came back. We got back to Kathmandu and found Carlos who met a psychic and ran into this English woman named Deborah. We met her while on the trek, and aside from talking too much she's a really cool person. She insists on me coming to Sydney and stay with her as long as I want. Tempting offer.

Last night was the last night in Nepal for Manu and Carlos. We celebrated by drinking beer before dinner, two bottles of wine with dinner, and six gin and tonics at three different bars. Carlos slept in my room because Manu and Deborah were using the room he shared with Manu. I slept for maybe four hours and am a bit hung over.

I said goodbye to Manu and Carlso today. I have two more laces to stay in Madrid when I go back there. I hung out with them for over three weeks making them the longest travelling mates in my six months of travels.

Here comes a new challenger

During one of the last days of my trek I was thinking about Street Fighter for some reason. My backpack wasn't meant to do things like the 40km walk in Spain and a twelve day trek in the Himalayas. I think most backpack frames are made of some kind of sturdy light weight material not lead. Any how, when my mind went to the safe and warm fuzzy place I thought how I've visited some of the countries that the characters in Street Fighter hail from and it helped me forget about the pain in my feet, legs, and back.

I don't remember if I mentioned this in a previous entry, but I feel like Nepal is too easy compared to India. I miss India and the way it kept me on my toes and alert. Devan and Bim have been completely taking care of me since I got here and I've gone all soft. I almost feel like leaving Nepal sooner and spending another week in India. That probably won't happen, but who knows.

Briefly about the trek. It was difficult, especially with aforementioned backpack. Our pace was fast on most days and it felt like we were going straight up and down the foothills of the mountain, which is not necessarily untrue. At least three times we faced a steep descent followed by a hellish ascent of at least thirty minutes. I also had at least twenty leeches on my feet and ankles. I'll try to relay the leech story some other time.

The thing that kept us going (I was trekking with two Spanish guys and our guides) was almost every morning and a few other hours of the day the clouds went away and we had a clear view of the Annapurna mountain range. I can't imagine doing that trek without any views. I would've felt like I suffered for no reason.

It feels strange to be back in a city after a week and a half in the mountains.

Same same but different

I'm reading Midnight's Children right now and Rushdie mentions something about how time is a made up concept because India decides to be thrity mintues ahead on G.M.T. He mentions this is to separate it from Pakistan. Nepal is an extra fifteen minutes ahead of G.M.T. to separtate themselves from India. In that case it's 4:20 all the time.

I'm heading to Pokhara tomorrow to start my twelve day trek to the Annapurna base camp. Deven and his cousin Bim (sp?) thought I should go for a lower altitude trek instead going right for the Everest base camp. I'll save that for next time. I'm a little concerned about my shoes because they aren't waterproof and it's still raining on and off here. Also my pack isn't really made for trekking, but I'm going to take very bare essentials so it shouldn't be too heavy. Physically I feel good but I had some problems with my IT band in my right knee again recently. If that bothers me on the trek walking on a downward slope is going to be a problem. I was planning on going alone but now I'm glad Bim is guiding me because if something happens he'll bail me out.

Last night Deven invited me to his house for dinner. It was also a birthday of a young relative of his. I didn't get their exact relationship, but the boy turned ten. Instead of ten cnadles on his cake he had nine, because he's saying goodbye to his ninth year. Interesting. After blowing out his candles the boy (I don't remember his name) cut a small piece of cake off and gave a bite first to his mother, then father, and finished the piece himself.

Next the ceremony of the presents. Each person in turn stuck a bit of red stuff (crushed flowers or something) to his forehead near the hairline and threw whatever didn't stick on top of his head, then ripped a petal off a flower and handed him his gift. I asked Deven if I could do the same and felt a little nervous when I was pushing the red stuff on the already huge glob of his forehead. The glob didn't fall off and I handed him some money. Later on I felt bad for only giving 10 rupees because it's not much. I'm still thinking in terms of Indian rupees.

I'm blending in here more than I did in india. Everyone thinks I'm Nepalese. This is usually fine by me because no one bothers me on the street. When I walk into a shop the people start speaking to me in Nepali and I have to tell them I'm from the states. Everyone at Deven's last night thought I was from Nepal. I'm sure I'll get the same in south east asia.

I'll probably be out of touch until the 18th.

Kathmandoodle doooooo

I left India with about twelve hours of validity left on my visa. I spent my last days in India in the most horrible place called Ladakh. I'll never go back there in two years. Since I haven't relayed that adventure I'll do so now before I express the complete state of anand (bliss in Hindi?) I'm in because I'm in Kathmandu.

After leaving Jaisalmer I did a whirlwind tour of Bikaner (which was unimpressive), Amritsar (it was hot, but the Golden Temple was very interesting), McCleod Ganj (where his holiness the 14th Dalai Lama resides along with the exiled Tibetan government), then onto Manali, and finally Leh. In that time period I met an Italian guy named Andrea, a Slovakian named Andrej.

Real quick tangent. When he asked me what I thought of Bratislava I said I was presently surprised by how much I liked it. I didn't tell him e the whole reason why I liked it. During our train ride he asked what I thought of the women. The damn burst and out came the truth. As previously stated, the Slovakian women are the most beautiful on earth. Andrej and I laughed and he said, "Yes. We are very proud of this."

Andrej was suffering from stomach problems when I left. His journey took him through Iran and Pakistan before getting to India. I have to admit I was jealous of this because as an American I don't think I could go through the middle east safely.

Anywho I left for Manali and encountered a group of some of my most favorite people - the Spanish - on the bus. One guy is American and Irish - Ian - but grew up in Spain. The next morning we went our separate ways as I headed to old Manali (should've gone to Vaishisht) and planned my journey up to Leh.

The bus ride up takes two days on rough road that are constantly being worked on by guys stained in tar. Over the course around twenty eight hours we covered 295 miles. We camped one night at an elevation of 5000 meters, drove on the second highest pass in the world, and everyone on the bus suffered altitude sickness. Some felt nauseous, and everyone felt lethargic. Once we reached Leh i wish I never arrived. I'm sure this is the same way I'll feel when I do it again two years from now. Really everyone, stay away!

I hung out with an Irish guy - Tomas - doing his PhD in genetics and his friend from Delhi - Sarev- who is getting his masters in neuroscience. Sarev gave me hope that less than ninty percent of Indian males are assholes. Funny thing during my bus ride my view of Israelis stayed the same. I sat next to a cool Israeli guy, but the others on the bus were a bit unfriendly. I sat with them for a meal and on another occassion Tomas and Sarev did, and they spoke Hebrew the whole time. Rude don't you think? Anyhow I did meet a few other decent Israelis so the jury is still out on that one.

I watched the sunset on thje Himalayas from two different spots and ran into Ian and a few other Americans (Emmy and Naomi) at both sights. I was supposed to take a jeep down one night, but it got canceled on me the first night. I was a bit stressed out by this because of my visa situation and almost walked something like 6km close to midnight. After about 1km I turned back. I was pissed to have to spend another day in Leh, but oh well. I did get to see Ian and the girls again and hang out with Sarev's friend.

At 2am I got picked up by a jeep to head down to Manali. Four Israelis were in the jeep (and a Swiss woman and the two drivers). This could've been a problem, except they were some of the nicest people I've met. Steroetypes are bad. I should keep this in mind. The journey back down took nineteen hours, and was once again full of me being snap happy. Hey, the light was different this time. Nineteen hours could've been hellish as the iPod was acting up again (I think it suffered from altitude sickness), but the bhang cookies I saved from Jaisalmer helped mellow me out. I had two on the way up as well :-). We arrived in Manali after dark and I took a room near the bus station to prepare for the trip to Dehli.

I wandered around central Manali until about 15:00 then went to catch my bus. The further down the mountain we went the hotter it got. I noticed ceiling fans blazing and less woolen clothing, and knew the heat and humidity were coming to get me. After our dinner break I popped a special pill Emmy gave me. It was just something to help me sleep on the hot and uncomfortable ride. i probably drooled on the guy sitting next to be. I think I remember getting off the bus at a rest stop at two in the morning, but I might have been dreaming. The pill worked great and I still have three left :-).

We arrived in Delhi the next morning and, being well rested, I was ready to duke it out with some rickshaw drivers. Unfortunately I think I still got screwed, but I split the fair with a Japanese guy. I didn't see much of Delhi, but it was in the upper thirties (celsius) so I didn't really care. I sorted things out with my flights and wandered around Paraganj. Later that night I would have my last and the second worst Indian meal since coming here (the worst was in Bikaner). I ordered a tandoori chicken that didn't have that pinkish red glaze to it. When I asked about this the guy told me they don't add color of spices to the chicken because they cater to European tastes. Bland and boring? Bah!

Today I took a private car to the airport. I remembered Sarev and a Belgium woman saying the south burbs of Delhi are nice. I could kind of see that. I got to the airport really early and caught the flight out without a hitch.

I can't explain how happy I am to be in Nepal. There are moments where I feel like I'll burst out of my skin. I feel reenergized. I finally met Deven, a Nepalese guy I've been emailing for a few weeks. I was introduced to him by Karla and Maria from Canada. He met me at the airport and arranged a place for me to stay, although it's a bit more than I want to pay. I'll move out tomorrow. And I got an email from a guy I met in Slovenia. He's stayiong just down the street from me. Deven and his cousin are helping me set up a trek. I'm going to be surrounded by mountains for almost two weeks while on the trek.

I'm kind of happy right now. :-)