Thik Chha, It's OK.

Nepali people have about a million ways to say "It's OK."  The most popular ones are Thik Chha, Hunchha, and Lalala.  You can actually just say "la" as many times as you want in order to communicate how OK you are with the idea.  I think the point is that everything is always OK.

Yesterday, Santiago, Maria and I went to Thamel, the tourist part of town.  It was OK.  We decided to take the bus there, both because it would be much more exciting than taking a taxi and because it costs 12 rupees whereas a taxi costs 250 rupees ($1  is about 70 rupees).  Even though the buses seem terrifying at first, they actually aren't that bad.  Usually, it's easy to figure out which ones are the buses if you go to a major intersection.  At the intersection, there will be little boys standing outside big vans yelling something over and over.  For example, the end destination of the bus we wanted was Ratnapark, which is near Thamel.  We had to look for a little boy standing outside a van yelling "RathnaparkRatnaparkRatnaparkRatnapark" really fast.  If you get confused, you just ask the driver "Ratnapark?" and he either nods or points.  Once we were on a bus, we met a man who was an English literature teacher in the southern area of Nepal called Chitwan.  We told him that we are Mexican (just because clarifying that I'm not Mexican would have been too complicated), and he was very excited to talk to us in English about all of his favorite Hispanic authors.  He also had a lot to say about how he could identify with us because Mexico has many of the same issues that Nepal does, but all of our lives are OK anyway.  He was an extremely nice and very smart.  Before we got off the bus, we exchanged phone numbers and he said that we should call him if we ever have trouble in Nepal.  Even after we got off the bus, he followed us around for a long time just to chat.

This is a picture of Thamel.  It's amazing!  The road is realtively clean and smooth, there is space to breathe, there isn't that much traffic, and the chaos has some order to it. 

This is a picture of me at one of the shops.  It seems that the main thing to buy here is shawls.  They are made of yak wool, pashmina, or cashmere, and they cry out to you (literally) to touch them because they are so soft.

Another souvenir that is popular here is singing bowls.  You get a metal bowl and a stick, and when you rub the stick on the opening of the bowl, it makes a nice sound.  We found out that another option is to get a really big bowl and put it on your head.  When you hit the bowl with a stick, you become surrounded by a pleasant humming sound.  He shopkeeper said that this is a nice way to meditate.

While Kathmandu has so many interesting things and beautiful shawls, saris, and clothes, there are also some extremely ugly things.  This is the ugliest sweater I've ever seen, and I just wanted to share it with you.

This is Rani Pokhari, a Hindu temple near Thamel that is dedicated to Shiva.  This temple is fenced in, so you can't actually to into it.  The pond is surprisingly clean compared to everything else I've seen so far.

Rani Pokhari is downtown near the Ratnapark bus station.  When using the bus, this is a good landmark to help you know that you're near Thamel and you should get off the bus.  I don't have a picture of it, but we ended up riding in a tuk-tuk on the way home, which works the same as a bus but is much smaller.  A tuk-tuk has three wheels (one in front and two in back) and a space in back for people to cram inside.  Hopefully I'll remember to take a picture of one soon, because I think they're really silly.

Jam Jam!

"Jam jam" means "let's go" in Nepali.  I have been learning a lot about Nepali language and culture this week, and I'm getting ready to start my volunteer project soon.  I think the most important thing I have learned to say is "malaai piro khaanaa manpardiana," which means "I don't like spicy food."

Yesterday we went sightseeing around kathmandu, and here are some of the pictures.  (Diana - I took a lot of myself, just to make you happy :-)

Our first stop was the Boudhnath stupa which is the biggest Buddhist stupa in Nepal.  In Nepali, "nath" means something like "a place to worship," and Boudha is the name of this part of town.  This is where the Tibetan Buddhist community of Kathmandu is located, and it is also where a guy I met on the plane is studying Tibetan Buddhism for his PhD.  There were lots of people (including tourists) doing their Buddhist thing (sorry, I don't quite understand what they do) like bowing over and over and doing prayer/yoga-looking positions.

 This is me and Maria with a mess of prayer flags at the stuppa.  Buddhist people like to put up prayer flags because they say that the wind blows through them and carries good will to people in the area.  I bought a bunch of prayer flags to bring home with me.  I paid $4 for like 50-feet of prayer flags, but the Nepali people probably think that they really ripped me off because they were all laughing at me when we finally agreed to the price.  If I could change one thing about this place (in terms of tourism), it would be the bartering.  It's so exhausting and makes me not want to buy anything.

The next place that we went was a big Hindu temple called Pashupatinath.  (Again, Paschupati is the name of the area, and nath means "a place to worship.")  The view of the temple from the outside wasn't very impressive, and you're not allowed to go inside if you're not Hindu, but here are some of the decorations that were on the outside.  The one on the left is Shiva, who is the main Hindu god.  The other two are his sons, Ganesh (the elephant-faced one), and the less popular son who everyone forgets the name of.

This is a sign that I thought was kind of funny.  I don't really have much to say about it.  This is where the Hindu people could leave their shoes before they went into the temple.

This is the Bagmati river, which is right behind the temple.  It's a holy river (even though it's full of trash), and the stands are where they cremate dead people.  Keshav was saying that when a man dies, his son has to shave his head, dress in white, and light the fire.  Once the body is burned, they sweep it into the river.  For next 13 days, the son has to stay dressed in white.  On every anniversary of his father's death, the son has to shave his head again (but doesn't have to dress in white).  If the man doesn't have a son, then another male relative lights the fire.  Women aren't allowed to light the fire.

After visiting the stupa and the temple, we went out for lunch.  Nepali people usually eat dal bhaat 2-3 times per day, which is rice with lentil soup poured on top of it.  Since we know that we will soon be eating dal bhaat every day, we decided to have momos.  Momos are dumplings filled with either vegetables, chicken, or buffalo.  People here don't eat beef because cows are sacred.

After lunch we went to Swayambhunath, which is also known as the monkey temple.  This is a picture of the peace lake.  For good luck, people try to throw coins into the pot or between the statue's feet.

Here is a monkey at the monkey temple.  There were lots of them.  I'm not too sure what he meant, but Keshav said "if you think the monkey looks sad, please don't look too deeply into his eyes, because you will encourage his bad feelings."  I think he meant that the monkeys will either become violent or they just won't leave you alone if you pay too much attention to them.  Personally, I thought the monkeys seemed quite shy, because they would always turn away if you try to take a picture of them.  However, they definitely become un-shy if you have food or something else that they want to take... While we were at the peace lake, one monkey stole a guy's souvenir and started running away with it.

The main part of the monkey temple is this Buddhist stupa and the smaller  Hindu temple next to it.  It was very impressive.  In this picture, you can also see this guy who followed me around taking pictures of me (not very discretely).  Once I started posing and taking pictures of him, he got embarrassed and stopped.

Around all of the Buddhist stupas there are prayer wheels.  You're supposed to walk around in the clockwise direction and spin them.

Settling into Kathmandu

Today I'm going to put up a bunch of pictures to give you an idea of what my first few days in Nepal have been like.  I feel much better and less overwhelmed than I did when I first arrived, thanks to all of the wonderful people I have met.

This is my room at the RCDP volunteering hostel.  It is very cold here at night, so I am very thankful that I brought a -15 degree sleeping bag.








 
This is Maria and Santiago getting ready for breakfast.  We will be eating here every day until we finish orientation and leave for our volunteer projects.  We also spend a lot of time up here sitting in the sun and warming up, because it is much much colder inside than it is outside. 

This is the view of our neighborhood from our kitchen.  We live in an area called Kalanki, which is southwest from the main part of Kathmandu.  The tourist part of town is called Thamel, and it takes about 30-45 minutes to get there by taxi or bus.  Krishna (I wrote his name as Christna in the last post) took me to the Thai embassy on his motorcycle today to get a visa, and we went through Thamel on the way home.  Thamel is very nice and orderly compared to where we live.  There are lots of pretty things and western-looking products that you can buy in Thamel, and it seems a bit cleaner with less traffic.  Hopefully I will go there on Saturday, and I will post pictures of it.  In Kalanki the main industry is auto shops, but there are also some temples and other shops (which are much cheaper than the ones in Thamel).  On the airplane, I met a guy named Jeremy who has spent a lot of time in Kathmandu over the past 3 years, but he only goes to Thamel while he is here.  I realize that I am having a much different experience of Kathmandu than he has had or that most tourists might have.  I sort of feel bad for him because there are some very special places outside of Thamel.

This is a lovely Buddha statue that sits above us as we eat our meals.  Most people in Nepal are Hindu or Buddhist.  Last night after dinner, Keshav (our Nepali teacher) spent a long time telling us stories about Hindu gods.  My favorite part was that the stories make (in Keshav's words) "big things seem small and small things seem big."  For example, the gods Ganesh and his brother (who I forget the name of) went out to "travel around the world."  While his brother went to many places far away, Ganesh just went in circles around his parents, because his parents are his whole world.  So such a little thing like love for your parents becomes a big and important concept, while things like the ability to fly or disappear or grow 8 arms are not a very big deal at all.

So, on Wednesday (I think?) we went on a walk with some kids from the orphanage up a really big hill and had a picnic.  The kids were excited about my camera, so they took a  lot of pictures with it.  This is a picture of the responsible young man who carried most of the food up the hill.  To the far right is Max, one of the French volunteers who works at this orphanage.

This is the woman who runs the orphanage.  She was very friendly and had a lovely smile.

This is Maria, a Mexican volunteer who arrived the same day as me.  She will be teaching English in a monastery north of Kathmandu for 3 months.  You can see on her forehead that she has a tikka, which is a red mark that Nepali people sometimes give you to bless you.  I think that it's a Hindu thing.

This man was my boyfriend for the day.  He was very welcoming when we got to the orphanage - he helped set up chairs and lead us all to sit down so that we were comfortable.  He then took my hand and we ran up the mountain together.  He was a speedy one, and we basically pushed everyone out of the way until we were in the lead.  He took about 5 million close-up pictures of his face so that I would never forget him.

We stopped at a Hindu temple dedicated to various gods.  I have a ridiculous number of pictures of this guy, and every single one is unique.  This is his "I'm-relaxing-at-a-temple" pose.  He also did spiderman, tree-hugger, cute little boy, extreme climber, and so much more.

This is Santiago getting really excited for our hike.  He arrived at the same time as me, and he will be volunteering teaching English at the monastery with his cousin, Maria.  I can't say enough how much his and Maria's positive attitudes and constant laughing is helping me relax and adjust to life in Nepal.

This is the youngest child of the bunch.  I was amazed at how she scrambled up the hill even though she is so tiny.  With all the other energetic kids, it was even hard for me to keep up!

There was Buddha statue and prayer flags near the top of the hill.  We stopped here to have our picnic. The little guy on the right was another one of my very good friends on this trip, even though he barely said a word.  We spent a lot of time quietly holding hands.  Aww.

There were lots of self-portraits taken with my camera.  This guy was an aspiring photographer and took lots of creative pictures, like putting a metal mesh in front of the camera or taking a close-up of his glove.  He was also very fast, so once he got ahold of the camera he would disappear and you had to wait patiently until he decided that he was done running with it.

There are two volunteers from Taiwan, Abby and Julia.  Unfortunately, no pictures of Julia were taken with my camera.  This is Abby, and she will be teaching English for 3 weeks at a school in Kathmandu.  Lying on her lap is the nicest little girl in the world.  She can't talk, but she has a lot of character and taught us her sign language.  At the end of the trip, she and I had a really fun time skipping/running down the hill together.  All of them had soooo much energy.

Speaking of energy... The kids climbed right up the trees!  This is a picture of at the bottom of the tree, but they would wrap their arms around it and basically walk up to the top.  I was very nervous that someone would fall off or they wouldn't be able to get down, but I apparently they've got it under control.

This is the start of our picnic.  The kids were really well behaved (until the sugar appeared...).  They also never took anything for themselves - they always waited for someone to give them food or drinks.  The woman getting food out of the backpack is Nawel, one of the French volunteers who works at this orphanage.

This is me and one of the staff from the hostel, Krishna.  Something I found interesting: Krishna recently had a baby boy who he gave a sacred name to.  Because his baby's name is sacred, he isn't allowed to call him that.  He and his wife are trying to think of a name that they can use in every day life.  The baby's already several months old, but it seems like it's not a big deal that he doesn't have a name yet.  In any case, Krishna's a very nice man and has been answering my endless questions about Nepal.  He's also been a huge help by driving me around on his motorcycle to anywhere I have to go.  I think he is also the only Nepali man with light green eyes.

This is Nicole cooking hot dogs on the fire for the picnic.  She has already been here for 3 weeks working in another orphanage.  I hope that someday I might know as much as her about Nepal and how to get around.  She's very good at the language already and has somehow figured out lots of important details about Kathmandu (like how to use the buses, which is not trivial!).

Culture Shock

Nepal is a very poor country.

Kathmandu is the craziest place I have ever been.

I spent my first night here crying like mad and planning how I could get a ticket home as quickly as possible.  I felt tired, cheated, sick, alone, afraid, and trapped.  Streets are piled high with people, monkeys, dogs, chickens, cows, goats, pigs, ducks, garbage, motorcycles, vans, buses, bicycles, and so much more that you can't even imagine.  Everything is flying this way and that, horns are honking, music is playing, people are yelling and hitting the buses with their hands, police are blowing whistles... I was exhausted and overwhelmed by just sitting in the back of a van on the way to my RCDP volunteer program.  If I didn't die in a car accident first, I thought my brain might explode any second from all the sights, sounds, and smells pushing themselves (unwelcomed) into my perception.

Today, I got up after worrying and stressing the whole night instead of sleeping.  I had my first Nepali lesson, and at the time, I felt like I was learning a lot.  The language is actually really similar to Hindi, which I learned a little bit of from Prannay for a project in my linguistics class.  After a full and exhausting day, I think I remember only a few sentences... Oh well, I'll catch up.

After the language class, I realized that I need money and asked where the nearest ATM was.  It isn't anywhere close by, so Christna (one of the staff at this hostel) took me there on his motorcycle.  Again, I was thrown into the craziness of Kathmandu, but this time I wasn't protected by the shell of a vehicle, so I noticed the steepness/narrowness/ruggedness of the streets much more.  Surprisingly, it didn't scare me as much as it did the first time.  It was actually kind of pleasant and exciting.

On the way back to the hostel, we ran into some of the other travelers and staff from the hostel.  (Not literally... everyone is still alive)  They were going to an orphanage and taking the kids on a hike up a "hill" to have a picnic.  Christna and I joined them.  We had a wonderful time with some of the most well behaved and friendly children I have ever met.  They were really excited that I had a camera, so they took it and took a ridiculous amount of pictures.  The camera eventually died, and we don't have power right now, so I will post pictures and tell accompanying stories as soon as I charge the camera.  (Note: The amount of electricity that Nepal gets depends on how full the rivers are, since they use hydro power.  Monsoon season starts in like June, so the rivers are currently quite low, which means we don't get much power and I can't charge things.)  We made a fire at the top of the (veery big) hill, and we cooked some hot dogs.  Once the sun went down, we descended the hill and got in a bus/van thing to go home.  Again, we went flying full force down steep streets, honking the horn nonstop and hoping the masses of people/animals/vehicles get out of our way.  I almost peed my pants, but I guess it's getting more fun each time.

At the hostel, I've met some wonderful people who are helping a lot to get me out of my "oh-my-god-culture-shock" state.  In particular, Maria and Santiago (cousins from Mexico) have been traveling through India and had experienced similar "oh-my-god-culture-shock" there.  They've been brilliant in helping my laugh when I want to cry/scream/run.  They say that I will soon start to love the chaos.  I hope they're right!

I hope that this post made some sense.  I haven't slept in a very long time, and I'm going to go do that now (once the dogs outside stop barking).  I feel like I have so much  more to say about this ridiculous place, but it will have to wait until I can form coherent thoughts.

Here I goooo!

I'm off!  The picture above is me with my big backpack, a backpack full of books and games for the Nepali kids, and a backpack to bring with me on the airplane.  Daiva (my sister) was really confused about how I would carry all the backpacks on only one back.  You see, I'm an extreme backpacker.

I took a flight from Madison to Chicago, from Chicago to Abu Dhabi, and now I'm waiting around in Abu Dhabi for about 12 hours until my flight to Kathmandu in the morning.  The woman in Chicago was really nice and switched my seat to a window seat in business class, but unfortunately I ended up sitting next to the smelliest and most obnoxious man I've ever met.  He didn't speak English (and for some strange reason, our flight attendant didn't speak Arabic), so he used a lot of hand gestures and loud grunting noises to express his discomfort with the food, the location of his seat, the woman in front of him, the temperature of the cabin, and on and on and on.  With the few English words he knew, he was full of lots of great misinformation (like, "we land in 1 hour 30" when we were clearly 100 feet from the runway...).  Of course, no travel experience would be complete without an interesting travel-mate.

During our long flight, I had lots of time to cycle between feelings of "what-the-hell-am-I-doing" and excitement.  It's a strange feeling to suddenly be a minority in both appearance and language.  I realize now that I've never traveled somewhere that I did't at least somewhat know the language or have a friend who did.  This trip will definitely be much more of an experience than I expected when I sat on the floor in my Oxford dorm room and thought "why don't I just go to Nepal for a few months?"

Packing

Peach (shown left - isn't she cute?) just asked me what kind of things I plan to pack for this trip.  So, I'm posting a picture and a long list of all the stuff that I am taking with me.  It all fits into my 70L backpack weighing around 30 pounds.  However, something to note: I don't plan on keeping all this stuff with me through the entire trip.  For example, when I go on the Annapurna trek I will leave a lot of this stuff in storage in Kathmandu.  Then, when I leave Nepal and arrive in Thailand, I will send most of my winter gear back home.  I've definitely thought a lot about what kind of gear I should bring, but I am always appreciative if people have suggestions for how I should change my packing list.

Non-clothes items (left to right):

• Pile of books
• Travel guides (will only take a couple and have mom send the rest to me as I need them)
• Novel
• Pocket dictionaries for Nepali and Thai
• Plug adapters
• Headlamp
• Water bottle
• Travel pouch (goes under your clothes to hide your money and passport)
• Padlocks (to lock things up at hostels)
• Gaiters
• Bag of toiletries and medications
• Sunscreen
• Insect repellant
• Toothbrush, toothpaste
• Hair brush, hair ties
• Deodorant
• Glasses, contacts, contact solution
• Soap, shampoo, conditioner
• Laundry detergent
• Antibiotics
• Altitude sickness pills
• Allergy pills
• Ibuprofen
• Advil cold and sinus
• Tylenol sleeping pills
• Acidophilus dietary supplement
• Antacid pills
• Inhaler
• Iodine water disinfecting pills
• EmergenC (electrolyte powder for water)
• Lotion
• Hand sanitizer
• Gauze pads
• Moleskin
• Bandaids
• Medical tape
• Antiseptic wipes
• Antibiotic ointment
• Ear plugs
• Scissors
• Camping Knife
• Lighter
• Matches
• 2L Camelback
• Yaktrax
• Baseball cap
• Hat
• Sandals
• Sunglasses
• Jaw harp
• Balaclava
• Climbing shoes
• Climbing harness
• Computer
• -15 degree sleeping bag
• Gloves
• Stove
• Pot
• Travel towl
• Bandana
• Thermos (not shown)
• Hiking boots (not shown)
• 70L backpack (not shown)

Clothes items (not shown):

• Pants 
• Jeans
• Khaki outdoors pants
• Comfy stretchy pants
• Fleece pants
• Shirts 
• 3 Tank tops
• 3 Short sleeve
• 3 Long sleeve
• Swimsuit
• Socks 
• Cotton
• Wool
• Heavy-duty bedtime socks
• Underwear (2 week supply)
• Jackets 
• Fleece
• Raincoat
• Down puffy
• That green jacket I always wear

THE PLAN

Basically, this is my plan:

















And below is another (über detailed) version of the plan.  If I disappear, you know exactly where I should be, so please come save me.  Thanks much.
(Also note that you can use the map at the top of this page to see where I am!  I'll be updating it as I go.)


WISCONSIN
now - Jan 22 : Change my mind a few more times about where I want to go, pack like crazy, worry that I haven't thought this through enough and that I'm surely going to die
Jan 22 : OMG GET EXCITED AND GET ON A PLANE TO NEPAL!

NEPAL
Jan 24 - March 4 : Volunteer teaching English to children and monks in Chitwan through RCDP
March 5 - 6 : Jump off the highest canyon swing in the world at The Last Resort
March 7 - 9 : Kathmandu
March 10 - April 10 : Annapurna circuit / Annapurna sanctuary teahouse trek
extra time : Pokhara

MALAYSIA
April 11 - 13 : Kuala Lumpur
April 14 - 15 : Firefly Park in Kuala Selangor / Kampung Kuantan
April 16 - 18 : Ipoh, Cameron Highlands (hiking, strawberries, butterflies, and tea!)

THAILAND
April 19 - 21 : Trang, sea kayak to Tham Chao Mai
April 22 - 26 : Yoga on the Rocks at Ko Yao Noi
April 27 - 30 : Relax/climb at the beaches/islands around Krabi
May 1 - 11 : Diving at Ko Tao
May 12 - 15 : Travel to Chiang Mai, stopping at Kanchanaburi waterfall and Sukothai ruins
May 16 - 27 : Chiang Mai, Sunshine Thai Massage course (or farming through WWOOF)
May 28 - June 4 : Chiang Rai and northern Thailand

LAOS
June 5 - 6 : Enter at Huay Xai / Chiang Khong, take a boat down the Mekong River
June 7 - 8 : Luang Prabang, wat Xiengthong, Pak Ou caves
June 9 : Mysterious Plain of Jars
June 10 - 11 : Vang Vieng
June 12 : Vientaine
June 13 : Fly from Bangkok to Oslo

NORWAY
June 13 - July 20 : Work on organic farms through WWOOF.  The current plan is helping to build a boat for a tribe of sea gypsies and then farming strawberries in the far north (rumored to be the sweetest in the world due to the 24 hrs of sunlight).

LITHUANIA
July 22 - August 19 : take classes at Klaipeda University
August 20 - ? : visit family


... and after that is graduate school.  6 years of science.  Yup.

Before I set off on my trip, I hope you all understand how much I sincerely love and appreciate every one of you.  I've found that, even in the planning stages, this kind of trip requires a lot of courage.  I'm blessed to have more supportive friends and family members than I deserve.  Most of you probably didn't even know I was planning a ridiculous trip, but (secretly) your love and friendship is what motivates me to do this.

I'll update this blog as often as possible during my trip.  I hope that you enjoy reading it (maybe even enough to come join me!)