Coke factory: Take three

first time . . . . holiday
second time . . . . holiday
third time . . . . strike

seriously? it has become a personal mission to make it to this damn coke factory

change of plans, going to the "last resort" tomorrow for canyoning and mountain biking to Tibet boarder, staying over night

Thursday--- coke factory (we have a nepali man's number and a guarentee of a good tour) and swimming pool in the afternoon (its clean i PROMISE . . . 50 rupees to get in so thats a barrier to the majority of nepalis)

Friday - - - leave for pokhara, come back tuesday. wednesday is the last free day for only me at the orphanage, and mackenzie comes thursday

phew so much organization, too much for nepal

went on a "jog" with didi this morning to the monkey temple, which surprisingly is way closer than i thought . . . yea i bought us doughnuts on the way back, so much for excersize

the kids all put henna in their hair to dye it red???? it only really worked well with one of the girls, aakriti, who now has crimson red hair . . . good thing no school :)

we "cleaned" the entire playroom today, which entailed throwing out MASSIVE amounts of garbage that include puzzle pieces, cards, and all kinds of other crap that volunteers get for the kids and they end up ruining. We are having a massive garbage fire tonight . . . sorry environment

oh right, i wont be here for the garbage fire because i will be getting my L'Chiam on at the LARGEST PASSOVER SEDER IN THE WORLD (i think) . . . its at the raddison hotel and its 900 freaking rupees (mahango chha)

rented a bike the other day and took a GIGANTIC bike tour of the whole city, got lost several times . . . ended up in the same place SEVERAL times . . . but it was a great day, and i should havej ust invested in a bike the first day i got here . . . like all things the traffic looked really daunting when i first got here but now its really fun to ride in it . . . it looks completely deadly but in a way it's kind of comforting and safe feeling because everyone is WAY more comfortable and alert about people on bikes, since they are everywhere and are generally assholes who dont ever move out of the way. So i was NOT run over by a micro bus.

i stopped at KFC for lunch and almost died at how good fast food tasted . . . mitho chha

okay i swear this started innocently.
Dhanaraj was showing off his muscles to everyone, and i said "oh look you have a little banana in there" as i squeezed his arm
well me with my big fat mouth . . . now banana is the new word for muscle, and the kids are saying such as:

"OH MY BANANA IS SO BIG"
"OH NORA MISS TOUCH MY BANANA IT IS SO HARD"
"RAJ SAMAL (buff nepali actor) HAS SUCH A BIG BANANA"
"YOUR BANANA IS SOOOOO GOOD"

i am an aweful person, and i hope you laughed as much reading that as i did writing it

update from pokhara coming soon

Hello Hello!

Tried to take a tour of the coke factory today and apparently its another freaking holiday . . . its always a holiday . . . so we've been okayed for sunday for an official tour.

HOWEVER, they did sit us down and give us some free freshly brewed sprite in sketchy unlabeled bottles . . . YUMMMM

Just about two more weeks here in Kathmandu before Mackenzie meets me on April 8th and we will depart for India. In that time there are a few things i am going to do

Monday i will be going to Pokhara . . . the chilled out mountain view less crowded more touristy city about an 8 hour bus ride from Kathmandu. Coming back friday.

Also, definately going back to the bungee place. . . not to "make" bungy (as the freaking europeans call it) but to go canyoning and mountain biking
Canyoning is rappelling down a waterfall, and apparently i can do i mountain biking trip to the Tibet boarder!!!!

Yesterday we took the kids to Patan (neighboring city of Kathmandu also in the valley) to the square area there and then to the zoo . .. because of the holiday yesterday we got caught up in ridiculous human and vehicular traffic coming home and the kids were less than thrilled to walk about 2 miles after the ridiculously long day. However, it was one of the best days, it's really great getting the kids out of the neighborhood and out to do things they haven't done before.

I cooked curry this morning because Didi was busy washing sheets . . . I thought it was good, Didi thought it was good, kids said it was too salty . . . i cant win here,. their palates are SO sensitive from eating the same thing every day they know instantly if someone else cooks the curry, even if it tastes good.

I think this is the longest i have gone without shower (since friday morning) but the air here is so dry i really dont feel dirty (dont judge) and of course i have washed my head every day.

Its crazy to see the explosion of tourists here as the season has picked up, there was like no one here when i got here and now Thamel is teeming with white people (yuck)

Haha i'm really bad . . . i scoff at other white people taking pictures of things i have totally already taken pictures of . . . but somehow this handy volunteer ID card (a white peice of paper with my picture stapled onto it) makes me so different from the run of the mill tourist . . . Oh wait, the best part is im going to be them as soon as I hit india

The plan for india as of now . . . not much room for things to change . . . brown friends PLEASE LEAVE COMMENTS if there is something wrong with what i am doing or if i am passing by something that i need not miss

Kathmandu --> Varnassi (more burning dead people) --> Jaipur (pink city) --> Agra (taj mahal)--> Delhi (crazy ass city) ---> Goa (chilled out beaches) ---> Mumbai (city) ---> off to brussels

expensive internet, gotta go, update soon before Pokhara

The Jungle

thats right bitches, i front flipped off of an elephant's back into a river :)

okay short synopsis of the weekend, ive been at this computer for WAY too long because it takes FOREVER to get things done on this awful connection

Tuesday:

4.5 hour bus ride to Chitwan, out of the mountains and into the Terai, the flat lowlying portion of Nepal, very close to sea level, very humid, very hazy, very jungly.

found out we had a jam packed itinerary that alotted us about 5 minutes in between activities to use the toilet basically and nothing else.

swept off to "Jeep safari" . . . meh, not as glorious as it sounds, a large jeep riding down a gravel road through the jungle, and then we turned back and came back the same damn way we first went. Saw some deer, cool birds, a crocodile from FAR FAR away. that was about it.

Dinner: MORE DAL BHAT!!! but it was really good dal bat with chicken, and LOTS of white meat, i ate a whole lot

Wednesday:
Canoe ride in a REAL DUGOUT CANOE (yes like the native Americans made in the old days . . . very cool . . . very peaceful . . saw more cool birds, a few crocodiles from a lot closer up,

Ended the canoe ride and walked a short walk through the jungle to the Elephant Breeding Centers . . . thats right, elephant sex. Okay, so maybe there wasnt any barry white playing and mood lighting, more like thatched huts with elephants under them, but it was cool nonetheless. There were adorable elephant twins and one of the babies tried to hump its mother that was at least 5 times its size.

After that, we went back to the river for the elephant bathing!!! slip a dude 100 rupees and he'll let you ride on the back of the elephant as they bath in the water and spray water out of their trunks ALL over you . . . such an incredible experience. Every so often I would be sitting on top and the entire elephant would roll over onto its side, toppling me over . . . but fear not I was not crushed by an elephant.

Elephant Safari (lots of elephants that day)
this is where adam, me, and two dutch guys (the freaking dutch are taking over the planet) got onto an elephant and rode through the jungle. . . this was the "real" safari:

Animal count:
4 Rhinos
Lots of monkeys
Lots of deer
crocodile
Peacock
Wild boar
birds (duh)
umm that might be it

but the rhinos are obviously the coolest, we got REALLY CLOSE, like 10-=15ish feet, they could care less that there's a crowd of elephants standing around them with white losers taking pictures of them, actually, im pretty sure i saw a zoolander face come out of one of them :)

Thursday:

Jungle walk in the morning, very cool and different perspective to see the jungle from, lots of cool insects, some deer and antelope,

then, my body decided it was enough fun for me, and i got sick, but luckily there was nothing exciting for me to see in the afternoon

so yes, im on cipro now, and im supposed to limit my sun exposure . . . ha. . .
but i woke up friday feeling better and the bus ride home was only marginally aweful because this freaking nepali dude in front of me (who crazily spoke dutch, im telling you, they are taking over) kept putting his seat back and crushing me

Now back in kathmandu, going to take a tour of the coke factory that produces ALL of the coke for Nepal on monday (just happens to be a 15 minute walk frmo where i am staying)

More updates soon!

Making Bungee

We'll get to bungee and swing later, first thing's first

I got over the whole gross out factor of goat skin and just ate it. The night before i went for my bungee jump we had goat meat for dinner at the orphanage. Rather than being the wuss I had been and playing with every piece of meat to separate fat from meat from skin, i just ate it. Meh, goat skin is NOT like chicken skin, it's tough, a little rubbery, doesn't have too much taste, and isn't so incredibly awful.

alright i know i had other things to say but hopefully i will remember them after i talk about bungee!

thats right, i lept off the third highest commercial bungee jump IN THE WORLD, and the HIGHEST canyon swing in the world. Pictures are up on Facebook but i dont have the pics of me yet, those are promised from some nice tourists i met. The bridge for the bungee is over a gigantic canyon with a wild river rushing down below, not exactly a great way to land if things go wrong. Thankfully they didn't, and I flew 160 meters (thats around 480 feet!) into the canyon. The most free-fall anyone who hasn't bungeed or sky-dove has experienced is probably on a roller coaster, lasting about a second or two, so for the first second its exhilarating but semi predictable. The good part starts when your body says okay thats enough but you KEEP falling face to the ground and eventually slow down to bob back up three or four more times. All the blood pools in your head giving you a slight headache while the world spins around and you fill with a sense of euphoria you have never experienced before. That's the bungee. The swing is quite different, you are attached to a rope that is attached hundreds of feet AWAY from you to a wire spanning the canyon, so when you leap, you do a giant pendulum swing from the bridge across the canyon. The free-fall from the swing is about 5 seconds, way more than with the bungee, and it was absolutely incredible.

this was the most touristy thing i have done so far, and it was really nice to meet people and get to hear some travel stories. One Israeli tourist was a single deaf traveler traveling with lipreading in English and Hebrew as the only form of communication. . . incredible.

Went out that night for what was promised by Rajendra a "Nepali dance bar" which ended up being three Nepali men dancing by themselves watching girls up on stage dancing and taking pictures of them with their camera phones, pretty pathetic.

Tomorrow i am off to the jungle for my safari! will be back on Friday and give the update, but hopefully there are rhinos and tigers and elephant baths in my near future!

Subash has kind of stopped peeing in the bed! Thank god, although i will not hold my breath just yet.

Getting really sad that i only have another few weeks here before it's off to India.

After much pestering of my neighbor to cook me dinner i have been told by Rajendra that i need to give up the light harassment, because although the neighbor thinks its funny, I'm decently loud and it wouldn't be good for other people to hear me shouting in Nepali

"YOU, ME, DAL BHAT, TONIGHT"
"PLEASE, DAL BHAT, TONIGHT, ME, YOU, YOUR FAMILY"

It's incredible how much learning someone's name can change their attitude towards you, because before i spoke to her i had solely known her as the "sad looking woman that is always doing laundry outside my door" and now she is always smiling and always calling my name as I walk by. Really really wish i knew Nepali, damn Rosetta stone only had Hindi which hopefully i still remember some of by the time i get to India.

Random dude named Preston wandered into the orphanage the other day (hes from Alabama) and i think is now staying as a new volunteer . . . oh Nepal.

Eefje's friend and her will be in Chitwan (the jungle) at the same time as Adam and i, so that should be nice.

and a POOR POOR new volunteer is coming for JUST ONE WEEK here . . . they are going to be so shell shocked and will not even be halfway in the swing of things before it is time to leave, i feel awful, but i also agree with all the other volunteers that the new volunteer should clean the toilet :)

Kids/The slave

Last night the volunteers took didi out for a night on the town . . . caught the LAST bus from Boharatar into Thamel to listen to some live western music.

Needed to withdraw some money (10,000 rupees, about 135 dollars) from the ATM, and didi got really excited because she had never seen someone use an ATM machine before.

Ordered a whiskey sour at the bar we went to, which cost 240 rupees

An hour of internet at this cafe i am at costs 20 rupees . . . yes thats right, my drink was equivalent to a HALF A DAY of internet surfing

Kids have exams starting today,and the last three days have been HELL since Raj took the other volutneers back to Dhading (eefje hadnt seen the village bc she wasnt here at the time of the wedding), leaving me ALONE with ten kids with the responsibility of making them study. Needless to say I was a heartless bitch the past three days and all the kids ended up getting in trouble with "uncle" (rajendra).

Planning on renting a bike tomorrow and riding to bhaktapur, a more chilled out ancient city in the kathmandu valley that you have to pay TEN FREAKING DOLLARS to see. . . mahango cha (thats expensive!) I thought i would be horrified to ride a bike through the calamitous traffic here, but its a lot easier than i thought, and its kind of exhilirating!

Jungle safari next tuesday

The slave:

okay i know i mentioned that there's a slave upstairs, but we need to talk about it again. I cant remember if i wrote this previously or not, but they make her use the squat toilet OUTSIDE (like the one we all use from the orphanage) when there is a flushing western toilet inside! Eefje said she saw the slave giving the mother a massage the other day for like 30 minutes, and this woman is raising her kids to be evil, the kids completely disrespect this woman and call her names about her skin color and treat her like shit. It's absolutely awful. She's always up on the roof at night doing the dishes, and she walks super bitch's kids to school in the morning. Rajendra told me that they beat her and the best part is that she is some kind of relative of the family, i don't remember how, but she somehow was forced into this situation by the owner of our house, and is now stuck here washing dishes and taking shits outside. . . really really sucks.


think im going to take a walk back to the rock climbing place later today and see if i can find some nice tourists to invite me to climb with them

Totally Summitted Everest

I SAW IT, I SAW IT, I SAW IT
Imagine a jagged horizon, distant mountains forming a broken line like this WWVWWVWVWWVWWWVWVW
One mountain TOWERING above them all . . . . was not what I saw
Alright so I kind of knew this from the beginning, but the whole “everest view” thing kinda means teeny tiny bump on the jagged distant horizon. Everest is a lot farther away than the rest of the mountains on the horizon, so although much taller it barely cracks above the horizon line, and looks like absolutely nothing special. However, the view from Nagarkot, the second night’s stay, was incredibly beautiful and I did get a lot of other great mountain views with a lot more detail.
Highlights from the trek:
lots of really ridiculously hard uphill hikes through jungle, but also a lot of kind of lame road walking that was pretty much exactly what I saw in Dhading
a crazy old lady that scurried up past us on the trail/stairs as we were passing through a village. She was picking up rocks and throwing them off the edge of the trail onto the houses below us. Rajendra asked someone and she “gets upset when people hit her and then throws rocks at things.” We thought she was gone when all the sudden a rock came flying in our direction right past us.
Lunch the second day was in another small village. We had stopped with some other people on the trail, and another guide says to us “they have no meat here at the restaurant, but if you want we can all chip in and go buy a chicken over there (he points to the chickens clucking around on a nearby farm) and they will kill it and we’ll eat it” . . . . . OF COURSE I’ll eat a freshly slaughtered chicken killed 5 minutes before entering my mouth!
So I watched the entire process, from live chicken under a basket, to dead chicken running with its head cut off, to the old dude plucking and de-gutting the chicken, to cooking the chicken.
Worst part it, it didn’t even taste great, not much meat, pretty tough, meh, local chicken not all you would think it is. All though I did get a VERY strange looking organ in my soup, and im pretty sure I at chicken gizzard.
At Nagarkot we had dinner with some Philippino tourists that are currently living in Dubai. Phillip (yes Phillip from the Philippines) works at ski-Dubai, the indoor ski resort in the freaking desert of Dubai. They said they were going to stop by the orphanage today, we’ll see if they show.
That’s pretty much all the excitement for the Trek, had a really good hot pressurized shower at the hotel the second night, and there was a western toilet!!!!!

Getting Sick:
What the hell already, if im going to get sick, it just needs to happen, this whole thing going on for a few days where I like kind of have some stomach pain for a while and then it goes away is just not cutting it. The troops are mounting in the stomach, and they are planning their attack. The Nepali diarrheal extravaganza is coming, and there’s nothing I can do but hold on and pray for a mild case. I am okay though, and I still have the record for longest gone without getting sick. Maybe this will pass, will keep you updated
The name Didi:
Silly me for 4 weeks thought that the reason we all call Dewaki “didi” is because of the D for Dewaki . . . it’s not. When I heard strangers calling each other didi, bhai, dhai, and beheenay, it was explained to me that those names mean (respectively) Older sister, younger brother, older brother, and younger sister. These really are just neutral names that anyone can use for anyone else in society (for example Rajendra called the younger waiter at breakfast “Bhai”). Could you imagine if everyone in America just called each other “big bro, little bro, big sis, little sis”? It’s kind of cool though here that there’s a level of personable-ness between strangers they they all accept the names.
All of this being said, Dewaki still constantly calls me Pucchi (baby), and sometimes Bhai.
Kids have final exams coming up next week, so the next three days will be studystudystudy, but much more awesome things in the works that I will blog about as they become more solidified.
Jungle safari (elephant and jeep) is booked for March 16th!
March 13th is a local folk festival so hopefully ill see some awesome nepali dance and hear some good music!


OH, also, here below im copying a newsletter rajendra had me write for the previous volunteers to give them an update of whats going on at the orphanage:

Ramro Sathi newsletter:
The sun is shining most of the time at Ramro Sathi as of this minute, but parts of the day are still clouded by our proximity to neighboring buildings and the fact that we do not have unrestricted access to the roof. Soon that will all change. The days of irritable land-ladies, locked doors without a key and not enough space are on the way out. On the way in is a new house built especially for Ocean Nepal. The “New Land,” a three minute walk from the current house, is already purchased and building should begin in the coming months. As if the kids didn’t have enough places to dirty themselves, the new land has become another spot for relaxation, sports, and given the recent “Holi festival,” water fights with the other neighborhood children. The land is prime real estate, perched on a hill to provide perpetual sunshine to compliment the luxuries of having our own building.
Exams are quickly approaching (and might be finished by the time you read this, oh Nepali time), and the kids are entering study mode for the next three days to prepare for their finals. Math seems to be the topic of attention, and the abacus has become one of the most sought after items in the house, second to coconut biscuits. After exams are finished, the kids have a long holiday starting in the middle of March. Plans for this time are not concrete yet, but some of the children may get the opportunity to see relatives in their villages.
Our current volunteers (Ben from America, Nora from Austria, Eefje from Holland, Adam from Canada) have been trying to plan some new activities for the kids. Last week Suraj, Rajju, Dhanaraj, and Janga hiked with Ben and Eefje up to Jamacho peak in the Nagarjun Forest Reserve, the temple at the top of the hills visible from the orphanage. The volunteers were absolutely astounded that, against their devout expectations, all four kids made it up and down the 2.5 hour treacherous climb without one complaint. Highlights from the day include a monkey stealing noodles and grapes right from Ben’s bag after he turned his head, and climbing the rickety lookout tower at the peak with incredible views of the Kathmandu valley. Nora took the other children to Thamel that day for momos and other fast food. We plan to take a trip after exams all together to visit the Patan Durbar square, which the kids have never seen before.
And now for something a bit more personal, here’s a few lines/quotes/stories regarding the kids:
Subash: Knows exactly when to turn on the charm so that we can’t ever be that mad at him, even though he is still peeing in the bed! The volunteers are trying everything, from waking him up to pee at night (which mostly works but isn’t a permanent solution), to promising him stickers and bracelets for keeping dry, to telling him we won’t wash his pajamas, which resulted in him sleeping in his underwear.
Rajju: Recently lost her nose ring and arrived at home with a tiny wooden stick through the hole in her nose. Nora and Ben IMMEDIATELY removed the stick and took Rajju to buy a beautiful new gold stud, after some heavy bargaining with the jeweler.
Sarita: Won first place in the girl’s high jump competition at her school. She hurdled over 3 feet and 3.5 inches into a pit of sand and was cheered on by her entire school.
Ramesh: Will be performing in a school dance with Sarita in April. He also competed in the school high jump for the boys, but did not place. However, Ben can personally vouch for the crowd of screaming ladies cheering him on . . . yea Ramesh.
Aakriti: Also competed in the girls high jump in a different class than Sarita. Although she did not place, she was also well loved by the crowd.
Janga: Scraped his left lower palm pretty badly about two weeks ago when he fell and skidded on his hands. He bravely endured the repeated hand washings to clean his wounds, and is healing excellently.
Bhabishya: Lost her first tooth yesterday! She is proudly showing off the hole in the bottom center of her smile. Rumor is that her teacher pulled it out at school.
Ashmita: Just received the most stylish haircut of the century: the “lice remover” special. Luckily she looks incredibly adorable regardless of how short her hair is, and after one week it is growing back pretty fast!
Suraj: Does not like it when I throw a teaspoon of cold water on his face in the morning to wake him up.
Dhanaraj: Loves it when I throw a teaspoon of cold water on his face in the morning to wake him up.
Dewaki: Went shopping with Hanny Miss a few days ago and picked up a new sweater that has kept her smiling for days.

Happy Holi!

Before we get to holi:

there is wild marijuana growing ALL OVER my neighborhood . . . i cannot believe i didn't realize it until Nora (volunteer from Austria) pointed it out to me!

More photos up on Facebook (im finally in Thamel uploading where there's fast internet, a lot of pics from the stories you've heard)

Just last night had a wonderful dance party in the play room with the kids . . . took out my ipod and put on all the hindi music i have :) . . . although once jai ho came on thats ALL the kids wanted to listen to. The three little ones were SO incredibly cute though . . . and this is day 4 of no pee for subash :) . . . noe more day and he gets a handmade bracelet from me

A word on taking a poo:

you probably haven't ever thought about how much you take for granted when you take a nice luxurious seat on that toilet to do your business . . . but for a lot of the world there is much more to this little task than relaxing with the morning paper.

1) its all about the foot placement with squat toilets. . . there is the "shuffle" before the squat, to make sure you are on target

2) Dont get too comfortable: you may have shuffled correctly, but 2 minutes in, after you tire a bit, you may find yourself leaning back or forward a little. . . NOT A GOOD IDEA unless you are okay with a sliding bankshot (ill let you figure out the reference)

3) Swishes are preferable


HOLI:

Imagine all of society had a gigantic water fight, all the teenagers got drunk at 10AM, everyone threw bags of water twist tied up at each other, some clear, many with colored pigments in them, at everyone

to top it all off, people run around with the pigment powder on theirhands and smear it onto peoples faces (strangers faces) . . . cannot WAIT to get these pictures up they will be in the next batch

we exhausted ALL of our water reserves (there was no power so no water was pumping, so we had to use up all of our reserve water stored in big black drums)

it was so worth it, one of the best days here

everyone shouts "happy holi" as they throw things at you

people on the roofs have a HUGE advantage

all cyber cafes were closed because theres no way they were getting water anywhere near their stores


Trek tomorrow morning with views of EVEREST!!! ill be back thursday night, WOOT

thanks for reading,. next post ill let you know how the trek went!