Namaste

Welcome to Nepal!

We are currently nestled in between Tibet and India, in one of the trekking capitols of the world.  It was only 50 or so years ago that Nepal started allowing tourists in and the industry has been booming ever since hippies started coming here to seek motivation...and trekkers realized what an amazing destination this was for challenging, rewarding hikes.

Luckily I had out my pirated copy of the Nepal Lonely Planet that I picked up in Vietnam with me for our six hour bus ride to Chitwan today and I learned a few things about this new country that I figured were worth sharing. One of the best things about having a Lonely Planet with you is that it has a culture section at the beginning of each book....and today it provided me with some statistics that I think most of you will not only find interesting but help you to grasp where I am. 

Katy and I started off in Kathmandu, which as the capital city and the hub of tourism, definitely does not reflect the poverty of this country. Sure, it doesn't look anything like home.....and its roads make what I traveled on in Laos look like highways from the future.  However, I would imagine that most people who live in the city live on far more than the $2 a day that apparently 85% of the country survives on.  Tourism in major cities such as Kathmandu and Pokhara definitely help to boost the average income, but you h.ave to remember that 85% of the country lives in rural areas.  Other interesting (or sad?) facts.....from what I read, the life expectancy in Nepal is only 62 years and the literacy rate hovers around 45%

As expected, women in a country such as Nepal are not held in very high regard. As are most Hindu and Buddhist cultures, men are thought to be more important, are much more valued members of society, and are desired in regards to child bearing.  In Nepal, a man can legally take a second wife if his first wife does not bear a son within ten years. Stunning advancements in women's rights however....(note sarcasm): as of 2005 women can apply for a passport without their husband's or parent's permission, and abortion was legalized in 2002 (now if it is "actually" allowed, I don't know- that's just what I read). 

Lonely Planet drives home the fact by quoting a Nepali proverb that states "raising a girl is like watering your neighbor's garden".....ouch. Sons are everything here...in fact, one of the duties of the eldest son is to help pass the deceased onto the next life...and this is a ritual that can only be performed by the son; therefore if a son is not had, there is no one in the family to complete this ritual.  And finally, if the master of the house is to pass on....It is expected for a widow  to marry her deceased  husband's brother upon his death and give any property she had to her eldest son. 

I do not think I would fare well in this culture.......

However, despite everything I have just shared with you about women in Nepal, I do want to highlight two situations that I noticed on my bus ride this morning. Sitting next to me was a girl about ten years old and her father. The poor girl was retching most of the six hour trip as our bus lurched around sharp mountain corners and we changed elevation every three minutes.  Her father was watching after her the entire trip and the dynamic I saw between the two of them is exactly how I would have been taken care of at that age by my dad. 

Also, there was an adorable Nepalese baby in front of me who spent a good part of the ride looking at me (and laughing at me) with her enormous gorgeous brown eyes (with a tika in the middle...similar to a more commonly known bindhi- a smearing of red powder that represents the third all-seeing eye).  She was with her father and mother and the father was equally loving and seemed to be doing most of the childcare between the two parents.  So maybe there is more of a future for respect and love of women (at least when they are children) here that it is made out to be.....

And finally, one more way we know we are in Nepal: the time difference! They are five hours and 45 minutes ahead of GMT...and the purpose is to separate themselves from India, who are five hours and 30 minutes ahead of GMT.  So for everyone at home in Chicago, when it is, say, 10 am there, it is  8:45pm here.

Now hopefully you all know a teeny bit more about Nepal :)

As for Katy and I?  We are comfortably settled into Chitwan Village Resort in Chitwan National Park, 160 km northwest of Kathmandu.  The man who owns this place is probably one of the most genuinely nice people I have ever met and we start our jungle safari in the morning....we'll be here for three days.  Stay tuned for pictures of rhinos, crocodiles, elephants, sloth bears.....and if we're lucky, a tiger!!!

And I do feel sad.....

Since February 10th, Katy and I have spent so much time looking at each other with ear to ear grins and saying, "I Love My Life!!!!".....that a ways back we wondered....are there going to be things to feel sad about during these six months?  I know it seems like a foreign concept, but as long as everyone we know from home is doing alright, we are on an adventure that just seems to get better and better with each passing day. New cities, languages, food, smells, friends, experiences.....were we ever going to encounter any emotion other than excitement?

Well today, we definitely are.  We have both slipped into some strange state of depression as we spend our last hour in Southeast Asia.  Sure, we are headed to Nepal next and in just five days will be meeting a group of people that we will be traveling with for two weeks as we hike Annapurna Sanctuary.  That's definitely something to look forward to. And we have had amazing experiences in this part of the world for the past six weeks.  But for the rest of today, I am letting myself mourn the loss of pad thai, pho, millions of motorbikes, annoying street vendors, dong, kip, and baht, and the sweaty, muggy air we have been living in for the past month and a half. 

This guy was feeling sad as well....we tried to cheer him up with some cards and beer :)

Now that you all know my emotional state, lets tap back into happier times: our last week spent in Hanoi, Vietnam.  We rushed and rushed from the South to the North because we wanted time to fit everything in Hanoi, with Halong Bay being our priority.  We booked a Halong Bay cruise (2 days, 1 night on a "party boat") first thing when we got into town on Thursday and headed out towards the UNESCO site Friday morning.  Unfortunately, after our four hour bus ride into Halong City, we arrived and the wind was too strong for boats to go out. I guess there have been multiple accidents over the past year so they are being extra cautious as to not kill any more tourists....so I guess better safe than sorry, as sad as it was for us.  We waited around with our group for about 3 hours in hopes of the winds dying down but our cruise director called it around 230pm and we headed back to Hanoi.....not without some supplies for the drive home, however.  Our group turned the party boat into the party bus.....and then we continued our festivities all around Hanoi well into the night :)

The closest we got to Halong Bay.....

Some of the junks we would have potentially sailed on

What would have been our Halong Bay crew: 3 Americans, 2 Sweds, 2 Brits, 2 Aussies, and one grumpy German guy (in the backseat......and this scowl is even after I shared my beer with him!)

View from our dinner spot

Out on the town in Hanoi

A few card games always speeds a friendship along

So what else did we do with ourselves now that we had all of this extra time in Hanoi?  We spent a lot of hours just wandering around, taking in all the sights the city had to offer. This place was like a toned down version of Ho Chi Minh and I really came to like the city. We stumbled upon St. Joseph's Cathedral and for a brief moment had to remind ourselves that we were in Asia, not Europe.  

A peek inside during mass proved that this church could have easily rivaled those seen all over Europe.

Simply walking down the street at any time in Hanoi is an entertaining (and overstimulating) experience. Life happens on the sidewalk in Vietnam and especially during lunchtime the streets are filled with people cooking and eating, children playing, and women selling fans, donuts (weird), and the masks that you see everyone wear here.

Noon in Hanoi.....these are the same stools they use on the buses as extra seats

Local lunch

We also spent some time at the Hoa Lo Prison, which was one of the coolest museums/historic places I have been thus far. The Hoa Lo prison, built by the French in the late 1800s, was used for Vietnamese political prisoners who were revolting against the government. It was also used for American POWs and for all of your war buffs out there, you have probably heard it referred to as the "Hanoi Hilton."

It is probably one of the creepiest historic places I have been.....they have mannequins in shackles were prisoners used to be kept and eerie music playing throughout. The information that Hoa Lo offered regarding the treatment of American POWs was contrasting to the things that I learned in school.....Megan, Katy, and I decided that further research is definitely in order if we really want to learn about the events that happened here.

Fake prisoners in shackles....imagine walking in here alone with creepy music playing....I moved through the room quickly

Escape route

A picture of McCain being treated at Hoa Lo

 

John McCain's flight suit....he was a prisoner at the Hanoi Hilton from 1967 to 1973

After the prison......more wandering

We attempted to eat street food with the locals.....but when they served us this (chicken) and then tried to charge us about 12 USD (at most a good meal would be 5), we walked


And what ELSE did we do with our time? Sat around on Bia Hoi corner, home of 5000 dong (25 cent) drafts that taste like feet (don't worry, you can also get bottled beer)

Minor traffic jams came with the territory

You just had to watch out for the cars as you were sitting on the street

We also got up early one morning to go pay our respects to Ho Chi Minh, who is forever on display in this mausoleum (despite his wishes to be cremated).  The line just to walk past his body took about an hour (and it is like this every day from what we hear).  If you don't know, Ho Chi Minh was a Vietnamese leader (prime minister and president) who played a big role in Vietnam's independence movement.  Saigon was named after him in 1975 after it was captured by the North, ending the war.

We were there on a Sunday yet there were multiple school groups visiting.

Final stop on our tour of Hanoi: The War Remnants museum, which offered some not-great information about the war. But it did have some pretty cool remnants as far as planes and helicopters go:

Katy and I are literally about to board a plane.....destined for Kathmandu (after layovers in Bangkok and Delhi).  Megan left us this morning to go back to Shanghai.  Next time you hear from us, we will be on to our fifth (!!) country and gearing up for an amazing hike in the Himalayas. If you want more details about our trek, check out our itinerary:  http://www.gadventures.com/trips/annapurna-sanctuary/ANAS/2012/itinerary/ But first, a short jungle safari in Chitwan National Park!!  Hope everyone at home is well :)