The Nepali Nose Piercing has come to it’s untimely end. We hadn’t been together long – I gave it a good home, it left me with an infected boil. I lovingly cleaned it, it only grew more and more angry-looking. I gave it promises of a good life, it demanded to be left in Bangkok.
So [...]
A full-grown bull Elephant Seal (Mirounga Leonina) weighs close to 6,000 lbs/2,700 kgs. It grows to be about 16ft in length and it is the largest seal on the planet.
This is me and my backpack. Don’t worry. The seal weighs more (although not by much).
Photo: B. Navez.
Our experience in Nepal has been one of the highlights of our trip, thanks in no short part to Arjun and his family. Without their help, we would be floundering around (much like we are about to do) trying to make educated guesses about what the heck is going on around us.
If you’re heading [...]
A few glasses of wine and an inquiry into nose piercing practices in Nepal lead me here:
That’s right. I got my nose pierced. I also used the word Karma today without being cynical. They say travel changes you…(enter Martin’s rolling eyes here)
Our awesome landlord Arjun had us over for the feast last night, instructing us on how to cook everything he prepared for us. In total there were ten dishes. We’re talking a whirlwind tour of Nepali food – and every dish was better than the last.
Piro Aloo was served as a cold snack, but it [...]
In celebration of our time together our landlord (pictured) agreed to cook us up some amazing Nepali food before we leave. Not only does he run a tight ship with his rental units, but he also runs a guesthouse, helps to relocate refugees to the US, and was a professional chef for twelve years. The [...]
While Martin is busy taking photos of the television, I was snapping photos of our last visit to the market in Kathmandu (OK, to be fair, he was with me and took some of these photos).
We’re leaving Nepal on January 22nd, so I thought a photo gallery would be a nice way to get some [...]
What do you do when you have a lot of time on your hands? Why, you take photos of the television, of course.
Martin has picked up a strange habit of snapping photos of the television. To his credit, it doesn’t happen all the time and I guess I can see why it might be fun. [...]
We’ve sat in Kathmandu for three months now, knowing full well the date of our departure. In all that time did we plan our next destination?
No.
We’ve done what every traveler on a tight budget should never do – leave planning to the very last minute. Granted, we’ve never had a rigid plan anyway – for [...]
We gave ourselves three months in Nepal to get started on our book writing. We figured it was as good a place as any to do this – we found a great little apartment outside the crazy part of town, we joined a gym and we started cooking our own food again. In short, it’s [...]
Our time here in Nepal has been almost completely vegetarian. It’s not that we don’t trust the meat around these parts – we’re just a bit intimidated by the meat stores. Think giant slabs of meat dripping of fresh blood, piles of decapitated chickens and lumps of liver on the floor.
Still, we do eat meat [...]
He’s tried the mustache, it was dismal. (Martin: it was brushy and beautiful!!)
Now he’s moved onto another Indian accessory – the set wet hair. We’ve seen commercials for this product for the last four months and just had to give it a try.
Um. Yeah, that’s my husband.
Ouch.
Life on the road moves at a different pace than in the real world. The key to maintaining a semblance of the person you were before traveling (as opposed to a loser hippie traveler, for example) is to keep yourself busy in creative ways.
Martin and I do this a few different ways. One way is [...]
Looking at some pictures of our recent Annapurna trek, you’d believe that we were going off the beaten path up there, breaking new ground and exploring virgin territory.
Not so. In fact, we just learned that the Annapurna trails were visited by almost 77,000 people in 2009 alone. That’s 1,000 times the population of my home [...]
A fairly common racket among the world’s nations is the Visa Extension – paying for the privilege of staying longer in the country. Here in Nepal the process is pretty straightforward: you go to a Kathmandu office where you fill out a simple form, provide a passport size photo, hand over your passport and $30 [...]
You know the term, “fly by the seat of your pants?” Well, that's been our philosophy for most of our adult lives – before and after meeting, falling in love and marrying. We're now taking that idea on a 14 month round-the-world trip. Follow us as we share the good, the bad and the downright nasty of life on the road.
