Nepal! Pokhara, Sat 5/31, Day 10

(Last entry for the next 7-11 days max)

Woke up very early to meet my guide & depart for Pokhara, Nepal's "other big city" (it's more like a glorified mountain town.) Janu is his name, and he is an amicably smiley and soft-spoken fellow, if a bit difficult to strike up conversation with. We walked to the bus park together and hopped on the rickety tin can that was to carry us for seven hours into the Himalayan foothills; it wasn't as miserable an experience as it probably sounds largely due to the awesome scenery and goofy sitar music playing.

In and out of valleys and into the mountains we drove, as banana trees and rice patties gave way to... more banana trees and rice patties (planned to say "Alpine vistas and fairy tale meadows" here but that didn't turn out to be the case.) The bus got stuck about an hour out of Pokhara in one of the more epic traffic jams I've ever seen; a line of buses, all dead stopped, stretching at least a mile into the distance. Most passengers were giving up and opting to walk instead, so we followed suit. After speaking with the bus driver, Janu informed me that the reason for the bus stoppage was (get a load of this): "Yesterday there was accident, a guy on motorcycle was hit by bus, and so the bus drivers stop today." In other words, the buses were on strike over an accident that happened the day before. 'Cause ya know, that just makes so much sense. Living in Nepali Bus Driver Land must be heaven. In any case, we made it into Pokhara by the early afternoon so all was well in the end. And my, Pokhara is one gorgeous place. It's situated against a medium sized Alpine lake with the Annapurna Himalayas towering in the distance. Mistook them as clouds at first, they be so big.

By shear coincidence, Jesse and the gang that had gone rafting were in town, so I spent most of the night in a bar with them. What happened in this bar will be told in person, remind me to tell the story. Also, Janu took me to a local establishment and introduced me to Nepali moonshine (mmm) while inquiring about American politics. That was fun as well. Now I must go, for I have a mountain to climb. No civilization for the next weekish! See you all on the other side.

Mosquito Bites = 15
Athlete's Foot = 1
Time Elapsed Since Last Opportunity to Shower = 0 Days :)
Clif Bars Remaining = 0/8
% of Wallet Depleted = 231%
Tibetans Freed = 0/2.5mil
Maoist Insurgencies Thwarted = 0
Sunburns = 4
Bad Sunburns = 1
Food Poisonings = 0
Happiness Meter = 90%

Nepal! Alan Lee's Croissants, Fri 5/30, Day 9

Not much happened on Friday. Woke up, ate breakfast, stopped at the orphanage but all the kids were in school, then just chilled around the VSN office for a bit trying & failing to upload some more pictures. I returned home around 3 to attend a big family event in honor of one of the brothers getting a job only to find that Sudip was about four hours off the mark when telling me the party's start time. Druba, Owner of The Hut ("Droobs") and I were set to go into Thamel for the night around 4 to arrange the trekking trip, so I regrettably couldn't attend the shindig after all. Most of the family was present as I was packing to leave though, so I just gave my congratulations then. They also all flooded my room to... watch me pack? I guess? They all kind of just stood there and stared, the only instance so far where their kindness and curiosity made me uncomfortable, especially the brother the shindig was thrown for. Like, I brought him a half liter of Coke as a gift, and he began worshiping me & enthusiastically dividing the bottle up among the whole family in little shot-sized glasses, toasting as if it were some fine expensive American liquor. Coca-Cola Corp would be proud.

Droobs took me into town shortly thereafter to arrange a Trekking guide via his brother at a very speeeccciaal price! Special price! Discounted! I tell him you a volunteer! He give good guide! Good pryice! It actually was a very good deal and included lodging, food etc, so I didn't reject. Droobs is a pretty well traveled man, he told me tales of his journeys to Bangladesh, Thailand, every corner of Europe etc, all to play golf. He really likes to golf. He's also trying to turn the Hut into some sort of NGO local economic development business, though I didn't quite understand what this new NGO's role in the community would be or how the Hut could be turned into one. Still, moire power to him, Droobs is definitely quite the able entrepreneur from everything I can tell about him. We met up with Norman and Melissa following the trek arranging, and the rest of the night went on in low key fashion. Norman told me some epic tales of his days working with Peter Jackson. Apparently Alan Lee, LOTR's geriatric-gingivitis art designer, was quite the pimp and could always be seen successfully courting a harem of ladies with croissants. Norman did his best to compete, but alas his best was never enough. This hour or two sharing funny stories over beer was to be the (likely) last time I'll ever see Norman. I shall miss his big bushy beard dearly. :(

-----Vital Signs-----
Mosquito Bites = 13
Athlete's Foot = 1
Time Elapsed Since Last Opportunity to Shower = 0 Days :)
Clif Bars Remaining = 0/8
% of Wallet Depleted = 231%
Tibetans Freed = 0/2.5mil
Maoist Insurgencies Thwarted = 0
Sunburns = 4
Bad Sunburns = 1
Food Poisonings = 0
Happiness Meter = 91%

Nepal! Bhaktapur, Thurs 5/29, Day 8

Whew, long day. The kids barged into my room after the morning dal bhat for some camera time resulting in mucho funny footage of us pouncing on each other. Sari (one of the sisters, 10ish years old) asked if she could sing for the camera and broke out into a flawless, perfect-English solo of "Boulevard of Broken Dreams." I was floored… beeyotch can sing! She dreams of becoming an artist one day, but hitting #1 on the Nepali music charts would be just as well warranted. In a vain attempt to steal Sari's thunder, Sushaan busted out some gibberish blend of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and "You Brush Your Teeth, You Was Your Hands, You Shampoo Your Hair, Ev-ry-DAY!" Eh, vain attempt? Who am I kidding; nobody could resist giving that magic their undivided attention.

At around 11ish I rendezvoused with Norman and Suganda for a quasi-business meeting regarding the design and construction of a rain canopy to shelter the VSN school's students when they're outside eating lunch and playing. Norman is leaving Nepal on Sunday, so Suganda handed leadership of the project over to me. I probably should've rejected due to my complete lack of experience constructing (bamboo) buildings, but there was no one else to take the job. I shall henceforth be known as Lead Engineer & Contractor Charles. This will turn out well. Ye-ah.

The OCRC Orphanage was my next port of call, dropped in there for about a half hour to introduce myself to the workers and the kiddies – figured doing so would be a good idea before starting work there full time. Getting to there was quite the trek though, about a half hour on foot through farmland from the nearest bus stop. Since the orphanage sits midway on the journey between Kathmandu and Bhaktapur, the rest of the day was used to take a patient stroll through the valley and sightsee Bhaktapur old town. One of the worst sunburns in Charles-history was inflicted during this walk, next time I'll remember to wear sun block.

In the old town ticket office was a gang of four French college kids about a year younger than me who were also here doing the volunteer thing. I liked their reasoning for coming: "Why not?" All of them were quite cool and invited me out to find this one French-owned café who-knows-where in the town. After about an hour of good chit chat and aimless wandering through medieval alleys, we arrived at "Sunny Café," a quaint little rooftop establishment overlooking one of the main temples. Thinking it would be a sweet, refreshing milkshake type concoction like those at the 23rd St Cafe, I ordered an apple lassi for my drink. Oops. The lassi tasted like rotten egg + cottage cheese + juice and took its place alongside the fermented candied matzo ball from a couple days ago in the category of "just a bit too different." I passed it around for the rest to try, and many giggles were shared over our reactions to its taste. Shortly thereafter, one of the girls mistakingly popped a whole chili pepper into her mouth resulting in even more comedy. Thomas (the guy Frenchie) and I each took a stab at the chili afterwards, and the sting took about ten minutes and two swigs of Evil Lassi to be vanquished. They all had a meeting to attend and I was already an hour overdue for another volunteer's birthday shindig, so we parted ways after lunch and exchanged contact info. Hopefully we'll see each other again.

I (unsurprisingly) hopped on the completely wrong bus heading back, but recovered my way after a decent tally of "Pepsikola? Pepsikola? You go to Pepsikola?" shouts at the bus drivers. What remained of the birthday shindig was short, sweet, and featured "Indian Masala" flavored Lays chips. Not much else to say about it though. I got back home around 8:30 and met a visiting relative of the family who is, coincidentally, an aspiring documentary filmmaker (after he completes his MBA and makes money etc.) When I told him I went to one of the top American film schools, his eyes lid up and he poured out all his epic documentary plans and ideas. They were all cool, and I'd be glad to help him out, but I hope I didn't lead him on too much… he seemed to think that I'd be able to wield great power in Hollywood just because I'm an American film student. Little did he know that being such only means I can do "shite" as opposed to the worser "jack-shite," but his optimism and enthusiasm was inspiring. Who knows, maybe we'll pioneer and jumpstart a new Nepali film industry together. Hee.

End of Day 8. Been here for over a week now, wow… seems like it's been only a few days. I'll be going trekking through the Annapurna mountains above Pokhara starting Saturday so this might have to be the last entry for a whole week (ie if there's no entry for the next few days, it means I'm camping, not that I'm dead) Oh, tried to give Jeff a Taiwan sendoff call but the SIM card ran out of dough 2 minutes in. I guess the outgoing-call rate was steeper than I thought (would be $1 a minute considering how fast it ran out.) Bahumbug. Have fun Jrrreff. & enjoy LA, Matt. Oh, double-also, there's been no more political ickiness so no worries about that.

-----Vital Signs-----
Mosquito Bites = 12
Athlete's Foot = 1
Time Elapsed Since Last Opportunity to Shower = 4.5 days
Clif Bars Remaining = 0/8
% of Wallet Depleted = 230%
Tibetans Freed = 0/2.5mil
Maoist Insurgencies Thwarted = 0
Sunburns = 4
Bad Sunburns = 1
Food Poisonings = 0
Happiness Meter = 93%

Nepal! King Deposed, Wed 5/28, Day 7

The day began per usual, with dal bhat and Sushaan antics, nothing new to report there. Around 11am we all headed over to the VSN school for some construction work. Me, Christine, and Christina sanded the window sills while others started painting the walls, switching places midway through. In the midst of the work came a pleasantly surprising phone call from Dan, though I could only half-understand what he was saying (and vice versa I assume) due to some spotty reception and the noise going on around mwah. I tried and failed to call him back about an hour later.

The political madness expected in central Kathmandu wasn't taking place, so following the school work eight of the volunteers including myself hitched taxis into Thamel to run some urgent errands that could only be accomplished there. I needed to exchange more money, five needed to arrange a rafting/trekking trip, and the two Frenchies just tagged along to hangout. The Frenchies crack me up. A celebratory *peaceful* march blocked the main road into the city, so the taxi driver (after asking for 200 extra rupees to do this) did some evasive maneuvering and dovetailed through the adjacent maze of side alleys to get us there. I feared for the lives of any pedestrian unfortunate enough to be walking near us. The police got more and more heavily armed the closer we got to the center of the city, clad in full soldier gear by the end. Not to worry, as Thamel was full of tourists and perfectly tranquil - the soldiers just chilled on the curbs either napping or looking bored out of their minds.

I had about a half hour to kill while the rest were arranging their tour (budget shortfalls kept me from signing up), so I chatted up a Tibetan shop owner about general get-to-know-you stuff. I should've asked him how he felt about the Olympics but didn't want to be nosey and offensive. It didn't take long for the conversation to turn into him trying to sign me up for his $600 two week trek up to the Mt Everest Base Camp (most convos with locals here will turn into money requests at some point, can't say I blame them.) I rejected but he was quite a cool guy. I'd be down for climbing Everest with him if I wasn't a broke toothpick.

When it came time to leave, poor Christine fell victim to "each clique thinks you're going with the other" syndrome and was somehow left behind. I felt bad about it but she got home okay. Jesse and Kris grew ambitious and rather than heading home ordered their taxi to go "where the action is!" They were let out at a seemingly benevolent Maoist rally taking place in New Baneswar about twenty minutes from here, and surely enough found themselves in the middle of ickiness. Jesse said he was innocently exploring the chaos when hundreds of people turned and started running towards him. These people were in fact running away from the sticks and chunks of concrete being thrown in every direction by angry peeps, as well as the two-block deep army of police moving in to clear the erupting riot. Jesse showed us CNN-worthy pictures he took of the event, describing it as "some pretty gnarly shit. It was f$#%ing awesome." Me: "Haha yeah." Me in my Head: "You're a wreckless idiot." Now, if I had been thinking, I would've given them my video camera (managed to get one for cheap in Singapore's airport) and had film the riot for me & endanger themselves which they were set on doing anyway, while I could take the footage back to LA and claim it for my own, but alas I wasn't thinking. Oh well.

The day ended with a group shindig in The Hut + a bottle of Everest for everyone. After hearing he worked on its set, Norman and I spent about twenty minutes geeking out over LOTR. He was a lead errand runner, making sure all the right supplies were bought and transported to the right locations. Two years of his life were sucked dry by the production and it clearly aged him by about a decade (he has dark hair in his driver's license photo), but he wouldn't trade the experience for anything. Oh, it also turns out the goofier looking Frenchie loves the Russian Red Army Choir's recordings. I shared a geek-out with him as well. I've decided to take up French because listening to these two guys and their accents is like hearing a fine bottle of wine talk.

So ended another good day, good for both me and the country. Nepal is officially a free country! The King has been given fifteen days to get out of Dodge. Yay for Nepal. I'd muse about this a bit more but someone needs the computer. Toodles.

Nepal! The Hill, Tue 5/27, Day 6

Last day of language training! I'm now a fluent speaker of Nepali (psshaw.) I also learned how to sow. The lil sisters noticed a rip in my pants from a trip (and near-miss of some errant barbed wire) the night before and insisted on patching the tear up. I'll be surprised if the stitching holds past the next laundry, but it was a valiant attempt by them nonetheless. I also helped the grandfather read English names of countries on the little globe he pulled out of nowhere. Israel was labeled "Palestine," snicker.

Ranu (my Nepali teacher) had planned to show me around Patan, a small city adjacent to Kathmandu notable for its particularly gorgeous old town. The Lonely Planet book calls the area a "living museum." Kewl. A "banda" (strike on all vehicular transportation) thwarted the outing, sadly. Transport strikes happen here about as often as the French riot, and when they do the roads are completely blocked off to traffic. Angry mobs make sure that anyone thinking of driving a car changes their mind. There was another such strike a couple weeks before I arrived, and Suganda apparently risked his life to drive to the airport and make sure someone was there to pick up an arriving volunteer. A mob blocked the road, shouting for him to turn around (lest they throw rocks and flip over the car), he drove into a side alley, hid for ten minutes, and continued on his merry way once the mob moved on. Crazy stuff, but it never affects quiet little Pepsi-Cola Town. Nepal isn't a very unified country; if one city goes crazy, another might not even hear about it let alone give a care.

In lue of no cars, Ranu, Christine (the Scot) & I took a pleasant walk up to a hill atop the airport to watch the planes take off and land, as well as visit one of the VSN-run clinics. It was closed at the time. Christine wuved the area, it reminded her of her countryside home in the Northern UK which she misses quite a bit. As we left, a flock of giddy school children came running across a field to greet us and shout "namaste!" I could swear they were running in slow motion with a Michael Bay/Hans Zimmer sentimental tune playing in the background. Couldn't draw my camera fast enough to capture it though.

The day went on pretty slowly. There was another pleasant group hangout in The Hut, mainly consisting of the two goofball Parisians telling us funny stories of their travels in India shortly before flying to Kathmandu, and Kris/Jesse cracking innuendos at any and all opportunities to do so. It's hard to tell what's a joke and what isn't with them, so I've just been assuming everything is. I'm probably right. Jesse, channeling Dan, Jeff and Ryan, has (jokingly?) promised to find me the Nepali girl of my dreams before our time here is up. It's funny he read me that well, 'cause I haven't actually talked to him that much yet. At least not enough for him to know of my wuv battleplan.

Stan and the jungle gang returned during this shindig. They were supposed to return the night before but got stranded due to a transit strike in the South. Being a bus driver here would be awesome, you could basically hold the entire country hostage on a whim. Stan's return also meant the return of listening to him play his guitar on the house's roof whilst staring at the stars with only a candle for light. Magic all around.

Tomorrow, actually today at the time of writing, is supposed to be the start of my work at the orphanage (and oh man, that orphanage needs help… no words), but there are no buses until Friday and it's a half hour bus ride + half hour trek on foot away. We're all going en masse to the local school for some construction and painting duty instead, since the road infrastructure around and especially in Kathmandu is paralyzed.

Today (day 7) is a historical moment for Nepal, it's the day the King is (theoretically) set to step down to make way for a new Republic. There is speculation as to whether or not he actually will, and the military is mobilized to arrest him should he get stubborn. We've all been warned to stay out of the city for the next few days, because while there will be many an epic democracy celebrations taking place in it, there will also be some unrest. Not everyone wants the King to leave, and that minority will be quite upset when he does. On the flipside, if he doesn't, a great many more people will be *very* upset. Two volunteers who were in Thamel yesterday reported that it the city was blanketed in riot police and gonna be put under curfew, probably 'cause of the half assed pipe bomb that went off in central park giving two bystanders a paper cut. Stan showed us a nutty picture he snapped of a torch-wielding but *peaceful* mob setting up base-camp near the airport, which he passed on his return journey here.

Disclaimer: This kind of stuff happens often in countries like this, no volunteer has ever gotten hurt, no trouble will hit Pepsi-Cola Town because no one in Pepsi-Cola town really cares (their crops and families are far more important), I'm safe, yadda yadda not to worry. We all have emergency escape battleplans should worse come to worse, but the chances of worse coming to worse are less than getting hit by a terrorist in Israel, which in turn is less than getting into an auto accident back at USC. So Dad, don't worry. I'm not even gonna be in this area over the weekend anyway (adventuring to Pokhara for some snowcapped mountain views & a dose of Buddhist monastery life) so it hardly matters.

PS: Jesse has been to Haiti! =:-o

You can read about some of the developments here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7422262.stm

Nepal! Fermented Matzo Balls, Mon 5/26, Day 5

So I took my first dump today. Yeah, Asian squat toilets… not a fan.

It was a sort of backfired, uneventful day otherwise. Ranu & I were set to visit the Boudhanath Stupa after she was done with the day's language training class, one of Tibetan Buddhism's holiest sights. For anyone who has seen Baraka or Powaqqatsi, it's the giant white domed thing with eyes that looks like a UFO landed in the middle of a village. A dearth of minibuses foiled our plans, and the voyage was instead restricted to a simple boring ATM & phone charger run (my phone works again! I can't call peeps due to $ shortfalls, but answering incoming calls is free.) We stopped for lunch at a samosa/mo-mo bakery, and Ranu introduced me to some Nepali desserts. The first two were yummers and not much different from "halva," a middle-eastern bar of sweet tofu. The other two were like candied, fermented matzo balls, and were a bit too different for me. The gag reflex wanted to have some fun, but I held it at bay.

I went home early and spent the rest of the day with my host family, playing with the kiddies for a bit and doing my best to chat with the parents. Sushaan is addicted to my camera like its crack and he's gotten pretty clever at getting me to give it to him. This time, he held the puzzle box's key hostage with camera-time as the ransom payment. I wrestled it back from him with the help of the stuffed gorilla, and had him fight the gorilla to reclaim it. Hopefully he didn't interpret that as a "beat people up to get what you want" lesson. Whoops if he did. Playtime was followed by what I think was a mini family reunion for them? Five uncles and aunts visited randomly and greeted me as if I was one of em (neat), followed by one of the older brothers taking me up to the roof to point out & explain the epic view. Dinner & sleep followed.

So it was a slow day, but that was okay; life moves much slower around here in general. It gets into one's head after a while. You start to notice the littler things around you: the line of ants covering the fence, the old woman pumping water from the well, the wild dogs pouncing on each other across the knoll… People are at peace here, and you can tell they're stopping to smell the roses as well. Complete strangers will not only wave to say hello, but interrupt their routine and yours as well to have a full-on conversation. I like.

Nepal! Pashputinath, Sun 5/25, Day 4

Best day of the trip thus far. Things got off to a humdrum start with a longer than usual language class, lots of rain, and a stressful minibus ride to the day's sightseeing target (had to dangle in the entry stairwell, with the doors open, due to extreme crowding), but once there… no words for it's beauty. It was "Pashpunasomething," one of Hindu's holiest temples. The air was filled with eerie ash from all the cremations going on along the shrine's river bank, made even more surreal by the dark rain clouds. There were lots of monkeys here too which is always a plus. I climbed up an adjacent hill towering over the temple which in turn towered over the city and blew half my shiny new camera's memory card snapping pics of the view. Just then, some sunrays broke through the clouds and the snowcapped peaks of the mountains beyond became (barely) visible for the first time since I landed. You know those perfect moments that come along every once in a while where time just seems to stop? That was one of em.

An old local man who was feeding the monkeys called me over to make chit chat. We chit chatted through a mild language barrier about general icebreaker stuff – he told me about his son who was about to move to Nebraska for some good ole American college education. Not wanting to crush his dreams, I didn't let him in on the little known secret that Nebraska is a middle-of-nowhere shithole… at least from everything I've read about it. Suddenly: "Heee heeeee hooo hooo haw hawww heeeee!" MONKEY FIGHT! A littler one was trying to snatch a bigger one's food given by the old man. Angry monkeys are fraking scary things.

The bus ride back was the same deal, uber-crowding. Having learned from my past stupidity, I didn't take my hand off of the camera. It made hanging on for dear life a bit harder, but all was good. Upon returning to "Pepsi-Cola" (that's the name of our neighborhood, because it's next to a Pepsi factory) I made a brief pitstop at home, played with Sushaan, and disembarked for the VSN office where a "mo-mo" (veggie dumpling) cooking party was to take place. Oh! I had chole samosas for lunch. The 23's are better. Also I'm for surely in store for a diarrhea bout 'cause that place was definitely *not* sanitary.

Anyways, mo-mo party. All the volunteers gathered in the computer room for some pre-mo-mo hangoutness. Two newbies arrived today, both from Paris, and both very cool. Damn near everyone else is from San Diego strangely enough. The mo-mo's were taking longer than expected, so we went en masse to The Hut for some bottles of Everest, the quite yummers national beer of Nepal. A medical volunteer named Jesse started blasting 80's classics, and a hysterical conversation about great 80's flicks and actors ensued. Prompting some homesickness, Kris asked if anyone knew what the song from Ghost was. Jesse and I instantly erupted in a tipsy karaoke of the one and only "Unchained Melody." I hallucinated that for a second that he was Jeff.

Mo-Mo party time! It was more of the dinner shindig and less of a party. The organization runners, including Suganda and my host family, were all present. Sushaan hijacked my camera at numerous points whilst bouncing off the walls, and took some actually pretty good pics. If the internet wasn't slow as a snail here, I'd upload them all. I left for home with the family, made a brief dal bhat pit stop, and took Sudip (the older brother) to a "late" (9pm) night shindig at the hut with everyone else. There I met a VSN worker named Susaan (not mixing these names up is hard) who told me the tale of how one of the girl volunteers has become his fiancé, and they'll soon be moving to a mountain city named Pokhara (next weekend's adventure stop for me) to conduct surveys or something. He too dreams of moving to Nebraska for education. I'm not sure what it is about Nepali college students and Nebraska.

The end of day 4. See(read) you all tomorrow. I misses you!

Nepal! Thamel, Sat 5/24, Day 3

Stan, Norman, Guy Who Owns The Hut, and Girl Whose Name I Forgot all left the hotel early for a four day trek through the southern jungle, won't be seeing them again until at least Monday.  We "slept in" till about 8ish, though I woke up early to stroll around and explore the area. I cut the stroll short 'cause a rickshaw took an interest in my wallet and wouldn't stop following me around offering me an overpriced tour.

Upon wakeup and yummy breakfast, we left for the central bus park, bound for Monkey Temple. The station was a nutty, crowded, insane place, and it took about a dozen shouts of "monkey temple!" until we were finally pointed toward the right bus. The only way to tell where a bus is going, even for the locals, is by asking a guy who sort of dangles out the door as it drives along shouting it's destination to pedestrians. Fun stuff. I spaced out on the bus ride admiring the pretty sights, and was caught off guard when our stop came up. In the hectic rush to get off in time, I absentmindedly stuffed my camera into me open pocket without wrapping its chord around my finger. Strangely (soon not so strangely), a random dude iydled by the bus door for no reason and completely blocked my exit. I was like "Dude, move it!," shoved him out of the way, and got off the bus. My camera was no longer in my pocket. Of all the things that could have gone wrong, losing a camera I didn't pay for & a day's worth of pictures to (I assume) pickpockets was pretty low on the list, so I was only slightly bummed. The insurance will cover buying a new camera, so all is good.

My fingers grow tired… umm the monkey temple was awesome 'cause it was surrounded by monkeys and had a great view, I got a SIM card & cell # soon after though lack a way to charge my phone, we spent a long time walking around the city afterward, were followed home by two cute little girls giggle-begging us to buy them honey, and passed by many marijuana plants growing along the side of the road. They grow wild here like an actual weed. Upon getting home, I played with my new siblings, taught them how to open the puzzle box (the littlest one got it in record quick time), great funniness ensued, etc etc yadda good day pickpockets aside, yippy, gotta go now. And the blog is finally up to date. I think I'll post a new entry every morning around 7am local time, -13/14h LA time. I hope everyone back home is having a grand ole time! Feel free to send me messages, I'll read em eventually…

Nepal! The Mutant Rat, Fri 5/23, Day 2

The sound of cows & roosters & farm stuff woke me up around 5am and I lied in bed dozing until 7ish. Then there was a knock on the door and the grandfather barged on in chuckling and shouting gibberish, giving the official wakeup call. He saw Dan's huge black suitcase, asked what it was, and started sifting through all the clothes and stuffed animals and whatnot. Soon the whole family, all of whom were wide awake this early, gathered around and started oohing and awing at the donations. Funniness ensued. Two hours later it was breakfast time, I again epic failed at eating with my hands, took a cold shower (no hot water either), and marched off to battle.

The first three hours of the day were language training, which I had with Kris, another volunteer from San Diego (16 of the 20-odd volunteers are from Southern California, randomly), and taught by a *goddess* named Ranu. Despite her being a goddess, I sadly don't remember much of the day's lesson. Next time I'll bring a notebook. Ranu asked Kris which family he was living, and he said he was roommating with another male. "Ooohooo another guy, ooooh… oooh…" Kris had to clarify, in all sincerity, that it didn't mean they were gay. He joked that they spooned together, prompting confusion from Ranu & the other Nepali dude in the room. Kris explained to them via stick figure doodles what "spooning" meant and asked if Ranu "understood." I'm 95% sure he was hitting on her, can't say I blame him.

Class was followed by a sightseeing adventure to another orphanage deeper in the countryside, with fellow VSN peeps Christina & Christi (who has an awesome Scottish accent.) Got some good photo-ops here, but these and all the pictures from the weekend in town were lost. The kids where magtical & couldn't get enough of us, and were particularly in wuv with Christina. Her watch was blowing their minds. One of em started playing with a sick, half alive mutant rat. We told the kid that was probably a bad idea.

From the orphanage we took a surreal minibus ride into the city center, were we would spend the night in a hotel with Stan, Norman, Owner-of-the-Hut, and Girl Whose Name I Forgot. Since we have Saturdays off, it tis apparently tradition to spend Friday night in the city's tourist district "Thamel" drinking at bars. We got a bit lost trying to find Thamel, but a kind Nepali girl both pointed us in the right direction and interrupted her daily routine to walk us all the way there (quite a walk.) I clicked with her, she asked me for my number!!!! ...so she could invite us to some traditional dance show of her's… but none of us had a number to give her. I gave her my email instead but she wasn't well versed in the ways of email.

The Thamel area was pretty cool. It had a quaint European feel to it, with tight alleyways, pubs, and trinket shops all over the place. It started to get old about three hours in though, were it not for the fact that it's the only nightlife area I don't think I'd go back there. We got pizza for dinner, one whole pie per person at $2 a pie, drank, and called of the night a bit past 12. No epic drunken tales to tell of that though, it was all pretty low key.

Nepal! The Family, Thu 5/22, Day 1C

Continuing on… The littlest brother, who calls me "brotterrr!!", worked on his English homework for a bit, though his ADD hampered things, while the family's grandpa popped in and out to shout random Nepali jokes (I think) at us. I just giggled awkwardly since I had no idea what he was saying. A bit later I met Stan, a fellow college student volunteering who is living with the same family. We went off to rent a bootleg copy of "The Kite Runner" and watch it on the orphanage's TV, but it only took about five minutes before I completely passed out. Forty minutes later the neighborhood's electricity was cut off (no electricity at night) and we all abandoned ship.

8pm is family dinner time, so Stan & I returned to our house to eat with all seven family members. Apparently missing a family meal is a big taboo here. Every meal consists of "dal bhat," a platter of rice, lentil soup, and veggie curry any regular of the 23^rd St Café should be intimately familiar with. Nobody uses utensils here, so Stan coached me in the art of eating with my hands. I made a doofus of myself trying to do so, and earned "Would you like a spoon (you silly spoiled American)?" offers from the mother and daughters. Refusing defeat, I turned them down. Having grown up with only my Mom or Dad but never both in the same room + no siblings, the whole "big nightly family dinner" thing was quite the cool new experience. After dal bhat whatsitcalled, we went up to the roof and listened to Stan play Neil Young in his guitar + harmonica (he plays the harmonica!) while staring at the stars with only candles as our lights. The sound of the harmonica made me very homesick, I gotta admit, though since that night all has been jolly.

This is definitely going to be one of the hardest (psychologically speaking, at least) things I've ever done, no doubt… but wow. The people here are amongst the friendliest and most open I've ever met, the scenery (black-smoke belching psuedo-bus-van-things aside) is gorgeous, … wow, just wow.

Nepal! Landing, Thu 5/22, Day 1B

So yeah, I land, the organization guy, Suganda, is relievingly there to meet me, and off we go to meet the Nepali family who'll be giving me a home for the next two months. It's on the outskirts of the city, in their equivalent of a suburb I guess, which tis several dozen randomly scattered homes connected by dirt paths and little sustinence crops. Sudip(?) is the first family member I meet, the 19 year old eldest brother. He speaks pretty decent English, we click, and go out to the local cafe for some food(poisoning.) He tells me how he's studying electrical engineering and dreams, with a kind of pessimistic tone, of moving to the US one day to get a better education. The owner of the cafe/bar (nicknamed "the hut" by the other volunteers) is an awesome guy who's promised to show me around the best weekend hiking trail in the country, yippy. Also in the hut is Norman, a an old Kiwi with a huge bushy white beard and pony tail. He tis equally awesome.

Lunch ends, I go to the org's office to get a brief orientation, and then it's back to the house to recover from my horrendous jet jag. It doesn't take long for my nasp to be interrupted by the youngest brother opf the family, a nutty ADD 5 year old named uhh forgot his name, ho literally grabs me by the hand and drags me around his room, showing me all his toys and schoolwork. It quickily becomes clear I'm not gonna get much sleep around him, but tis okeeday 'cause he's adorable. Okay g2g again, to be continued

Nepal! The 30h Flight, Tues 5/20, Day 1A

For a more after-the-fact-proofread version of this and following tales, plz go to: http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog/sirrocko711/1/tpod.html

It's 10:30ish Tuesday morning. After leaving nearly all my errands for the last minute, I've finally finished moving out and packing for my three months abroad. Jeff shows up, me him & Dan load the luggage and monkey into Princess (Jeff's car), and it's off to the airport for the big send-off. After one of the more panicked, emotional goodbye handshakes I've ever given (though both Jeff & I blanked on our mutual inspirational send-off speeches, and I'm not sure if Dan even had one to begin with), I stumble into the terminal with twice as much luggage as I should really be carrying. Thanks to Dan, I have a giant suitcase with which to carry all me friend's orphanage donations. Thanks Dan! You'll get it back, fear not. The giant stuffed monkey I'm carrying proceeds to scare the shite out of one of the airport security officers, who mistakes it for something live, snicker. The check-in line is ridiculously long, and I end up at the gate with only an hour to twiddle my thumbs instead of two.

The boarding call is given. I make maybe five quickie goodbye calls, and then hand my passport and ticket over to the most gorgeous flight attendant I have ever had the luck of meeting... we're talking supermodel looks here. My hand was honestly trembling as I handed over the documents too her 'cause I was that intimidated by her beauty. Apparently flight attendant status is the Asian equivalent of winning a beauty contest. Anyways, the plane takes off, and the start of an epic 33 hour flight across the world begins. Any nervousness/excitement I might have at this point is numbed by the fact that Juno is the first in flight movie, blegh. The flight itself is, despite being ridiculously long, quite pleasant. The flight attendants were pretty bossy ("Please raise your seat so I can serve him food, please lower your window shade, please raise your window shade...") but their sheer jaw dropping beauty makes me perfectly willing to do whatever they say.

After a brief transfer in Tokyo and a not-so-brief 7h middle of the night layover in Singapore, I'm finally on my way to Kathmandu itself. There's surprisingly little nervousness, until that brief moment of zero-G when the plane starts landing. The descent launches my heart into my throat like a cannon as the fact that "oh my God I'm in f***ing Nepal!" becomes frightfully real. I am not a well traveled man, having only left America for the first time a mere two years prior and to fluffy cozy Europe mind you. I'm notorious amongst my friends for being a clumsy street-stupid bumblemeister and one (half-jokingly?) suspected me of being suicidal upon booking this flight. Nepal made it into the International Misery headlines only a month ago for its beating of Tibetan activists and ranks as one of the world's poorest and least developed countries, the entire African continent not withstanding. If the volunteer manager Sughanda wasn't there to greet me at the airport I would be alone and without help in a world I had no experience dealing with. Would he be there? The airplane doors swing open, the passengers flock out, I make my peace with God and set foot outside...

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