butter lamp and boat ride

Hi all,
Day 1 in varanasi was great. Breakfast on the roof, walking along the ganges, shopping, eating amazing indian food and riding a boat was the program. So I have to note that indian food is actually not spicy, thank god for me. Everything is like an explosion of smells, sights, sounds...We saw dozens of bodies being burnt, thrown out in the middle of the river, carried in the streets. It's crazy. Definitely not planning on swimming in the water anymore although they all do it and it looks nice. I got hennea on my hands, the real one this time, we looked at sarees, the fabric is just beautiful. Life is even cheaper than in Nepal, I got t-shirts for 60 cents, our meals are 3 dollars, so nice. Tonight was awesome, we took a boat on the river and went to look at a 'puja', a religious ceremony that takes places every day by the water, pretty much blessing the gods and giving offerings and all. It's a highly religious city obviously. The heat is making us adjust our lifestyle, we go hide for lunch time and come back out a little later. Tomorrow is going to be more of the same, just discovering the town, the old town with its fresh squeezed juices and shops, the ghats with the cremations, weddings, showers and washing clothes.
It's very interesting to look at all of this, being an outsider and trying to understand it all. Woman and men, religion, customs. It's like a maze. They really work in a caste system and it's impossible to really know what it all means, even the colour of your clothes shows everyone what caste you belong to. I cannot wait to put pictures up. The cows are all over the place, so are the dogs and the goats and the monkeys. It's like a zoo.
We're planning on waking up early tomorrow so I should go.
Love.
Izzy

Indiaaaaaaaaaaaa

Yay, we made it ! That's quite unbelievable, almost on time and everything went smooth. Beautiful. We found a guy on the way so we traveled together, maybe that helped.
Anyway, varanasi seems nice, we can see the Gange by our window but it's night time so the view will only be nice tomorrow.
It's boiling hot here, like really. Imagine blowing your hair and having the same heat on your face, that's what happened when i put my head at the bus window. It was 95 degrees (36) when we got here tonight so I would say it's about 105 during the day.
It's been a long day and only bus travel so nothing very exciting to say. I had a great vegetable curry, might actually end up liking indian food.
Good night everyone.

happy nepali mother's day.

That was this week end. Has anyone ever wondered why mother's day is different all over the world ? I mean, all holidays are always the same, but not that one. And here it was saturday. So weird. Ah, monday morning, hope everyone had a good week end. As for us, we are still in kathmandu. We went trekking, that lasted 2 days, it was a nice walk up, 22 kms, might not sound much but get on that mountain and after 10 minutes it feels like 130. My legs are extremely sore today I must admit.
So we might have found a way to leave, we went to check a couple of travel agents, prices vary, so does the state of the strikes. It's a little hard to know who knows what and with our luck we'll probably get stuck somewhere for a few days. It's getting just a tad annoying. Everyday we hear something different. Flights are out of the question, everything is booked, buses are the only option, which is pretty cool for me cause I love roof riding.
We saw Kumari yesterday, she's a 5 year old girl that nepali believe is the reincarnation of a goddess, it is pretty sad, she's stuck in a house and can never leave. You should read about her on the net, it's pretty interesting. They make her spend a night with crazy freaky stuff in a house on her own and if she gets scared that means she's not the goddess. And the day she will bleed (either from cutting herself or getting her menstruations) she will be back to live a normal life and become like every other girl. As if you could just change life like that...
I don't know what we're gonna do today, we went around a lot and kathmandu ends up being pretty small once you've seen all the touristic places. Chilling and drinking tea seems to be the thing we do best... So I will go get myself a nice cup of black tea to start a hopefully good week. India is/should be next.

So much to say...

Wow, it has been a while since I wrote.
Ok so let's start by the beginning. Chitwan. One word : amazing. Citwan was so much fun, we had a blast with elephants, did an elephant safari, went bird watching (not my favourite), ate really good food and watched gorgeous sunsets and sunrises. It was so relaxing, a perfect stop after Kathmandu. We left yesterday and went to a town called Daman, wayyyyyy up hight in the mountains, nice but totally unnecessary. The comfort was reduced to its minimum I have to say. Oh and it's cold up there too, there was a huge storm. Since I am sick it kind of sucked. I have a cold. Nothing big but a little annoying. And the bathroom was oputside so it's kind of a mental training to not want to pee in the middle of the night, stop drinking after a certain hour too.
Now we're back in Hetauda, a super boring town where there's nothing to do, just a point to change buses. Yeah, that is when it becomes good...there are none. The country is on strike... It is actually the second time it happens but I forgot to talk about it the first time so it doesn't matter. And this one could last up to 7 days. So we're not exactly thrilled since we were on our way to India in the next few days. We managed to get a ticket to get back to Kathmandu tomorrow morning (only 2 buses for the whole day, can only imagine how overpacked it will be) but the situation when we get there is still up in the air. Neither do we want to fligh to india nor do we want to stay in ktm for a week. We'll see how it goes tomorrow. Apparently they're on strike cause the army killed a 12 year old or something. And we witnessed an accident too. An old woman got hit by a bus, the guy we talked to today told us she had died, so sad. But in Nepal if you run over someone nothing really happens to you, you just have to pay the equivalent of $200. The nepali boy (robin) told us it was quite normal to kill people on the road here. Better watch out when you cross the road.
We were supposed to go to Ilam in 2 days, where they grom the tea, like Darjeeling but on the nepali side, it would have been fun. Oh and Robin told us that all borders were closed because there are elections in India right now, for the next 3 days. It seems like we are cursed, whenever Nick and I travel, something major always happens and we end up staying stuck, walking for hours or something else. Incredible. At least we have each other. I can't imagine people traveklling alone. We also made friends with a french couple who had been on the road for almost a year. We're gonna try to catch dinner together in India since they will be there for 2 weeks before they go home, that could be fun.
I so wish I could put pics on the site, the rhinos we saw in the park, the elephant bath...we did it twice, the baby elephants, they were twins, just like dumbo. Big for 10 months but yet really small. We almost thought of taking one home but my cat wouldn't like it so much i think.
Anyway, I guess you can see I am bored since I am writing so much, it's just that we really have NOTHING to do but surf on the web. Hopefully the bus will run in the morning. We will keep you posted. Love. Izzy.

Back to the capital

Ok we are back in Kathmandu. Nagarkot was not disappointing, it was absolutely gorgeous. We got a corner room with an amazing view over a valley. we got to see the sunset AND the sunrise. Waking up at 4.30 and walking uphill for an hour was all it took to see that wonderful sun of ours.
Now we are back in kathmandu just for the night. Chitwan is coming up tomorrow morning, along with that no internet for the next few days. I'll be busy with the elephants and the tigers anyway.
Ok, today is a lazy day. My fingers are tired from walking so I don't have anything else to say.
Peace. I

Thimi and bhaktapur

hi everyone,
Today is a new day so that means a new city. We got to Baktapur early this morning but found out there was a big festival in a town next door so we took the bus back and headed over there. It was quite something, people throwing some kind of couloured powder, pink, red and orange all over everyone. I have cool pics of that. Baktapur is quite beautiful, if there is one more earthquake ever I don't think the constructions will survive, most of the buildings are crooked, it's funny.
There should be another festival here in about 10 minutes so we're gonna go check it out. Tomorrow is the day we leave to the city I have wanted to go to for a while, Nagarkot, supposed to have sme of the most beautiful sunsets and sunrises of the world. Hopefully the sky will be clear.
I got my hands stamped with floral designs, looks like henne but it comes of with water. All the kids were watching while she was doing it. It feels like whatever we do becomes a local entertainment. We look at something, they look at something, we take a picture, they want to see the picture we took, we eat, they wonder what we eat. It is much easier to forget about all those people around now than before though.
Ok the bell rang, that means the festival is about to start.
Kisses.

Happy new year 2066 !!!

The nepali new year is today. You couldn't tell cause nobody does anything special but we just say happy new year to everyone.
Today we went to Patan, another town in the kathmandu valley, really nice newari architecture, wooden frames and beautiful carvings. Lots of temples and courtyards. It's like a giant maze. We found a cool walking tour to do, got lost a little but it was fun.
And I had the wonderful idea to go to the zoo. Yeah. Never again. How can I describe the zoo... First, it is the one and only zoo in the country (quite unbelievable since they have elephants, monkeys and a lot of other stuff hanging out on the streets), then today is new year so a national holiday. I think about half the country decided to go to the zoo with us. Getting the tickets was about 10 times worse than getting a drink in a packed NYC bar ( I know most of you will relate to that lol). The animals looked so sad and their "natural environment" was made out of concrete and the crowd...the crowd was just unbelievable. Unbearable. We didn't even finish it. I don't think anyone could see anything and I wouldn't be surprised if I read in tomorrow's headlines that someone died from being walked over. Never seen that many people wanting to see a sleeping and hiding tiger. Then again, we are here for the experience and getting plenty.
Tomorrow we are leaving to go to Baktapur, a traffic free city, that should give some rest to my lungs cause kathmandu is becoming a little much. You can actually see the smoke and dust that you breathe. Scary.
I'll keep you posted.
Kisses.

Onion delight !

Hello all.
I finally reached Kathmandu. That goes without saying the journey was insane. About half way from pokhara, there was an accident, a truck carrying onions had fallen over, therefore blocking the road, or should I say the "road". Both sides were stuck and our bus was stopped about 5kms (9 miles) from the crash. Adventurous as we are we took our bags and walked all the way to the other side of the truck. Mind you, it is 12.00, about 90 degrees and the bags are heavy.
Nepalis have quite a way of dealing with those things, that means trucks kept coming all the way to the crash but nothing was being done so it just made it impossible for anyone to turn back. We got to jump on the roof of a bus and waited for about 2 hours for it to move. We eventually got to kathmandu only 5 hours later than planned.
After a nice meal we discovered that kathmandu, although the capital of the country, has power cuts every day, for 8 hours. Imagine walking in a city and suddently everything goes black. Well it is that, every day. Flashlights are quite handy.
The city is beautiful, very busy, very polluted and the roads have to be shared with pedestrians, bikes, cows, cars and about every other living thing. It is something.
Right now I am writting from Boddah, about 30 minutes from central Kathmandu, where a huge temple is built.It is gorgeous. Everyone has to move clockwise so it is very funny to watch.
I got blessed by a monk earlier, he prayed, gave me holly water (I seriously hope it was holly cause my intestin would not survive otherwise) and a silk scarf to bring me good luck.
This country is so spiritual. Buddhist monks are all over. I really want to assist to a morning prayer, at 5.30 am.
Anyway, I think that is it for today. The power might cut out anytime so I'd better send this.
Lots of love,
Izzy

Sensitive stomach

Paragliding was awesome. I am stuck by the computer trying to upload photos, it is taking forever.
So, paragliding... It was gorgeous. To day is clear and the sky is blue as you can see so the conditions were perfect. I flew for 40 minutes, like a bird. We were higher than the mountain's peak at some point and I could almost touch the birds. So cool. The landing part was not as succesful, motion sickness got the upper hand :-(
I think I will be able to post some photos soon as I am burning them onto cd's, uploading takes way too muchtime and it is our last day in Pokhara so I don't want to miss out on anything.
After lunch we wil be heading to the old part of town and then rent a boat to go on the lake. Lots to do as you can see.
Got to go.

1788m in the sky

Yes, I walked all the way up there. It's called Sagarkot. Quite a climb I must say. Translate that by I am dead tired and I am so sore already I don't even know how I will get up tomorrow. It was a steep 3 hours climb and a huge storm started when we finally reached the top. The view was amazing so it was still worth it but when the sky is clear you're supposed to see a dozen high peaks. Oh well, next time. We have to go back tomorrow morning (by car this time) to do the paragliding.
This morning we went to visit 2 new caves, one was pretty small and not very exciting but the second one was a bat cave, full of bats and we had to crawl to get out, really cool.
For whoever knows me well I would like to onform you all that I wake up at 5.30 every morning and in bed by 10 latest, such a dramatic change from NY. Life belongs to people who wake up early finally makes sense to me.
Tonight there is a fun fair by the lake, they're celebrating the nepalese new year, nothing amazing but it looks cool, I would not go on any of the rides due to safety but it is really nice to watch. The big wheel is moving thanks to a generator that makes the noise of a tractor. Oh and we had another power cut tonight, yesterday's lasted quite a while so we had to use flashlights. I feel like I live in the middle age, it's pretty funny.
I would love to post pictures but I don't think I will be able to. I am not really in the mood to wait for hours to upload them so you will just have to wait. Maybe when monsoon season arrives and I am stuck inside for a few hours. Not quite there yet. The days are still pretty nice. Locals complain a lot about the weather but they've never been to new york in winter, that's why.
Oki doki, hope I will make it back in one piece after tomorrow's flight. I am not scared yet but I feel like once I'll be up there it might change.
Have a good day/morning/evening.
Love, Izzy.

Thank you to my new followers ;-)

Hiking is fun. I got to realise that today. We went up to the world peace pagoda in Pokhara, a steep 20 mins walk up the jungle with a breathtaking view. I will have a photo showing when I get back but you guys will fall asleep cause I have been snapping away so I will have a billion pics to show. We also visited the mahadev cave and devi's falls, pretty cool but not very spooky. Nick just told me it was 37 degrees in NY, that makes me feel even happier. I did burn a little bit on my face today though. This afternoon was relaxing. I got a massage last night so I feel great today. I think we'll be paragliding tomorrow.
Damn it feels good not to have to think about work or anything like that. I have been enjoying cups of black tea by the "phewa tal", Nepal's 2d biggest lake with a bunch of foggy mountains in the background. Obviously I bother to tell you the names hoping you guys will then go onto google map and look at all that and get very jealous.
I think I might become a hippie, I have nepali bracelets all over my arms, almost cost me my right hand actually. There are plastic bangels that the girls puts around your wrist but they're really tight and you can't take them off. One of them broke when she was putting it on me and I started bleeding like crazy so I got scared. It was just a little cut though, nothing major. And they're super pretty so it was worth it. Now I also have a chain on my ankle, next is the dread locks ahahaha.
I will try to see if I can start putting pictures up so you give can have an idea of the life I live in.
Until then, enjoy yourselves.
Peace.

Strik(ing)

Hi all,
First of all, be happy we are alive. We got to pokhara last night at 3 am after a very intense bus ride, by all means. It is inssssaaannnnneeee. What they call a highway is barely a road, and we were high up in the mountains so we could see the canyons all the way down, so scary. The comfort of their buses is quite amazing too. How to describe....a piece of wood covered in fabric is pretty accurate.
But Pokhara is fantastic, the city is extremely pretty, the lake is beautiful, we just took a boat ride to a temple in the middle of it. We had real western food and checked in a nice hotel. It is very touristic here, more westerners than nepalis but still very charming. We found a man that was with us in Lumbini already. We're gonna stay a few days here as there is a lot of things to do and see, paragliding, massages and trekking is on the program.
I got some cool shirts and new clothes so I look like a hippie.
Anyway, it is very nice to be back in a somewhat civilised town. Looking forward to go to Kathmandu.
Lots of kisses.

Namaste ;-)

Hello,
Here we are, finally in Nepal.
Precisely in Lumbini, the city in which Buddah was born. Getting here was quite an experience, an awful one by all means but def. worth it as we are truly enjoying ourselves now. We've been bike riding from monasteries to monasteries and enjoying the beauty of it all. The people around here are so nice, quite the opposite from the indian side of the border. It is quite hot here but very enjoyable. We just had a nepalese lunch and although eating with your hands sounds like fun it is actually really hard to do. Try eating non-sticky rice with only your right hand and then we'll talk about it.
The market is super cool, I wish I could send pictures but Internet is not exactly high speed so I will stick to words for now.
We will be leaving here tomorrow and going to Tansen, higher up.
That is it for today.
Namaste,
Izzy

Alive

hi everyone. Reporting from New delhi. We made it !!!

The arrival has set the tone for the trip, we're in a hotel somewhere in Delhi and it is all very confusing and overwhelming but we wil manage.

More news to come, need to sleep.

Departure

Time to go. We're leaving in 30 minutes, the adventure starts now. Thanks to everyone who came out last night. 

Love you all.