Hi. Thanks for visiting our travel blog! From November 2011 until June 2012 we (Anne and Monica) travelled around the world and wrote about our experiences along the way. We're now back in the USA and continuing to post about interesting moments in our lives.
After our two weeks in India, we spent two in Nepal. As soon as we crossed the border into Nepal we felt instant relief. It was less populated and less dusty--we could breathe again!
We spent one night in Lumbini, the birthplace of Buddha, but actually didn't make it out to the famous sites like the sacred garden. The next morning we took a bus to Pokhara. We paid for a tourist bus, but ended up getting tricked into riding the local bus. We probably paid 50 times more than the other people on the bus. No other tourists ended up getting on.
More and more people got on, and they began to load up the top with crates of food and animals. I saw two huge cockroaches crawling around my feet at one point. We were driving on windy mountain roads in a packed bus. From my aisle seat, my face had the pleasure of becoming acquainted with many passengers' butts that encroached into my space. This was not the worst bus experience (that goes to Vietnam), but it was definitely up there.
Ahhh, Pokhara. The long bus ride was worth it. We ended up spending a week in Pokhara at the Little Tibetan Guest House, a place I highly recommend. Pokhara has a beautiful lake, excellent food (Olive Café and Moondance) and and great shopping. It's also a nice jumping-off point for trekking in central Nepal.
One day we rented scooters and went to the Tibetan settlement Tashi Palkhiel, where we visited the temple and hung out with a monk.
The second time we rented scooters in Nepal, we drove to the base of the World Peace Pagoda and hiked to the top. It was incredibly hot and I ran out of water on the way up. At the top, I soaked my head in water from the fountain and bought a big bottle to chug.
The sole of my shoe came unglued along the way and started flapping around in the front, (shoddy workmanship by the guy in Hoi An) so I used my hair tie to hold it on.
We ran into a group of Americans who were hiking with their sponsored students in a small Nepalese village.
Finally, we made it to the village of Ghandruk. It was a pretty intense hike with lots of ups and downs, rain, sun and wind, but totally worth it. Mules passing by us kept things interesting on the less-captivating parts of the trail.
We took the local bus back to Pokhara from the end of our hike. I made friends with a goat sitting behind me!
Then things got depressing--we visited the Khorsor Elephant Breeding Center. The elephants were chained up so tight that they could barely move. They looked incredibly unhappy. Many of them were bobbing their heads back and forth due to what I think is some form of neurosis. I don't know why the elephants are being bred here, but I want this place to be shut down.
We then hung out with some happier elephants, who went swimming in the river. (These elephants had nothing to do with the breeding facility.)
We bought three bananas for around $1 USD. Had they been cheaper, we would have bought more. The elephants ate them in two seconds.
The next day we went out for our main event: the safari. Chitwan is known for its rhinoceroses, but they couldn't guarantee we'd see one.
Sitting in the front of the bus, a chill lounge-type area. Chill, that is, until it was packed with people.
Almost every truck had some sort of saying on the back. I took photos of a lot of them. This one was pretty good:
We stayed in Kathmandu for three nights, which was a good amount of time. We walked around a lot, did some shopping, and hit up some good restaurants.
There are pigeon houses throughout the city. It seems like people enjoy these birds, and even go out of their way to feed them and keep them around.
We went to an antique market in the center of the historic part of the city. Pretty much every vendor was selling the same things.
I highly recommend a trip to Nepal, if you can make it out there one day. I liked the people, the landscape, the history, the architecture, the hiking, the shopping... And I think I would have liked it even more had I not been desensitized from all the prior traveling. Nepal was our final "exotic" destination, and concluded our time in Asia. From Kathmandu, we flew to Delhi (10-hour layover) and on to London.
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The Journal of Australian Ceramics : The Journal of Australian Ceramics 522 July 2013, Page 100. I am very excited to announce JAC has published my first article in its 52/2 July 2013 edition pages 98-101. It is my perspective as a graduating student on the need for education and widening skills base for those involved in the visual arts. Thanks to the Australian Ceramics Association for including me in this issue which has a focus on Education, Greg Piper’s evocative portrait shots from Clay Push Gulgong 2013 and a showcase of Open Studios Ceramics Australia. Enjoy...
This used to be my favourite café as a student in Cologne. Full of old movie posters, it’s nice to sit here, drink a coffee and watch the world go by.