Our Trip to Nepal (Buckle up, it's gonna be a long one)

My family and I have recently taken a trip to Nepal, in Asia, on India's north-east border.

      Now, you may be thinking, "What's in Nepal? I mean, of all the places you could have gone, why some 56827 mi², third-world country?" Well, we happen to currently live in the Land of SUPERLATIVES, where you can find the Biggest, Highest, Best, Longest, Fastest, etc. Dad was thinking about this, and he felt like God was nudging him a bit like, "Hey, Jason. Have you seen my mountain?"
     So, two months later, we packed up and flew off to one of the coolest places I've ever been.

Day One: Flight to Kathmandu
     We woke up at two in the morning to catch a flight to Muscat, and from there to Kathmandu. We were all so pooped. In fact, as soon as the plane took off, Henry flipped over and mumbled something to me about waking him up when the food cart came. 
When we got to Kathmandu, Jaya our trekking guide met us outside the airport.                                             

A few traditional dancers.

     Dinner that night was a whole new experience that none of us were prepared for. Starting at the door of the house, little red dots were administered to each of our foreheads (a Hindu good luck symbol), and we took off our shoes. Inside the open-air dining room, we sat on little red floor cushions that had seat backs on them and ate a Nepali dinner of the national dish: Daal Bhat and everyone also got to try the local wine "raksi" which Henry called "Fire Water" while we watched five traditional Nepali dances with live music. It was very noisy. Greta was invited to dance with one of the musicians, from whom Henry bought a traditional Nepali stringed instrument called a "sarangee". One really neat thing is that the group that played the music included a harmonium, which I had only ever read about previously.

At the table for dinner.

Greta's face after she tried the local wine.

Day Two: Mt. Everest and Exploring Kathmandu
     That morning we woke up at 5, in spite of staying up late the previous night, in order to catch a flight around Mt. Everest and the surrounding mountains. It is the tallest mountain on Earth at twenty-nine thousand, twenty-eight feet high. We took a gazillion pictures out of the airplane windows, and managed not to fall asleep till after we started back to the airport.

Nuptse, Everest, and Lhotse
(In the background)

After the Everest flight, we met our tour guide, who took us around Kathmandu.

The wishing well at the Monkey Temple.
Supposedly, if you get your rupee coin into the pot,
your wish will be granted. I succeeded and wished for our trekk to go well.

Some people making a sacrifice to one of their gods.

Home of the current Hindu Kumari goddess.
There is a lot of damage still from the 2015 earthquakes.
This building is propped up with 2x4s nailed to the street.

Vishnu: the Hindu god of basically chaos.

Some eye-popping natural colors the Nepali people use to dye their clothes.

Funeral pyres along the bank of a tributary of the Ganges river.

Henry and a "Singing Bowl".

My family, our tour guide Sushma, and I
on top of a cafe overlooking Kathmandu.

Day Three: Beginning of the Trekking

     That day started off with a flight to Pokhara. Then, we took a REALLY BUMPY (understatement) jeep ride to Hille (the sort of beginning of the trail), where we started hiking to our first overnighter tea house in Ulluri. He hiked for about 4 hours and it was uphill all the way. The trail is made of stones set in steps up, and up, and up ... and up the "hill."  Once we reached Ulluri, we relaxed on the roof playing cards and drinking tea while Greta and Ben went and played on a giant bamboo swing that the village had constructed for a recent festival. At dinner, we met a really cool dude from from England named Tom. That evening, Greta caught a poisonous moth (?!) and narrowly avoided blindness.

Greta with a praying mantis that landed on her face.
(She was ecstatic)

Panorama that Dad took off the balcony of our tea house in Uluri 

Cool suspension bridge on the way to Uluri

On the way to Uluri

What on earth...

Playing Uno at the tea house in, you guessed it, Uluri

Greta and Tom, who is pretending to be petrified
of the clay snake Greta has put on his water bottle.

And this is Fivers, the dog with
six toes on his back paws

Day Four: To Upper Ghorepani
This day we hiked from Ulluri to Upper Ghorepani through the jungle. It was really pretty, with lots of waterfalls. But, we were all sore, and it was tough going. Still mostly up hill. But at least it was cooler with the jungle shading the sun. Nepal is surprisingly tropical.

Day Five:To Tadapani
That morning, we woke up at a ludicrous time (4:30) in Ghorepani, and and hiked for an hour and a half up to Poon Hill to watch the sunrise over the mountains. Then, we went back to our tea house, had breakfast, then hiked to Tadapani. Over all, that day was the hardest day with a grand total of eight hours' up and down hiking, steps all the way. (I hate steps now)

Another panorama Dad took on top of Poon hill before the sun came up.

The sun coming up over the mountains.

Here we are on our way to Ghandruk -4

The Littles and a stray cat Greta briefly befriended.

Greta and her card house

My card house with an somebody's beer can on top.
(The can is empty)

Waterfall on the way to Ghandruk -4

Dal Bhat - a traditional, and really delicious, Nepali meal.

Picture on top of Poon Hill, the highest place I've ever been on land
Poon Hill is 3210 meters above sea level
Ghorepani is 2874 meters above sea level

Lots of little rock stacks along the trail to Ghandruk -4

This basically sums up the trip. (I took the picture.) Kids playing, Parental Units sleeping

Greta: Dad, would you rather be thrown off that cliff and be paralysed for life, or have to-

Dad: (mumbles sleepily) Throw me.

Hand painted map of our trek.

Day Five: Tadapani to Ghandruk -4
This was one of the last hikes in our trekking adventure, and we were all so sore, at one point, we had to stop so Jaya could put some sort of spray on Henry's calves to try and alleviate the soreness. That night we played Uno and Phase 10 with Jaya. He's really good, considering we taught them both to him in just the last couple of days! Greta and Ben have met a couple of Nepali kids in the villages we stop at. One of them told her "No Toy!" when she was chasing his chicken around the swing. But we have only met one other kid hiking the trail, a 10 year old girl from Israel. There are a surprising amount of retired hikers and a ton of young adults. One of our porters is only a teenager and he's carrying 30 kg of our stuff on his head every day.

Day Six: End of the Road - er - Trail
Today we did a short hike to Ghandruk -2 where we caught another REALLY BUMPY jeep ride to Pokhara. There, we stayed at a hotel, went swimming, got all the boys (terrible) haircuts, and Parental Units went to get a massage!

This is our whole hiking gang!
Right to left:
Jaya, Yours Truly and fam, and our porters.

Dal Bhat again. Seriously, it's really good.

A popular saying in Nepal

Putting our stuff on top of the jeep
for the ride to Pokhara

Haircuts!
(They were really bad)

Day Seven: Exploring Pokhara

Goofing off at one of the places we toured.

This is a way cool waterfall that empties
right into a cave underground.

More goofing off

Impressive sand art at the Tibetan refugee camp.
Seriously, the whole thing is piles of sand.
Somebody made this with their hands.

Ladies making yarn in the Tibetan refugee camp.

Weaving a super intricate rug.
(Tibetan refugee camp) 

A boat ride to a sacred island.

Greta with some food to feed the fish at the island.
It came wrapped in a science entrance exam.

The small temple on the island.

Day Seven:To Chitwan

That morning we said goodbye to Jaya (He's taking a group up to the Everest Base Camp) and gave him our Uno deck. Then yet another REALLY BUMPY jeep ride to Chitwan National Park, and the Tiger Land Resort. When we were all settled in, we rode ELEPHANTS through the plains!! It was so cool, we saw deer, rhinos, eagles, storks, jewel beetles, and more spiders than I am comfortable with. After the elephant ride, we watched four traditional Nepali dances, and the last one we joined. It was really fun!

The boys on their elephant

A rhino we saw

And a deer

Back to the Resort!

Day Eight:Canoes, Creeks, and Critters

This time our safari was in a canoe, and we saw all kinds of birds and about five crocodiles. After the canoe float, we went to the crocodile breeding center, where they are trying to preserve an endangered species of crocodile. Then we went back to the Resort, changed, bathed the elephants and played around in the creek. Then in the later afternoon, we went for a hike. The creepy thing is, you have to watch out for leeches. Yes, you read that right. Land Leeches. In a tree. On the ground. In a bush. Everywhere. See, the monsoon rains come, and everything gets so wet, even leeches can survive on land. Inevitably, someone was bitten, and it was poor Ben. Adding insult to injury, a clean leech bite looks like the Mercedes logo, so now we call him "Mercedes Ben". 

Bathing the elephants

Goofing off at the river

Crocodile we spotted on the canoe float

Crocodiles at the breeding center

These are our Chitwan guide's favorite flowers, Spider Lilies.

Ben hugging an elephant

More goofing off at the creek

Ben's leech bite

A scorpion Dad found

Playing cards waiting for dinner

Messing around waiting for a slide show on the flora and fauna of Chitwan

Greta and the poisonous lizard she caught.

Day Nine:Back to Kathmandu

Woke up that morning, packed, said goodbye to our guide, and had yet another REALLY BUMPY jeep ride. To give you a sense of what the driving is like here: it was supposed to be a five hour long trip, but it ended up being an eight hour long trip due to traffic, awful roads, and pit stops. When we finally got back to Kathmandu, we had dinner with the person who helped Parental Units plan this whole trip, Nabaa, and another couple who are from Quebec, and their guide.

The tires that got us everywhere
on the cliff edge, rocky mountain roads.

The couple from Quebec.
(Who climbed to the Everest base camp on their first time trekking)

Last picture at the Tiger Land Resort before we left.
Our guide is on the left, his name is Agit. (Ah-jeet)

Goofing around at a shop in Kathmandu

Photo-bombing Mom

Cool dudes!

More goofing off

Bet you can't guess what's going on in this picture...

What we finally decided on getting:

That night, we boarded a plane going west and went home!

The other kids' takes on the trip:

Henry:
Plane flights without Personal Infotainment systems are boring. Believe me. I basically zonked until the food trolley came. But aside from the planes, Nepal is great. The people are very friendly (sometimes too friendly, if they are street vendors). The mountains are incredibly huge, Everest especially, and Chitwan National Park showed us rhinos, elephants (we got to ride one), lizards, and even a scorpion and a certain spider. The places we visited in the city are a little weird (i.e. tour guide explaining why there is a Hindu god ripping someone's organs out) but some were cool, like the Monkey Temple. Avoid the bathrooms in anything other than nice hotels. I got a cool souvenir, a violin-ukulele instrument called a 'sarangi' and I survived the trip. All in all: Nepal was pretty good.

Greta:
I wish I saw a yak. But they only live up higher in the mountains than we went. But other than us getting diarrhea and sore legs it was cool. (I'm never having "local wine" again).

Bennett:
Bathrooms were absolutely terrible. They have water spilled all over the floors, they didn't have toilet paper and sometimes they were just a hold in the ground with a little slide leading to it. But scenery was nice, there were a lot of animals in Chitwan and a lot of trees and other plants, and they had these ancient mossy stacked up bench things for hikers to sit on. Food tasted really good, and even though sometimes you were 3000 meters high up in the mountains they still can give you steak. I didn't have steak in the mountains but I saw other people have it.  And backpacks are heavy. And i am sad we never saw a tiger there, not even in captivity.

But, I wouldn't say that's the whole story of our trip...

When we got home, we had a huge pile of laundry to do. It was all sorted out into piles, and laying on our floor. We were all busy with school, lunch, and whatnot. Suddenly, Mom started panicking and saying, "No way" a lot. Naturally, we all came to see what the matter was. All except Dad, because he was working in the back bedroom. We asked Mom what the matter was, and she stabbed the air in the general direction of a laundry pile. Sure enough, there was a definite surprise waiting in a shirt. A hitchhiker who we must have picked up in Chitwan. A furry hitchhiker. An eight-legged hitchhiker.

One four inch long, eight legged, genuine. Tarantula.

Chaos ensued. We got two nets and separated the infested article of clothing from the others, then we tried to get the pest out of it. Mom told the rest of us to grab a shoe, and we  gathered around, but distant from, the invader. Greta poked it with her stick. Nothing happened. Mom poked it. Nothing happened. Greta lifted up the piece of clothing. Suddenly, the spider jumped out, and ran across the floor. Everyone started yelling and Mom grabbed my shoe and made darn well sure that that monster would never move again. Eventually, Dad came out and asked what happened.

And that, my friends, is the end of a really cool adventure to the land of God's mountain!