Farewell to Boston

The guys at work prepared a wonderful send off for me last night. I knew they were having pizza, but I was surprised with another Cookie Puss Carvel ice cream cake. It was nice that so many people were there and I was happy they'd gone to so much trouble for my last day.

I wasn't expecting a card. I definitely wasn't expecting a beautiful book of Boston sights that everyone had signed. I'll love it always. They were so sweet to do so much for me.

The guys I work with make it tough to leave. I won't miss much about Boston, but I'll really miss them.

The route?

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I'm trying to plan the drive to Alaska. I don't have any stops along the Alcan because I know it takes about five days (since we have to stop at Liard Hotsprings). We'll pick up Dad in Seattle and I won't have to worry after that. He'll do most of the driving.

The route I've chosen is approximately 5,820 miles. Mama and I are stopping in Buffalo to see Great-great Aunt Betty (and Niagara falls). We'll head to Minneapolis to pick up my trekking stuff from Nepal (one of my fellow hikers was kind enough to tote my bag back to the US for me so I didn't have to drag my hiking gear all around India or try to ship it back). We'll stay a full day in Regina, SK to visit my Dutch relatives. My cousin Iris used to work for the RCMP as a matron, back when there were matrons. She's in her 70's and I want to meet her while I have the chance. From Regina it's 549 miles to Banff. We've got to stop in Banff. In another 597 miles we'll be in Seattle. We'll hopefully have a good, solid day and a half to visit my brother and sister-in-law, Laura, The White Ranger, and my Aunt Pam (who's already emailed me to ask that I stop by).

Looking at the miles we have to cover, this isn't going to be a very relaxing road trip.

Pictures

I'm slowly putting the pictures online. So far I've got all the India pictures and roughly half of the ones from Nepal.

There are a lot. Sometimes I wonder what I was trying to photograph. I'm sure some of you will wonder the same thing. Just think, there'd be a whole bunch more if I hadn't been distracted with my film camera as well. These are just the pictures I took with my digital.

http://picasaweb.google.com/Adventurous.Lizard

I'm Back!

Yep, I've returned from Nepal and India. I had a great time and I've started a new blog. Go to my profiles page to get to it. Or just go http://sevendaysinindia.blogspot.com

Flightseeing of Mt. Everest

We saw Mt. Everest on our second day in Nepal. It was a great flight. 45 minutes of fantastic views.

A word about 3rd world airports. I found my leatherman in my carry on bag... after I'd been through security. My bag had gone through the magnatometer and no one was watching the screen. At the Chitwan airport there isn't a magnatometer so they open the bags and dig through them. The lady didn't open all the pockets in my day pack. I walked through the metal detector in Kathmandu with my digital camera so I set it off. A lady patted me down, but never looked in my camera case (and during the pat down she barely touched me).

Trekking in the Himalayas

Here I am in Kafleny with some of the local Thapa and Tamang kids. They don't speak much English, but it was really fun to hang out with them. We were at the same camp for 2 nights because of some Maoist trouble on the regular route. In the mornings the kids would show up and in the evenings they'd play nearby. On our last night there we taught them duck duck goose and ring around the rosy. We couldn't get them to understand Red Rover with the language barrier. We played tag Nepali style.

That was a four day trek in the middle Himalaya. Afterwards we went to Chitwan national park and rode elephants around in the jungle. We saw lots of rhinos. Now we're in the Kathmandu airport waiting for our chopper to Langtang. The power flashes on and off so I loose my internet connection periodically. Kathmandu is an interesting place. The traffic, noise, and general griminess is spectacular (not in a good way). The people on the street selling all kinds of crap are annoying. I've already snapped at a flute seller to not touch me and I slapped some guys hand when he stuck a wilty marigold in my face. Every day the power goes off for a few hours and people turn on generators so they can power the lights in their shops (and in the hotel).

Last night I ordered Kashimi Naan. I wasn't sure what it was, but I love Naan. It showed up at the table (where we were sitting around on cushions) and it was naan with cold fruit salad on top. Eek! I'm only supposed to eat hot food or I risk illness. But the fruit looked so tasty and I've been fruit deprived except for a couple oranges and bananas (since under the peel they're unpolluted). So what did I do? I ate the fruit salad and I enjoyed it very much. I was living dangerously (I've been so careful up to now). Thankfully, I didn't get sick. If I did, there are two nurses in our tour group and they came with tons of medications. I feel fairly safe. Especially since one of the nurses ate some of the fruit salad to.

There are 7 people total in my group, me and 6 others. We've got the best tour guide. He's from Nepal and I can't describe how nice it is to have a local guy wheeling and dealing and translating on our behalf. I'm going to really miss K.P. when I head off to India.

Qatar

I've made it to Doha, Qatar! Qatar airways is very nice, I recommend them. My assigned flight attendant knew me by name. I was impressed; it was a big plane. I've got 9 hours here before my flight to Kathmandu at 0445.


Oh, and my bag? It showed up an hour before I had to catch my plane. So much for doing laundry. But at least I got it. I was starting to worry.

Tracey made me the most fantastic peanut butter cup cookies for my flight. She told me to take all of them, but I only took 6. I didn't think I'd be able to eat them all. Ha! They were entirely consumed before I made it out of the US! Thanks Tracey, they were very good.