I'll take you in my backpack

Up early to catch the Jeep safari into the Chitwan National Park. A quick coffee (making sure not to consume too much liquid because I was told it was four hours in the bush with no toilet. Yikes!) Sunrise was stunning this morning, granted I missed actual sunrise, but what I did catch was beautiful! To get to the jeep tour you take a small wooden boat across the river and board the jeep. The jeep safari was amazing. I was hoping to see big cats, wild elephants and basically all of the crazy shit you see on discovery. While I didn't see that, I did see an endless amount of rhinos, which is a gift because they are on the endangered species list. I was able to see many mamas with babies too, which is nice for that very reason, hopefully reproduction and their existence in a nature preserve will ultimately protect them from poachers and extinction. One can only hope. At one point during the jeep safari we were attacked by horse flies, I'm not talking a cou...

--> Leading up to today I was warned about flying domestic, told about how flights are always delayed, and to anticipate hours of delays. I was optimistic however, and perhaps naïve. Needless to say I thought maybe my positive attitude had paid off because when we got to the airport and checked in, the flight was “on time”. Even all the way up to what would be boarding things looked like they would be going off without a hitch, all other flights on the board listed a delay, some hours long, but my flight seemed good to go. Until 11:40 (10 mins before scheduled departure) when they typed the dreaded words… “Delay” Thankfully the delay listed was only about 25 minutes (but that would soon prove way too good to be true!) Flying domestic is quite the experience in Nepal. When you go through security (I should have put that word in air quotes) you put your bag on the belt, I’m pretty sure they don’t give a shit what you have in it, I had small liquids and a razor, nail cl...

This morning started off super fun by dying Easter eggs with my friends kiddos. They can't get that kind of thing in Nepal so I brought over all kinds of Easter goodies, including a couple of egg dying kits for them! I haven't dyed eggs in years and the kits were way fancier than anything we ever used as kids, but still super fun! After the eggs it was off to lunch for traditional Nepalese food. I have been eating this style cuisine (or similar) for many years so I was excited to try it and see similarities and differences. The flavors were amazing and the spice level was great! We started with some "bites" then had a set plate that had a nice sampling of many different dishes. One of the "bites" was described to me as "deer" it came out looking like maybe jerky, with a few fattier pieces? It was quickly discovered that my friends Nepali translation was perhaps not accurate, and that the animal wasn't in fact a deer. When I saw the p...

So getting to KTM isn't horrible, but it was exhausting! I left at midnight from Tokyo, took the red eye to Bangkok where I had about a 6 hour layover before finishing the final leg of my trip on to KTM (another 2.5 hour flight). The last bit of the flight was technically 3.5 hours because when we reached KTM (at 15,000 feet) we then proceeded to do loops for an hour. What I didn't know is that KTM has only one runway at their airport, as you can imagine that causes some traffic on the ground with planes departing and in the air with planes attempting to land. What I also didn't know is that a week ago (in what seemed like a serious case of pilot error due to leaked communications between the pilot and the air traffic control tower) a plane crashed coming in to KTM and the majority of the passengers died. I'm glad I didn't know this, because I would have needed a xanax, and some alcohol. I'm told that usually when you fly in to KTM you can see beautiful views of...

Saturday morning I woke up and decided I needed a little adventure in my life! I have had the Chureito Pagoda pinned for a while as a "must see" place so this was the lucky winner for adventure time! Train time vs drive time was pretty close and after a debacle with getting lost in the tunnels of Tokyo the previous day, I decided to reduce my stress and take the train! The Chureito Pagoda is approximately 2 hours from Yokota Air Base via train. If you're taking the train the stop for the Pagoda is Shimoyoshida. I enjoy train adventures because it allows you to see some beautiful places, riding in to Shimoyoshida I passed through some beautiful mountainous terrain. At one point we were riding along with some of the most stunning shots of Mt Fuji. Times like this I'm constantly reminded of  how lucky I am, the beauty of nature, and just how small we are in this big beautiful world!  taken from the train, while moving. Speechless Shimoyoshida train station is TIN...