Arriving in Nepal!
It has been five days since I arrived in Nepal and in that short period of time it climbed its way to being my favorite country I have traveled to!
Journey to Kathmandu
The many hours of flights passed quickly and easily, with the last 30 minutes of the journey presenting me with the most stunning views I have ever seen. At the end of my flight from Istanbul to Kathmandu, just as the sun was rising, we began our descent over the stunning jungle of Chitwan. Wide rivers wound their way through the landscape, flowing from the immense mountains to my left. With the snowcapped peaks beside me and a lush forest below me, the sun crested the horizon and bathed the scene in brilliant golden light. The plane made wide circles, giving me a 360 degree view of the landscape below me.
When I arrived in Kathmandu I was shocked by the lush greenery I saw. Moss grew on the sides of buildings, vines wound their way around telephone poles, shoots of bamboo lined stone walls, and wide trees grew on the corners of streets. I drove past elegant temples and was surprised by the immense numbers of birds I found resting on the roofs. When I reached my hotel, in the heart of the Tamal District, I felt a rush of excitement and fulfillment for this experience in a brand new country across the world. I had been welcomed at the airport by the brother and nephew of our family friend and they were beyond incredible helping me sort out everything I needed to make my experience so easy.
I spent my day in Kathmandu with a new friend I met in the Istanbul airport. While standing in line to board the plane, a girl my age came up to me to ask if I was traveling to Nepal. We got to talking and discovered we are both doing volunteer projects in Pokhara (though not the same ones) and decided to exchange numbers. We spent the first day together in Kathmandu exploring the shops and cafes in Thamal and immediately hit it off. She took the bus up to Pokhara the day after I did and we have been hanging out here together ever since.
Bus Ride to Pokhara
The 10 hour bus ride from Kathmandu to Pokhara was a long journey but such an incredible experience. Driving through Kathmandu and through the city outskirts around it was fascinating. I saw temples, intricate decorated houses, bustling markets, a rainbow of color from the women's dresses, and monkeys climbing on the power cables. Once we left the city the scenery stunned me – not only did we see the snow covered peaks of the Annapurnas, but we drove through the most dense and lush jungle I have ever seen. The hills were an electric green, even more vibrant than what I saw in Peru, and deep ravines exposed cascading waterfalls and rivers dotted with moss-covered boulders. Sitting in a seat as cushy and wide as an armchair, I felt utterly content and enthralled – I knew this would not be a bus ride spent watching movies or napping.
What I didn't expect from the bus ride was that I would befriend the most social, talkative, and hilarious four year old girl I have ever met. Sitting on her moms lap across the aisle from me, it took no more than five minutes before she was proudly introducing me to her toy dog named Sky and asking me a million questions. Her English was incredible and I was stunned by how quickly she switched from speaking Nepali with her mother and English with me. She was fascinated with my camera and her eyes lit up when I told her she could try to take some pictures. I showed her how to work it – she called pressing the shutter “doing click” – and she giggled gleefully as she began taking pictures of everything in sight. When I showed her how to flip the screen around so she could see herself and take videos she burst into fits of laughter and spent minutes making funny faces into the camera.
Her outfit was extremely color coordinated, she wore a black leather jacket, white tee shirt, black pants with cats faces at the bottom, and black and white striped shoes. In her hair she had a yellow star clip and two barrets with white crystal flowers and pink gems. She told me all about an award she won in school, doodled happily in my notebook, looked at many pictures of my dog, and loved wearing my big headphones and listening to my music – her favorite of the albums I played for her was Bad Bunny and she kept asking for more songs. She had an incredible love for spelling and would excitedly spell out English words she knew. When her mom told her to go to sleep she responded by shouting to the entire bus, “I can’t sleep I have too many energy’s! Energy! Energy!”. Talking and playing with her (which I did for about 8 hours) was by far the highlight of my day and I was extremely sad when we reached her stop and had to say goodbye. She was going to her home village with her mother for the festival of Dashain, Nepal's longest and most significant Hindu festival.
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