Nepal day 3

We woke up today and immediately went on the hunt for street food. Brad and I found a place which had a restaurant which had a roof with no holes in it so we decided to enter. Matt was unimpressed with the quality of the restaurant so he decided to go elsewhere. Brad and I remained and enjoyed delicious meals. Brad was super white and had fried rice with chicken. I saw a local next to me eating a large dish called salakana and asked to get the same. Yet again, it had no meat in it and it tasted amazing! I was given a spoon but I chose to eat the meal with my right hand anyway, just like the locals around me did. I also got a 'milk tea' which I thought would be new and exciting, but turned out to be a hot chocolate.

We got talking to a local called Biso while we were at the restaurant. He told us about how he had to drive 4 hours to get to work everyday just to work as a barman in a hostel. And to think I hated traveling 1.5 hours by public transport to go to Uni...

At 2:00pm our Everest group had our first meeting in the loby of the hotel we were staying at. The meeting was dull and the presenter just recited what was already written on the trip notes. The group we are traveling with, on the other hand, seemed overwhelming friendly and energetic. As far as I can tell we the group consists of; 7 Aussies, 3 Brits and 1 German.

I organized to go drinking with quite a lot of them at the Irish pub right by our hotel. It was a lot of fun. Great music and great company. I tried Everest beer there. I don't know why but I suspect it will taste better at base camp.

It started raining and hailing towards the end of the night which makes me think the plane might be delayed in the morning. After all, our flight is scheduled to leave leave at 6:15am.

Oh yeah, my mum gave me the wise advice to drink lots while I'm climbing Everest. Thats why I plan to buy a bottle of rum when I arrive at Lukla airport tomorrow morning.

Well its 11pm right now and I have to wake up at 4am tomorrow morning, so I think I'll end my post here. I doubt I'll have WiFi to write about my Everest trip as I experience it, so for the next 13 days expect nothing but silence!

:D

Nepal day 2

Brad, Matt and I sluggishly woke up and guilt tripped ourselves to go for a walk around Kathmandu. I love the character of Nepal; there were shop signs poking out everywhere, electrical wires tangled in large clumps, and people offering you cocaine at 9:00 in the morning. Who needs coffee, right?

We ended up having breakfast at a place called 'bon appetit'. I had a Nepalese omlet which had absolutely no meat in it, yet somehow managed to taste amazing! How do they do it? I have to have to eat a whole cow to enjoy my spaghetti back home.

Just by walking around we found out today was actually a very special day according to the Hindu religion. All I managed to find out by talking to people was that it had something to do with the God of destruction. Consequently we payed 500 NPR to go Pasupatinath temple. The taxi wasn't able to drive us the whole way because it was so packed with people. There must have been at least 300,000 people outside the temple alone, and there was a line about 1km long to enter. Instead we decided to walk around the area to see if we could at least get a glimpse the temple. Sadly we couldn't see anything so we decided to swim back to the main street and catch a taxi back home. When we got back we talked to the receptionist why it was so popular to see the temple. He said it was because it was the only place and the only time that marijuana was legal.

For lunch we had 10 samosas and 3 'jerries' which are kinda like thin donuts. Once again a great meal without meat! How!?

Later we went for a pub crawl. We all got semi drunk on cocktails. I wanted to have beer but the cocktails were much cheaper and the bar staff kept over pouring local rum in my drinks. I just can't say no to cheap rum! Even when you account for the 10% tip AND 13% service tax its still very cheap. Oh we also got free popcorn! Win.

At one point a bunch of kids wandered into the rooftop bar to beg for money. Apparently its a thing kids do once a year for 'sibrapri'.

Nepal day 1

I arrived in Kathmandu in the early afternoon. Immediately I was given a flashback of Indonesia because so many people came up to me to try and offer me 'super cheap' taxi deals. At this point I considered myself a veteran for finding cheap taxis so I managed to get to the guest house for about $3.

I was dropped just outside the guest house and was immediately approached by a few locals trying to advertise a cheaper hostel for me to stay at. When I told them I'd already payed for the guest house they immediately changed character and asked me if I wanted to buy marajuana from them. Crazy!

I spent quite a bit of time in the guest house catching up on sleep and writing my blog. But after a few hours my body changed priorities and told me to go out in search for food. I tried 'alu paratha' - its kinda like naan bread and it tastes delicious.

I really like Kathmandu. Its nice and cold which is a refreshing break from hot and humid Thailand. The people also speak much better English here which makes it much easier to chat and talk to locals. Lastly, the architecture is very different from Indonesia and Thailand; all the buildings are really squeezed together, there are no side carts and the roads are much narrower - i think the city would seem very efficient and organized if it wasn't for the poverty that inhabits it.

Matt and Brad were scheduled to arrive at the hostel at 11:00pm, however due to immigration problems they arrived almost 3 hours later. At the time I was pretty paranoid and decided to contact their friends from the Philippines via Facebook.

When they arrived we retold a condensed summary of our trips and then passed out in our beds.

Thailand day 14

I woke up at 9:00am hungover and sleep deprived. After deciding getting more sleep was futile, I went on a mission to find the closest greasy meal. About 20 seconds into my walk I found a broken down, unhygienic shack selling rice, duck and some kind of sweet sauce. I had two servings to myself. I can't tell you how awesome it is to get the taste of cockroach out of your mouth.

By about midday Luke and I decided to go to Siam to see the capital. We went there with the intent of being energetic tourists, but the hangover got the better of us and we ended up unenthusiastically dragging our feet around town. We found this one gym which was offering a year membership for 20 Baht (80 cents). The thought of paying money (no matter how little) to do exercise sounded like torture so we decided to leave and head back to Khao San rd.

As soon as we arrived at Khao San rd I sought out the nearest massage parlor. I emptied my wallet in front of them and asked for the longest massage possible.

Later we got in contact with Sarah and Cassia. They were heading to sky bar and invited us to join. Sky bar was a posh and expensive bar that had a dress code. Luke and I were hungover, poor and didn't have a single buttoned shirt so we politely declined.

Instead we had casual drinks at the same pub we went to yesterday. There we met a few German guys and a Canadian. The Canadian guy was really cool, but he had a longer beard than me so I hated him anyway. After only about 10 minutes of talking to each other I casually mentioned without any hesitation or subtlety that we should see a ping pong show. The vote was a unanynous 'yes', so after a few more beers we were on our way.

The show was awful. It was expensive, unimpressive and only lasted 10 minutes. Convinced that we couldn't leave Bangkok on a low point, we decided to go somewhere for food and drinks afterwards. That was much better.

When I got back I slept for about 3 hours before I had to leave to catch my flight. Not an easy task.

Thailand day 13

I arrived at my Bangkok hostel at 5:00am. For some crazy reason the hostel is called Khaosan River Inn hostel even though its not on Khaosan rd and its not in a river. I woke up a receptionist called 'herro' who was fast asleep on the floor with the rest of his family right by the main entrance. They were very friendly and gave me the full tour of the 3 room hostel.

I took a 3 hour power nap and when I woke up I bumped into a British backpacker who was just checking in. His name is Luke Stratford and he's from Kent. Apparently Kent is not the same place as 'old Kent rd' from monopoly - don't worry, I asked. We decided to travel to Chatujak markets together using public transport. The bus was an overcrowded metal tube with 4 wheels crudely stuck to it, but at least it got us there in 1 piece for only 8 Baht.

I had hardly any space in my main bag to buy clothes or souvenirs but I had quite a bit of money, so I decided it was only appropriate to splurge on food. Soooo much phad Thai...

Afterwards we decided to go to Wat Pho to see the reclining Buddha. To save money we took public transport, which included a train and a boat - definitely more enjoyable than a Taxi. It was a 100 Baht entry fee, but it was totally worth it. The golden statue is massive! I think I overheard from a few 5 year olds that it was the biggest Buddha statue in the world.

Amazingly Luke and I weren't sick of each others company yet so we deided to walk to Khao San rd. There I managed to buy a singlet and even more Phad Thai. We then went to a pub and ended up making friends with an attractive girl from the Czech republic called Hanah. Over the course of many beers (not Chang beers, thank God) we got to make friends with a few more people; Sarah and Cassia. Sarah was a black German girl with an American accent and Cassia was just Brazilian. They were a lot of fun. Towards the end Cassia and I were quite drunk and decided to make a feast out of deep fried scorpians, maggots and cockroaches that were being sold from a cart right next to us. The local who sold us the insects was undoubtably in shock because all other tourists only ever have 1 insect as a novelty thing, yet without question or pause we made a full blown meal out of what was on offer. Just for the record; scorpian tastes like salty duck and chicken, the cockroach tastes gooey and salty, and the maggots taste like expired potato chips.

Oh yeah, we also ran into 2 really cool south Korean guys at the pub. They were surprisingly extraverted and showed us this really cool drinking game called 'appartment'. So much fun.

By the end of the night Luke and I were quite drunk so we thought it would be a good idea to share a motorbike home. It was 5:00am at this time so the roads were quite empty. This caused our driver to accelerate to speeds of 70km/hour. A really scary thing when you're dipping in and out of consciousness without any protection whatsoever. Our crazy driver just shouted out the slogan "no police, no problem!" whenever he went through a red light or started riding on the pedestrian walkway. At one point we actually started driving into ongoing traffic to make the journey faster.

It didn't matter how much beer or samsong I'd had that night. When I got back, I was sober as a judge.

Thailand day 12

I woke up this morning and found a tic crawling across my face. I overacted a little and crushed it with my shoes with an unnecessary amount of force an unnecessary amount of times.

My ferry to Krabi was scheduled to leave at 1:30pm so I had some time to mess around and walk around the beach one final time.

On the ferry I sat next to a middle aged Sweedish guy. We got talking about Europe and in the end he suggested I go to Denmark, not Sweeden, when I visit. He was bold, had a walking stick and sounded a little like Yoda so I think I'll take his advice.

When I arrived I walked around hopelessly trying to find the bus station which my hostel receptionist advised me to go to. My efforts were useless though because I later found out that the bus station was a 15-20 minute drive from the dock. This event and many others have given me the lasting impression that the average Thai person is really shit at giving directions and reading maps. In the end though, it turned out to be a good thing because I haggled with a local to drive me to the bus station on the back of his motorbike. I had all my luggage on me too so that made the whole experience pretty awesome. More than once I caught myself grinding my sandles along the road as we overtook a car or sped around a corner.

I rocked up at the bus stop and lazily approached the counter saying 'can I go to Bangkok, please'. I was in luck because they had 1 seat left. 1st class, baby!

The bus was frustratingly long and was scheduled to arrive at 4:30am (yes, am) the next morning. We stopped over briefly somewhere for food and I noticed there was some kind of car promotion party just around the corner. I spent 19 of the 20 minutes I had walking around the fnacy cars watching Thai models seductively dance on some of the larger cars.

Thailand day 11

I woke up this morning excited for the day ahead. I had payed $100 to go on a watersports adventure.

First we had breakfast with the rest of the travelers. I met 2 south Africans there who where extremely friendly. I talked to them for hours during the trip and got to know them really really well. I think one of their names started with an 'R'.

We then hopped on our boat and visited a small tucked away beach area filled with monkeys. The beach was creatively named 'monkey beach'. We brought food and drinks to give them something. The monkeys were very cute and clearly had become accustomed to humans because they came right up next to you to take bananas from you. Sadly a lot of other tourists fed the monkeys coke and sprite, and whilst I'll admit that its adorable watching them struggle with the aluminum can, I'm not sure of an animal that size can handle the sugar content of 5 soft drinks.

We then went to Maya beach which was part of a small island right next to Koh Phi Phi. It was beautiful. The surrounding mountains of rock looked completely uninhabitable because there was no horizontal living space, only vertical jagged rock. However we found that some mountain dwellers did live there and they climbed up and down the mountain using poorly attached peices of bamboo as ladders.

We then floated past a place called Viking cave. Apparently it was where a huge nest of sparrows lived. According to our guide the Chinese pay $4500/kg for sparrow eggs.

Next we had lunch by another beach. The beach was different to all the others because it had small piles of rocks stacked on top of each other. Our guide taught us that if you wear a lifejacket as a nappy then you can lean back on the water and rest a beer on your chest. I perfected the method after half an hour.

Afterwards we went snorkling around a few different locations. The visibility was pretty decent and allowed me to see; coral, fish and a few sharks!

We ended the trip by going wake boarding and water skiing. We had about 15 people on the boat and only 2 people were able to stand; me and one of the south African guys. Although to be honest I only stood for about 2 seconds before I collapsed backwards into the salty water.

Later I had dinner and drinks with a few more people I met at the hostel. They we're British this time! They were very friendly and extremely social. By the end of dinner we had grown to a crew of 15 people. All 15 of them wanted to play flip cup and beer pong at a bar nearby. I joined them but left shortly afterwards. I was tired and I honestly could not stand the taste of Chang beer anymore. It's a disgusting, watered down, flavorless and expensive drink - #tropicparadiseproblems.