Pit Stop in Nepal

Well I'm a little behind on my blog for a few reasons. First of all, the site I use was blocked in China. Also, I've been quite busy with packing and traveling that the past week or so has been a bit nuts. But my last week in Asia was filled with lots of fun and adventures, and I will be sure to update with photos and stories as soon as I can. I am currently in Kathmandu, Nepal, where I am staying overnight in a guesthouse before heading back home tomorrow afternoon. I arrived here this afternoon after flying from Kunming-Chiang Mai-Bangkok-New Delhi-Kathmandu. It was a lot of traveling and I'm pretty exhausted but it's great to be back in Nepal, even if it's for about 24 hours. I will be catching the return trip of my round trip flight back to Syracuse tomorrow (Wednesday) afternoon. I will fly Kathmandu-Mumbai-Newark-Syracuse. Looking forward to getting some good rest when I'm back home....and seeing all my loved ones will be pretty amazing too.

leaving the Kathmandu airport

More of China

China was pretty great. When I had visited Beijing and Shanghai in January 2012, I left feeling that I didn't see any of rural China, and I was bummed about that. Luckily, on my last trip to China I got to see a great deal of the countryside and natural environment. Jack, Andrew and I were in Kunming for about a week. When we first got there we visited the Stone Forest, about 70 km outside of Kunming. The Stone Forest is made up of thousands of limestone formations that you and walk around and through and climb on top of. We had a great time exploring the area for the day. Although it was packed with Chinese tourists, we were able to explore some places that the tourist groups couldn't find.

On Thursday night we took a night train from Kunming to Lijang. Surprisingly, I slept like a baby despite the loud music and announcements in Chinese that played over a speaker in our room. We didn't realize until the next day that you could turn off the speaker. After arriving in Lijang, we bussed for abou 2.5 hours to Quio Toe, and we were dropped off right at the trail head. We spent the first day hiking and seeing amazing views of the Gorge. The Jinsha River, a contributor to the Upper Yangtze, divides huge mountains over 17,000 feet high. Some of the higher peaks that we could see were covered in snow. The views along the entire trail were incredible, and I found myself stopping often to look at the views (and catch my breath). We spent the night on the trail at the Halfway Guesthouse, which overlooks a beautiful view of the opposing cliffs and mountains, and is at 7,694 feet. We were overjoyed to be served a delicious dinner of grilled veggie sandwiches and hot soup. It was a bit chilly once we were settled in, but we were very welcoming to the cold after coming from hot Thailand. After dinner we sat on "Inspiration Terrace,"the deck overlooking the amazing view, and sat underneath blankets with hot chocolate and a strange version of apple pie. 

Made in China

We have made it to China! P. Jew brought us to the airport in Chiang Mai where we all had to say goodbye to him for the last time. We were all very sad to be saying goodbye to a good friend. We arrived in Kunming a little before midnight and were greeted by our driver who, although only a few minutes late, was out of breath from running to meet us and apologized constantly for being late. He was so nice and friendly and made our ride to our guesthouse very pleasant. At a toll booth Andrew, sitting in the backseat, rolled down his window to say "ne-hao!" (hello) and completely startled the young Chinese woman working there. We checked into our guesthouse, the Lost Garden, with some difficultly since we don't know any Chinese and the elderly man working the nightshift spoke zero English. Our room is a small but cozy room with three beds. You can tell that we have already made ourselves at home in our new room. We were overjoyed to wake up to a cool morning and although there are blue skies it is only 82 degrees Fahrenheit.

Off to China

We were woken early this morning when our hired driver, Clai, knocked on the door of our room and let himself in to make sure we were up. This was a very strange, unexpected, and hilarious instance that was a great start to the day. Shortly after we were on our way to the bus station in Nan to make our way back to Chiang Mai. For lunch I met up with Tara and Kimberly in the city where we ate our final meal in Thailand together. They are flying back to Iowa tonight as Jack, Andrew and I head to Kunming, China. We will be landing before midnight and our hotel is sending a car to pick us up. Although the forecast in Kunming looks rainy, the thought of cooler weather sounds wonderful. I have checked out of my room at Payap and said goodbye to my Japanese roommate, Honoka. I'm sad to be leaving Thailand but excited to be visiting country number 6 of my 5 months in Southeast Asia. Next week I will be visiting country number 7.....the good old USA!

Nan Day 3

Today we woke early and made our way towards Doi Phukha National Park. On the way there we stopped at two wats and got to hear a bit of traditional Thai music. At the national park we embarked on what we thought was going to be a short walk through the forest but it turned into a multiple hour hike through the Asian jungle. Andrew was not well prepared and wore slip-on sandals...Andrew ended up getting a few leeches on his feet, and the rest of us were worried about leeches for the rest of the hike. We ended up doing a big loop back to the national park headquarters instead of meeting our driver at our meeting spot. After our day of hiking we drove to a nearby waterfall called Silaphet where we ate lunch and relaxed by the water for a while before heading back to Nan. For dinner we found a place with live music and enjoyed some good food and music.

Nan Day 2

Last night we strolled through Nan's night market and ate dinner at a nice restaurant, ordering dishes recommended by the restaurant owner. The food was delicious, and quite different than the northern Thai food we are used to in Chiang Mai. Then we sat outside at the market to listen to some live music. The lead singer asked us where we were from in the microphone and after welcoming us, played a song "special for us!" They played two John Denver tunes, Leaving On A Jet Plane and Country Roads and when they played Country Roads they even gave us the microphone, and since Jack and Eric knew all the words, they were the stars and impressed the crowd with their sweet voices.

Today we slept in before trying out a new restaurant for brunch. The town of Nan has not really been discovered by tourists yet, and so far I've only seen about 3 other foreigners. Most restaurants don't have English on their menus, so we either choose a picture of a dish that looks good, or ask our waitress what her favorite dish is. We lucked out this morning and had some great noodles with soup, that was a bit spicy. For dessert we were offered some coconut jello-like treat that was pretty tasty. But then we were offered what we thought was going to be another sweet treat, but turned out to be something made with pork and had a very strange consistency. Eric had a hard time keeping it down with a straight face until our waitress walked away. We found a coffee shop after where we cooled off a little in the air conditioning before biking to a nearby temple called Wat Phra That Chae Haeng. This is the most sacred temple in Nan Province and parts of it were first constructed in 1355.

After exploring we ended our day with an hour long Thai massage. I'm sad that it might have been my last massage in Thailand. I will definitely be missing $5 massages when I'm back home.

Nan

We arrived in Nan this morning around 4am after a 6 hour bus ride from Chiang Mai. Luckily, we easily found a songthaew and were brought to our guest house. We felt bad to be waking the owners, but were delighted to be able to check in so early and all of us passed out until noon. Then we rented bicycles and spent the day exploring the small city. We visited Wat Phumin, which was constructed in 1596 and is called the Sistine Chapel of Thailand. The inside of the Wat is decorated with gorgeous morals that show what village life in Thailand used to be like.

Farewell Friends

This week was our final week at Payap University. For finals I had three papers, one exam, and one presentation. On Thursday night our group went out to a traditonal northern Thai dinner and watched a dance performance while we ate. Our program directors as well as our favorite professor joined us for the dinner. A few of the dances were similar to the ones we learned in our Thai dance class, but one was performed by a male that danced with six knives. After dinner a few of us went to one of our favorite bars to spend our last night together in the city. We returned to campus around midnight to meet up with the whole group and lit lanterns outside of our dorm. We wrote on each other's lanterns before lighting them and releasing them into the sky. It was a great way to celebrate our final night together.

I will be spending a few days in Nan, a town about 6 hours east of Chiang Mai. Andrew, Jack, and one of Jack's friends from home will be joining me as we explore the area from Saturday to Tuesday. Then Tuesday we will be bussing back to Chiang Mai before taking a flight to Kunming, China later that night.

P. Jew showing us how to light the lanterns

Jack and P. Jew

Tammy

Tammy and her dad, Gerry

Kimberly

Muay Thai Fight

Last night a group of us went to our first Muay Thai fight. I am usually not a big fan of watching anything very violent, however, this was a very special occasion. Believe it or not one of the people fighting was an American! And even better, he graduated from.....St. Lawrence University! His name is Brent Underwood, who graduated last year. He is 6'8'' and towers over all the other boxers. We watched several fights before his, and got to see several different age groups and even a few female fights. At one point they brought out 8 boxers that were blindfolded inside the ring and then went crazy for a few minutes. There was a mediator also in the ring who would push a boxer into another boxer if he wasn't near anyone else. A few times the blindfolded boxers mistook the mediator for another boxer and would get a few good punches and kicks in before they realized he wasn't there to box. Finally, we got to see Brent fight, and after a long anticipated night, his fight lasted about 30 seconds. His opponent was a good foot shorter than him, and within 30 seconds Brent had kneed his opponent in the face and knocked him out. It was quite an exciting fight and we had a great time for the night seeing a new part of Thai culture.

SLU gang (Jack, Andrew, Brent, me, Tammy, Emily, and Melissa)

the flyer for the fight

8-man blindfolded fight

the beginning of Brent's match

an obvious high difference...

Prom in Chiang Mai

Saturday night we had our long anticipated "prom" in Chiang Mai. We had all shopped around thrift shops and street markets looking for silly dresses to wear. We had our friend and songthaew driver, P. Jew pick us up from our dorm and bring us into the city. We had dinner before going to Loco Elvis, a karaoke bar, where we spent a few hours singing and dancing. After, we went to another area of the city and spent the rest of the night dancing.

Emily, Jack, Tammy and Andrew

Tommy and me

Jack, P. Jew, and Andrew

More of Koh Samet

Here are a few more pictures from my trip to Koh Samet:

view of the Bangkok sunset from the balcony of our hotel room

Du and me

Emily and Nicole

Our chartered speedboat to Koh Samet dropped us off right on the beach