Happy Turkey

Hello all,

I'm pretty sick - had to go to the doctor yesterday for antibiotics for tonsillitis - couldn't swallow or turn my head and my left throat gland and tonsil are huge - LOTS of fun, let me tell you! I have to rest for 3-5 days which means no teaching. :-( Sad. Sigh. A number of the kiddos are sick too.

One side benefit though... a friend called from Phuket (Shirley's brother) and I will be going to Phuket to stay in a nice bungalow for several days. AND... there is a restaurant serving a huge Thanksgiving buffet for the local expats so... if I'm feeling up to it I'll get to have Turkey dinner tonight with some Americans! YAY!! And then sleeping... and sleeping... and sleeping... no rest for the wicked! *chuckle*

Love to you all and Happy Turkey!!
Sawat-dee ka!

ps... Please don't worry about the Bangkok demonstrations and things going on there. I'm safe and doing okay.

Thanksgiving

Hello all,

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. I hope you are surrounded by friends and the people you love. Thanksgiving and Christmas are my favorite holidays so I am regretting not being home... okay a little! I do love Thailand and Nepal was wonderful so I'm glad I've taken this opportunity even though it means I won't spend the holidays with all of you.

Please eat extra turkey and potatoes and pumpkin pie for me. SIGH. That's the best part... overeating!

Because I won't be able to share my gratitude in person...

I'm thankful for all of you - my family and friends and for the opportunities in my life. I'm thankful I have my health and education and for the ability to work. I'm thankful that I'm a US citizen - for the good and the bad. I'm thankful for this opportunity to travel and volunteer. I'm thankful for the love I receive and give both here and at home. You are gifts in my life. Thank you for being part of my life and for sharing this with me.

And Dylan, this one's to you! It's an "OMG my girlfriend's off her rocker!!" moment so advance warning provided...

I'm also thankful that I'm not vegetarian... I'm thankful that I can eat and ENJOY eating turkey! For those who do not eat meat... I apologize for any offense ... but Turkey day would NOT be Turkey day for me with tofu turkey. My hat is off to those of you who choose to do this because I've considered (well maybe remotely considered) being vegetarian but I draw the line. TURKEY is not to be given up for any reason. Those of you who do eat turkey, please enjoy some extra pieces for me! I'll be drooling from Thailand and thinking of how to best enjoy it next year. Hmm, maybe I'll celebrate twice. Oh... and that reminds me... it would probably be hard to give up the Christmas ham as well. Sigh! Another meat eating holiday I can't enjoy at home! Oh well... yes ... I'm still a meat eater and probably will be next year too. Sorry Dylan! :-) (And Scott... and, and, and... ) :-)

Happy Thanksgiving and much love. Enjoy your turkeys ... tofu and all!

Catchin' the 8:pm bus to Takua Pa!

No it's not a midnight train to Georgia - yay! Georgia the country or Georgia the state! :-) Kind of enjoying Thailand thank you! Especially after Nepal. Thailand is like living in luxury after Nepal! Although there are many things I loved about Nepal and I actually am sad that part of my trip is over. I really enjoyed it!

I ended up getting to the bus station 4 hours early cuz I couldn't remember what time it left... I'm looking forward to being back at the school and seeing all the kids and staff. AND we have 4 new volunteers which is wonderful so I can't wait to meet them as well.

Love and hugs to you all.

Joyann

A girly moment

OMG OMG OMG... I fit into a pair of Thai pants!!! WOW! I'm SO excited. After trekking for a month and wearing nothing but ugly trekking pants (that are now faded and stained and mismatched...) and the occasionaly lungi (Nepali word for sari), I finally have a pair of regular pants! I have yet to fit the jeans but...

And I bought lip gloss and pink, blue, red and green nail polish and a pretty shirt... I'm tired of looking like a backpacker! I lost about 4 kilos/10 lbs hiking. Darn hard work... I was hoping the scale would say I was 20 lbs less! :-P Ah well. Cest la vie. Mai ben rai ka.

Cheers!

News

It's funny what being out of contact can do. I have a craving for news and information about home and the world. I'm not normally a news junky but the past few days I've been scouring newspapers and even bought the Economist. I also want to understand country development and learn more about a couple human rights issues. I'm finding I want to read and read and read. Fiction, non-fiction, news, documentaries...

When I was in Nepal, the elections took place on the day or two I was crossing the Thorang La Pass. I found out through an Israeli at dinner that night that Obama won the election. Strange feeling, getting important news about the USA while I'm remote in Nepal from another tourist who's not from my country... and learning it from an Israeli.

Traveling before, during and after the elections was interesting because so many people would ask me what I thought about the elections and who should win and why. Most of the people I spoke with hate George Bush and want to know why the US elected him twice. They say, "most of the Americans they've met traveling didn't vote for him... so who did?" All but one person I've met in my travels were in support of Obama. I won't tell you where I side on this - only my observations. I find it incredibly interesting how many people were paying attention to what was happening in US politics and that they had strong opinions about what the US is doing. Many seem to think that the "great empire" of the US is in decline and has been for a bit and that China will be the leader in the not so far off future - perhaps they already are.

Lots to think on, lots to learn.

Bangkok

I'm back in Bangkok at my favorite guest house, Asha Guest House. I'll be here another day or two. I'll take a night bus to Takua Pa either Friday or Saturday night.

I'm now reachable by e-mail and phone.

Love and hugs,
Joyann

Today

Hello all,

Nothing exciting to report other than I fly to Bangkok today. I leave Kathmandu at 3:30, have a layover in Bangladesh for a few hours (yay! I was able to change this to the same day so I don't have to stay the night) and I arrive in Bangkok about midnight).

I will miss Nepal - I'm a little sad to leave! Although I am looking forward to getting back to Yaowawit and the children. I've missed everyone there but... sigh... Nepal has been really wonderful.

I'm still sick. Spent much of yesterday in bed and ended up not going to see one of the best views in the world this morning because I'm still sick. I would have had to get up at 4:00 am to make the 1.5 hour drive to Nagarkot (sp?). Sigh. That would have been nice but that's okay. I've seen and met some amazing people.

I did get to see the Monkey Temple yesterday which was really cool but I didn't stay long.

I'll be able to post pictures once I'm back at the school where it doesn't cost me anything to download them to my computer.

I hope your Thanksgiving plans are going well - I'm in "Turkey Day Envy" as this is one of my favorite holidays!

Much love and hugs to you.
Joyann

Kathmandu

I caught the "tourist" bus to Kathmandu today at 7:30. Funny but it ended up being cheaper than the "local" bus I caught when I left. Depends on who you hire to help you! The road is much of the same route that I took from Kathmandu to Besisahar so I got to enjoy the beautiful winding, bumpy road for 8 hours today. :-) The last few hours are on steep hills - just don't look down and you'll be fine! Just kidding. It's not that bad but it can be if you get pummelled off by an oncoming truck or hit something or lose a tire... Actually it's not that bad.

We did however have an engine problem that took the driver and cohorts an hour or so to fix. No worries though cuz I brought an awesome book.

Sold (by Patricia McCormick) is a book about a Nepal girl who is sold by her stepdad and taken to India for sexual exploitation. About 12,000 girls a year are intentionally or unintentionally sold and end up in the sex trade. Some - maybe most - I don't know - are unable to pay their way out of the "debt" of the person who owns them. Some of the families think the girl is going to work as a maid to help earn money for the family. Some know and just need the money. Anyways, I finished the book - please read it - it's very educational.

A small side affect of reading on the bumpy roads is that I got really carsick and ended up hanging my head out the window for a good five minutes of puking. Now THAT was entertaining and the bus looked GREAT. I was on the right side of the bus and Nepal is left hand drive. With the narrow road I had to keep my eye out for anything passing too close! Kind of want to keep my noggin.

Well, it's about 5:35 pm (Saturday) here in Kathmandu and I'm off to find good food...

Did I mention? I'm off the mountain! I'm off the mountain! I'm off the mountain! :-)

Love and hugs!
Joyann

THANK GOODNESS!

I am finished! I thought I would be sad to leave the mountains but... cest la vie. I am not. I am HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY!!! I've been sick much of the time since we crossed the pass and add in the walk along the dry, dusty, boring road that goes much of the way from Muktinath and blisters... and... nope... the other side was much more beautiful and enjoyable and I was sick less so... I'm singing... "I'm done! I'm done! I'm done!" Now I'm shopping and resting cuz I'm still sick!

It is beautiful and this is an experience I will cherish. I've met some amazing people - mostly other trekkers - and some very nice Nepali people. A few that ripped me off and were jerks as well but... I am a tourist in a place that has 60,000 + a year on the circuit!

Correction to a previous post: Thorang La is not the highest pass in the world... it's the "biggest" and I'm not sure how they define biggest... widest? longest distance from bottom to top? Not sure. But it was pretty. And I'm glad I'm off it!

So... trivia question for you... and maybe someone else can top this...

-How many people can you fit on a Nepali bus that seats 19, including the driver? (And three of these are sitting sideways in the front near the driver)...

- On ours they had 30 people and 6 on top with the backpacks. (This is from Tatopani to Beni). I'm SURE we could have added 1 or 2 more inside and at LEAST 5 more on top. Okay, maybe not. And this along cliffs that are 6" from the wheels and mud that is 6-12" deep... Let's see... maybe I'll walk next time. No - I was exhausted!

The nest bus from Beni to Pokhara was much larger and you actually have room for western long legs but we still had people standing and that was about a 5 hour bumpy ride. I miss Seattle luxury Metro buses! I was so sick though I slept much of the way... head jerking around... I'll probably have whiplash... I couldn't move my neck yesterday.

I've had a cold for 5-6 days and had a "violent" (as my Canadian friend calls it) barfing and diarrhea episode that was non-stop for one hour but left me shaking and feverish for another 5 hours - I stayed in bed and passed out! I couldn't move. I was lucky though... it was hard and fast but it only lasted that one day. Others get it for much longer. I hiked another 5-6 hours the next day on not much food. Yippee! :-) Other than being sick though it's been pretty amazing and it makes for great stories. I also have a "special" story from the pass... email if you want to hear that one ... I'm not blogging it!

Anyways, I'm in Pokhara and will blog about the whole trek once I'm back in Thailand with free internet. It's really beautiful here - I'm telling you the "fun" part here but overall I'm really enjoying this. The food's purdy darn good too! And the food in Pokhara is REALLY GOOD. :-) And I'm off the mountain... I'm off the mountain... I'm off the mountain!

Love and hugs!
Joyann

ps...Upper Pisang

A few days back (about 5) I was really sick with the diarrhea and did an amazing trek with Gina. We often leave after Peter and Mascha because they like to leave earlier and sometimes go faster. So Gina and I did a route that many trekkers don't do. It's above the "Upper Pisang" route that is on the map. Ours was a dotted line without much detail. It ascends steeply and it's the route that the locals take to summit Pisang Peak. We reached an incredible viewpoint and then did a horizontal route until we decided to descend again to Guaru (?) I don't remember the lunch spot. It took us 5 hours to do what the Upper Pisang route does in 2-3 hours. We then had to trek 2 hours to Ngawall where we met the others (who were pretty worried at this point) for our lodging. I lasted about another hour before completely collapsing in my bag. Try having really bad diarrhea and being sick (having gone 5-7 times the night/morning before) and then having to go during the day while hiking and... ugh. And imagine having to squat over holes in the floor or on a dry trail and you have to remember to bring toilet paper. There are also no showers at this point as we're too high above the river. You get a bucket of water and if the lodge is friendly they'll heat it for you. :-) But YAY for water baths!! :-) Yeah, I know... too many details! But I hope I never get sick like that again! And this is me being really careful with my food and adding iodiine to my water and sanitizing and washing my hands!

But... back to the trek... that day was incredible!

Now I'm realizing I am spending my food trekking money on the internet... cheers and Namaste!

Muktinath, Nepal

Hi all,

I completed the highest pass in the world yesterday and never want to do it again! Thorang La Pass is incredible. It was amazingly beautiful and beyond challenging. Maybe in a few days I'll have kinder thoughts!

I got pretty sick at the top and tried not to think of AMS and not having ever had it... when you can't breath well and have a headache and want to vomit and your lips feel tingly (and I hadn't taken the medicine which makes you tingle so either cold or lack of oxygen?)... I almost lost it but eventually made it to the top. Gina (the German sister) was very helpful as I wasn't sure if things were okay or not so it was at least nice to have someone there! At the top I warmed up with some mint tea but I needed to descend quickly.

Small problem though... the German father/brother, Peter - of the trio I've connected with, busted his leg at the pass (not while trekking!) and that put us into a predicament. If you stay too long at the top you risk potentially getting the high altitude sickness (which can result in death) but there were no porters or horses to carry him down and you can't get a helicopter up that high - or use a phone to call for help. So... I had to descend asap because I wasn't sure if my symptoms were from AMS or the extreme cold and you don't mess with AMS and maybe see if we could get a porter. Another family from Canada though had already gone down and Hans was able to arrange a stretcher and 4 porters but with the time to descend, etc, it would be hours before help arrived. I met up with his wife and step son (10 years old!!!! OMG!!! What a trooper!!!) and we descended together.

Back at the top, the German trio and two German guys eventually hired the teahouse man to "porter" the two backpacks down and rigged a splint and the two Germans helped hobble him down. Consider however that we were at 5,400 m and the town below was to a descent of 3,600 m (Muktinahk (sp?)) which under good conditions typically takes 3-4 hours to descend - it's quite steep and it's exhausting but they made it about 1 hour after dark (with the help of 4 more porters who brought up a stretcher to about an hour from the village. AMAZING that they made it that fast as we didn't summit the pass until about 11:30 - 12:00 (having started at 6:00 am when the sun rose).

I was exhausted and there are many details I'm leaving out but will post more again when I'm back to cheap internet or in Thailand where I can load the pictures. This trek is absolutely amazing. I love it but will be happy to be finished! I have about 10 more days to go or I can wimp out and fly from Pokahra - about 1-2 days from here. We'll see!

I'm meeting some amazing people from all over the world. When you travel alone, many people form groups and continue on together for much of the trek. There are Israelis, Australians, Germans, Austrians, Polish, Swedes, Spanish, Netherlanders, Denmarkers (obviously I don't know how to spell all these or say them!), English, a few from the US - Colorado of all places!, South Africa, ... and I've really enjoyed many of them!

Anyways, I am safe and doing well. (The pass is over!!! YAYYYYY!!) I hope things are well for you. I am staying an extra day in Maktinath and will continue on tomorrow. Peter will be going by jeep to Pokahra and then flying to Kathmandu for the hospital to check out his leg. He is doing very well though!

Mush love and hugs.
ps - sorry if I can't respond to comments or e-mail right now. :-(