Boo's corner - Kristin's blog

 Well I am back by popular demand. I am writing this in the Qatar airport at 7:00 am on a Sunday morning. We arrived at the airport 3 hours before our boarding time because we confused our flight time with another. So we have plenty of time to kill in a not so interesting airport. We just dined on roast beef sandwich's and orange juice from A&W and for dessert we had a Oreo shiver from TCBY. There is no dieting on travel days. It is kinda hard to find stuff edible in most of these airports. Our last travel day lunch consisted of Justin and I splitting a can of Pringles that we bought for $7 and a Snickers bar. 

Anyways, here are the rest of the photos from Nepal and a few from Dubai. We are having a great time but it is quite tiring. We are on our one-a-days stretch of the trip. Basically, this means we have stayed in 9 different hotels in 9 days. Which is all fine if you have a small suitcase, which both Justin and I do not have. Every time I have to shut my suitcase I have to sit, sometimes jump, on my suitcase for it to close, EVERYDAY, it is getting annoying. Justin's suitcase does not even stand anymore on its own. He has to prop it up against a wall or my bag for it to stand. I nicknamed his bag BDB-bid dumb bag because it is. Big and dumb.

 Justin and I rode bikes around Pokhara. His bike was awesome, it is called the Honey Hustler. Hilar.

 Justin was not happy when he drove by the bike stand and they made him pull over so they could give the Hustler a tune up.

 A large dog for this town. I think this is Libby's long lost great grandfather from Nepal.

 A cute cow chilling on the side of the road. His nose looked moist and fun.

 Clouds hovering over the town of Pokhara.

 Justin setting up shop to photograph the sunrise over the Annapurna range of the Himalayas.

 

 We had to wake up at 4:30am to head up to Sangrakot to watch the sunrise over the Himalayas. We were the first ones up there and we thought it would be nice and peaceful. We thought wrong. 4 busloads of Indian tour groups showed up 20 minutes later. Indians are VERY loud. Even the people of Nepal think Indians are quite loud.

 If you are bored and want to see the sunrise over the Himalayas this is a pretty nice 2 minute video of the sun rising and people in the background ohhing and ahhing.

 The sunrises about 5:00 am, they do not use daylight savings in Nepal.

 The tall peak is called Fishtale Peak.

 It was totally worth waking up at 4:30am to see the sunrise.

 Boo Bears looking tired..

 Some of the shops they have set up on top of the peak. The wool blankets actually looked really nice. I should have bought one but I do not have any spare space. I can barely fit my soaps and lotions I am taking from the hotel rooms.

 The 3 guys in the background are checking out about Justin's gear, this happens everywhere. I get paranoid because he recently got mugged in Ecuador because of his huge camera. I secretly think Justin likes the attention from the locals...

 Some of the nice blankets for sale.

 I got several massages in this place. The massages are not as cheap as Indonesia or Thailand, where you can get a hour massage for $5. Here I got a half hour massage for $10, still pretty cheap compared to the States. Granted it is not a luxurious spa atmosphere at all. It is a hard bed with a hole cut out to rest your face and a thin sheet covering you. I received a oil massage and the lady got massage oil in my eye. My eye stung and was red for a couple of days.. I know I know, the tribulations of The Real Housewives of Nepal..

 After our experiences of flying in third world countries, such as Myanmar, we opted to drive everywhere in Nepal. As nice as Yeti Airways and Buddah Air sounds, I would rather drive..

 

 

So instead of taking a 25 minute flight from Kathmandu to Pokhara we took a 6 hour drive. A 6 hour bumpy, long, frightening drive. There is only 1 main road in Nepal and everything from Nepal's version of an 18 wheeler, buses shipping 50 people to and from India and rickshaws take this road. This road also winds in and out of the mountains. It is so scary. These people pass each other on a 2 lane road on the CURVES. Justin and I counted 4 huge trucks that were crashed in the ditch. Needless to say, it was not a relaxing trip through the mountains. With each pass our driver did Justin and I would look at each other and give the "it was nice knowing you" look. Justin was able to get some great scenery pics as he rode shotgun during most of the drives. I was in the back with the luggage and I was sure the driver was hitting every pothole he could..

 

This watch was a last minute treasure I found at TJ Maxx before we left for our trip. It has a calculator built in on the watch. It really comes in handy when you need to haggle in the street markets and need to divide a price by 70 to get the USD amount.. Plus the locals really get a kick out of my bright pink and orange watch.

 After a long drive we finally reached our lodge in Chitwan National Park in Chitwan, Nepal. The national park is home to tigers, the one horned Rhino and some white elephants.

 Justin and I on a early morning trek on a elephant to find some tigers.. No such luck. At all. But they do exist. Actually, a local got killed by a tiger just this past month..

 Justin and I posing with our elephant ride, Mallecalle.

 This is when Justin spotted Irma #2. I posted a pretty funny video in the last post of Justin kicking the spider out of our room.

 The elephant keeper and I on our way to wash the elephant.

 Usually when I ride an elephant there is a saddle. This time I was bare back and his hair was pretty pokey on my legs.

 Posing awkwardly on the elephant. There was nothing to hold on to except the really skinny guide and I felt weird groping him.

 I thought he was going to make the elephant kneel and I would climb my way off..

 All of the sudden the elephant rolled over and dumped me into the river. I was startled to say the least...

 Justin comes to hang out with Santecalle, the elephant.

 Just splashin around with an elephant. NBD.

 This is when I discovered I could touch his nose..

 I was having too much fun. But I think the guide liked it too.

 Justin awkwardly handling the tusk.

 What a great photo.

 When we were told we would be washing an elephant, I thought we would be using soap (I don't know why, do elephants really need soap?)

 Instead we were handed two large stones and were instructed to scrub his body..

Do you find it odd a lady is doing her laundry in the same place we are giving an elephant a bath? Ya, me too.

 Working hard to give him a good scrub. I think he likes it..

 So cute.

 Just sniffing around..

 Justin liked his eyelashes..

 Just holding a elephant nose..

 I didn't know what to do with it after awhile. 

 Justin giving Santecalle some skin..

 The elephant keeper uses that crowbar looking thing to tap on his head and steer him..

 Our waiter at the Sappana lodge. He loves his job. I really like that all the Cokes here come in glass bottles. So refreshing.

 Justin scouting for tigers on our jungle safari.

 No tigers, but we spotted 3 one horned rhinos.

 Tweet chillaxen in the jungles of Nepal.

 See the resemblance? 

Ya, me either..

 Justin and I goofing around on our first paid "business lunch" in Dubai.

 We thought we were really cool..

 Until we saw the menu.. It was all camel meat. Camel burger, camel cheese steak sandwich and camel meat balls. It was apart of our itinerary that Justin was going to have to do story on so we had to eat there..

 My camel burger, It wasn't bad.

 Justin enjoying his burg.

 Then our waiter brought us strawberry and vanilla camel milkshakes. I drank all mine, Justin just had a sip of his. They were tasty but I found out a few days later they were the culprit that made me sick. I had the driver take me to my hotel shortly after eating at this restaurant. I felt really sick. I was sick for a couple of days. On the last day in Dubai I told the driver that I think the camel burger made me ill. He said, Oh yes they are very strong, so is camel milk, very very strong even for locals. Uh oh I thought.  I then admitted I had a camel burger, a camel milkshake and a shot of camel milk.. He died laughing and said yes that is way to much camel milk. Not even locals drink that much. Lesson learned, never drink camel milk in mass amounts..

 Justin  not feeling so great after camel fest 2011.