Last one
After a splendid time in Mumbai, I said a heartbreaking goodbye to my new friends and took the flight back to Delhi (or Dilli as the locals say it). Delhi was not at all as bad as I remembered, it had become a warm and sunny city while I've been away - and the fog was gone! I had a fun night with the others at the hostel in combination with some beer, and this did not make me want to leave the next morning! Quite the opposite in fact.
Well, after 22,5 awaken hours I was back in Vasa, Finland. Back in the cold and snow.
It has been the best decision ever to drop everything and move to Nepal for an autumn, and I've met some really incredible people indeed.
Always remember:
" Even if you're on the right track
you'll get run over if you just sit there."
That's all for this time.
I'm loving it!
Suddenly in Mumbai
After beeing in Agra, and seeing the beautiful Taj Mahal, I spent a night freezing my ass off. And to make it even worse, there was only cold water in the morning. Beeing so dissapointed at the fact that India was a lot colder than Nepal, I booked an impulsive flight to Mumbai to escape the cold showers and all the damn fog!
So here I am, after some difficulties, since there were no trains from Agra to Delhi (demonstrations going on) so we had to take a 6 hour long carride instead and almost missed the flight. So now I'm at Mumbai Airport, with only the tiny backpack I had with me to Agra (the rest of my stuff is at the hostel in delhi, and I didn't have time to go and get any of it), with no accomodation, at 2 am in the morning. Oh well, it's impulsive all right, and a lot warmer!
Still in Delhi
The fun thing is that I thought the hostel we stay at was wonderful - soft beds, warm showers, free beer for dinner! And fruit (real fruit) for breakfast! Everyone else thought the beds were hard as stone, and that he showers were pathetically tempered. I suppose everything is relative depending on where you've spent your last 3 months... and if you haven't had a warm shower in a month or so, tempered water is a nice change!
Delhi
I'm amazed! Can't wait to explore the city tomorrow.
New year, old habits.
I have a feeling that's it's gonna be a hell of a good year, and now I'm off to sit in the warm sun and have a lassi (and some painkillers for my poor head!).
HAPPY NEW YEAR 2011!!!
Happy New Year everyone! I'll give you an update tomorrow on how mine started out.
Last day at IFCH
It's been an incredible opportunity to work alongside a great pediatrician and surgeon, and I've seen so many cases you'd never have a chance of seeing back home! This is because people can't afford to go to a doctor, or worse: don't believe in them. So instead they go to a temple and pray, sacrifice a goat, and come to the hospital when their kid had septic arthiritis for 5 months that now turned in to osteomalitis, and the kid can't walk anymore.
I've seen many kids die, familys (more or less everyone in the neighbourhood the family lives in) stand outside the hospital crying and screaming. And the funny custom of bringing your own food, or better, light a fire on the ground outside the hospital and prepare it there.
It's been an adventure, like my whole stay in Nepal. And this is not a conclusion, since it's not over yet. I still got a great new years to come, and I'm really looking forward to it!
The girls & me squished in a cab.
Chitwan
Still Alive! And still around for a new years celebration in Pokhara (yes, I did change my flight!).
Chitwan was surely a nice experience, if we look away from the beginning of the junglewalk when we had to run for our lives from a family of aggressive rhinos! I spent the rest of the walk trying to spot good threes that weren't to hard to climb, knowing I'm might not be the bendiest person alive (need to start doing that yoga again when I get back).
All that's left now before the departure to India is 3 days of work and a great new years with all my friends!
Christmas is all around us...
Tomorrow I'm off to celebrate the most unusual christmas at Chitwan nationalpark! I'm guessing it's gonna be an adventure, prepared with a couple of bottles of wine and our animalhats.
Don't know if the animalhats are the best idea we had so far, since there might be encounters with wild animals (and frankly I don't even want to know how they would react on a finnish girl dressed as a cow!).
I've got some great tips on what to do if I would encounter one of theese interesting (I say dangerous) animals:
Apparently the best way to deal with a sloth bear, is to climb a tree. Cause the male bears will go for your face, and the females will attack you down under... When encountering a rhino, one must climb a big tree! If that fails, it's good to run in a ziczac pattern whilst dropping an item of clothing! If you come upon a tiger, one must back up very slowly, and then turn and run.
And best of all; You cannot run from an elephant and climbing a tree will not help. If an elephant charges, you die.
So merry Christmas folks! Hope to be around for new years!
India for NYE?
One guy wanted to take me on a 2 week tour on his scooter, quoting: "I think the tourists visiting my country are like God, so we should help them as much as we can without any personal benifit.", and "I can be with you during your trip.." ???
Another guy with the lovely name "yummyman" said that he and his mate will be in Delhi for NYE, if I wanted to join. And a guy with the name "handsomeflirty" wanted to invite me to a private new years party in delhi, and, quoting "if we would like each others company then I can go along with you to jaipur."
I don't know about you but I'm getting a bit scared.
2K
I love Pokhara though, so much that I'm thinking about changing my flight to India and celebrate new years there with all my friends (cause that's what they planned to do).
Oh well, have to think about it. Now it's off to Zumba! Can't belive it took me a trip to Nepal and a nepali salsaclub to start doing zumba...
Pokhara, no. 2
We rented a boat yesterday for a short trip on the lake, and now it's time to do a longer boatride. I simply hope we don't fall in or that the boat sinks for that matter,since it's a very unstable leaking construction. Yesterday we got standing ovations from the shore after our performance of christmascarols whilst roaing the boat! I might have to think about a new career as a carolsinger or a cartoon-artist... so much to do,so little time!
The holy cow
On my way over here, to the internetplace, I thought about getting some moore money from the atm... I quickly changed my mind though when I saw that a big fat cow had parked in front of the door to the atm. What to do?
On the Wild Side
We asked an old nice man how much further it was, but after some struggeling with a phrasebook and a headtorch we were sitting in a teahut in this old mans village - apparently totally lost and still 4 hours away from Namobuddha!!!
The whole village gathered to watch us and hear the latest gossip (people even peaked through the windows cause there was no more room in the little hut), and we spent the night in a nepalifamilys home, in one small and very hard bed. With a big rat in the room (I'm convinced it was the size of a cat!), maybe the familypet?
Anyways, after breakfast we headed home without visiting Namobuddha, riding on the top of the bus cause there was no more room inside! I can tell you that the steep sides of the mountainroads seemed a lot more scary when sitting on top of a bus!
