So I went to Nepal.
And it was fun. You know, the old family trip, hanging out, making memories, exploring landmarks, and fighting each other.
It started with an airplane ride(obviously). It was a while ago, so I don’t remember the details. After we landed, we were drained—jet lag. Funnily enough, jet lag wasn’t an issue when we came back. Weird.
But I’m not going to give a full TedTalk about my trip—only a few highlights. Here we go!
MEETING FAMILY
In Nepal, cousins don’t exist. Only brothers and sisters exist-so every “cousin” is your brother/sister. So I technically have hundreds of siblings. We stayed at my grandmother’s house for the duration of the trip, so we were able to meet my mom’s sisters, my grandmother, and two cousins(aka brothers). Their names were Eugene and Sakar. I was able to spend more time with Eugene than with Sakar, but they were both fun to hang around. Fun fact: you can get someone into Pokemon Go VERY quickly-in the space of a week. We made a lot of memories together and I miss them ^^
SIGHTSEEING
We went around and saw Patan Durbar Square, the village of Hansapur, Shanti Stupa, Patan Durbar Square Museum(also in Patan Durbar Square, it’s very impressive), and many other temples. This was the part that involved DRIVING-if you get carsick(note – not sick of the car ride, nobody’s stopping for that)bring a few bags. I do and threw up around 4-5 times during the entire trip. The roads are turbulent. If you’re stopping to eat, please don’t stop at a pizza place. Stop at a Nepali restaurant. If you’re picky, get rice. If you don’t like rice, get naan or roti. If you hate that, eat chicken. Do you think it’s spicy? Get yogurt. Too sweet? I don’t know what to tell you. I’ve whittled down all the white people options >JOKE<. You’re gonna have to try your luck.
E L E F A N T E
Self-explanatory. We went on an elephant ride. If you want to do this, bring bug lotion. You can see some cool stuff on these rides-IF YOU’RE QUIET(insert pointed look at small children). We saw a mother and baby rhino, a kingfisher, many COOL BUGS, and boars. At the beginning of the ride, you can feed the elephants sugarcane. It was a very unique experience.
Lakhbatti Havan
Lakhbatti Havan is the name of a puja we did. Our grandma wanted to do this puja for us, which was the main reason we came to Nepal. It’s the ceremonious burning of 100,000+ handmade wicks. It was special but slightly terrifying, as the adults helping had to take the flaming bowls and walk around the temple three times. I tried not to get burnt(and succeeded).
Here are some tips if you want to go to Nepal:
-Pack lots of clothes-laundering at hotels is expensive.
-If you get nauseous during car rides, sleeping helps.
-Try to have fun and shleep :3
I hope this blogs helps you!
-Abby