The fossil hunt

I've been back from India/Nepal for almost three weeks. It was a grand ol time but you know what? The need to travel can never be satisfied.

Earlier this week dad told me he was going to Salt Lake City for the weekend to meet up with some buddies and go hunt for fossils. I was invited (or I heavily hinted how I wanted to go and kinda invited myself, who knows). I applied for a job a few weeks ago and had an interview last Monday. They said I would hear back soon if I got it or not. I told myself if I got the job I wouldn't go to SLC but if I didn't get it then a trip would be a nice way to feel better about my crap life. By Thursday I still hadn't heard from the job so I decided to go anyway.

Yay! A new update to Callapillar Travels!

So Thursday night I dicked around all day until midnight then I packed some stuff. Dad and I were coming back to Helena Sunday night so I only needed 2 outfits. I brought 4. We're driving so I could have brought 8 outfits. When I fly, I pack light. when I drive, I don't give a hoot. I mostly brought loose clothing because it should be mid to high 90's all weekend. I went to sleep around 1.

And woke up Friday morning at 6. Some assholes were playing the devils music (country) outside my bedroom window. I got up and ate some breakfast, packed some snacks for the road, and killed time before going to dads at 9. At dads we hung out for another hour before officially hitting the road at 10.

It would a 6 or 7 hour drive to Salt Lake City. At first it was fun and exciting but then it got boring and there was not much to look at outside.

Mmm.

Dad and I ate power bars and grapes and talked about religion and evolution. The interstate we were driving on was closed for some dumb reason and we had to drive through town and that was a time sucker.

We stopped at an army surplus store in Idaho around 2:30. I needed to get some gloves for the dig tomorrow. I found some for like $2 that fit then dad got a helmet and some MREs.

Army swag

Then it was more driving. I fell asleep at one point. Sometime who knows when we drove into Utah! The traffic started to pick up and it was looking more like a proper city.

Mormon country

I saw a sign that said "COSMO CONTAINS PORN" and below it a website called CosmopolitanHurtsChildren.com or whatever. I thought it was funny. I'm in LDS territory now motherfuckers.

We drove through Salt Lake and into a town right next to it, about 20 minutes south. Then we drove through a very nice neighborhood. Did some more driving. Took some more turns. And we were at dad's friend Tim's place!

His house is gorgeous. He and his wife Lana are both really nice and we had a cold beer waiting for us. We all hung out and talked while they put the final touches on dinner. We were having tacos. I had 2 tacos and drank a whole beer.

Then we sat outside on the porch as the sun went down. I took a few snapchats to let people know I'm up to fun things without having to actually talk to them.

The art of humble brag

We talked about me living in Salt Lake and the job opportunities. I could dig it. From the balcony we could see fireworks going off in the valley. It was a beautiful view.

Around 10 pm dad and I gathered our luggage from the truck and Tim showed us to our rooms. My room has a king bed with 10 pillows! I counted.

I did some blogging but will combine today with tomorrow. I went to bed at midnight.

Around 3 I woke up confused, thinking I was in Montana and wondering why my bed had gotten so big. After a few minutes I remembered I was in Utah and went back to sleep-

-to wake up at 6. I took a quick shower and dad, Tim, and I were on the road by 7. Good for us.

We stopped at a place called Kneaders to get breakfast and coffee. I had an egg and cheese croissant sandwich and an iced latte. It was all very good.

Breakfast

We were going to dig fossils in Wyoming. It was about a 2 hour drive. Tim and I talked politics and he slowly chiseled away at my liberal identity. Every day I stray further and further away from the light that is Democrats. We talked about refugees, universal healthcare, racism, and the gay community. It was actually a fun conversation. We were both respectful.

So the drive to Wyoming was enjoyable. We got to the fossil site around 10:30.

The quarry

You could pay for an hour, 4 hours, or 8 hours. We paid for 4 and dad paid for mine. It was expensive, like $75 a person. The guy running the place gave us a rock hammer and chisel. I put on some sunscreen, my hat and sunglasses, and got to work.

You can pretty much wander wherever. There was maybe 10 to 20 other people there and I never felt crowded. It was spacious. I started my excavation to the far left but eventually started moving right (just like my political views hahahaha).

On the left was a lot of broken rocks. I walked around not really sure what to do but having fun looking at things. Tim came over and showed me what types of rocks to look for. You want big pieces with layers to chip into. Sometimes you can see fossils from the side. He showed me what fish poop and scales look like. It was barely 15 minutes in before I found my first fossil!

OH MY GOD

I told myself if I found one fossil, just one, I would be so happy. And I found one! Only 15 minutes in! It's a beautiful fossil and I love it.

Then I found another!

And another,

Seriously I didn't realize how low I set my expectations. All we did was find fossils.

I slowly started making my way right where you could chip away at parts of the rock walls instead of going through chipped away parts like I had been. Tim would cut off big chunks the size of a torso and throw them down. Then I would start splitting them, usually down the center. then splitting those pieces down the center. Sometimes you found something interesting, sometimes there was nothing.

I found the top half of a big looking fish. It's bottom half was on another rock that broke in half. The guy running the place came over and helped me dig him out of his rocky grave. He said it was a freshwater piranha. It had a visible eye and teeth! I took a picture and put it on snapchat.

In my excitement I forgot how to spell the word split

It was hot out but not uncomfortably so. If I stood up too fast I got really lightheaded so I took a break around 11 or noon to put on more sunscreen and drink water. I've been having a lot of fun. There were a couple families there, some had really small children and some had young teens. Then there were professional diggers who had been coming to this site for a week. It was a really cool atmosphere.

BACK TO DIGGING!

Padre on the prowl

I found several fish, lots of scales, and a ton of poop. Around 2 I was starting to hit exhaustion. I took a 15 minute break then got to digging again for the last ten minutes. I found one more fish!

We were done at 2:30. We loaded up all three of our treasures into dad's truck and left.

We had lunch at a place in town called... I don't remember. I had a grilled chicken sandwich, it was good.

We got back to Tim's house at 5 I think. Everyone was filthy and caked in dust. I took a shower and noticed the back of my left kneecap got sunburnt. Dang it! It was the only part of me to get burnt so not bad for 4 hours in the sun.

I went upstairs where Lana, Tim, and Dad were. Another couple was there but I don't remember their names. Drinks were being had! Safe to say, Lana and Tim aren't mormons.

Sister wives circa renaissance

Those are cats in their pockets do you get it

Lana made me a moscow mule! We hung out for about an hour or so then the other couple left and we sat down and had steaks and vegetables for dinner. It was delicious. I didn't take a picture because that would have been so weird. We also had a mascarpone and strawberry pie for dessert.

We sat around and talked. It was really nice. Tim was telling us about an area where you can dig for geos and I thought that was dope. He showed me some of the geos he had found and they're legit. Then he gave them to me which was so sweet! I'm really excited about them.

Geo that's been open and one that has not

We were all pretty tired and went to bed at 9. I stayed up to finish this blog and went to bed around 10. But I had trouble sleeping for whatever reason. I finally crashed around 2 or 3.

I could end the blog here and I intended to last night, but dad and I did some fun things driving back so might as well make this entire trip into one post!

Up at 7. I packed up my stuff, made the bed, and hung out with everyone upstairs. We had fruit and cinnamon muffins for breakfast. then it was time to say goodbye to Lana and Tim. They're very nice people, I enjoyed my time hanging out with them.

Dad and I hit the road at 8:30. We had a long road ahead of us.

I saw my "Cosmo Contains Porn" billboard one last time on our way out. Dad and I we originally going to go to a national monument in Idaho called Craters of the Moon but it would have set us back at least 4 hours so we decided against it. Another trip, maybe.

Instead we stopped at a place called Hells Half Acre which has a lot of super old volcanic rock and a pretty hiking trail to walk around.

Dad collected some sage and I took some rocks.

We stealin'

Then back to the truck. Driving down to SLC we saw a cool bridge we wanted to check out but decided to do it on the way back. Well coming back we couldn't find the bridge! Neither of us remembered what state it was in either. We figured we had passed it a long time ago and simply missed it. Kind of a bummer. But then we saw it up ahead! Dad pulled over and we walked across the bridge and took pictures.

Can I be anymore cute?

Then we drove some more. I took a little nap once we got passed Butte Montana. FINALLY we were back in Helena. Hurray! Dad and I went to the carwash and washed off the truck. It was filthy dirty from driving to the quarry. We got home around 5. Maybe tomorrow dad and I will go through the fossils and clean them up.


REFLECTION!
This was a good trip! Fun people, fun places, fun things. Tim and Lana are great, my dad is awesome, and I liked Utah. I REALLY liked digging for fossils. That was such a fun experience. I would do this trip again. I think it would be great to come back to Utah and do some exploring in the city. I'm happy I got to do this!

Pictured: a paleontologist

7,416 miles

We woke up around 6:30. I slept alright considering this is the 5th hotel I've been to in the past 5 nights. I don't remember if I even woke up and wondered where I was in the night, which is something I do even in my apartment.

We weren't sure if we should have a complimentary breakfast at the guest house or venture off and find a restaurant to eat at. We decided to see what food was being served at the guest house first.

We found the dining area and the food was good. I had made to order scrambled eggs and toast, a slice of pound cake, yogurt, some weird cherries, and lots of cheese. We ate nearly all the cheese, it was so good. I didn't take a picture because my phone is at like 10% battery life. We don't have adapters for these British outlets so we can't charge any devices until we get out of the country.

After eating we walked around outside. It was cool outside, perfect sweater and scarf weather. Just down the road were a bunch of little shops. I stopped in a convenience store and got a Kinder Egg!

We went back to the guest house and charged our phones on the battery packs MJ and Sam had brought. When we were done using the chargers we kept them in the backpack I've been carrying. I'm the only one who has room to carry them and it makes me feel in control of the electronics so win win. I downloaded more Netflix until my phone ran out of room. Then I deleted all my social media apps (all 2 of them, Snapchat and Instagram) to make more room to download more Netflix.

The guest house took us to the airport at 10:10. It's a short drive thank god. Sam and Mary Jo got through security fine (although they made Sam check in his bag) but I got flagged for carrying too many electronics and had to have my backpack super searched. The security guy literally opened up my book and flipped through the pages like I could be hiding a bag of coke between chapters.

We were early, our gate wasn't announced for another hour. To kill time we camped out at Starbucks. I didn't have anything but it's nice to be somewhere familiar.

Our gate was announced and we, along with a thousand other British people, had to hang out in another section of the airport while we waited to board. I predicted days ago we would be on a flight with a bunch of Brits going to Disney World and I was not wrong. People were already wearing their mouse ears. There couldn't have been more than a couple other Americans onboard.

I don't know why it is but nothing makes me feel more patriotic than coming home to American after being out of the country. All these wankers going to Disney, why don't you take several seats. I'm going home.

Sam and I made jokes about being Americans and how great we are and why we should get special treatment. It was good fun. But then I was randomly selected for a security check. Coincidence? My detective skills are saying to curb my patriotism.

So I got pulled aside and Sam and Mary Jo were forced to board ahead of me. I got a thorough touching by my female security and I mean thorough. She should have bought this lady a drink first. Then I had to take out everything from my backpack and go through my electronics. One of the things Mary Jo gave me to carry for her was a brown parcel. Security asked me what was inside and I panicked because I didn't know so I just blurted out "A book." Turns out it was paper, which is what a book is but technically not the right answer so we had to go through that.

I was nearly the last person to board. Once I got seated I went right back to my Netflix. I've been watched House of Cards, The Office, and Ru Paul's Drag Race. I boarded around 1 but the flight didn't take off till 2 because of congestion on the runways.

Another 8 hour flight ahead of us. We were served a meal a couple hours in. I had pesto pasta and a salad and cheese and cracker. I was pretty hungry and ate everything and forgot to take a picture but it's airplane food so you can already imagine what it looked like.

We get free booze but I wasn't interested. I did order wine and whisky but passed it off to Mary Jo and Sam.

Around 5:30 when I was typing up the old Callapillar Travels, a flight attendant handed me an iced lolly.

It's like a popsicle with chocolate and sprinkles and some frosting. Was it good? Not particularly. Did I eat the whole thing? Yeah.

Nearing the end of the flight we were giving more food. A cheese sandwich and tomato chutney, a bag of chips-excuse my American tongue I mean crisps-and a piece of chocolate. I wasn't hungry but ate it all out of boredom. It was good. Tomato chutney was weird though.

When I wasn't watching Netflix I was playing Sudoku.

I AM THE CHAMPION

Finally we landed in Gods country around 5. I'm not technically home yet but it feels like I am! I'm so glad to be back in the states, you'd think I was away at war for years and not India for a couple weeks.

They wouldn't let us off the plane for over 30 minutes because of congestion. Maybe they didn't realize they had Americans on the flight. We had to wait forever.

When they let us off we finally started getting some of that special treatment we'd earned this trip. All the UK people had to wait in the longest line I've ever seen in my life while us yanks got to skip to the front to an electronic check in where we scanned our passports and it took our photo. We passed that off to the passport control office and he welcomed us home. No random security searches for this girl, god bless. I'm done being treated like an ISIS sleeper agent.

By now it's like 6:30. We had to get Sam's bag for baggage claim. It took maybe an hour, it was ridiculously crowded. There are so many British people going to Disney. They're all idiots, honestly. It's 4th of July weekend this is a terrible time to go to Disney World.

Michael and Katie (Sam's girlfriend) had drove to Orlando to pick us up. That was very sweet of them! I was happy to see both their faces even if I didn't recognize Katie's.

They really lightened the mood. Things haven't been tense between Mary Jo, Sam, and I, don't get me wrong. They are both two very easy people to travel with and I owe them all the kudos and credit. It's just nice to have fresh faces into the mix and new people to talk to.

Although I didn't do much talking. I was exhausted. Michael had packed a cooler of drinks and snacks for us and I had a glass of juice and a cracker and cheese before falling asleep sitting up. It's a 4 hour drive from Orlando to Tally but it only felt like an hour. It's weird driving on the right side of the road after using the left lane for weeks. I feel uncomfortable about it.

We're all gonna die

We got to the Peltier home around 11 or midnight. I said hi to Kereyo and everything was kind of a blur. It's midnight Tally time, 5am UK time. My stomach was killing me. All that cheese has caught up to me and I'm paying for it now. As god as my witness I'm never eating dairy again.

I fell asleep with terrible cramps around 12:30.

So to wrap things up and keep this from being a short post, I'm going to continue on with the next day which is the last leg of my journey.

I woke up early around 6. I am ready to come home to Montana.

I had coffee with Mary Jo and Michael and ate an entire bowl of mangos. I freaking love mangos.

My flight left Tally at 10 so we drove to the airport at 9. We chatted in the car. When it was time to leave my big ol eyes started to water up. I want more time with Mary Jo. I didn't get sick of her, not once this entire trip. It really sucked having to say goodbye and my words just got caught in my throat and all I could do was smile and wave goodbye and thank her.

Into the airport I went, back in my natural habit. I waited around for my flight to board then I waited for it to take off then I waited for it to land. The theme of today is waiting.

I landed in Atlanta. It's Sunday. No Chik Fil A. Jesus weeps.

From Atlanta I went to Salt Lake City. I haven't been to this airport in a long time. I talked to my mom and dad on the phone, both are happy I'm back in the States. In Salt Lake I had to wait 4 hours to go to Helena. I was falling asleep in my chair waiting to board. I fell asleep on the plane.

I landed in Helena around 10. Dad and Ian picked me up at the airport. It sounds cheesey but seeing their faces made me realize I was truly home. That was when the trip officially ended, on the happiest of notes.


REFLECTION!

Here's a fun fact: this trip marked the furthest I've ever been from home. From Orchha to Helena is 7,416 miles. In Nepal I was the furthest timezone way from home, ahead by 11 hours and 45 minutes.

I didn't think this was going to be a vacation. I went to India and Nepal for the experience. I thought I would enjoy things like the food and history and learning about religion and I was wrong. I found these topics hard to embrace.

On the contrary, things I thought would scare me I ended up loving, like the people and the chaos. I really did like the chaos. There was endless traffic and blaring horns and crowded streets and people approaching you and the bright colors and it was exciting. You just go with the flow. And the people? I know I've mentioned how annoying it was with the picture taking, but that wasn't the case for most people I encountered. Most of the people I met, especially in more rural areas, were so hospitable and kind. The women of Sasane and Sheros are so beautiful and strong and brave. The children were sweet and so precocious and cute. I was honestly touched by the locals.

But the people I can't say enough about are the ones I spent so much time with in our little travel group, particularly Mary Jo. She seriously made this trip fabulous. MJ showed me a beauty to India and Nepal that I wouldn't have seen on my own. She is a very special person and I am so thankful I got to go on this trip with her. I don't know if I will be back to India or Nepal. If I do, my only requirement is that Mary Jo goes too. Maybe we will go to southern India or Tibet.

Peltier and Nelson family

Tu mera hero

Who knows what time we woke up, I'm losing my note taking gusto. What I do know is that we had breakfast in the hotel around 9. It was a little confusing, we had table numbers that we had to go up to chefs and show if we wanted eggs. Of course I wanted eggs so I had them make me scrambled eggs.

Then we had a HUGE selection of buffet style food. I mean literally I could make a paragraph about the different drinks offered. I had black coffee, watermelon juice, and an iced coffee. 3 drinks for breakfast! Then for food I had a mini pancake and waffle with a side of nutella, some asian pasta, yogurt, fried tomatoes, hashbrowns, bacon, and an orange wedge.

EVERYTHING WAS DELICIOUS. This is probably one of the best breakfasts I've had in my life which is a bold statement. Mary Jo shared her fish and smoked chicken with me and those were both amazing too. Once we finished eating we realized there was another section to the buffet we didn't see... the bakery. So I had banana bread, a croissant, cheese and crackers, and a roll. Mary Jo and I split some donuts and pastries too.

I LOVE CARBS

I ate so much food but it's okay because I've lost weight this trip. I think I gained it all back with this one meal.

We went to the room and packed. I had a lot of extra space in my suitcase (because I only wore 3 outfits these past 3 weeks) so Mary Jo gave me some of her stuff to keep in my bag, like toiletries and gifts.

We had a taxi take us to the airport at 10:30.

Getting into security was fine for Sam and Mary Jo. My pink suitcase got flagged and the security asked if I had scissors with me, which I denied. They were adament I had scissors and wanted them out of the bag. Turns out MJ had these tiny baby scissors in her toiletries bag. Security took them out and showed me them. "These are scissors," they told me in a tone that suggested I was an idiot. They weren't a fan of me but they really liked Sam. He had a shirt on that said "Rice, Lentils, Power, 24 Hour" that they literally thought was the funniest thing. MJ was wearing a shirt that had a cat in a pussy hat. We look like quite the assemble.

The infamous shirts

We got on our flight and said goodbye to India. In honor of leaving this country, I made a shoddy list of all the words I've learned. Some of these are not spelled correctly, more like how they would sound if pronounced. I didn't learn reading and writing damnit.

Namaste*- Hi (or more accurately, the soul in me recognizes the soul in you)

Dhanyawad- Thank you

Aapkaisay?- How are you?

Teek hay- Good

Firangi- Foreigner

Dosa- Pancake

Paneer- Cheese

Naan*- Bread

Chai*- Tea

Sheru- Lion

Tu mera hero*- You are my hero

Dhanyabod- Thank you (nepalese)

Jam jam- Let's go (nepalese)

And there you have it. I can say 'thank you' and 'pancake'. Oh and I can count to 10. I learned a lot of other words too, but I would have to look them up. These are what I learned and can recite instantly.

On the flight I watched a few movies. I saw Lion, which is about an Indian boy who gets lost from his family and adopted by Australians, then tries to find his family as an adult.

Dev Patel is such a babe

It was good! Then I watched Arrival which is about Amy Adams and aliens. It was really good, it took place in Montana. But mostly I watched all the Netflix I've downloaded onto my phone.

We were served a meal, I had chicken and mashed potatoes and vegetables. It tasted like a microwave dinner but I didn't mind.

We had another light meal hours later. I had lasagna. It tasted worse than a microwave dinner and I minded a little.

Finally after 8 hours on a plane, we landed in Heathrow at 6 pm UK time (which is 10:30 pm Dehli time). It took about half an hour to get through border patrol then we found our bus to take us to Gatwick, since that was where we were flying out the next morning (it's so much cheaper to change airports). The bus ride was painful, I was so tired I could hardly keep myself awake. There's nothing to look at outside while driving between airports.

We got to Gatwick at 9:30 (1:30 am Dehli time) and Mary Jo got us a taxi to take us to the last destination of the night.

The Lawn

We were staying at an English guest house called The Lawn. We were arriving late (10 pm) and they'd emailed us instructions on how to get into the property and how to find our room. I memorized them on the bus ride and was able to punch in the number code and find our room keys and wifi easy enough. The room is nice and the bathroom is even nicer.

We fell right to sleep around 10:30. It's 3 am Dehli time, which is what my body thinks is true. I was exhausted.

*Okay I actually knew what these words meant long before I decided to take a trip to India. I knew "Tu mera hero" from a song I found years ago that I really liked. It's the only Indian song I knew prior to this trip and I still really like it. It's called Subha Hone Na De.

Aerocity is weird

Up around 6:30 today. I met Mary Jo down in the hotel restaurant for breakfast. They had mashed potatoes for breakfast. It was strange but I approve of this.

Had to ask to make sure these were green beans and not peppers

It was good. We got our stuff packed up shortly after then left the hotel at 10 for the airport.

We were flying back to Dehli. We got checked into the airport easily enough. Abhi suggested we give it 3 hours but we could have done it in 1 hour. There was a lot of waiting around for us.

When we first got to the airport we had to go through security. They let my water bottle through but I had to get felt up by female security. Then when we got to our gate we had to go through the same process again. Then before we could go on the plane, like literally outside right in front of the plane, we had to go through the same security a third time. My bottle of water was fine the entire time.

On the flight we had to wait more. From the window I watched some dirty hippie white guy take pictures outside the plane. After like 30 minutes that guy got onboard. He took his seat and we had to wait seriously another 20 minutes because I think that dirty hippie was being difficult. He had 3 flight attendants with him trying to explain something, I don't know. I hate him. I watched the Netflix I had downloaded earlier to kill time.

I continued watching Netflix. Around 2 we were served full cans of Stella beer. That was strange but I approve.

Then they gave us a meal. Seriously this flight is only like an hour and a half. The food was Indian of course but they gave us a KitKat which I would never eat in the States but here I was grateful for the chocolate.

We landed back in India and our clocks went back 15 minutes. We went back through the Visa Control area and everything went fine. We were staying at a hotel in Aerocity, which is I think just a nickname as we were still in Dehli. It's like airport city. When we drove up to the hotel gates we had to stop the car and guards searched the engine and trunk. Our hotel was the Holiday Inn. Can't get much more patriotic than that!

What the hell

Before we could go inside the hotel we had to go through security which consisted of bag check and getting the pat down behind closed curtains. I'm starting to get used to all this touching, yikes. It took a moment for Mary Jo to get us checked in. The staff was overly friendly. They kept offering to help me or give me free drinks. They took our luggage up to the room.

The room is very nice! We look over the pool. The three of us our sharing the room, they brought us an extra cot for Sam to sleep on. We hung out for an hour. My kindle wouldn't connect to the wifi so I'm now like 11 days behind on the blog. Fuuuuuuuuuuuuccckkkkk

Mary Jo and I left to explore the hotel! The pool is nice, it has cold water. There is also a pretty decent workout center, gendered saunas and steam rooms, 2 restaurants, 2 gift shops, and an alcohol free bar. Apparently a couple months ago there was a Supreme Court ruling that banned alcohol in Aerocity. I bet the bar here was pissed. It's a very nice bar and all they serve is juice and mocktails.

We left the hotel to explore down the road. There's 3 large building complexes. Building 3 is for clothing, Building 2 is for food, and Building 1 is (I think?) offices. We choose door number 2!

We had to go through security again (you know the drill) and then we were inside. This place is weird. I don't know if it's under development or finished. Obviously this place was meant to hold a lot of bars but the Supreme Court shot that idea down. There were 3 floors, the first 2 held nothing but advertising of the building itself. The 3rd floor had oven a dozen counter service options for food. They had a Subway and Pizza Hut and a bunch of things I didn't recognize.

With our new food information, we went back to the hotel. Had to go through security again of course.

We watched Zero Dark Thirty with Sam in the room. The film takes place in Pakistan but damn it looked like India. Kind of a strange movie to watch, considering where we were.

It got dark at 7:30. We left at 8 to go back to the food court building and back through its security. Then we had to decide on what to eat. I can't do anymore Indian food, I just can't. I'd rather go without food. So we got a veg pizza from one place and Indian food from another.

It was alright. We ate then got ice cream at a knock-off Coldstone Creamery called Oh So Stoned. I had chocolate peanut butter!

Whoa there

Oh my

We ate our ice creams on the way back to the hotel. We had to go through security again. I was eating ice cream while getting the pat down. That's 8 times today we got patted down.

Back in the room, I showered and played on my phone. I think we went to bed around 10, I don't remember.

Champagne on Everest

I had the worst nights sleep! I kept waking up with anxiety about money, then weirdly enough at 4am I get a text from my bank saying $200 had been taking out of my account. What the frick frack. I assumed it was from trying to use my card yesterday to pay for mine and MJ's flight to Kathmandu. I texted my mom and she had accidentally paid the phone bill on my credit card. So there was no reason to freak out. But freak out I had done and I couldn't get back to sleep so I got ready for the day and went to the lobby to hang out with the hotel employees.

About a quarter after 5 my group started showing up. 8 of us were taking a flight to see the Himalayas and possibly Mount Everest. It cost $200 and MJ gave me her card so I could pay for it with that (since my card won't work anywhere. I'm going to write her a big fat check when we get back to the sweet land of the free).

We got in the van and didn't get very far before having to turn around because Morgan forgot her passport. Then we were on our way to adventure! By 5:30 we were checking into Yeti Airlines.

We had to do some waiting around. We wouldn't know if the flight was cancelled or not to due clouds until 6 or 6:15, but the flight was good to go. We got on a bus at 6:30 that took us to our plane.

Everyone onboard had a window seat. I sat in the second to last seat in the back.

This baby animal is ready to see some mountains

Kathmandu from the skies!

And then we hit a lot of clouds. It was nearly white out.

son of a bitch!

But we got above the clouds and into the clear air where we could see a few mountains with their peaks poking through.

Langtang Lirung (23,734 ft) and Shisha Pangma (26,290 ft)

Our flight attendant did an excellent job. Whenever we saw a mountain, she would come up to each of us and point it out on our maps to tell us what we were looking at.

Things were happening fast! I didn't manage to get any more mountain pictures because THE mountain was off to our right... Everest.

Unfortunately, I was on the left side of the plane and couldn't get a decent view. My heart was about ready to break and I gave our flight attendant my most pitiful expression. Then she told me it's magically my turn to go to the cockpit (everyone is invited in, one by one).

Co pilot Nelson reporting for duty

Directly in front of us, the pilot pointed out, was Everest!

"Because it's there!"

Hallelujah! We made it boys and girls! I couldn't have imagined a better scenario than seeing it from the cockpit.

After we returned to our seats, our lovely flight attendant gave us each a glass of champagne. My group toasted and cheered. This is one of my favorite moments from the whole trip.

A toast

Who gave this baby animal alcohol

We landed around 7:30 and were each given a certificate of our endeavor.

Tada!

After leaving the airport we went back to the G Adventure office to pay for our flight. MJ's card worked, $200 spent. We returned to the hotel to have breakfast at 9.

It was fruit, an egg, some fried veggies, bread with cheese, and yogurt with fruit. It was a good breakfast. I finished eating and everyone sat around chatting, then I got bored and went back to the room to pack.

MJ came up to tell me everyone was leaving so I went back downstairs to say my goodbyes. I a couple of them got hugs from me. I told everyone I was glad to have met them. I couldn't find Abhi but he found me some 30 minutes later and we hugged it out too.

Sam, MJ, and I got together and packed all of our stuff. Everything fits in our suitcases so good on us.

We left the hotel at 12. Most of our group was going back home but we had another day in Kathmandu. MJ had booked our hotel ages ago with the intention that we would be staying at the same property instead of moving locations. But G Adventures had upgraded our trip and didn't notify us we switched hotels in Kathmandu (which is a good thing we were upgraded. Before the upgrade, we were suppose to be staying in tents one night so praise Vishnu that didn't happen). So G Adventures arranged transportation for us to the next hotel.

The street outside our new hotel was undergoing construction. It's a rocky, muddy mess of a road. We got into our hotel and we were too early for check in so we dropped off our luggage and went exploring. Walking through the streets was interesting. There's no sidewalks and traffic is going this way and that and you're trying not to step into any thick mud and you're sliding all over the place because it's slippery. We stopped by a few restaurants to check out the menus.

We went back to the hotel around 2 and got checked in. It's a modest hotel, similar to most of the ones we were staying at in India. I was super tired from my restless night and early morning so I took a nap.

MJ and Sam left to go exploring more and I slept. They returned around 4 and I got up. Then I decided to sleep more. I woke up again at 6 for dinner.

We went to some restaurant not too far from the hotel. I had a cosmopolitan and a chicken pesto panini (forgot to take pictures!). It was good. We had a lot of food. I only ate half my sandwich. The place didn't take cards so Mary Jo and I made a quick dash to an ATM. We left the restaurant around 8.

Back at the hotel, I tried getting caught up on typing. I showered and went to bed around 10.

My bed was right under the AC and it was freezing! I had to turn it down because my nose was frozen. I fell asleep around 11 or 12 which is very late for me this trip.

Today I got to see Everest in person. That's amazing. I've always wanted to climb Mount Everest (not to the top but at least base camp) and I thought seeing it in person would satisfy that want. It didn't. I still want to set foot on the mountain.

Kathmandu

I woke up at 6. MJ had made it back to the room but neither of us could remember how she got in.

It's still raining in Pokhara. We each had the option to drive through the mountains for a 7 hour bus ride or take a 20 minute flight to Kathmandu for $100. I get driving anxiety and it had been pouring rain all night. Mudslides are an issue when driving through the mountains so I choose to take the flight.

Breakfast was at the hotel. I had pancakes, pasta and potatoes, a chocolate muffin, and some bread thing.

CARB CITY

I also had them make me scrambled eggs that were amazing. I filled up on food.

We got on the bus at 7:45 to go to the airport. 7 of the 11 of us were taking the flight. We were flying with Yeti Airlines.

We had to wait around a while before they let us through security. Security is a strong word to use. They let my full bottle of water through and the guard by the metal detector was on his phone and didn't care that each and every one of us was setting off the alarm. Then we had to go behind closed curtains to get a pat down. Ladies always get lady officers, dudes get dudes.

We boarded the tiniest airplane at nearly 9.

I sat right next to the propeller. The bumps on my hands have gotten worse, they're spreading further up my pointer fingers. Someone last night said they might be a heat rash.

PICTURED: Malaria

We took off shortly after. Each of us had a window seat. The plane only holds 3 seats per row, 1 on one side and 2 on the other. I sat in the 1 so I didn't have anyone next to me.

Goodbye Pokhara!

We flew over some of the himalayas but the clouds were too thick to see much.

Then we landed at 9:30. It was less than a 30 minute flight. We had to take a van to another section of the airport where we met our tour guide for the day, Rajan. He took us to another van and we drove around Kathmandu.

Kathmandu is much bigger than I thought. The roads are crap with billions of potholes and too many people. A lot of the people are wearing those surgical masks but the pollution isn't bad here. I see blue skies. It's a very nice day, probably the nicest we've had this whole trip. I could wear my hair in a braid instead of off my neck.

While driving we passed by a group of people carrying a dead body. It was wrapped in an orange cloth so we couldn't see anything but they were carrying it to the river to wash.

Our first stop was at the Great Buddha Stupa!

It was a hub of activity. Surrounding the temple are tons and tons of shops and cafes. It was fun to walk around.

Shopping

We went inside a buddhist monastery next door. There's this giant wheel thing you have to walk clockwise around 3 times. I think it's a prayer wheel.

Then we went into an area where monks were reading scriptures. No pictures allowed. I didn't like this. The monks, over a dozen of them, were sitting across from each other and sounded like they were at an auction. And I saw their iphones charging off to the side.

We left to walk around the buddhist temple thing. You can't go inside, but it's layered and you can walk around the first layer which is several feet above street level. It was pretty. I love the flags and all the color.

Rajan took us over to a place where thangka paintings are done. It sounded like quite the craftsmanship. First, nothing is freestyle. They have to follow certain designs from a book.

The outline

Finished!

This one is called Life of Buddha

They take months to make. The experts have to use certain tools and we saw one of them working with a writing utensil that was sharper then a pencil.

They showed us some of the paintings that were for sale. The ones done by students are around $20, while that same design (because they only have so many designs to pick from) can be over $300 when done by a pro. And you can tell the difference. It's really quite impressive.

We left the Great Buddha Stupa around 11:15 and went back to the van. We were suppose to go to the monkey temple but our group was a little on the lethargic side. They said they were hangry but I think they were hungover from hookah partying last night. So we drove on to get lunch.

We passed by the funniest sign I've ever seen. It was for playing pool-

It reads "Hold the cue in your hand like a bird don't crush it to death, but also don't. Let is go. Game is 90% mental. The other half is physical." It had me dying! I don't know if it was the weird grammar or wrong fractions but I loved it.

Before we went to lunch we stopped by a G Adventures building to pay for our flight. It cost $100 and my card wouldn't work so MJ had to pay for mine. I feel like such a moocher.

We drove on. There were monkeys climbing the electric wires above the streets. We stopped by the Patan Museum to eat. It cost $10 dollars to get in which annoyed me (but that's because I didn't realize we were going to the museum after we ate, silly me).

The restaurant was in a quaint garden and very peaceful and lovely. Their menu had a lot of good food. Under salads it said you can pick your own greens with their gardeners assistance. I ordered fish and chips.

It was very good. I was so hungry and thought the portions too small. It cost 650 rupees, or $6.50.

We finished eating at 1:45 and went to the museum. They had a shit ton of information on gods. We were a little pressed for time so Rajan told us to take pictures so we could read about it later on the bus. That's something I already do so I can remember what to say on this blog.

It was a great museum, although it was set up weird. You had to walk through tiny doorwars into modest rooms, then more small doorways to the next room. But it was very informative for Westerners who don't have a good grasp on these crazy gods.

So I learned gods that have multiple heads and hands to express their complex personalities and multiple functions. I learned there's a reason gods have different standing positions and hand positions.

I use the word gods in place of deities a lot. That's probably not correct. I'm not sure what the difference is or if I learned it I wasn't paying attention.

Gods or deities, who knows

The gods have modes of transportation that are animals. Ganesh the elephant uses a mouse/rat. Isn't that cute?! They had a statue of his rat ride. It wears a collar with bells and holds Ganesh's favorite candy.

Ratmobile

I also learned why some pictures of Ganesh show him with a broken tusk. Apparently it was a self inflicted wound when he hurled part of his tusk at the moon for making fun of him for being fat.

"I'm just big boned"-Ganesh, probably

Ganesh uses a mouse to get places, Vishnu uses the sunbird Garuda. Typically, Garuda is humanized except for his wings, feathers, and talons. He wears serpents for decoration.

They had rare ivory objects from the 15th to 16th century.

Cosmetic box, hand mirror, lion

And a pair of ceremonial staffs. They had inscriptions on them that literally just said how much the staff cost. One tola and 96 tola. A tola is approx. 12 grams, 96 tola are over 1 kilogram. So I think it was one tola of silver and 96 tola of gold if that makes sense.

It doesn't make sense

I learned about Hanu-Bhairava, which is two gods in one. Hanuman is a monkey lieutenant of Rama and Bhairava is a Tantric aspect of Shiva. The monkey one is more dominate so it has a monkey face and body, but it also has 4 more heads just for the hell of it so it's got a boar, tiger, Garuda, and a jackal. But the topmost is always a horse. It has 10 arms, keeping with the number of heads, and the hands are in wrathful positions. It's a rare image. There are very few depictions of this 2 god in 1. I think it's because it's such a clusterfuck no one really wants to touch it.

Hanu-Bhairava, my new favorite god

They had a display on the process it took to make a lot of the sculptures and figurines back in the day. More gods to look at. A silver sheathing of the Bagalamukhi shrine. The goddess Bagalamukhi is one of the Dasa Mahavidya, the ten great forms of knowledge and magic power. Bagalamukhi is the most powerful of the ten.

The Bagalamukhi is a temple in Nepal that is apparently a bottomless pit for blood sacrifices of male animals. I wonder why Abhi didn't take us there....

Then there was more stuff to look at-

Duck duck

It was a lot of info on gods to take in. I skimmed over a lot of it.

After we finished the museum, Rajan had us meet up and walk around the Patan Dubar Square. The architecture is very intricate and there were not many people inside the buildings.

Gods and their modes of transport

We walked across the street and climbed to the roof of a building to get a better view of the Patar Dubar Square as a whole.

We left around 3.

We drove to the monkey temple after that. It's not actually called the monkey temple, that's just what tourists have named it because the place is home to over 1,000 monkeys. It's real name is Swayambhunath and I don't know how to pronounce that. It's another buddhist temple.

They had a large pond in the middle where people throw coins and try to get them in a bucket. Rajan gave us each 2 coins and I missed both times.

Hello little guy!

There are 365 steps to the top. It was easy to climb. There weren't that many monkeys and they kept their distance.

At the top of the temple we wandered around. There are many little giftshops and lots of stray dogs who looked like they had mange.

Kathmandu!

We met up with the rest of our group, the bus riders, then! They said their drive was fine but of course they would say that. We went to the hotel after that. On the drive, we had to pool our money together to tip people. We have to tip Abhi $40-$60 (which is something you do for tour guides with travel programs), our guide for the day Rajan 250 nepalese rupees, and then we decided to donate money to the school we visited (about $10 a piece) so they could buy chairs and desks. When all was said and done I hadn't a note to my name. My wallet is empty.

The hotel is very nice and the wifi is great. Tonight is our last night together as a group.

The last supper was at 7:30. I ordered an apple cider and a chicken burger with fries. While we wait for our food, people got up to say some words of goodbye. It was really sweet. Diane invited us all to Hawaii and was very genuine. We presented Abhi with his tip and the money for the school. He was really pleased with the school donation. Vanessa and Kelly shared what everyone has been calling "Abhi euphemisms" (they're not actually euphemisms, they're proverbs. I don't think most of our group knows what those words mean) which some of us have been collecting this whole trip. They were common proverbs that had his own twist or wording. Stuff like "It takes drops of water to make an ocean". Abhi said a few words too, about how he's grown to appreciate us all and how grateful he is.

Overall it was a sweet moment for everyone. Not bittersweet, just sweet. I am not sad. I'm really glad I got to meet all these people. Everyone of us is very brave and adventurous in my opinion for coming to India and Nepal.

Our food arrived and it was good-

We had an early night after that. I went to sleep around 10:30.