Something to know about me: I have anxiety and I deal with a little bit of ADD issues. When I set my goal to write about my time in Nepal I was super motivated, because it was an amazing time! But there was so much to write that after three posts I got a bit overwhelmed. So I’m going to go through my pictures and write about what I remember.

After out trip to Chitwan National Park we went back to Kalpana’s parents’ home and counted the money we got from the marriage celebration that they had for us. The people in Nepal, despite not being wealthy, were very generous with us. I get emotional thinking about the trip, because they were so kind to me. They had no obligation to accept me the way that they did. I’m very fortunate that my in-laws are so great to me.

The next day was where we had some downtime. That morning I managed to see two mongooses outside the house. It was super cool! They were super big. I didn’t see any the rest of the time we were there, so I felt lucky we happened to see those while I was eating breakfast.

One of the great things about Chitwan in January is that the weather was pretty moderate. We had several days where it went above 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Kalpana’s family’s house has a place upstairs that is technically on the roof, but it has a tin roof, so it’s like an outdoor hangout area. Kalpana managed to take a nap on a rug up there for a bit and we hung out with some neighborhood folks in front of the house. Kalpana’s dad’s clinic and pharmacy is a part of the house and there’s an area for patients to wait, so we hung out there with people for a bit.

The following day we went up to Kalpana’s brother’s place. Kiran is a surgeon at a hospital and he and his wife and child were living in facilities at the hospital when we went to visit. Both he and his wife have left Nepal for job opportunities but when we were there we were able to spend time with them. We went up to a park for a bit and took a bunch of pictures. I enjoy taking pictures more than being a part of them, but it was worth it.

We also road on this rickety Ferris wheel. There were no doors on the cars/enclosures on it, and also no seatbelts. On top of that, they would run it SUPER fast. Kalpana didn’t enjoy that too much. I got a couple pictures and a video of her reactions…lol

Kiran and his wife put us up in a hotel (nice beds and a nice shower!) and also took us out to dinner as well. The next morning we went out for breakfast before we went back to Kalpana’s family’s house. Kiran and Srizna were really nice to us. It was a short visit but a really good time, regardless.

The rest of that day was pretty relaxing. We got some jalebi that was super good. It’s sort of like fried, stringy dough that is covered in some syrup. You can buy it here, but it’s old and hard and very orange. It sort of tastes like popcorn, in my opinion. But the fresh stuff that is fried in gee (basically butter) with a lighter syrup is SUPER good. They kept buying some for us. That was part of the reason why I gained like six pounds in two weeks…lol

The next morning Kalpana, three of her cousins (Bishal, Bikash, and Bibek), and I all traveled to Pokhara by bus. That area is a lot more touristy. They have things like KFC there (which we ate at). KFC is too expensive to be worth it. You can go to a local restaurant and pay about 60-70% of what it costs to eat at KFC and actually feel like you’re getting real food. So my suggestion is to eat local, pretty much every time.

Once again, we stayed in a nice hotel. Our room was really big. Pokhara has a big lake and mountains all around it. The next day, in the morning, we went up to the top of a mountain and watched the sunrise. It was pretty incredible. I got some good pictures that morning. We also went to a temple afterwards and the eventually made our way down to the lake and went for a boat ride. I got Kalpana to ask the guy who was paddling us around to sing, so we were fortunate enough to be serenaded while on the water.

After a day away I felt anxious to get back to everyone else in Kalpana’s family so we cut our trip to Pokhara a little bit short and headed back to Chitwan. Such a good time but I felt guilty being away from everyone else! I think that’s good enough for now so I’ll write more in the next post.