Kicking back in Kathmandu, Nepal

I am sitting in the Kathmandu Valley surrounded by the tallest mountains in the world. They are called the Himalayan Mountains and Mount Everest is the highest. We got to Nepal a week ago and it is a very cool place. We were in India for a week before crossing the border into Nepal. I am glad to be out of India and in Nepal.

India was very challenging. After flying to from Bangkok, Thailand to Hong Kong, China, we caught another plane to India. We arrived in Delhi in the middle of the night. We took a taxi into town to find a place to sleep. As we were walking around we could see hundreds of homeless people sleeping right in the dirt. There was piles of garbage everywhere. Even though it was late at night there were many cars, motorbikes, rickshaws and cows in the streets. You would not believe it but they let the cows go anywhere the want in India. They even wander onto the freeway or into train stations and everbody just goes around them. Something about the people thinking that cows are sacred. I don't get it. After several tries we finally found a place to sleep. I told my dad that the hotel we found was discusting, but he didn't listen. I think he just wanted to get off the dirty streets of Dehli. We woke up the next day and found a better place to stay.

We hung out in Dehli for two days. It was horrible. There are over 11,000,000 people living there and it is crowded where ever you go. There is garbage everywhere. Nobody seemed to be taught that littering is not good. It was early in the morning and it was already 95 degrees outside. People are begging everywhere. It was very sad. There were many kids even younger than me that were living on the streets and begging for food. Why did my parents bring me to this place? We did get to visit the Red Fort which was really old and I liked exploring the buildings of the old military fort. We tried to go inside the museum but we almost suffocated because there were so many people inside and there was no air conditioner or windows. We barely made it out and caught a rickshaw back to our hotel. The only other thing that happened in Dehli was that we were in an autorickshaw(three wheeled little car) and the front wheel fell off. We were o.k. and just jumped into another rickshaw and kept going.

From Dehli we took a train to Agra. I was very glad to leave Dehli. Agra was even hotter than Dehli and we were walking around carrying our backpacks sweating a lot. I thought Thailand was hot, but India is really hot. Plus in India everyone stares at you all the time and wants to touch you. My parents say it is because they don't see a lot of light skinned kids with blond hair and blue eyes. I don't care why they do it, it gets really old. In Agra we visited the Taj Mahal. It was voted one of the 7 Modern Wonders of the World. It was great. Agra sucked, but the Taj Mahal was amazing. It was built hundreds of years ago and looked like it could have built one year ago. It was built out of marble and you could tell they did a really good job. I learned that the artists that built the temple had their hands cut off when they completed the job. Apparently the king did not want them building any other temples as nice as the Taj Mahal that was built for his 2nd wife that died. That is crazy. Instead of telling the builders they did a nice job and maybe giving them a bonus, he instead cut off their hands!

We got out of Agra beause it was very hot and dirty. From there we caught an all night train to Varanasi. The train was great. Each cabin has 6 bunks. I got to sleep on the top bunk. In the morning my mom and dad said they didn't sleep very good. I don't know why, I slept great. I liked Varanasi a lot more than Dehli and Agra. We stayed there for a couple of days. Varanasi is one of the most important cities in the world for Hindus. The people who practice the Hindu religion belive that there are 330,000,000 Gods. That seems strange. How do they even remember the names of the all the Gods? Anyways, they come from all over the world to bathe in the sacred Ganges River that flows through Varanasi. The river is huge and we got up at 5:00 a.m. and rented a boat to go out on the river. We watched the sunrise and saw 1,000's of people bathing in the river, washing clothes, brushing their teeth, and performing all sort of religious rituals I had never seen before. We also saw people being cremated right along side the river. You could actually see the people being burnt on huge piles of wood. I could barely believe my eyes. It was a strange experience.

Hindus believe that the water of the Ganges is so sacred that if you jump in the water one time it will wash away all the sins of your entire lifetime. That is why pilgrims travel so far to bathe in the river. There was no way I would ever jump in the river. It was nasty. It looked like and smelled like raw sewage. When we were on the boat you could see all kinds of stuff floating on the surface and we even saw part of a body float by one time. The water is some of the most polluted water in the whole world. However, this did not stop them from jumping in and even drinking and brushing their teeth with the water. Yuck! I was worried one of the guys who was paddling our boat would splash water on us. I was glad to get off the river. We also visited all kinds of temples in Varanasi which was pretty boring. Next door to Varanasi is s town called Sarnath where Buddha taught his first lesson on Buddhism after becoming enlightened It was o.k., but I was ready to leave.

We left Varanasi and headed to Bodigaya. Bodigaya was where Buddha sat under a bodi tree and gained enlightenment. There are all kinds of religions in India, but Hinduism and Buddhism are the two biggest ones. We sat under the same tree that Buddha became enlightened under. It was cool. The town of Bodigaya is the most important town in the whole world for people who pratice the Buddhist religion. We also explored all the temples and momestaries built by all the Buddhist countries of the world. At one temple we actually sat down and meditated with about a 100 monks.

From Bodigaya we headed up to Nepal. It ook us two full days to get from Bodigaya, India, to Kathmandu, Nepal. We had to take a lot of buses and it sucked. These buses were horrible. No air conditioning, lots of dust, people crammed inside and bumping into you, nothing to do, and lots of sweating. Just when I thought we were done. We had to get on another bus. We did not see any other tourists and everyone was staring at us all day long. It was hard to find food that was safe to eat and would not make us sick. On one of the days we were traveling we ate just one meal. Also, finding bottled water that was safe to drink was not easy. My dad said that there is a scam that is very popular in India right now where they fill up the empty bottles with tap water and make it look like new bottled water. The tap water will make you very sick in India beause of all the tiny bugs inside it. Discusting. So finding save water was tricky and there were times that I got very thristy beafore we could find safe water.

I was very glad to make it to the border of Nepal. India was rough traveling and I was ready for a break. My parents said that Nepal would be a little more relaxing and a lot cooler as it is in the mountains. As we left India the police at the border made us pay a bribe to get our passports stamped. My dad was not very happy about the corrupt police officers making tourists pay bribes. He did manage to negotiate the bribe to a smaller amount and I did not have to pay a bribe because I am only 10 years old. I don't get it.

When we crossed into Nepal, I hit country #8 of my around the world trip. When we got to the immigration office the Nepal officials also tried to get us to pay a bribe.This time my dad refused to pay any bribe at all. This did not make the police happy, but eventually they let us enter the country even without paying any bribe. We took a minivan for 8 hours to Kathmandu. It was a lot better than the buses of India and a lot more comfortable. We road through the foothills of the Himalayan Mountains and saw some amazming views. We arrived in Kathmandu and it was nice and cool.

Kathmandu is a city of about 1,000,000 people sitting in a valley surrounded by mountains. There are temples and Buddhist stupas everywhere. We are eating good food like pizza everyday. I have gotten to buy some really cool souveniers for really cheap. Yesterday I bought a small sword for less than $1! It is even better than the swap meet at home. Everyday we exlpore Kathmandu and the surrounding cities and see all these temples and shrines. I am about "templed out." Yesterday, though my dad and I got to help paint an important Tibetan Buddhist temple here in Kathmandu. I painted yellow and my dad painted blue on this statute of a God with 6 arms and 3 eyes. It was cool. I can't believe they let a 10 year old help paint the temple. I did the best I could with the paint brush because I knew how important the temple was to the Tibetans. Since the Chinese kicked them out of their country many of them came to Kathmandu and northern India to live. They are very friendly people and they seemed very happy that a 10 year old from American wanted to help them paint their temple.

I love Kathmandu and don't really want to leave. I would rather stay here for the next couple months and not go back to India. We have decided that we will stay longer in Nepal than we had planned. Right now we are preparing to go on a trek in the Himalyan Mountains. We are going on an 11 day trek on the Annapurna Circuit and then cutting over to Annapurna Sanctuary Trail. We are going to be treking very high in the mountains and into the snow capped Himalayan Mountains. We are going around Kathmandu buying jackets, hiking boots, gloves, wool hats, and other stuff we need. We could not bring all this stuff from home because it would be too heavy and our backpacks were already so full. We hired a guy named Nilem who will act as our porter and guide. I am very excited about hiking in the Himalayan Mountains. I know it will be hard to hike for that long and up higher than I have ever been in my life, but I know it will be a great experience.

I feel very lucky to be taking this trip and seeing all the cool stuff I get to see everyday. There are a lot of kids that are not as lucky as me and my friends at home. There are kids my age that don't go to school because they have to go to work. There are kids are that homeless and have to beg for food. There are kids that will never get to travel outide of the town they live in. I have a lot to be grateful for and I know how lucky I am to be here in Nepal getting ready to go on a trek in the highest moutain range in the world.

Please send me an email at Kylearoundtheworld@gmail.com and post a comment on my blog. I really enjoy hearing from people at home. Oh yeah, my parents make me do homework all the time even though we are on vacation. Talk to you guys later.