Kathmandu, Nepal – October 26th – 29th, 2016

Nepal ended in much the same way as it started: hugging the porcelain thrown (or porcelain platform in the case of a squat toilet). Except, extra fun, this time we were sick at the same time and it lasted 4+ days. The culprit was likely the unrefrigerated mayonnaise that tasted curiously like coconut, which unwantedly made it onto some sandwiches that we ate on the journey from Chitwan to Kathmandu. Our entire stay in Kathmandu ended up being spent making the trip between the bed and the toilet. Nausea, diarrhea, headache, neck pain, aches, chills, fever (unconfirmed since, against my suggestion, Andy left the thermometer acting as a window prop in the ashram in India), weakness, residual sinus pressure/runny noise from the previous week’s cold, you name it, we had it. At first it seemed that Andy was taking the brunt of the illness, but I quickly caught up to join him in the fun.

We also found that our tolerance towards Kathmandu had decreased significantly. It is amazing how fast you become de-desensitized. After Dehli, Kathmandu looked like child’s play, but after three weeks in the Himalayas, Kathmandu looked a lot more like a massive, crowded, dirty, dusty city. Perception is a crazy thing. 

On the evening before our flight to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, we felt compelled to venture out of our sick beds to see some of the sites (which is, believe it or not, why we traveled to Nepal). This was a massive mistake, since the 37 km (23 mi) journey up to the Nagarkot sunset overlook ended up taking over 4.5 hours roundtrip in stop and go traffic on bumpy windy roads. Additionally, the view was hindered significantly by clouds and we were both on the verge of losing what little food we had managed to consume. We literally ran back into the hotel bathroom from the taxi! The next day, we had a full day of travel ahead of us that we could not reschedule since our flights were non-refundable and our visas were about to expire. We broke down and took some antibiotics, hoping that they might make the next day more possible/bearable. The problem with antibiotics is that they are only effective if you do not promptly throw them back up all over yourself…

The views around Nagarkot.

 The morning of our departure was not much better than the night before and we had serious doubt as to whether we were capable of making the trip at all. Luckily, the travel went surprisingly smoothly and we were feeling slightly better in the afternoon. The plane was huge and less than 20% full leaving us plenty of room to spread out and relax. We even ate the food on the plane which was quite the accomplishment! Nepal was absolutely amazing and we met so many incredible people, but I can’t say we were sad to leave the poor road conditions and food safety problems behind.  

The sites around Kathmandu and Andy's beard removal process.