The moment we arrived at our lodge in Chitwan we both felt the tensions from our harrowing drive melt away. The grounds were beautiful; stepping stones created paths to a few two-story pale yellow blocks of rooms and to a main open air lodge for meals and relaxation. We settled into a sweet little room with nothing but the essentials; a bed, a dresser and a bathroom with a spout for water high up on one wall. The staff were incredibly welcoming and we were excited to explore the grounds.

The Sapana Village Lodge is right on the outskirts of the Chitwan National Park. Our hotel was looking right off into the park and as we relaxed in the sitting areas and slept inside we could hear the sounds of wild animals roaming the grounds. The common area was so relaxing and we met some wonderful people and couples from around the world that were on similar trips to ours. We would have dinners together and meet at breakfast and discuss where we had been and where we were planning to go on our travels. It was great to get some travel advice and also to talk to other people who were taking similar kinds of risks we were, who viewed traveling the way that we do and knew the trials and tribulations that come with journeying long distances for extended periods of time.

We planned on taking some time to relax in Chitwan, the lodge begged to be sat in with a cup of chai and a book, but we were also very interested in going on a few excursions. We decided to do a jungle walk to look for wild animals, an elephant ride through the forrest and to give an elephant a bath (something we were told not to miss).

Ofer and I doused ourselves in insect repellant, covered all of the skin we could with clothes and prepared for our hike into the jungle. We both tucked our jeans into our socks to prevent leeches from crawling up our legs....seriously. The two of us loaded into a Jeep with two guides and set off toward the jungle. We drove to the bank of a river and boarded a small motorized boat to take us deeper into the jungle.

Once we reached our destination our English speaking guide gave us some information as our older, more experienced guide and animal tracker started surveying the area. He told us that on our hike there was a chance that we could see deer, wild boar, monkeys, snakes, deadly spiders and rhinos. He said that these animals are not in a reserved park, we are in their natural habitat. If we do see animals they could very well see us as a threat and want to protect themselves.

He told us that if we do encounter an animal we should stay as quiet as we can and be completely still. If the animal proceeded to charge us we were told to climb up the closest tree. That’s right, he said to climb the closest tree. Damnit, I always knew it was going to bite me in the ass that I couldn’t climb the rope in Junior High School!! I spent the next few hours picking trees to climb, always trying to have at least one in sight that was at a slight bend so I would have the best chance of surviving.

I think I wouldn’t have been so scared other than the fact that both of our guides were hushing us and making us stop when they heard any kind of sound. Chitwan had a lot of rainfall just before we came so a lot of the road markers they used to hike were underwater. Ofer and I walked as daintily as we could through marshy grounds that would at some points soak us all the way up to our knees.

At one point we did see a wild boar chasing a group of 10 or so deer just about 50 feet away from us. As we watched I continued to seek out the best tree just in case the wild boar decided he wanted something other than venison for dinner. We completed our walk at another place along the river and took another boat back. That was the first animal tracking excursion that I went on that I was happy to not have seen too many animals. I did, however, manage to take an animal home as a souvenir; it seems despite my jeans being tucked into my socks and then stuffed into my shoes a leech managed to make its way to my foot. Of all of the animals in that jungle, I was glad it was only the leech that got me!

The elephant ride through the jungle was a lot more fun. The two of us were up in a basket on an elephant’s back with an elephant tamer who sometimes walked, sometimes rode with us and sometimes stood on the elephant’s trunk. From high up there we both felt so safe and eager to see more animals. We lucked out on our trip, we managed to see deer, wild boar, a few monkeys and even a rhinoceros. The rhinoceros was huge and it was incredible to think that we were looking at a wild animal and were able see how they all react to each other. The elephant was able to get pretty close to the rhino who stood his ground and went about his business.

The best thing we did in Chitwan has continued to be one of the best experiences we have had on our trip to date and even one of the best experiences we have ever had. We were told that we should help to wash the lodge’s resident elephant. We showed up without any knowledge of what this would be, we assumed we would be using broom like brushes and soap to wash him right outside the lodge.

But once we were introduced to our guide he told us to take off our shoes and to hop on the elephant’s back. We were hoisted up onto the bare, prickly back of the elephant and started walking off away from the lodge. I was behind Ofer with my arms wrapped around as tightly as I could while Ofer held onto the rope tied around the elephant’s neck.

We were doing our best to hang on as he took step after muddy step, we would all slide together when he reached a slippery patch of mud and we would feel him readjust his footing when he knew something wasn’t safe. Then we noticed that we were heading right for the river. Before we had a moment to hesitate the elephant walked right into the water.

Once he was standing in the middle of the river he filled his trunk and sprayed us with water. There was no chance of coming out of this even remotely dry. We were both laughing so hard and I was still holding onto Ofer burying my head in his back to keep the river water out of my eyes. Then the elephant started to kneel down and decided to lay down on his side consequently dumping the two of us into the river.

The elephant then relaxed and laid in the river as we rubbed him down with rocks. It was incredible feeling. He was such a huge but gentle and expressive animal...it was one thing to see an elephant at a zoo or to feed them bananas but it was a whole other thing to be right up next to his eyes and feeling his skin in the river. 

Our guide had seen that I had been shielding myself from the sprays by hiding behind Ofer, so he told us to get back on the elephant, this time with me in front.

After a few failed attempts to stay on the elephants back as he stood up we were again at least 10 feet in the air with our legs gripping the massive animal. He resumed his bath and doused us with water over and over again. One of the funniest feelings was his huge flappy ears hitting and getting stuck on my legs and he waved them back and forth.

Ofer and I were so happy walking back to our room. We couldn’t stop smiling and laughing as we squeezed the water out of our shirts and picked brush out of our hair. I felt like we were 6 years olds walking home; so proud of how completely covered in mud we were and that even if we got in trouble it would be worth it.

Our time in Nepal was phenomenal. After only 7 days there we so in love with the countryside and with the people. We know we only cracked the surface of what Nepal has to offer and we now know that it would definitely be a place that we would love to visit again.

After the blinding, over-stimulated haze of Kathmandu Ofer and I were more than ready for our trip to Chitwan National Park where we would get some much needed R&R. We packed our bags and loaded ourselves the car with our Nepalese non-English speaking driver. We had heard that it was a 115 mile drive that would take between 6-8 hours. We settled in the backseat, laid our heads on each other and prepared for the calm lullaby of the car engine and the gentle rolling of the tires on the road.

Not so much. Our drives to and from Chitwan have continued to be the most life-threatening, shocking, teeth grinding, fingernail gripping, heart pounding, dirty experiences on our trip so far. Do I have your attention now?

We quickly remembered that the car barely had use of its air conditioning system. No air conditioning, no seat belts, no communication with the driver. Ok, no problem, we can do this. With windows down we rolled along. My faulty thinking was assuring me that once we were out of Kathmandu the streets would become less busy and paved making for a more comfortable ride. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

After driving though the city and through some country roads we entered the mountainous section of our trip. Let me first say how happy we were to not have been doing this drive at night. I assure you, had we done this ride at night I would not be here writing this blog.


The road to Chitwan, or the ‘Road to Hades’ which was what I was calling it, consists of steep mountain climbs, sudden jarring turns and very, very narrow roads. One wrong turn and you either crash directly into the mountain or the ditches dug on the side of the road (that is if you are lucky to miss a roaming human or animal), or straight down the side of the mountain, considering you missed one of the rickety metal or wood ‘barriers’.

Our little 1970, manual sedan was even more dwarfed on the road by the hundreds of cargo trucks that we passed. Each truck was highly decorated with colorful paint, dolls and slogans. They reminded me of Mardi Gras party busses. Not only were the busses full of whatever cargo they were shipping they also had people heaped on top. Sometimes we would see up to 20 people all piled on the roof of the bus holding onto whatever they could to keep their balance as the bus veered up and down the mountains.

If I, or any reasonable person, were driving on this road I would be taking the entire trip at around 20-30 miles per hour stopping to ensure that no one was around the blind curve that we were approaching. But that’s just not the Nepalese style. We must have been going 50-60 miles per hour whenever our driver saw the opportunity. He would speed up and take turns as if he were on a race track and promptly pull on the brake and stop us moments before slamming into the car, truck or bus in front of us.

As if this wasn’t frightening enough the driver saw it necessary to pass every vehicle we came into contact with. Every vehicle. He would honk incessantly at the driver in front of us and they would either nudge over or stay put and we would become now three cars wide on a street fit for one vehicle. Then as a car approached us in the opposite direction he would hold his ground until the very last second when he would pull in front of the car we had passed. The first 10-15 times he did this Ofer and I held hands so tightly as if it was going to be our final moment together. Not only this but he would speed up and take turns directly in the middle of the road hoping his odds were good that another car wouldn’t be doing the same thing barreling in our direction.

Is this guy nuts!?? The more we paid attention we saw it wasn’t just our driver who was approaching the road as if it were a test of manhood presented by mother nature; pretty much every driver was the same way. We had some terrible drivers in China but compared to this those were 4 star rides. To make matters worse we saw about 4 vehicles that had crashed, flipped over or fell completely over the edge.

As we sped up and stalled to halts, veered right and slid left the dirt from the road poured in the window. Our eyes burned and we blew our noses to clear the black dirt before more entered our lungs. We had planned a rafting trip in the middle of the drive, something I had not been too excited about, but the more we drove the more I silently begged to be thrown into the river that was raging below us, anything would be better than this.

Then I got my wish. Our diver stopped and pointed to a group of people sitting in a hut. This was where we would begin the rafting portion of the trip. We bounded out of the car eager to get ourselves further down this road in any other means possible.

As we all know, swimming, rafting, boating anything water related really isn’t my forte. But my fiance loves it, so I tried to suck up my fear and just hoist myself into the raft. There were two rafts heading out in our group. The first raft was made up of more athletic looking young adults and our raft had us, a few others around our age and a family with two young sons. If they could do it, I could do it.

That confidence lasted about a minute and a half. Right as we were leaving the shore and pointing ourselves down the river the first raft just ahead of us took on what seemed to be a medium sized patch of rough water. One moment they were up and the next moment the raft was completely flipped over . One by one the rafters bobbed to the surface. They were being violently swept in all directions, some looked like they were having the time of their lives and other looked like they believed they were halfway into the white light.

We were headed to the same falls, woop di doo. Luckilly we came through it fine. Our guide was yelling commands and we tried our best to collect each rafter before they were carried down the river, into the mountain rocks or into the whirlpools surrounding them. The next few hours were made up of swallowing brown water, being tossed in the air by rough waves, yelling at the drunk passengers to pull their weight and praying that we wouldn’t flip. Sadly the car was looking better and better.

More than halfway through the trip the waters calmed and our guides suggested taking the opportunity for a plunge into the river. Obviously I was not interested. I turned my head to check Ofer’s response and caught a quick glimpse of his feet as they were the last of him to enter the water. Ofer was the only one out of the 16 or so in our group to get into the water. He floated on his back and free-styled his way along the river keeping up with our raft. Just as we were hoisting him back into the raft we spotted a few river snakes swimming nearby. I started having Princess Bride flashbacks (they always get louder when they are about to feast on human flesh!!). Some of you know what I’m talking about.

Most people on the rafting trip loved the experience and were dying to do more. I guess these are the times when we all learn what we do and don’t like. Rafting in freezing cold, brown, treacherous water? Check! Done it and don’t need to do it again. After we reached the end of the rafting experience I promptly informed Ofer that he needs to invest more time in his male relationships so I can stay at home and knit instead.

We got back into the car, wet, brown, smelling of river water and looking like drowned rats. I’m sure our driver was happy to see us waddling down the road to him. After finally completing 6 hours on the road Ofer and I finally it to our Chitwan Resort. It was the oasis that we had been hoping for and we were definitely ready for some relaxation.

We arrived into the Kathmandu airport and encountered the most shocking thing we had seen in weeks; A SMILE. Everyone was smiling. The man working border patrol, the woman pushing a luggage cart even the soldiers with M16s flung around their shoulders were smiling. Smiles! We love smiles! We felt genuinely welcomed into Nepal within minutes of stepping off the plane.

What a huge difference that makes. When traveling and being on the receiving end of customer service everyday for months you really begin to appreciate the small things that companies and individuals do that make your day a hell of a lot better. But I don’t believe it was the airport’s customer service trainings that gave us this experience. People genuinely seemed happy in Nepal, publicly, you can see it on their faces. What wonderful thing.

Ofer had set up a tour guide for us during our stay in Kathmandu and we were delighted to see our names being held at eye level as we left the baggage claim area. Two sweet young men took our bags and led us to the car. As we drove they asked us where we were from and were eager to practice their English skills with us. It was late at night but it seemed SO dark and peaceful, abnormally so. Then I realized there were NO STREET LIGHTS. Needless to say it was very hard to see our surroundings. Within twenty minutes we were checked in and relaxing in a beautifully spacious room just outside of the center of Kathmandu.

The next day we met with our tour guide early in the morning for our first introduction to Nepal. Driving out of the lodge property and into the streets of Kathmandu was like driving into a Hollywood set. All of the characters were there: a women in a brightly colored sari selling freshly slaughtered chicken, a man spinning a stone wheel to sharpen a knife, cows and chickens lying in the middle of the street, naked children sitting on the ground occupying themselves with the dirt between their toes. I looked back beyond the car to the lodge and watched the 21st century fade in the distance.

Ofer and I spent the drive tapping each other with our mouths gaped wide and pointing to things we had never seen before: a family of four on a motorcycle, an elderly woman carrying what looked to be 20 pounds of potatoes on her head, garbage piled up so high in the street that we could smell it through the closed window, the monk dressed in traditional robes talking on his cell phone, babies sprawled out sleeping on the concrete.

This was the first time in my life that I truly wished I was a photographer. Everywhere we looked was like a picture out of National Geographic. We felt like we had stepped into what we only imagined the world must have been like hundreds of years ago (of course minus the coke advertisements and cell phones). It was hard to believe people lived like this in the year 2010.

Much of our time in Kathmandu was spent looking at temples, shrines, ancient architecture and religious figures. Our guide provided us with a constant stream of information from religious stories to current political events. We were in total sensory overload. It was difficult to take in what our guide was telling us because we were still in total culture shock. I completely missed stories about Lord Vishnu and the date that they reconstructed a certain shrine because I was too focused on the MONKEY that was standing right next to me as if he was waiting for a bus or the woman who looked to be in her 100‘s squatting smoking a cigarette and showing off the last tooth in her mouth.


This was also the first time that I saw children begging. They would come try to stand in our pictures and then ask for money, or walk with us saying some memorized phrase over and over again with their hands out, one even came over and tried to hold my hand in order to in order to entice a sympathetic dollar out of me. Ofer and I had talked about this and the way we saw it was if we give money to these children we just feed the problem. Some of these kids are put out on the street because their families know they have a better chance of making money than the adults in the house. Therefore the children are kept out of school and put on the streets to beg with their older siblings. It was difficult to see but in our opinion if we were going to give anything it was going to be food, not money.

We couldn’t have been more awestruck. There was so much to see, so much to learn. By the end of our first day of sightseeing as we were being driven back to our lodge we convinced our driver to drop us off downtown so we could walk around on our own. We just couldn’t get enough. The neon bright saris against the crumbling walls of the temples, the packs of motorcycles with toddlers standing helmetless on the back, the smell of raw fish and chai tea. Despite the handful of tourists we saw throughout the day and the street aimed for tourists in the center of town the people of Kathmandu seemed relatively untouched by the western world. People seemed to spend much of their time attending to their religious practice, selling or buying in the markets, sitting on the floor eating and playing cards and games in abandoned temples. There was a level of peace among the people despite the chaos. People appeared to generally be happy with their lives.

From what we understood a life in Nepal is a very pious life. In fact Nepal has the largest majority of Hindus than any other country (Although Nepal is also considered the birthplace of Siddhartha (Buddha) on which the Buddhist religion is based). Most people dedicate hours of their day to worshipping their gods, visiting their temples and doing traditional blessings for themselves and their family members. Ofer and I have various feelings and thoughts about this which I’m sure we will address in another blog.

**This section may not be appropriate for those of you who are reading to young children**

One of the sites that our guide took us to see was the Bagmati River. As we followed our guide through the streets dodging sleeping dogs, swamis and sacred cows I started to piece together from his broken yet modern English that we were heading to the place where they cremate their dead. He in no way prepared us for the sight, it was just another part of life to him, nothing worthy of alarm, just one more stop on the tour. Ofer and I held hands and wondered how we would emotionally and physically react to the sites we were about to see.

We were lead to a path high above a river with a ledge and seats overlooking the scene. Across the river from us we could see slabs of concrete jetting into the river with awnings overhead. On each slab was stacked wood and and straw and on top of the piles were bodies wrapped in white sheets. We learned that as a family member is nearing the end of their life they are brought to this area for their last moments of life. The dead is first dipped three times into the Bagmati River, then eldest son, with shaved head, lights the funeral pyre. When the cremation is completed the ashes are then swept into the river rushing below. The eldest son, and sometimes the family members then enter into the river to sprinkle the holy water on themselves. Now the water in this river is not what we Americans think of river water; blue currents with splashes of white curls as the river turns. No, this river was mud brown. Brown from the earth, brown from the garbage that was floating in it, brown from the ash and sut from the cremations.

We stood there and watched. As Americans we assumed there must be so much pain and suffering watching your loved one die and be cremated in front of you. Our tiny perspective didn’t begin to give us an understanding of what this place means to the family and the community. I fought my American urge to choke on the sut and smoke rising from the river mingled with the constant reminder that this was not just wood they were burning.

The mourning families were not the only only ones who used this water. Floating right past the corpses were children from 5 to 10 years old swimming in the water. They would climb on the bank of the river, nude with smiles on their faces. They would flip and fling themselves into the water trying to outdo their friend or brother before them. Then they would let the river do as it pleased and charge them down dips and turns. We were told that as a family is cremating their loved one a coin in placed on their chest. After the burning the coin will have been melted but will be swept into the river. These boys dive and sift the river looking for the remains of these coins. I could hardly wrap my head around the concept of a 5 year old drifting in a river of ash looking for what could be the only money his family makes that day.

Such an amazing sight to see. Death is such a fascinating concept. I would have been so interested and I hope someday to learn more about how the Nepalese view life, suffering and death. It was a grounding experience to see first hand how one act can be seen so differently depending on upbringing, culture and religion.

Nepal was one of the places on this first leg of our trip that I was excited to see but also quite apprehensive to go to. Where would we sleep, would it be clean? Would we feel safe? But from the first moment of driving out of the gates of our lodge all of my anxieties fell away. We were in complete awe. In Nepal we discovered our curiosity, we were humbled and our eyes were opened in a way that they had never been before. Kathmandu is a place we would highly suggest and we hope to visit again someday.

For those of you who have not been to the Great Wall of China, we have news for you: it is huge. I know you have heard this all before, that it is the longest wall in the world, you can see it from space blah blah blah, but let us tell you: it is massive. And it isn't just that it is long. There is no way to take a 'stroll' on the Great Wall of China, not even hike it, nope in fact you stair-master, full-speed treadmill up it and ski down. Some areas you can take a break and just walk at a small incline but other areas are made of up intermixed small and huge steps that require controlled breathing and angry 80's music in your head to get you through (at least in my case). The steps were so steep that I held onto Ofer with one hand and the side of the wall with the other.

Not to mention that the steps were incredibly slippery from millions of feet and years of rough weather wearing them away. And this is not just on the way up, the Wall is just as steep and slippery coming down. I almost fell multiple times and saw a few people take some pretty big spills just when they thought they had mastered the terrain. I swear, if this Wall were in the USA there would be some governmental release of liability form to sign before you can access it. And just when you think you've done the toughest set of stairs you pass the guard post on the top just to see the next guard post in the distance on another even more treacherous hill. I spent a good amount of time explaining to Ofer how it would have been much smarter to bore tunnels through the mountains instead. Ofer would proceed to tell me that this would completely negate the purpose of the Wall. Details. The views were absolutely incredible and it was overwhelming to imagine how much work and how many years it took to build this World Wonder.

During our stay in Beijing Ofer and I lived in a Hutong. A Hutong is a neighborhood made up of narrow streets and many courtyard houses. Our hotel was a beautiful courtyard house renovated with plenty of space to sit outside and relax away from the bustle of the city. Beijing is made up of concentric circles surrounding the Forbidden City. Some Hutongs were for distinguished people in the society and as you got further away from the Forbidden City the status of the inhabitants lowered to 'commoners'. You can tell which kind of Hutong you are in based on the size of the houses, streets and the decorations on the doors and entrances to the homes.

At one point Ofer and I took a tour of a different Hutong than our own and learned about how to distinguish between the houses of different ranking individuals, it was fascinating. One of our favorite things we learned was that all entrances to the houses have a small plank of wood blocking the doorway, in order to walk into the residence you needed to step over it. We learned that the reason for this was it was thought that bad spirits had no knees, so the boards were put at the front of the house because the spirits wouldn't be able to step over them.

One of the most well known sites in Beijing is the Forbidden City and we were very eager to visit this historical place. The Forbidden City which is called the Palace Museum by locals is at the center of Beijing and was built during the Ming Dynasty. We had the impression that it would consist of one very large courtyard and maybe a few palaces but we learned that it was made up of 980 buildings, housed 24 emperors and spans over 7,800,000 square feet. Every building was incredibly ornate and some of the rooms inside had been reconstructed so we could get a concept of how the royalty lived.

Of course on a trip to Beijing we needed to see Tiananmen Square which is the largest city square in the world and the location of many historical events in China. Over 30 years after the death of Mao it was incredible to see what a huge hold he still has on much of the country. It was hard to believe that we were standing in the spot of so much ancient and current trials. We opted out of going to the mausoleum to see Mao's embalmed body.

One of our favorite things we did in Beijing was join a group in the park to do Tai Chi. They first did a performance for us and then took the time to teach us the beginning part of their practice. After just the 15 minutes of doing it Ofer and I both wanted to seek out places to do Tai Chi, it was incredibly relaxing and it felt good to take time to move slowly and be in tune with our bodies.

Our time in was Beijing jam packed with temples, tea ceremonies, Peking Ducks and strolls by the water at night. Sometimes we had to pinch ourselves to realize that we were't just in the biggest Chinatown we had ever seen, we were actually in China. Now when we see pictures or hear stories of The Great Wall, Tiananmen Square and traditional Chinese performance we will be able to draw back on our memories and recall the times we saw them with our own eyes. These are gifts that we will be able to share with each other for the rest of our lives. We couldn't be luckier.