Oh my god. What a long series of craziness!
Ok. From the beginning. The journey to New York in total was going to be over 80 hours. Right from the beginning it was action packed! Well, not really. But some crazy shit did happen.
On the overnight bus from Pokhara to Sanauli, at about 2am, the bus tipped over. The roads in Nepal are pretty dangerous and narrow and sometimes there isn't enough space to pass one another. On a road that was bordered by one cliff and one hill, we were, thankfully, on the inside. The driver pulled over just a little too far and the wheels sank into the gutter. The bus tipped onto its side and was stuck. I wanst hurt, although a lot of people were. It took what felt like a life time to climb out onto the road.
So at 2am, in the middle of nowhere Nepal, six Nepalese men and myself went hitch hiking. Its totally normal and reliable form of travel there so we hopped onto the top of a lori and rode the rest of the way to the border. It was fun but nerve wracking because I kept thinking that if it tipped over too, it would be my end.
I reached the border of Nepal and India at about 6am. Woke up the immigration officer and after a 40 minute battle, he finally got out of bed and stamped my passport.
On to Gorahkpur. I had reserved a train ticket but, per standard Indian crap, when I gt the the station to pick it up I didn't actually have a place on the train. A 7 hour bus ride to Lucknow would remedy the problem and I could take an over night train from there. Simple enough right?
The bus to Lucknow ended up taking 10 hours. We got stuck in a major traffic lock, took a detour and ended up with our bus stuck in mud in some village somewhere. The only time I have ever thanked being a woman in India was when they told me that I didn't have to stand in knee high mud to help push the bus out.
I made it to the train station with only 10minutes to spare. Good God, it was stressful.
The train was posh though. 2AC with a bunch of women and chai and bed linens. I slept well.
I arrive in Delhi in the morning and spent the day napping, eating and wandering around the markets. I bought spice for Phil from a man who I chatted with and drank chai with for hours.
Later in the evening I went out to wander the bazaar at night. I stopped to buy bangles and talked to another man and his brother for two hours. They were Muslim and two of the nicest people in Delhi. They invited me to dinner with their family and to continue talking with them until I needed to leave for the aeroport. I accepted.
I forgot for that moment that Muslims eat a lot of meat and when I arrived for dinner was served Buffalo meat. oops. But, for me, it was a unique opportunity that probably wouldn't arise again. To avoid being rude I ate the meat and with the men no less. The women ate later in a separate part of the house and I was privilege enough to sit with them and see behind the burkas. Totally worth eating meat, even though it was nasty as hell, for the experience of a life time.
The eldest woman, I forget her name, invited me to her grandsons wedding. It is a great honor to have foreigners at weddings in India and since the family liked me and I them, she said that she would begin looking for a wife for her son and would have a big wedding next year. I agreed that if they boys emailed me and were serious about my coming back, I would be honored to be their guest.
Anyway, I left them to head out to the aeroport and to my wonderful surprise I found that the rickshaw drivers were on strike that day. Great. After an hour of bargaining and finding three British guys to go with we split the taxi for Rs. 800. (this was an outrageous price. Its four times what it should have been, even with four people. But they had wanted to charge me Rs. 500 on my own so...) There was a strike, what could we do?
At the aeroport, my bag was too heavy to check. I had to pack things with me and throw a few things away. I finally got on board and was finally off to Moscow. OMG!
Moscow was boring. The aeroport is lame, nothing there. I met a German girl who was just a doll. We have agreed to keep in contact and when Im back in Europe Ill have another person to go hangout with!
The 11 hour flight to NYC was just long and dull. I felt like it would never end and that I would explode with anticipation.
I kind of panicked upon arrival. I hadn't heard from anyone about a place to stay and couldn't get hold of Phil. It was all finally worked out and now I'm sitting happy in Brooklyn. Vegan dinner, a long sleep and a breakfast of bagels later and Im feeling relaxed. I just need a shower and to find a phone and everything will be complete!
Seeing Phil is just wonderful. I have missed him so much. And in a day or so, Ill head down to DC to see a few more people!
I still have pictures from Nepal to upload and all that but for now, Im just enjoying the fact that I can wear short shorts, eat western vegan food and fucking relax!
