22
Today I am 22. Kind of. I’m currently in the future so I’m not sure if it counts or not. Anyways, some interesting things happened after I published the blog yesterday, so we’ll pick up from there:
Yesterday, post blog, Kathmandu, Nepal:
First, I had to go rain pants shopping (the #2 garment in Iceland!) because tomorrow I’m going Trekking and it is going to Rain. So I went to the first trekking gear store I saw (there are 10 million of them here) and requested some nice rain pants. Turns out, “rain pants” is not a term here. So finally we put our heads together and figured out that I needed some waterproof pants. Then the guy looked through stacks and stacks of waterproof pants and found some nice “North Face” and “Gortex” pants. He oddly (flatteringly) judged my rain pants size as small (and a Nepal small at that…) so then I got to try a bunch of plastic pants on in front of everyone until we came across a sort of appropriately sized pair. After knocking it down to a reasonable price and getting a lovely pink towel thrown in, I found myself to be the proud new owner of a pair of $30 counterfeit rain pants that sort of fit and make me look like a cross between a construction worker and 80’s ski jumper (photos soon, don’t worry).
Next we went to a bookstore that featured an impressive collection of Archie comics. Not much to say on that, really. I just really like Archie comics.
Then we went out for Tibetan food and got enough food for a family of four for less than $10. For some reason, Christopher thought it would be a good idea to order the Tibetan “butter salt tea”. Turns out, butter salt tea is not actually delicious. What a surprise. Everything else was delicious though. Except for the thing that I thought was a small green bean that turned out to be a Fire Vegetable of Spicy Death. Then it started to monsoon. Luckily, I am accustomed to the monsoon season, as I experienced it in its full glory at my summer job this year.
Momos! Noodles! Spicy death vegetables :(
Tea skin. I tried to make Christopher drink this so not to be Rude and Wasteful. He would not. Then I tried to drink it. I also could not. In conclusion, I do not recommend this beverage.
Because it was monsooning, we then returned to the hostel to wait for it to not be monsooning anymore. Sadly, this is where things went horribly wrong. I accidentally tricked myself into thinking that if I just rested my eyes for like 30 seconds during 90 Day Fiance (I think I actually had to close my eyes in exasperation when Avery mentioned for the 300th time that she’s going to move to SYRIA to be with her true love Omar From The Internet….) I would not fall asleep and everything would be good and fine. Obviously, this was false. Because there I was, sleeping away at 6:45pm. And then there I was, a few hours later at midnight am, ready to be up for the day. Things continued to go horribly wrong from here. I tried to go to the bathroom, only to find that it was already occupied by the fastest, largest, and longest antennae’d bug I had ever seen. I did not scream. I simply closed the door calmly and decided I would revisit the horrible beast in the morning. Only then I couldn’t sleep because I was worried that the horrible beast would find its way out of the bathroom and into my bed. Or backpack. Or ear. So then I had to wake Christopher and send him to murder the bug. Because I like to exaggerate sometimes, I decided to open this request with “there is a three-foot-long insect in the bathroom”. I quickly realized that that description was not going to help my cause, so I revised it to “I need you to kill the bug in the bathroom. It is so fast.” And he did. But not with much enthusiasm, I must say. Anyways, I have received word that the bug’s remains have been laid to rest in the “Health Soap” wrapper in the bathroom garbage can. So don’t go in there.
Present Day, Nepal:
To start off my birthday right, I FaceTimed my family in beautiful giant bug-free PA. This was nice because it gave my brother Duncie the chance to make a ride hand gesture at me and not wish me happy birthday. Next we went for pancakes at a hippie restaurant where you sit upon pillows on the floor and eat organic vegan stuff and don’t wear shoes. I love a shoe-free establishment. While I was there and not wearing shoes, I really had to pee because I’d been boycotting the site of the horrible bug murder. I was en route to their hippie bathroom when one of the hippie guys came chasing after me and made me wear his own personal flip flops to the bathroom. What service! Next we almost got run over soooo many times. Tuesday is a very busy day in Kathmandu, apparently. Then we went to a place called the Garden of Dreams. Which is a garden that you might dream about because it is so nice. But so so so so so so so hot. And humid. Then it rained a little bit which was nice and cooling. And I did my favourite kind of shopping, the kind where you find some beautiful shiny stuff and/or fabric layers that tickle your fancy and pay what you feel like. Like today one guy just asked me how much I’d like to pay. And then I was like “1000” and he was like “okay”. It’s not an amazing business model tbh.
Plant life.
Then we went to a place that can only be described as a naan garage. Like a gross, dirty garage where they make delicious naan. All the kinds of it.
My bottle of Purell straight up quaking at the sight of the filthy naan garage. I will let you know in about 48 hours if he was up for the job. (P.S. I did look up the reviews for this place. Like I’m not out here just trying to get a horrible food borne illness. Anyways, they were all positive regarding the food but most people were not big fans of the location/decor/general building. e.g. “the food is incredible. But the building is so hot. It is like hell” etc).
NOTE: BorrowedBackpack is only BorrowedBackBack for a short time. Tomorrow I am going trekking for 2ish weeks and will not be taking my computer because it is very heavy and there won’t be wifi anyways. I will be keeping a Paper Blog while I am internet-less and turn it into normal blog form upon my return.
Re: Trekking: tomorrow we have to fly to the Most Dangerous Airport in The World to start our trek. So that’s rough. Anyways, I’m living large today in case I don’t cheat death tomorrow. Also I’m staying loose so I’ll be able to remain in the Brace Position for the full 35 minute flight tomorrow.