Kitty Box

Orphan Tigress at Chitwan National Park

After another delicious breakfast of paratha and curry, I was led to what I thought would be a squat toilet – something I have to come love in Nepal – but turned back around when all I saw a makeshift bathroom half covered with tarp, no water bucket spicket and worse yet, no hole to aim for – it was a mound of ash open to the neighbors. No thanks. I was led back to that area after repeating “toilet” several times and then realized I was in an oversized litter box. I took a poop, washed with my water bottle, covered up the evidence with the ash and then stepped into both Jamey and Bonnie’s poop. I never had cats before.

Happy Holidays

It’s Christmas night and we are spending it in the nicest hotel in Mahendranagar, a small Nepali city near the Indian border. We arrived in town early afternoon yesterday and had planned to cross the border, hop a night bus to Delhi, and be at an Indian wedding with friends in Punjab on the 26th. A bit of a rush, but definitely doable – that is until I rushed to get to Indian immigration thereby forgetting to zipper up my back pocket, and lost my passport in the matter of minutes somewhere in the 400 meters between India and Nepal. This morning consisted of several hours going in between Nepali and Indian immigration. Not the way I would want to spend the holidays, or worse, make others spend it this way, but our spirits are high. Bonnie and I leave for Kathmandu in two days so that I can get a new passport. We get to see the entire route we biked via high-speed bus. Sigh.

Blah Bhat

Delicious Plate Of Endless Dal Bhat

Nepali food is cooked fresh and it’s delicious. We began our bike trip eating simply for breakfast; chow mein and samosas for lunch and either Dal Bhat or curry for dinner. I was sick the entire 4 days of cycling and had no appetite nor energy, so on day 4, we decided to have a hot breakfast before reaching our destination of Pokhara. We were served a deliciously huge breakfast of parathas (potato stuffed bread) and subjee (vegetables) and were reenergized for a hard day of cycling. From that day on, we began eating hot breakfasts, no matter how long it took for the restaurant to prepare (sometimes up to 90 min), and then dal bhat for both lunch and for dinner.

I started this trip sick of dal bhat (because I had attributed my week long diarrhea to my 1st meal in Nepal which was Dal Bhat) and now I love it. Dal Bhat literally translates to lentil rice. The meal comes served on a segregated metal plate and consists of a large amount of rice, a bowl of dal, subjee (a curried vegetable), spicy chutney and pickled relish. The best part of Dal Bhat is that it's Nepal's version of all-you-can-eat. One never leaves eating Dal Bhat hungry, let alone not stuffed.

Now I will explain how one eats Dal Bhat:

1. Pour the dal over the rice.
2. Mix up the rice and dal with your right hand (the left hand is used to wipe your bum, and is NOT to be used to shake hands, let alone to eat with).
   
3. Pick up soupy rice mixture with your right hand and eat.
   
4. Graciously accept seconds.
5. Repeat 8 hours later.
   

The good news is that according to one of the yoga books I picked up in Rishikesh, yogis should eat a diet consisting of dal and rice since it’s easy to digest. Thanks to both the squat toilet and a healthy diet of dal bhat, my digestion has completely changed.

Caffeine Fix

Up Above Pokhara and Smiling

Just left the high Himalayan mountains where we spent 8 lovely days working on an organic coffee farm. We will bike another 3 days to reach Chitwan National Park to work on another farm for 8 days before our 550 km bike ride out of Nepal and back into India.