The unexpectedness of traveling...things don't always go your way!

Traveling is suppose to be fun right? You imagine yourself in paradise, living life to the fullest, breaking free from the mundane grind of everyday life. Although this is true, traveling happens to fall right in the realm of LIFE. This means that just as in your normal life, while traveling you can experience ups and downs, good surprises and not so good surprises, you can experience tears of joy and tears of frustration. The only difference is that it seems to be intensified while in a foreign country.

Although I have traveled to many countries and have found myself in the midst of tricky situations where I was tested on many levels and forced to take my cultural adaptation skills out of my bag of tricks, Nepal has been the epiphany of my realizing that things don't always go your way.

Ranging from non-nonsensical visa issues from India (the worst I have experienced so far, I actually have to come home early because of this. July 19th everyone!) to nation wide transport strikes and political tension (for those who want to read on it, check out the Maoists in Nepal) to health emergencies (don’t worry, we’re fine now) and being in constant limbo (we literally did not accomplish anything that we had planned to)...Nepal has tested the limits of my patience and my capacity to navigate through muddy waters.

The last time I wrote in my blog, we were off for a 20-day trek in the Annapurna range. Ron and I were both so excited as this happens to be something on our "To-Do Before I Die List". However after the 3rd night, there was an emergency. Ron had to be brought to the hospital. And because we were 2 days walk down to the road and the Maoist strike was going on, we had to take a helicopter to Kathmandu, where we ended up staying in a private hospital for 5 days. We then stayed around the city just to make sure Ron's condition was stable and to fix our visa issues. From there we went back to Pokhara to pick up some of our stuff that we had left before the trek and then just exited Nepal. It was a sad goodbye

I can’t lie; there were moments where I thought I would definitely crack. Moments where I cursed everyone and everything because I needed an out, a way to vent and release the negativity within. I simply found the whole thing very unfair for the both of us. But in the end, Ron was fine (the most important thing!) and the universal law that all things change provided us with some kind of movement (the movement in question was actually a stamp that allows use to re-enter India), where the dark suddenly became a lighter shade of grey.

Fortunately, I know these experiences have provided me with important lessons. Not only have they allowed me to recognize some of my weaknesses that I should work on, they have also given me a greater sense of gratitude for life itself. Carpe diem my friends!!

And at least we got to experience some of this marvelous country. Kathmandu is a really interesting city full of ancient temples and shrines and a wonderful place called Durbar square (one of my favorite places in the city). We took fantastic day walks through the city and simply explored the streets, as we do so well. I kind of felt like I could get of sense of what ancient China looked like.

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 Durbur square.

But most of all, it's the mountains that were truly magnificent. The few days spent on the trek made me realize how much I love being outdoors and how much I want to get into trekking and mountaineering.

 

  Ahh...hiking through beautiful scenery is one of the best ways to spend your time!

I know that for me this is just the beginning of a passion awaiting to be developed...who knows maybe some day I'll attempt Mount Everest! I'll be back Nepal, I'll be back!! But next time, please give me a little break!