I was about to try my hand at mountain climbing for the first time (at the very modest height of 6500m) when I stumbled across the movie Everest on Netflix. After watching it and becoming terrified, I felt I wanted to read the true story behind the 1996 disaster that took place on Mt. Everest. […]
Book Review: Arresting God in Kathmandu by Samrat Upadhyay
Arresting God in Kathmandu by Samrat Upadhyay is a collection of short stories written by the Nepali-American author about everyday life in Kathmandu. The characters are full of flaws making them relatable in a completely uncensored way. It took me a while to finish the book because I’d read one person’s story, put it down, […]
Spending 3 Days & 2 Nights in a Nepali Hospital
As soon as we enter the hospital, everything is a mad dash. I give them my first name and my age. That’s it. It’s all they need to know. The dim hallways feel intimidating. Dirty footprints appear on the wet floors as soon as a woman finishes mopping them, undoing her hard work. The doctors […]
My Year in Review: 2017
I used to measure time with what I considered accomplishments. A raise in my salary. A job promotion. Which high end brands I could afford. However, this year was a little different. I stopped measuring time all together, and boy, has this year flown by and stood still all at once. I’ve learned so many […]
Nepal Backpacking Budget with Daily Breakdown
Nepal was one of the few countries I didn’t do research on before arriving. Most of my focus was on my Everest Base Camp Trek, which I’ll write about in another post, but exploring the rest of the country was kind of a surprise. I had no idea how much anything would cost. I hadn’t […]
Paragliding in Nepal: What It’s Like
I ran across the street in the downpour of rain. Within seconds my entire outfit was soaked. My friends and I all looked at each other and laughed while everyone in the bar was dry. The rain pounded the roof so loud, you almost couldn’t hear the live band. If we were going to be […]
What is a Homestay? Why Should You Stay in One?
Every once in a while, I realize that people are fascinated by what I consider the most trivial parts of my travels. This week it came to my attention that homestays are a mysterious thing. After telling a couple of women that we were staying in a homestay, they looked intrigued and said, “What is […]
Taking a Nepali Cooking Class in Pokhara & Making Momo
Momos seem to be synonymous with Nepal. It was the one thing I heard consistently every time I did research or told someone what country I was visiting. “Eat all the momos,” they said. I knew they were a form of dumpling, but I wasn’t really sure what made them so special. I arrived in […]
Bali Cheat Sheet for First Time Visitors
I’d met several people who claimed they didn’t like Indonesia, but when I told people I’d be spending most of my time in Bali, their eyes lit up. It was as if I was talking about a different country. In Bali, the people are Hindu, they speak Balinese, and they have their own local cuisine. […]
Book Review: A House in the Sky by Amanda Lindhout
Usually, I read travel memoirs or stories about what it was like to live in a country during a certain time period. For some reason, all of the books on my list didn’t appeal. I stumbled across A House in the Sky by Amanda Lindhout on a blog listing the best female travel memoirs, though […]