India (this one was previously written, but we couldn't post it because no WiFi)

We have made it safely to New Delhi, India and what a roller coaster we have riden since being here. Before coming here, we were warned by a man we meet in Nepal that india is difficult to navigate through because the people aren't as helpful and friendly as other Asian countries.
From the airport, we took a pre-paid taxi ride to our hotel that cost 400 Indian rupees which is roughly $6.50 USD (the exchange rate is $1 to about 60 Indian Rupees). We had to swim through all the cigarette smelling taxi driver worms who continually catcall us to take their taxi. We got into the taxi of a nice guy who tried to find our hotel. When we neared out hotel, we found that the major road to get to our hotel was blocked off by a police border because of elections occuring. Our taxi driver took us to the Ministry of Tourism where we called our hotel. The hotel reassured that there wasn't a way to get there and said they would give our money back on our card. We will see if that actually shows up. The guy at the ministry told us that our budget for a hotel wasn't good because the hotels aren't safe and clean. We upted our budget to a max of $50 and the taxi driver took us to another hotel. Sure enough the hotel was $50 a night and it wasn't better than any other hotel we've stayed at. When we arrived, the "nice" taxi driver then said that we owed him another 400 rupees for a "second trip from the first hotel to the second and 500 rupees for (his) tip". Our jaws hit the ground. First off, who askes for and quotes their own tip. Second, there was no way the "second trip" cost the same at the "first trip" because it was only around the corner that he took us. We were peaved and ready to be done with India. We were stuck so we paid the man and went angrily to our hotel. We complained to the front desk about what just happened and the front desk guy's jaw dropped also. As we were stewing about what happened in our room and how much we had to pay for a less-than-average hotel room, the guy from the front desk knocked on our door. He handed us the money that we gave the taxi driver. We asked him how he got it and he said that he knew the owner of the taxi company and called him and told him what happened. The owner called his driver and demanded that he turn around and give the money back. The front desk kid had restored a little faith in India for us.
India is a dirty place with so many diverse people. We walked around our hotel for a little bit trying to find a cyber cafe because our hotel's WiFi wasn't working and we crossed the paths of many homeless people who eat, sleep, and do their business right on the street or sidewalk. It was hard to walk around. We grabbed six samosas for 60 rupees ($1) and went back to our hotel to meet with Brother Boddu.
Brother Boddu was a ray of sunshine. He was so nice to come out to our hotel. He lives about an hour from our hotel, is the Branch President here (four weeks ago he was called to that position), is also the public relations officer for the church in India, and works as a systems analyst at IBM. He gave us a phone with loaded minutes on it to use while we are here in India,  and just put a smile on our face. He is a super nice guy and we are excited to spend a few days with him.
The next day we checked out another hotel and moved to another one that was down the street for $30 a night.Later, we hired a tuk tuk driver to take us to some sites around Delhi. We first went to the Askhardham Mandir (you guess is as good as ours. Indian people speak so fast it is hard to understand them). That place was very beautiful, but it kind of felt like Disney Landish. The temple was completed in 2005 and displayed incredible stonework. However, knowing that it was done with modern technology and craftsmanship kind of took away from the magnificence. We were required to leave everything except our passports and money in a locked place so we weren't allowed to take pictures.
Our ride continued to the Lotus Temple. This place was neat also. Most all the sites to see in Delhi are free to enter so, that made it nice to swallow our hotels arrangements. Plus, we have spent about $7 for food thus far and that has covered four meals. Not too bad. With the major expense of our hotels and losing the money from the other hotel, things are starting to balance out because of the super low cost of food.
As we were driving, the tuk tuk driver informed us that the first hotel we were staying at is owned by the same guy who owns the pre-paid taxi service at the airport and that there are fake Ministry of Tourism offices around the city. What a total scam! If they celebrated Christmas here, our taxi driver would get a nice Christmas bonus.
The taxi drivers hands are in the hotel's pants and the tuk tuk drivers have their hands in the merchant's pants. On our way back from the Lotus Temple,  the tuk tuk driver stopped at 3 differet stores that sold rugs, carpets, and little trinkets.  After denying several rug offers and being pushed to the far corners of each shop to look at another wooden elephant, we made it to our hotel to get ready for the Taj Mahal.

Shelley and the Lotus Temple

Catching some ZZZs.

The first carpet/rug shop taught us how to weave the carpets. We learned that it takes one family who works 6 hours a day for 6 days a week, one year to complete a rug that is 4'x6' in size.

The man with the white hair and beard is Professor Butt. He educated us about all the carpet info..

Around Kathmandu

Our time in Nepal has come to a close, but here are a few pictures of Kathmandu.

We are creatures of habit and have eaten at this guy's restaurant every day in Kathmandu. The restaurant is called "The Typical Nepali Kitchen". Bishnu, who is pictured between Spike and Shelley, taught his son on the left how to cook and the food was delicious. The place was super clean. Funny story: we had recommended the place to two other people and tonight, our last time eating there, Bishnu gave us dessert for free. Dessert was called Kheer. Kheer is like a rice pudding. It was really good. The boy who brought us our check wasn't around when Bishnu offered us the dessert for sending people to his place. The boy had added our free dessert to the bill. So our free dessert wasn't free. We didn't want to make a scene so we paid and bounced.

Langtang Valley Pictures

Here are some pics from our journey up Langtang.

                            

Trekking Langtang Valley, Nepal

The stair stepper at the gym has nothing on the Himalayas. Our butts and legs are toned and in shape. We'd like to thank nearly every hotel in Southeast Asia for putting us on the top floor with no elevator. The training regimen of continually going up and down the stairs multiple times a day really paid off. We can't promise many pictures or any at all in the blog because we are posting this one via the cell phone. The tablets are struggling with the Internet power at this hotel. Here is our adventure day by day. We will have many pictures to share when we get home.

Sunday
We met our guide to discuss where we were going and to establish a knowledge of each other. Upon meeting our guide, he told us that we were signed up for the Helambu trek. We told him that was incorrect and that we paid to do the Langtang Valley trek. He called the boss and the boss said that's ok for us to do the Langtang Valley trek. We also told him that we changed hotels because when we arrived back from Chitwan, our previous hotel was full. Our guide said the bus leaves early so be ready by 7am.

Day 1 Monday
We were ready by 7am and no guide showed up. Around 7:20ish, we called the boss and asked him where is our guide. He said the first guide had a problem so he sent another. Within 10 minutes "Sam" showed up. Sam was sent by the boss man to our previous hotel and was waiting for us there. Clearly, our message with the first guide was never translated to the right person. Plus, Sam showed up thinking we were doing the Helambu trek also. What a mess! Sam called the boss man and we went to the bus park to go to Syaphrubesi (pronounced "See-a-pru-besi") where the trek begins. Sam was so nice and we felt instantly comfortable with Sam for the first moment we met him. We missed the tourist buses to Syaphrubesi and the only bus left was the local bus to a town called Dhunche (pronounced "Dune-chay").  Sam did all he could and we got on the bus. We even got seats! There were people sitting and standing everywhere, including on top of the bus. We stopped at all the little towns to transport people.  The ride also included various police and military check points along the way. Army personnel would board the bus and slither their way through the people touching various bags and looking for anything suspicious. However, their process wasn't very thorough. That something they were looking for could have bit them on the nose and they wouldn't have found it. We stopped for lunch at a road side place and Dal Bhat was served. Dal Bhat is a Nepali set meal that includes rice, curry with potatoes and cauliflower, lentil soup and sometimes green cabbage almost spinach type leaves. It is good and comes with refills for free. Sam told us "Dal Baht power for 24 hour". After lunch, we took a nap and woke up with three huge drums of gasoline next to us. We thought a farmer brought the drums on to take home, but we found out it was for the bus to go back to Kathmandu. The bus ride took a long time, like usual, but this time the road was only dirt for sections. The road is washed away every year in June and July from heavy rain on the cliff side so that meant a really bumpy ride. The music consisted of Indian and Nepali music, but we did get "Baby" from Justin Beiber and "Waka Waka" from Shakira thrown in the mix. We made it to Dhunche and had to spend the night there because we couldn't hitch a ride to Syaphrubesi with a truck or jeep.

Day 2 Tuesday
We slept really good. The blankets were super thick and warm. We had Tibetan bread with and omelette for breakfast. We started walking on the road and made it to the next town in an hour and a half. Our time was already short on the trail so we needed to get on the trail today, but still had about 2 hours of walking to get to Syaphrubesi. We paid a guy $13 to drive us on his motorcycle to Syaphrubesi so we could get there sooner. We all made it and started on the trail. We passed through beautiful scenery and saw cows, monkeys, and lengurs. We made it to Lama Hotel for the night. Dhunche was around 2000 meters in elevation. Syaphrubesi was around 1600 meters and we climbed up to 2400 meters to Lama Hotel. We walked through the bamboo forest and saw many porters. One porter was 60 years old and carrying more than 35 kgs of potatoes. Sam told us that many porters hike this trail multiple times a week.

Day  3 Wednesday
It rained during night which meant it snowed up higher. It was fun to walk through the snow sprinkled forest as we climbed higher. All of the people who occupy the little villages we passed through are Tibetan. The Tibet border was only around 20km from where we were. The farther we walked, the better the views got. We had lunch in a small village called Thangshyap (Pronounced "Tong-Shep"). As we passed through each village, Sam would be haggled by the women of each tea house and restaurant because we wouldn't stop to buy something or to stay.  We made it to Langtang Village around 3pm. It was somewhat surreal because Langtang Village sat at 3500 meters which is nearly the same as King's Peak, but there was still mountains above us. At our tea house, we taught the Nepali guides and hotel owners how to play spoons.

Day 4 Thursday
We woke up early, left our bags in Langtang and went up the trail to Kyanjin Ghomba. Kyanjin Ghomba sits at around 3800 meters. It took about 2 hours, but we made it. It was so beautiful! At the village of Kyanjin Ghomba, there are two cheese factories where Yak cheese is produced. Production wasn't in progress, but we were able to buy a little bit. Yak cheese tastes somewhat like Parmesan cheese. Salty and brittle, but good. We wished we could have spent more time up there. It was amazing. On the way up, we passed a group of nearly 30 Chinese people going down the trail. Chinese people are possibly the rudest and loudest people on earth.
We finished and went back down to Langtang Village, grabbed our bags, and continued down to go back to Lama Hotel. On our way down, we caught back up to the Chinese eating lunch. When we stopped for lunch a few of the Chinese passed us. It became a race to reach the best hotel at Lama Hotel.  When we arrived at Lama Hotel, we found that the Chinese won the race. Every room was full at the good hotel. We stayed at another hotel near by and still survived.
We are super pleased with what we were able to accomplish with the short time we have in Nepal. Our friend from Nepal we met in Vietnam said the fist time we visit Nepal is magical and he was correct. What a beautiful place! On trail, we passed the oldest porter we had seen on trail. She was carrying a small load in a basket tied around her head and began begging us for eye medicine. We felt terrible because we had nothing to give her. After hearing her plea, Sam told us to just keep walking. It broke our hearts that she wanted something we couldn't help her with.

Day 5 Friday
We had a slower start today because we had the big segment done with and were just needing to get back to Syaphrubesi. The Chinese beat us again as they were gone before we even woke up. We never saw them on trail, but we did cross paths with some other people we had previously met earlier in the week. We reached Syaphrubesi at 3pm and let's just say that both of us were smelling super fresh, Shelley taking the trophy on that one. She was smelling terrible while Spike smelt like rose blooming in Spring. Spike finally showered and we tried to help Sam open his Yahoo account. Sam forgot his password and all his friend and contacts he has for work are in his Yahoo account. We couldn't help him, but we are going to order him some business cards when we arrive back in the US so he can get more business.
Shelley was hungry so she ordered an apple pie and to her surprise an entire pie came out about 25 minutes made from scratch. She are the entire pie which was the size of a plate. The normal routine after dinner is to write down what you want for breakfast and what time you want it for the kitchen to make it. We watched a Nepali guide try to speak in his broken English to two Chinese men who don't speak English , asking them what they want for breakfast. They pointed at the menu at Dal Bhat. The guide said, "Dal Bhat for breakfast." Sam busted up laughing. The Chinese men then used their phone to translate chowmein. The guide eventually just ordered them apple pancakes, fried eggs and tea.

After another long and bumpy bus ride, we have made it back to Kathmandu.

A little about Sam...

Sam's real name is Gobinda Dhakal. He was given the nickname Sam by tourists. He grew up in a hilltop village that is a two day walk from the nearest point the bus reaches. His family was poor and couldn't afford to send him to secondary school so he became a porter at the age of 17. Seven years later he became a licensed guide by the Nepal Government. Sam is 32 now and was so much fun to talk to.  We learned much about the culture and the people from him. He is so good to his family, as he sends home all his extra money to them instead of buying nicer equipment or clothes. Sam wore the same clothes the entire time he was with us. We fell in love with Sam and hope these business cards can help him in the future.

Stepping back in time, Kathmandu

Our adventures have taken us to Kathmandu. On our way from Bangkok to Kathmandu we stopped in Delhi, India. We were warned that nothing moves fast in India and that is true. With all international transfers, we needed to go through security again and that was a zoo. Not one security worker kept order as about 7 people from France rushed the line because they were afraid of missing their flight. In reality their flight was leaving the same time as ours and it probably left late like ours also because nothing moves fast in India. The security workers just starred idly as the commotion was happening.
When we arrived in Kathmandu, we stepped back in time. Nepal is definitely the poorest country we have been to yet. The day we arrived it was a holy day for them and there was thousands of people walking from the temple near the airport. Dust filled the air as the dirt covered streets were being stirred by the bustling people moving to different celebrations around town. There is only full power in each building for a select few hours a day. Spike thinks that the entire city operates on the minimum level of power all day long and a surge of power occurs in different districts around the city. We aways have WiFi and hot water though.
Our taxi driver and host took us to a travel agency on our way to the hotel. We felt like we were in the scene from Taken when Liam Neesom goes through the dark alleyway in Paris and finds the Turkish mobsters. We were met by the owner of Adventure Maypole Treks and we discussed possibilities of trekking and what to do in Nepal. We left his office poorer, but happy to have a game plan.
Friday morning we took a longer than promised bus ride to Chitwan National Park. In the park we rode an elephant and saw spotted deer, crocodiles,  birds, monkeys, and peacocks. We missed out on seeing rhinos, tigers, and leopards. Our elephant's name was Lucky and the driver was very nice to us and the elephant. Our experience was fun, however if we never rode another elephant,  we'd be ok. In the evening,  we went to the town of Sauraha and watched a cultural dance show of some native dances from the Nepalese Tharu people. Two videos are posted below. Hopefully they work.
Saturday, we ventured back to Kathmandu and this one was a venture. 26 km away (roughly 16 miles) from our destination, traffic came to a halt. This time it didn't look like we were moving any time soon. It had been raining all day and we got word that a landslide had occurred between the town of Naubise and Kathmandu. After awhile we saw an old man walking towards the slide with his hoe over his shoulder. We ended up having Sprite, cookies, and chips for dinner as we waited. From the time we stopped to when we reached the slide site, 5 hours had passed. The slide occurred at a construction site which already had weak ground from the work and the rain all day made the slide happen. It was another two hours pass the site when we finally arrived in Kathmandu.
We were suppose to begin our trek through the Langtang Valley today, but because of what occurred we will start it tomorrow (Monday). Today, we will relax and enjoy Kathmandu. Our trek will take six days, so you won't hear from us for a few days.
Enjoy the pictures and videos below.

Each driver has custom painted his truck. All the trucks are decorated differently.

Stopped for lunch. The food is really good.

Spike and Lucky.

Tharu village.

Had to play with the goat. This one is for you JED.

Halted traffic winding through the Himalayas. 

Last Day in Thailand

Last day in Thailand. It is kind of crazy to think that we've been in Thailand for nearly a month now. The past few days have been fairly slow because we have had very little to do. However, tonight we met Sister May and her son PJ for dinner at the Mega Bangna Mall. This mall is only a year old and it was huge. Here is a few pictures from tonight.

The bus ride to the mall was crammed and when we arrived, the hydraulic door started to glitch out and would slam shut as soon as it opened. This is ironic because this bus stop just happened to be the most popular because as we approached the stop, everyone got up to get out, but no one could get out. We waited a few minutes as the driver fixed his door.

In the last post, I mentioned that we missed a few comfort things from home.....we found one at the mall.

The car show was going on in the middle of the mall.

Shelley playing with PJ.

Shelley, Sister May, and PJ

Saphaansung

Saphaansung, pronounced "Sa pon soon", is Shelley's last area and also the place of our last hotel in Thailand. We slurged and spent $20 a night on this one and got a hotel with a pool. The pool is surround with bird poo, but it could be worse. This is one pool that rarely sees people put their head underwater.
Saphaansung is in the middle of nowhere.  We are located out by the airport and Bangkok's airport ressembles Denver's because it take about 45 minutes to drive to it from Bangkok. We are located about 3 miles from it so that means nothing to do. However, it has been kind of nice to just relax and be in a comfy hotel room before we fly to Nepal.
Last night (Monday night), we were invited to an FHE by the Bishop's wife. We showed up and the three sets of missionaries were there and three other families, including the Bishop's.  There was a lesson in Thai,  a prayer in Thai, and a song in Thai,  which means it was super interactive for Spike. Spike was asked to share his thoughts about Thailand and Shelley translated. After, we ate good, homemade Thai food. Shelley pulled the weight on this one because Spike's stomach was a little unsettled from something. We don't know exactly what is wrong, but things are getting better.
We just booked our first hotel in Nepal and are super excited to go. However, after reading about the time commitment everything is in Nepal, we are afraid we didn't budget enough time. We are still excited, nonetheless.
Being able to relax in Saphaansung has given us the opportunity to think about our trip. Three months is a perfect amount of time. We are excited to feel productive again and move on with life, but ever so excited for our last three countries.  We can't wait to have chocolate chip cookies again and eat a Little Sneasers $5 Hot And Ready pizza. All-in-all,  we have loved our time here and look forward to the next few and last weeks, but we also miss a few comfort things from home. Life is good and you make it what it is. We hope all is well with everyone back home and that our laundry dries quick hanging in our room. We need to pack up for Nepal!