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Post by roverpup on Nov 27, 2019 0:24:10 GMT
This trip certainly has been event filled. Not only did we encounter a truck ramming our bus, but on the last full day in Nepal I got frightfully sick. I did manage to struggle through one event (the trip to the Tibetan refugee settlement - which was extremely interesting and I bought a beautiful wool rug for our hallway, which we are having shipped home - the money goes to support the refugees who can't get passports so they can't get employment).
The rest of the time though I was completely bedridden. Sicker than a dog... and then it got worse! I couldn't even keep water down and with the vomiting and diarrhea I was extremely weak. So our guide took us to a local pharmacy and we got some meds.
Took a while for them to kick in so the trek from Pokhara to Kathmandu was the flight from hell for me. Luckily everyone in our group was soooo supportive and understanding. Dan was a complete prince and our guide was right on top of things too.
Finally we made it to our hotel in Kathmandu and I was able to get a shower and get some sleep. I slept almost all of 24 hours. Then the miracle happened. By this morning I was a little bit better, by the afternoon when we were at Kathmandu airport I was suddenly 80 % better and now that we are in Hong Kong I am as good as new!
We are relaxing in the first class lounge in HK and it is like an oasis of calm in a turbulent sea.
One downside - because I am still on the antibiotics I can't consume any alcohol! And all the booze is included in the package! 🥺 But we are going to avail ourselves of the massages and showers!
Very loooong plane ride coming up so we better pamper ourselves!
Once I get home I will fill in all the gaps in my travel journal.
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Post by queenzod on Nov 27, 2019 5:44:51 GMT
I’m so sorry you got sick, but happy you’re on the mend. That sounded nasty. Have a safe trip home, and I can’t wait for the details. 😃
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Post by mllemass on Nov 27, 2019 7:43:51 GMT
I’m glad that your illness didn’t last too long!
A friend of mine who married an Indian man still tells the story about their honeymoon in India. They had two weddings - one here in Canada, and a traditional Indian wedding afterwards in India for his family who weren’t able to make it here. That was her first trip there, and she got very sick. She ended up having to get her appendix out while she was there. They returned to Canada as soon as she was able to travel, but she didn’t fully recover for months. That was some honeymoon!
Other than the food poisoning I got in Italy when I was 12 (our family had stopped at a roadside stand to have watermelon - likely my mother’s idea because she loved watermelon), I’ve been pretty lucky in not getting sick while travelling. I did get very, very sick after I had returned from a trip to Chicago years ago. My sister and I think we picked up some bug on the flight home, because she had it too. In all the years we lived in the same house and even shared a bedroom, she and I had never before been sick together. It started with losing my voice the day after we got back, and it spiralled from there - turning into strep throat, fever, horrible coughs, lots of sick days from work, and ear infections. Our Chicago trip was in August, and it was after Easter when my doctor sent me to an ear specialist because I still couldn’t hear anything out of my clogged ears. So I spent more than 8 months sick!
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Post by roverpup on Nov 29, 2019 10:50:59 GMT
I have rarely been even under the weather when traveling. This was the first time I have actually been bedridden and I was totally incapacitated this time. The worst part was that I HAD to travel on that day so until I was in Kathmandu, I had no choice but to spend my worst day vomiting and having explosive diarrhea in a small, dirty, crowded Nepalese airport. Believe me, if I had ANY pretentiousness before that experience, I certainly had absolutely none afterwards! Thank goodness the travel group (guide, companions, and of course Dano) were so understanding and kind.
Anyway, all that nasty yucky stuff is behind me and the tremendous memories are in a much more dominant place!
Overall the trip would have to be rated as a life changing experience. It was amazing. Not only the site we saw but the people we met. The tour itself was remarkably well organized and filled with opportunities to see and experience unique events.
Really wide ranging accommodations, from the Buddhist monastery in the Himalayas to the ancient family owned fort that was being renovated into a hotel in a remote rural village in India. Some places we stayed we were so basic that blackouts came along every hour, while other hotels were so posh they had hosted the likes of celebrities.
We had lunch with women who were survivors of the sex traffickers and now had gainful employment. We visited a Tibetan refugee settlement in Nepal and talked to (through our guide) women who made traditional wool carpets for their only source of income (yes, I did buy a gorgeous little rug which will be here in a few days).
We ate in tiny, "one man show", roadside cafes that had nothing but mismatched tables and chairs, to a veritable feast at a place where Obama had dined in Kathmandu!
We saw rhinos in the wild, working elephants, and flew around Mount Everest while toasting with champagne!
I made some really bonding friendships with some of our fellow travelers.
We survived a vehicle accident (that certainly NEVER has happened to me before!).
I planned this trip over a year in advance and then went and forgot the most essential part - the Indian Visa and were turned back from boarding our plan in TO. It looked like the whole trip was down the drain but undaunted, and with the help of my travel agent, I got those emergency visas in less than 24 hours and we were on our way!
I couldn't believe it when we finally caught up to the group and were able to see the Taj Mahal on our first day!
More stories to come but for now I have to get more rest. Still having sleep disruptions. Night, night!
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Post by ellie on Dec 22, 2019 10:02:37 GMT
Just found this thread! What a fascinating and event filled trip you had. I really enjoyed reading about it. Especially as I’m unlikely to ever go to India. The heat would be too much for me to handle.
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Post by roverpup on Dec 22, 2019 12:23:13 GMT
Because it was the winter time in India the weather was very pleasant actually. No humidity and the maximum temperatures hovered around 75 degrees F or 24 C. Many days I wore a light jacket or long sleeved top. Nights were definitely cool enough for a jacket. In Nepal even in the jungle it wasn't humid. The warmest place was down in the valley of Kathmandu and that was just warm but not hot. Again no humidity and about 24 - 25 C. Lots of sunshine and only one night it seemed like it was threatening to rain (the wind picked up and it was cloudy) but it just tapered off and nothing happened.
The worst aspect was the toxic fumes from the air pollution in the New Delhi area! It made the air so poisonous it hurt you throat even inside cars and buildings. In the rual areas it was better but even still, in some spots the air pollution hung like a fog all day and night long.
In Nepal the air was a LOT fresher, even in Kathmandu.
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