We started out in Boudanath near the Stupa where we were staying at the Snow Lion Inn. The Owners son who was about 20 years old was our guide through the 50 miles.
One of the more interesting things about this trip was it was the first time I ever saw fireflies simply because we don't have them in the Western United States (only in the east or the south of the U.S.)
But, I was texting with a friend about wood stoves just now and she said it was snowing on 80 near Tahoe Area and she was glad she had wood to burn to stay warm in the snow coming down.
It made me think about how people cooked and heated their food in Tarkye Gyan which is the way it was spelled then. We had walked up the River to Tarkye Gyan where the Aunt of the young man guiding us lived with her young baby son. In this house and home they had no chimneys only an eve in the living room which allowed the smoke to go out so the only time you felt really warm with the snow coming down outside which it was was when you were cooking food which was usually potatoes cooked and often there was dahl bhat too which seemed to be a staple then. We all slept on the floors on foam mats in our North Face Down Sleeping bags (my then wife and 3 children now all grown up between the ages of 49 and 53 now) and all married and one with a son.
We traveled in Thailand India and Nepal mostly with the longest was 2 weeks in Thailand, 2 months in India and 2 months in Nepal. So, we arrived in Bangkok Thailand after taking off from Tokyo, Japan. We flew out on December 11th 1985 and returned around April of 1986.
Doing this was very affordable then once I discovered Discount Tickets that allow you to fly any time for the next 6 months to various locations so you could fly from San Francisco to Japan to Thailand to Kathmandu Nepal and if we wanted to also to Hong Kong but could only fly through each place twice (going and coming back to the U.S.)
But, it allowed us to stay 6 months if we wanted to in Asia in Various countries of our choice.
At that time the air fare for doing this was around 6000 dollars for this kind of ticket. This was for all 5 tickets by the way round trip from San Francisco through Tokyo through Bangkok and eventually flying into Kathmandu, Nepal and back to the U.S. after 4 months.
They likely still exist for people like Archaeologists who go on digs all over the world for months at a time. So, this kind of ticket was basically created for College research teams to travel more cheaply around the world and to stay longer than a vacation.
So, you might find Travel Agencies that sell this type of airline ticket the most around large universities that send out various kinds of research teams around the world to study different things worldwide.
The Lonely Planet Travel Guide is the most useful for a long stay overseas like this so you are basically most of the time your own travel guide except where it is dangerous to be alone like in the Himalayas where many tourists die from things like broken hands and broken feet and broken toes because they are too remote to rescue in time. However, if you can afford a helicopter to rescue you then you might survive a broken to or foot or something like that. But likely there is no cell phone reception except satellite phones most places in the Himalayas still.
No comments:
Post a Comment