The Manure

What do you do with garbage in Nepal? Take it to the local repository? No. You dump it in the river. Countless times on this trip we have seen people throwing bags of trash in the holy rivers on Nepal. Most of these rivers are said to the residing places for the Buddhist and Hindu deities. However, little respect is paid when it comes to taking out the trash. Its sad really to see such an amazing landscape littered with trash. (Pictured: a pile of burning garbage on the banks of the river)

The Bat Cave

On our motorbike journey, we traveled pretty far in no-man's-land to Mahendra Cave. We opted to go without a guide, which meant sans-flashlights, but we did just fine. We sloshed through murky cave mud and random pot holes, as well as leaks coming from the cave, to a man who was giving blessings. I opted for a blessing for a small, 20-cent donation.

The World Peace Stupa

The World Peace Stupa was interesting but I do not recommend hiking up to it. The sign at the bottom of the mountain claims it is 2.5km up the mountain. I guess if they are talking vertical feet then I believe them. The trail we took went around the mountain several times and took us about 45min on a motorcycle. On the way down we saw some suckers hoofing it up the mountain. If you want to know more about the Peace Pagodas read here or if you want to know about this Peace Pagoda in Nepal read here. There are 80 of these Pagodas constructed all over the world. There are even some in the good old USA.

The Motorbike

When we were in Pohkara, we decided instead of paying for a touristy arrianged tour we would rent a motorcycle and drive around and see what we could see. The motorcycle rental was cheap, about $15USD. We decided on going up to the top of some mountain to see one of the 100 World Peace Pagodas. The ride was rough but we made it to the top. The Pagoda was not as spectacular as the tour guides touted but it had an amazing view. We accidentally drove up the wrong road the first time and turned around to see this amazing view of the Pagoda.

The Guru

In Dunbar Square in Kathmandu there are many gurus selling photographs of themselves (but today, there were only two, as seen pictured with Danielle). In the old days, they used to be mystics giving out advise but now they are just tourist attractions.

The sqaure is a World Heritage site and is pretty interesting. For little more than 3USD you can enter the square and visit many temples. One main attraction is the Kumari, a 6 year old child who is touted as a diety. Lucky Kid? She has public appearences in alot of make up all day long. NO Photos Allowed! Kumari are prepubescent girls selected from the community who lives in a palace as a bodily incarnation of the goddess Taleju.

The Club

We went to The United Arab Emerites a few days ago. Because of a flight screw up on the part of FlyDubai airlines we were forced to spend two miserable days in Yerevan, Armenia. In the one day we had left in UAE we took a bus to Abu Dhabi to spend time with an old college friend, Kate. She took us out to the club in Abu Dhabi our first night. It was great for Danielle and Kate because one bar every night has a ladies' night where ladies drink free all night, no exclusions (except for bottle service). Drinks were very expensive but the club was super nice. That is just about how you can describe anything in the UAE. Its all nice. Its all brand new built on the backs of migrant workers from neighboring countries and oil riches. It is a must see for any trip abroad. The palaces of the presidents and everything else is amazing in grandue and style. The only bad part... the weather. 115 in the shade and very humid.

The Culture of Armenia

Armenia is a poor country and there are more "Armenians" in Los Angelos than in Armenia. It is a proud, corrupt and sad country. It is a country that has been beaten up by every other country that has conquered them. They have been conquered by both Turkey and the Soviet Union in just the last 100 years. Armenia is a country without hope. Many of our Peace Corps friends told us that they are depressed going to work everyday because it seems like no one is doing anything. The people are sad because there is no opportunity - or more likely - they do not seize opportunities that come to them. Armenia has a run-down infrastructure. Everything that is running in this country is from the Soviet Union or earlier. This makes for tough going when it comes to buying a car... it must be imported at great expense (mostly because Armenia is landlocked and broke its ties with Turkey, its greatest trading partner, over the rights to Mt. Ararat). There are 8 oligarchs who run the country and are amazingly wealthy but most of that wealth is built on the backs of people who work for little or no money.

The Peace Corps volunteers get paid by the US government about 300USD a month, and for that they can live reasonably well, but to the rest of the country they can live like kings. The volunteers can travel wherever they want and eat and drink and make the conditions in this country bearable. From an outside perspective, I can see why there is no investment in the country, because who wants to invest in a country with a high rate of corruption and little to no work ethic? One Peace Corps volunteer told me that to get a business license he was applying for in order to help a village open a market, they asked for a 3,000USD bribe. That is about one year's salary for the average person here. This country has a lot to work on.

Another Peace Corps volunteer is working with a tourist company and is trying to boost the tourism rate in Armenia. Sadly, Armenians think that Armenia is the best tourist destination in the world (why wouldnt they?) Armenia is difficult at best to travel through. He told us about an ad for Armenia that ran in Western Europe that tried to convince Europeans to come to Armenia. The ad was about the trek of Noah... from Noah's ark, the Biblical story. There is one problem with the story: the main attraction for the tour is not in Armenia, but rather, the mountain in question is in Turkey. Mt. Ararat (the supposed "scene" of Noah and his adventures) is actually in Turkey, and Armenia has been fighting with Turkey over this land for some time now. This is important to know because for tourists, they do not care where the attraction is, whether its in Armenia or Turkey. They just want to see it. The Peace Corps Volunteer told us that running a tourism ad with a political undertone is so useless and more possibly damaging to Armenia's reputation. The churches that were in the ad were mostly destroyed by the wars with Turkey, Azerbijan and the Soviet Union. The road to get to the churches are mostly washed out or gravel.

(Pictured is Armenian White House)