Chennai to China

If you are following me, you will know that I am working in India-Chennai in an MNC and right now I am writing about my trip to Nepal for an International GERA Conference. It was already completed in my last post and in this post I am gonna describe the journey from Nepal to China Border. We didn’t had all the time in the world to roam complete Nepal but whatever time was left with us, we planned to utilize it to the fullest. We heard that the route to China border is like Laddakh, so we hired a car and started our journey; for me it was like a journey from Chennai to China. I must say this was the awesomest part of our Nepal trip.

Waterfalls on our way

Thinking about the trip, images of Himalayan Mountains, simple people, exotic locales come to mind. Trip was all this and more. Words can’t do justice to the beauty of the land and you have to hike through its hills and valleys to witness its beauty and the majesty of its people especially girls. It was a beauty beyond description barren Rocky Mountains had an exquisite beauty of their own the shattered looking landscapes splashed with small but brilliant patches of green and black. Pahadi stepped out and collected some black rocks for research.

There were quite a number of water-falls on this Road. They seem like falling from the heaven. It’s a place where the road plays hide & seek all along. You have to be careful while driving in these roads. There was a time when I thought that this is it, we can’t go further from here, our car was stuck and driver was working hard to get it through, even then I was cherishing the moment thinking that we have made so far and whatever we have covered was none less than than an achievement. What can I say the journey was important not the destination. There was music flowing in our ship all the time courtesy: Pahadi. We also observed a trend as we were moving towards China in people’s physique.

Our car stuck on road

Finally we reached Nepal:China border, it is actually a bridge known as friendship bridge between the 2 countries. It was a cool border if you can think in a different way. There were more than 4 border policeman posted from the China’s side and only one from Nepali that too was having fun with us and talking all the time. There were 2 guards at Chinese side who were standing straight in attention position for more than 15 minutes so I asked Nepali guard, why he is in the same condition, he informed me that they have a duty of 2 hours, they will be standing like this way not even blinking eyes, this is called as discipline.

Friendship Bridge between Nepal and China

We could not take the pictures of the main entrance of China-border as the Chinese police posted there, prevented us from doing so. Hence for you, I have googled and found some old pics of the bridge for you. We were standing right at the red line: the border line between the 2, so we were in both countries at the same time that was a moment. Then we had some Chinese dishes in a restaurant nearby and headed for a hot spring: Tatopani, which is a major tourist attraction. People come here from far & wide to take a bath to cure their skin ailments, etc. After all this fun we reached Kathmandu, had dinner and stayed in a hotel near Pashupatinath Mandir.

Overall, it was a good experience for us. Only if we had the same facility as Nepalis enjoy (one day free permit to visit the bordering Chinese town) but for us Indians, Visa is a must. So we returned, overwhelmed with the nature's beauty.

Link for Friendship Bridge-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Nepal_Friendship_Bridge

Conference 2nd Day-The Fight

Angry Pahadi while giving Feedback

Next day we woke up early as always, got ready to reach the venue. This time too we were not sure that we will be returning to our hotel or head directly from venue to Kathmandu, so we packed our bags and took everything with us. Nothing was decided and everyone had their views so we had a small fight on the choice to check out from hotel or not. Anna didn’t want to check out but Maag and Pahadi thought it is good to check out, so we can directly go to Kathmandu, Anna got angry and took his luggage in rains to venue. We all followed since he was running to escape rains. 

When the conference started only half of the people joined rest either left or started roaming Nepal, they were the people who only wanted certificates. When conference was complete, there was a feedback session in that, Pahadi showed real face of her group members and also of those who came there only for certificates. Up to this time, we planned that will be moving to see Pokhara valley; I was very excited to see it as I heard from many people about its beauty and also we had sufficient time.

Kathmandu Market Pic

Girls from our crew talked to few people and were misguided that its gonna take a long time and will be a hectic journey, so both of them backed out and said that if we want to go we can move on our own, Anna was ready to do it, since he became very angry on this move of girls. In morning, both of them were ready and in evening they backed out, it was very wrong doing on their part. They should not be changing plans on their own from morning to evening which was completely unacceptable to Anna, I was also angry and tried to convince them, but they were adamant. In last we all came on one page and decided to quit Pokhara valley plan, next we headed to Kathmandu with our Mentor and few more people just for shopping. This small journey was a mess from all angles, none of us wanted any shopping, but to roam in Kathmandu we joined, also the cost of this trip was too much and the best part, Pahadi acted weird all the time, that too without any issues. She wanted not to go Pokhar, we all agreed then too she was angry all the time, even I tried to talk her out, but nothing fruitful.

Nepal's famous Rudraksh

Night, we got back to hotel angrily, I was angry because she was acting weird all the time even after agreeing on her idea, then too I tried to talk, but she didn’t wanted to say anything, Anna was also confused what to do next. Maag was all messed because we 3 were fighting, so in night she arranged a meet to solve this fight, after all shouting and sorrys we all agreed to forget the fight and plan for coming days.

God is there, Saved me 2nd time

Dear Readers, this is the second blog where I cannot reveal what actually happened, because the some of my readers are my close ones and they may get worried about me, once they hear what I have been through.

Let me keep it simple. I was being diagnosed for an infection which I had in my salivary glands (something which helps in keeping our mouth wet), so my Doctor sent me to get an ultrasound done. In that report, it showed that I had a small calculus (stone) in my duct. Now to get a clearer picture, Doc sent to me to get one more test done and this time it was a big one, it was CT scan. Since, I am living alone here, I try to take everything very lightly, I don’t want to make it something very big or else it will create problem for me and my parents, once they knew that I am getting these many tests done, they will be worried. My mistake was that I put my scan pic on whats app and my relatives saw it, next they called home and my parents also knew about it.  

When I visited for CT, they first took scans without some chemical in my body and it was simple, but they didn’t found out anything in that, so they again put me on bed with Contrast in my body, which had serious problems, if you are getting it done alone in a different country, remaining story is quite interesting but a serious one, better we should keep it up till here only.

Some points to solve mystery…     

 Local Bus
Dizziness
TCS
Cab
Somehow reached

In the starting of this blog, I mentioned that this is the second blog with secrets, well the first one belonged to my previous blog and its link is mentioned below…  

Emergency Exit

Welcome to Nepal

Glimpse of Conference with our Mentor

If you are following, you will know that I was en route to Nepal for Gera conference. In last post, we reached Kathmandu and stayed in a hotel. Morning we all got ready fast and headed towards Dhulikhel, a beautiful place located 2hrs from Kathmandu. Before starting we made phone calls to our home and had proper breakfast because we were late and thought that maybe we won’t get anything when we reach venue. 

Add on to our late timings it was raining when we reached there, so we became all wet and in that condition entered Hotel Mirabel. We joined conference and as soon as we entered, they had break. It was funny. We also had breakfast with them and then rejoined. Our mentor Mam yelled on us, that why we were late.

This conference was organized in a different technique known as dialogue paper presentation. In this mode, we sit in a group and follow the phases/cycles of paper presentation; it was a totally unique way instead of boring ppts and slides. All four of us sat in different circles as instructed by Mam, so that we can gain varied ideas from totally different people. I was sitting in a circle where I was the only guy rest all females but most of them had their children elder than me, bad luck. Rest of my crew members group was also ok, except of Pahadi. There was a person in her group who was behaving as if he knows everything and he is the only one knowledgeable. So Pahadi had a rough time in having dialogue, but mine, Anna’s and Maag’s group were cool, we all enjoyed dialogue.

Once the conference was over we started search for a good hotel, although we already had a hotel sort of booked which was near. Still we thought that we can search for a cheaper one, if we try. So we checked 3-4 hotels and finally booked one and after that came back to have dinner at the venue. After dinner we hit the road so that we can reach our hotel and have good nap. When we were returning our hotel, I really enjoyed the route, although it was only of half km, still the cool breeze made us feel like we are walking in heaven. It was completely covered with fog with little light from street lamp. It was a very different kind of experience roaming in between clouds with no one there except us. We reached hotel and had a good nap.