Okay so I mentioned briefly in the introduction of this blog that my side of the trip was/is a bit different then Colin's. The craziness of my trip started the day we were set to leave for Vancouver where our flight would take off for Nepal.
I started getting a small rash, a few odd red dots here and there nothing really, but when we arrived in Hong kong I knew I was in trouble. The rash had spread up my legs on to my thighs and the dots had become huge dark red blotches of all shapes and sizes I started to panic, was this - whatever it was, going to continue, will it be all over my face by the time I get to Nepal? and my legs hurt so bad.
The next flight from Hong Kong to Kathmandu was about 5 hours, and it was the longest flight of my life. I hadn't slept the entire previous flight which was about 15 hours I think, and this smaller plane was so hot, and I was so uncomfortable, and the thought that maybe I was patient zero for some unknown something was really starting to freak me out. finally we made it to Kathmandu, into the taxi that Colin's school sent for us, and back to the apartment we rented.
I immediately hopped into the shower hoping to relieve the pain in my legs which I did... but not from the water but from transferring the pain I was having to the back of my head instead, right after slipping and bumping it on the tile step coming out of the bathroom. I completely forgot about the pain in my legs!
I rolled around on the floor in the fetal position whining, swearing, feeling the huge bump on the back of my head grow, and the other huge lump of "Poor Me forming", then I thought okay this might be how it goes. If I have some weird karma that needs to ripen right now okay fine, I can do it... but dam WTF !! "where's the frosting"
The next morning I found only one of my favorite and really only shoes I can wear outside, on our door step partially chewed up and the other one completely missing, I thought really... now the dog ate my shoe! I actually had to laugh. First horrible skin thing, huge bump on my head, the dog eats my shoe it was so ridiculous I had to laugh, and then of course I cried they were my Keen Uneek sandels ! this was all in our first 10 hours in Nepal too funny!
Incidently our manager did find my other shoe so I found some duct tape and fixed the other on and so far so good!
So after the shoe incident we met up with Carolyn, had breakfast, Then Colin and I found a taxi and went directly to the clinic. This place is very expensive it's called "CIWEC Hospital Travel Medicine Centers with Doctors all trained in the West and catering to international travelers.
The doctor was very good. It was Saturday so the exam was automatically $100 US then I needed a skin specialist, blood tests, urine, and when it was all said and done $345 US and the verdict was.... I was not Patient Zero for anything thank goodness! but I was having an autoimmune response called Hypersensitivity Vasculitis. The doctor said it can happen when there is an infection or something and the bacteria cause holes in the blood vessels and the blood leaks out EEWWWW yuck ! It was absolutely horrid to look at before I knew what it was, but knowing what it was kind of made it worse. I am a total blood phobe😬 * I have a picture but I refuse to put it up, but you can google HV, to see what it looks like and just imagine watching a few spots turn into that!
The doctor gave me antibiotics, allergy medicine, some cream, and in 8 days it was gone. I couldn't believe it, I didn't think anything that looked that bad could go away!
I am still having little physical odd things happening. I was doing a lot of Kora- "Wallking around the Great Stupa while reciting mantras" and I developed the scariest looking monster blister of all time! large enough to be on the heel and the side of my foot at the same time, Colin was even getting concerned, it looked like a huge tumor or something, and it wasn't going away it was almost 2 weeks and started to turn purplish in some areas. It was going to be off to the clinic again for me, and then finally it started going away.
Okay now that was done, I know... sorry all this icky stuff but I thought it was so strange, and kind of comical that Colin was making all these friends and all this wonderful stuff was happening and moms in the background completely falling apart, Like a cartoon where the main character is going along oblivious to his sidekick getting bumped and beaten by stuff. So my role this trip - The bumbling sidekick : )
I was also fortunate to find part time work as a Didi Nepali for housekeeper and laundry person
As well as a Master chef ; ) - Here are some of my specialties - I am still locating food items so the menu is a bit limited right now.
Honey Infused French Toast
Pesto Tortilini with Cooked Carrot wedges, with a garnish of
Fresh Mango and sliced badly buttered bread : )
And then there was "Day of the Beans" not the proudest time of my career
In the Company of beans
So I was very excited when I found some black beans, Colin and I thought Black Bean soup would be great! - I found an easy recipe for black bean soup and went about soaking the beans overnight, the next day I began to cook them in water 1 hour - then 2, I noticed the beans didn't have much taste even with the onion, cumin oregano etc. and the texture was different, still too hard, they were also kind of white inside. So I decided to look up what black Bhatmas ( Nepali) was, (Yes of course this would have been better to do before starting to cook) and found that these are actually black soy beans- a whole different animal- (legume, we're vegetarians).
Luckily there was an easy recipe that looked interesting and I could still use what I was already cooking. I just added Chili powder, ginger, a little more garlic, drained the water and threw the beans into the frying pan for this new recipe called Easy Bhatmas Sandeko.
I cooked the beans for another hour, this is hour 3, finally they started to taste okay. I added a little soy sauce to it - I mean at this point how could it hurt ? and it actually tasted okay. I was satisfied with my Franken beans, figured they could now be eaten with some rice and we could get some kind of dessert to compensate if Colin couldn't tolerate them.
Then this 4:00pm text from Colin at school:
"Hey Mom, let's get a veggie burger at
Friendship Restaurant,they had black bean soup
for lunch here at school today"
That was it! I hate beans, it's over! I needed some closure so I ate the dam beans for lunch the next day and thus ended " The Day of Beans" saga Note: I took this dish off the menu!
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