... maybe, one day, i will be back with a proper visa and I will be able to visit it ... :D
Thanks to a real mess that my travel agent sold as a ticket it took me almost 48 hours to get back home, and I had to spend 18 hours in the Kolkata , India airport. Because it was a last minute change I didn't even have the chance to get a proper Indian Visa. So I had to spend all the time in a waiting room in the airport. From 6PM, until 12PM of the day after. The only good thing about it, is that I took a book with me. I guess I have been the last of my friends to read it. And read it in one night has been really an exhilarating experience ... 
It is time to leave Nepal. Wonderful trip in a wonderful country. The last picture of Nepal is for this Hindu holy man. They are called Sadhu. You can meet in the streets of Nepal. Especially in the touristic cities. Some locals told me that those are not real holy men. Are just here to have their picture taken by tourists, and get some tip money. Yes, even Nepal is not the perfect country. Or at least it is not anymore. That's why you should visit it. Before the tourism will ruin it forever, if it hasn't done it already ...
... a country full of contradictions, but never plain. Always cheerful and colorful. This has been really a wonderful trip. I don't know if I will ever come back, but I hope I inspired some of you to take a trip, in this small corner of the World ...
But the intersection is definitely a landmark in the country. They have even a stone celebrating its construction ...
... I really love this country ... maybe because I never drove thru this traffic ... :D 
The people, of course, is wonderful. Like anywhere else in Nepal. That is not a surprise. And here are some of the picture that I took during the day that I spent there ...
The driver was pretty good, but I have to admitt that the curves scared me a little. Now it is fun to look at the picture, but there I got a little bit worried ... anyways ... like Nietsche was used to say ... "What is not killing us, is making us stronger" ... that was my case for this jeep ride ... :D
My trip to Nepal is almost at the end. And like in any trip that I take, when I am at the end, I kind of rush thru cities and places. Not sure why I do that. Maybe because I think that I have seen enough. Anyways in one of my last days in Nepal i visited the city of Pokhara. It is a sleepy town on a lakeside. And it is also a big tourist magnet. A lot of tourist come here to start their trekking in the Annapurna region. Annapurna, after the Everest Base Camp, is the most visited trekking in Nepal. These are some of the pictures that I took in town. As usual, wonderful people and diverse landscapes. Starting from the cows in the main intersection of the city ...
... I know it doesn't look nothing like a Post Office. It looks more like a cowshed. But believe me. It is a Post Office. And that office is the stage of one of the funniest situations that I had here in Nepal. So I want to send some postcards to my friends. But I realized that I bought the wrong stamps. I think I need some 5 rupees more for each postcard. So I go to the Post Office to check, just to be sure. And the guys who are working there start discussing between them on the correct postage. After a while they decide to pull out a book ...
They decide that for Italy I need 5 rupees more. But they can't decide for Germany. I try to convince that it must be the same. They don't agree. After a while I realize that they can't find Germany in their book. I can't believe Germany must be there. But I can't really help them much. It is written in Nepali language. The alphabet is different.
So I can't really read what they are reading. After few minutes I decide to help them. And I realize that they can't find Germany because they are looking under the "Middle East" section. So I tell them to look under "Europe". And they finally find Germany. At this point, I found out that a couple of my postcards is missing. Basically a guy who was passing by, grab them and start looking at them. He told me he never saw the Everest. And he asked me if the one in the mountain in the postcard is the Everest. I felt soooo ashamed to be so lucky. This guy is from Nepal and he never had the chance to see the Everest. And I flew all the way from the other side of the World to see it. Sometimes life is not fair. But I have an open business with the post office. I need the stamps. Even if locked in a double locked box, I finally get the stamps I need ...
And I even get the stamps validated in front of me. After 15 minutes I am still there in the so called post office, but I got my "business" done ... 
And to remember the funny experience I ask to stamp the date on my travel guide. And here is the result ...
... today is August 35th 2006. Confused I ask to the post officer what is going on. The answer? "Yes, you are right. But we rarely change the date. Not worth it" ... I leave the post office with a huge smile.He is right ... soooooooo right ... :D 
Maybe they can't write it just right the first time (see the "s" added by pen), but they have very clear ideas on what is pollution, and recycling. Poor Western World. We think we are so advanced, but we are so retarded in so many important issues ...
I didn't really noticed that all of them had 8 petals. A couple of friends made me noticed it. And because of that it has this funny name. It is the "I love you" flower. I really like the name. So I took also one of them for my Nene.
The people. Aaahh, the people. The people is the real treasure of Nepal. And here are more pictures of the people of Palpa. The pictures are hard to describe how well I felt when I met this people. It could have been just for the time of a smile or for 5 minutes chit chat or for hours of philosophical discussions. All of them old men, kids, women really left me with the feeling that they really want to spend some time with me and they really enjoyed with company as much as I did enjoy to be with them. All of them have sweet words for you. But most important, they really have time to spend with you. So different from our Western society, where we are all busy doing something else. And where we have, maybe, lost our mind behind just money ...
... bust still pretty interesting. At the same time my holidays are running out, so I can't really stop more than one day. So, what is in Palpa? What I liked the most are some local street food sellers. And because the restaurants were closed, for the Dashain festival, this is where I had my lunch and afternoon snack...
The main attraction of Palpa is a small temple with kamasutra tiles on the wall. These are the tiles, and these are some pigeons inside the temple. They have definitely learned the lesson ...
And these are my two new Indian friends, Amar and Vibha. They are from Varanasi, India. And they are here for few days of vacation. We took a short walk on top of a hill. I loved to spend some time with them. I think that meeting new friends is the best thing about travelling ...
and who knows. Maybe I will meet them again during my next India trip ... :D
