A gift giving guide for that traveller on your list

Wondering what to get that person on your list who loves to travel? Well here is a quick list of items that I could never go without, and would make great presents this holiday season.

1. Every traveller, no matter where they are going, 5 star hotels to sleeping in parks, will always need a Maglite, the link sends you to my favorite one. Its the perfect size, you can pack it in your camera bag, keep it on a keychain, it is easily hidden so if you ever find yourself in an "unfavorable" part of town/village/city/hamlet, its good to have.

2. Moleskin, the perfect present for anyone on your list about to embark on a trip. My Father gave me one a few years ago for Christmas, and it is one of my treasured travel companions. I love the pocket at the end of the journal where you can store ticket stubs, airplane tickets etc.

3. For your super fabulous friend who loves the finer things in life, nothing is better than a Louis Vuitton Travel Guide. My sister bought me the London book, and while its lovely to dream about going to those places in London, its a great guide to the more fabulous things to splurge on while in a particular City.

4. For your more down to earth, backpacker type friend, obviously anything from Lonely Planet will be appreciated. From their guide books to coffee table books, with amazing photos, a perfect gift for anyone caught in wanderlust.

5. A sarong, yes this might sounds weird. But trust me, it can be used in the following situations: need to cover your legs to be allowed into a Greek monastery? boom the sarong works. Need to cover your hostel pillow because "you just aren't too sure about it", sarong FTW. Need a blanket, use the sarong. I got mine in 1999, in the Plaka in Athens, and have packed it on literally every single trip since then. Totally worth the 20 drachmas, and it takes up zero room in your backpack.

6. A compass, this is my favorite one which can be found for $8 at Mountain Equipment Coop, its actually attached to my maglite. It helps you find your bearings, and if its the middle of the night and you can only remember that your hotel is somewhere across a river, and forget the name, you have your compass, maglite and probably your lonely planet. The perfect trifecta will help you find your way. If that fails, those park benches are probably looking pretty comfy right about now, aren't they?

7. *Splurge Item* Ok so this item is a tad pricey, its from Barbour, a fantastic British company that makes some amazing rain wear. Its my go to carry on bag, it fits my DSLR, a wallet, iPhone, batteries, Lonely Planet, magazines, bottle of water, honestly you can put anything in it. Its hoenstly perfect, it took me a while to finally find a great messenger bag, and this is the winner. Mine is the traditional green plaid color, but they have a variety of colors.

8. If your friend just got back from a neat trip, a cool gift suggestion is finding a vintage map of one of the places they went to, or a map of the world and they can pin all the places they've been and where they want to go. You can find them virtually anywhere, etsy is a great place to start, I go to this store Write Impressions in Oakville and they always have some in stock. 

9. Large Ziploc bags - yes ziploc bags, they are always needed on trips, they act as clean/dirty cloth seperators, helps to protect your shampoo from exploding all over your clothes. Your friend will love you for this present.

10. If your friend fell in love with an NGO, or is planning a volunteering trip, give them a donation, the money goes a long way !!

I could go on and on, or you could just ask me for other suggestions :)

Have fun shopping !!

Kathmandu: Places to Stay

 Now that we have the party scene taken care of, lets find you a place to get some sleep (or lack thereof depending on how your evening went in Thamel). 

During my two weeks in Nepal I stayed at two hotels in Kathmandu, both at different price points, I will also add in the hotel my friend stayed at, because it looked amazing.

One thing to note is that heating isn't exactly "common" in some of these places, even at Hotel Vajra, where I paid $60/night and is considered a nicer place to stay I didn't have a great heating system. But my friend who stayed at Hotel Courtyard had awesome wifi and heat for the same price.

Hotel Magnificent View - Located in Thamel (the area you'll most likely want to stay in, since its close to shops, restaurants and attractions), its a good place to stay if you're on a budget, it averages about $25 a night. The breakfast was pretty good, plus its off the main road so its relatively quiet - there is a lot of residential noise in the building though. The Wifi was great, the rooms are quite large and staff are excellent. Heat not so much. Breakfast is included.

View of Hotel Vajra from the
grounds, my suite was the one
on the 2nd floor, with the
blinds open.

A part of the courtyard
at Hotel Vajra.

Hotel Vajra - This hotel is about a 5-10 minute taxi drive from Thamel, and not too far from the Monkey Temple, again it was off the main road, so I actually got some pretty decent sleep because I didn't hear any of the honking cars. I would recommend this hotel for people who want to be close to things but not in the middle of the chaos. A lot of trekkers were staying at the hotel, so they were in need of a comfy bed and peace and quiet. I had the breakfast at the hotel, and it was pretty good. My room was MASSIVE, I'm quite convinced the bed was larger than a king, it was awesome, and the pillows were divine. A drawback of the hotel was the Wifi, it wasn't always working, and since I was there by myself I wish the wifi would have been working in case I needed to send an emergency email or something. The hotel had a great 24/7 security, since I did happen to stay out late the 2 nights it was comforting to know I wasn't walking through a parking lot and garden by myself. It was a very unique hotel because they had a nice courtyard you could walk through, and had I stayed longer I could have been involved in some of the cultural activities at the hotel. Lonely Planet advises staying in the "new wing" of the hotel, I stayed in the Old Wing and thought it was awesome. Also, again because I was staying by myself I felt safer in the old wing because security was in that building, I'm not sure if the new wing had a security person though. Breakfast isn't included.

Hotel Courtyard - Located right in the heart of Thamel, this place is an awesome find, a quick walk to shops, restaurants and the bar scene. It is like a slice of heaven in the middle of a chaotic city. If I ever find myself back in Kathmandu I am definetly staying here. I even met one of the owners and she was so nice !!

There are sooooo many places to stay in Kathmandu, something for every budget. 

A quick blog note....

So my - Hot Night, Wind was blowin' - feature on Kathmandu is this blogs most popular article. I just thought I'd say I really love writing that feature because whenever I talk about the places I've been people always ask me "where would you recommend grabbing a bite to eat, a bar to go to". Which I love telling them about..

In my years of travelling I've heard a ton of stories, the best stories are about what happens when the sun goes down (and rises); yeah everyone has been to the Coliseum in Rome, the Eiffel Tower, and those are great stories. But I love those stories about what happened after you left the Eiffel Tower, or that time you were stranded on a cruise ship in Athens for a night, and of course everyone's stories about Amsterdam. Because that's whats great about travelling, whether you've been to 1 country or 34, you always come back with one of those "So this one time in..." stories, which are so awesome to hear.

I guess I just realized that a lot of my posts revolve around bars/drinking establishments and crazy evenings. Just thought I'd let you all know that I actually enjoy visiting museums, analyzing local landscapes, studying the built form of a country and experiencing the local culture etc. You know just putting it out there, don't want you guys to get the impression that all I do is party...

*crickets*

Yours in Wanderlust,
Meaghan

Hot Night, Wind was blowin': Kathmandu, Nepal

Chances are you are going to Nepal for one of four reasons, a trekking adventure, a volunteering trip, working, maybe you are going to backpack around Asia and Nepal happens to be a stop. No matter the reason, at some point you are going to want to cut loose for a night or two in Kathmandu, because you've deserved it #treatyoself. Here is a recommendation on how to enjoy your evenings in Kathmandu, I personally researched all of these places, it was tough work you guys.

A few key pieces of information you'll want to know before you start your night off:

* Bars typically close around 11pm - I use the word typically because they might stay open later, it completely depends on the establishment.
* There are after hours bars - careful though because I went to one and at 12:15am they locked every floor of the 3 storey building. Was I finally realizing my dream of being locked in a bar? Or was it the start of a made for tv movie, about the travelling nomad daughter who decided to go to the "after hours" bar with a guy who knew the area, except that Liam Neeson is not her father. But I digress.
* I would recommend starting dinner at 6pm, by the time you leave the restaurant it will be around 8pm, and then you only have about 4 hours of partying time. I mean if you're staying in a hostel and strike up a good relationship with the owners you can easily have an after after party at your place.

Alright let's start your night off, this was the song I chose to be my anthem of the evening, just to set the mood of what nightlife will be like.

Whether you are starting off your trip with partying, or ending your trip with a night out, you will want/need to eat food other than Dal (rice, lentils, curried vegetables). A place I went to twice was Fire & Ice  in the Thamel District of Kathmandu, a great italian restaurant with a huge selection of pizza and pasta. Please note the Spicy Buffalo pizza was very spicy, a guy in our team ordered it, it was sometimes painful to watch him try to eat it.

So following Lonely Planet's stellar recommendations, my friend and I headed to the legendary Sam's Bar, where for an evening I was transported back to Negril Jamaica, because it was all reggae music. The clientale of this bar ranged from ex-pats, backpackers, members of a commonwealth country's army (the country shall remain nameless), and a wide range of ages, late teens to people in their 60s. So literally everyone who you would see walking around Kathmandu during the day will be here. Everyone is super friendly here, you just grab a seat whereever and starting chatting with people at your table. They have an extensive drink menu, everyone signs the walls, the bathrooms are pretty bad so make sure you have your hand sanitizer. 

Around 11pm, my friend and I left this bar with a person we met at Sam's, and said person knew where there was an after hours, I want to say the name of the place was The Fire Club (go to the 3rd floor of the club - trust me), it was probably a 3 minute walk from Sam's. It was obviously dodgy, but the moment I entered I thought ok this is so awesome, there are cats in here, they are showing English Premiership soccer on the television, its super dark, just epic right? Time passed and then when I saw members of the Kathmandu Police force enter around Midnight, i thought "yup, ok meaghan, this is starting to resemble a scene from Dateline NBC, perhaps we should go" - the 3 of us tried to leave the bar but as we went down the stairs we realized we were locked in. You know what came to the rescue? My good old trusty maglite !! 

For the rest of the story of that evening, stay tuned for my never to be published memoir entitled "So this one time in..."

After my friend and I recovered the next day, thanks to the Roadhouse Cafe, hands down one of the best greasy spoons I've been to, I had a delicious plate of nachos with a side of regret. The food is great, they have a solid drink menu, and the BEST soundtrack, solid 90s grunge, I highly recommend this place, it has a lovely patio, if you like the sunlight. 

So on this evening, my friend and I decided to "take it easy", again what started as an evening with good intentions, ended with us walking through an alleyway, into an emergency stairwell going into the Lhasa Bar, a really awesome bar with a great cover band, I took so many videos, I might upload a few to youtube. This was a really neat place to spend my last night in Kathmandu, you sit on a raised platform of a floor, you can order shisha's, and just spend the night singing along with the band. Someone from the bar even joined the band for some covers of The Doors. 

In conclusion, have a great time in Kathmandu, trust me you will.

Debrief: Nepal

Ok so I've been back from Nepal for almost 2 weeks now, and wow what an experience it was, I've had some time to reflect on the whole trip, and obviously have some great hotel/restaurant/party recommendations. 

When I first landed in Kathmandu I was immediately brought back to the chaos that was India; people everywhere, lots of cars - so I thought to myself "ok here we go India re-dux". 
But the more time I spent there the more it proved me wrong. Nepal is a really chill country, something for everyone, really interesting architecture, trekking adventures, stunning landscapes, and really really fun. I found it to be a perfect country to visit if you want to disconnect from things for a bit, get lost, I mean as lost as you can get in a foreign country, knowing that you are returning to your western comforts after the trip.

This was my first time being involved with "voluntourism" and I highly recommend it to everyone, no matter what cause is close to your heart. You get to truly forget about everything going on back home, and get involved with a cause/project that is bigger than you for any duration of time of your choosing. 

I literally laughed for the 2 weeks while I was on the trip, everyone was so nice, all in all, one of the best experiences of my life.

Day 2: From Kathmandu to Itahari we go !!

What.a.day !!! So after we were on the road at 7:30 am, we hopped on a small plane to bring us to Biratnagar, then piled into a bus for about an hour and we finally arrived at our home for the next 10 days.

The plane ride was fun, we got to see good old Mount Everest ( in the mountain photo, it's the very left peak).

So once we settled at our hotel, had lunch, then it was off to Habitat for humanity headquarters for an information session about our family and what we exactly will be doing.

After the meeting we drove out to the site, the community residents had a very lovely welcoming ceremony for us. We met the family, we got blessed by the family. One of the best site visits I've been to, I wish everyone could be so happy when I show up to site visits back home lol.

During the blessing ceremony we revived little bouquets of flowers, so after I was walking around, and there were some goats, one goat started eating my bouquet. This baby goat had me in fear, I was honestly afraid of a goat that maybe weighed 15 pounds. A photo of the goat is attached.

This is a gorgeous part of the country, our build site is primarily in a rural farming community, a photo of the build site and community is attached.

Thanks for stopping by !!

Namaste from Kathmandu !! Day 1!!

Namaste everybody !!

Ok so it's 12:15pm right now in Kathmandu, I got to the hotel about 2 hours ago. I feel like this day will drag on because I got zero sleep over the last few days whilst en route.

So here are my initial thoughts of lovely Nepal:
- the plane ride into Kathmandu was stunning, the himalaya's are breathtaking. What I loved about them are the fact that there is very little development around the mountains so you literally see nature. Creeks, valleys, I didn't see roads until we started our descent into Kathmandu.
-it's a hipster haven here, I just went out of the hotel to grab some water and these people are hippy hipsters, it's nuts. Kensington market you have officially been served.
- Kathmandu is a very very dense city, it's also quite poor. But so far the people have been very nice.
- I've attached a few photos, one is a road scene from close to my hotel. The other is my hotel, love the name of it !!! It's not bad actually.

So tomorrow morning, we have to be up at 7:30am, we are on our next flight and on our way to Itahari, which is where the build site will be.

I'm crossing my fingers that I have wifi!!

Namaste,
Meaghan