I’m back! Eighteen days after I departed Sweet Home Chicago for Nepal to tackle the Annapurna Circuit, I was happy to be home.
I think D and I need to rethink our definition of vacation, because this was not relaxing. It was actually sort of horrible. I’ll explain.
We signed up to trek up to Annapurna Base Camp in Nepal, so did we really expect that it was going to be relaxing? I mean, it wasn’t a spa trip. However, we thought it’d be similar to what we did three years ago when we went to Everest Base Camp. In some ways the trek part was the same, but the experience was a whole lot of different. In all the bad ways.
By day 3, D and I had contracted some sort of food poisoning. I knew something was up as I snubbed my nose at my breakfast of a chocolate peanut butter pancake (which, if you know me, you know that I’d never snub my nose at chocolate PB anything). That day was the longest as through the heat I battled a fever the whole 7+ hours we walked that day, me throwing up sporadically on the trail at least four times, working on little besides ginger tea for sustenance. While my fever luckily managed to break that night, my flu-like symptoms gave way to the worst diarrhea (and since this is like, NEVER an issue, guess who didn’t pack any meds for THAT).
My continued lack of appetite meant that I spent two days powered by nothing more than chapatti, a Nepalese flatbread. Eventually I was able to stomach egg-veg-noodle soup and by day 7 about my appetite was mostly back though, to quote one of my fellow group members, the “exit was still a bit dodgy.” The good news, if there is any in this scenario, is that 10/11 in our group came down with varying degrees of the same, and since misery loves company, the constant monitoring of each other’s bathroom habits served to bring us really close, really fast.
The trip did end on a high note and the others with whom I shared this adventure were so awesome, and they provided the silver lining on what was otherwise a pretty miserable trip. The views were, however, quite spectacular.
My trip home had me laying over in Istanbul for 23 hours. It was sort of fruitless and sort of a waste, which was fine since 1st, it was unavoidable and 2nd, because I’d already been there I didn’t feel the need to cram 100 things to see into my 6 daylight hours. I did plan on hitting the Grand Bazaar, but since it was closed on Sunday, my #1 destination became a no-go. Rather, I wandered the streets for about 4 hours, popping into shops here and there and let myself so far to avoid getting horribly lost, which I am all-to prone to do. Also, exhausted, I didn’t have the mental or physical energy to deal with pushy vendors. I grabbed a quick Donor kebab and some ice cream and was back in my room by 7:30, asleep by 9:30.
I woke up too early as the call to prayer echoed through the streets. I remember 5 years ago how after a few days, the sound was barely noticeable, but I wasn’t there long enough for that to happen this time. I slept in, relaxed and enjoyed the best breakfast buffet in the history of my travel before I headed back to the airport for my 12 hour flight back home.
I actually got back into town late last Monday but it was a rough vacation and needed the rest of the week to recoup and settle back into life.
And while the first time around I came back from Nepal, dare I say, almost guilty for the luxury the Western World affords us (like toilet paper), after this one, I wanted all the comforts of home that I could get my hands on.
There’s no place like home.
Side notes:
Turkish air is THE BEST, both experience and food wise. On one of my flights they actually served the Lamb-stuffed Eggplant that I made way back when (high five for THB authenticity!) and on another I had lamb chops for dinner. I don’t even make lamb chops for myself, and, yes, I did fly coach. They also passed out pistachio Turkish delight shortly after each takeoff, a tidbit that made Tomato a little jealous.
Remember that Halvah that I made right before I left? Well, that’s also super authentic and they sold it everywhere in Turkey in a bunch of different flavors. I had a walnut one at my hotel. I meant to take a picture for you, but I ate it too fast. Whoops.
