Nothing is as scary as you think it is.

Nepal was my first real big trip by myself. It was the furthest I had ever been from home and the furthest I had ever been from what I was accustomed to. I was terrified before I left my home in Toronto. I knew this was the most uncomfortable situation I had ever put myself in. Yes, it was scary. But it was also exhilarating and exciting. While I do think having a little bit of fear is a good thing, it made me more cautious. This is a good thing because when traveling on my own, there is no one looking out for me, but me. I realize now that nothing is as scary as I thought it would be. Had I let my fears overtake me, I would have missed out on a lot of beauty.

Don’t eat the cucumbers

Or any raw fruits and vegetables for that matter. Unless you can peel it. Yes, I know. Rookie mistake. But after three weeks of eating nothing but Dal and curry all I wanted was an uncooked salad with raw vegetables. Should have let it go.

Fleas can bite humans

And it sucks.

I completely understand now why dogs scratch as much as they do when they have fleas. My final week in Nepal, I had flea bites on my feet and ankles, but had no idea what these bites were. The bites looked like red bulls-eyes (unlike any mosquito bite I had ever seen) and didn’t have a pattern to them (so bed bugs were out of the question). They also had gotten infected from the amount of scratching I was doing, so my feet were swollen and red with puss oozing out of the spots. Disgusting I know. And not knowing what they were was very unnerving.

I called my mom in tears one night because one of the bites felt like an insect was trying to scratch its way out of my leg. The itchiness was uncontrollable and, literally took over all my thoughts. Two weeks later, with three different antibiotic recommendations, I’m still trying to heal the bites (although, thank goodness, the itching has gone away and they do seem to be improving).

A new sense of direction

I don’t mean this in some sort of deep, philosophical way. I literally mean that I gained a better sense of direction.

I am amazing at getting lost. It’s a hidden talent really. If I can’t see the North Star or the movement of the sun in the sky, it is guaranteed that I will go the wrong way. Left instead of right, North instead of South, West instead of North. Wait… Which way is West again? That’s left, right? Even following Google Maps does nothing for me.

So spending two weeks hiking up to Annapurna Base Camp on trails that take you so far from where you started seems impossible, and was so confusing to me. Spending one week in Kathmandu where Google Maps says to turn left on Tri Devi Marg but you cannot find a street sign anywhere because, apparently Nepali people don’t believe in street signs, left me walking around in circles half the time.

And then I figured out that the temples, stupas and shrines were a good way of finding my way around the city. Next thing I knew, I was going left when I was supposed to be going left. I was walking by temples that would lead me home and shrines that told me I had to make a right. I wasn’t getting lost anymore! I knew where I was, how to get to where I wanted to go, and how to get home.

Maybe that was just because I was spending a decent amount of time in Kathmandu and Pokhara, but (knock on the North Star) I haven’t gotten lost once yet in Cambodia.