The End

Of quite a few things today.

Firstly, I hope it is the end of the spread of my fungus. I have launched a full on anti-fungal assault on my fingers and toes and some progress has been seen. Getting out of Kathmandu should also do wonders.

Which brings me to the next end. End of Nepal AND end of 9 weeks vacation. It's weird to think 9 weeks ago we were leaving Korea for good. In 9 weeks we have ridden camels, seen wonders of the world, trekked through monsoons, paddled by dead people, yoga-ed our way to health (who am I kidding?), and a ton of other totally incredible things. And we managed to come out of it still liking each other. More than that, there's a renewed confidence in Paul and I's ability to pretty much get through anything. Have any of you ever survived hungry Lauren in 40 degree weather sans shower?? I pray you'll never have to.

It also marks the end of cave man Paul. Yesterday we hit the barbershop and Paul had his 5 month grown out do chopped, 3 month beard straight razored, and even got some massage action from the Nepali barber. It's been a full day and I still don't recognize this person whom claims to be my fiancée.

Before I get to the last END, let me tell you a bit about today. Because it's been awesome!!!! We had a good breakfast, Paul surprised me with a beautiful silver bracelet, had an amazing Middle Eastern (hummus and babaganoush!) snack, then head for the airport with surprisingly little difficulty. We've flown some shit airlines in the past couple years (CHINA EASTERN!!!) and expected nothing less of Kingfisher, also of Kingfisher-formaldehyde-beer fame. We go to board the lovely plane, in a not so lovely Kathmandu airport, after 4+ pat downs. OK, I know the Maoists were here causing trouble, but do you need to feel me up every 10 feet to the plane?? Anyway, get through the gropes, and the plane is spotless and new. TVs for everyone! Then we take off, and after serving everyone a bottle of water, what do they bring out? Kingfisher beer for all!!! This is service! Who cares if it has formaldehyde? What's next? FOOD!? I haven't been on an airline with in flight food, and good food at that, in ages! I had a lovely paneer curry, and Paul had the chicken tikka, all served with salad and asa brownie. One more beer, an episode of Friends later and we're in Dehli. Dehli airport is clean, there's shopping, McDonald's!, and lounges. We buy 3 hours for all you can eat, drink and Internet "Green Lounge." Did I mention there's red and white wines!?? Doesn't take much to impress us these days.

So now sadly, I am getting to the main point of this altogether long and drawn out post. This is the last ever post of The Thirty Eight Parable. It has been an amazing 2+ years with the TEP. I've shared my ups, downs, loves, losses, and most importantly I can reference this forever on and know exactly what I was up to at any moment throughout my AMAZING journey through Korean life.

6,401 views of the TEP toral from the US to Canada to Korea to England and Australia. Apparently my most popular post was Taipei Day 4 with 117 views, followed by none other than my big turkey soup fail. Again, sorry Dave and Emily.

But don't shed any tears yet. The fun is not over. It's just time to put my Korea blog to rest and to bear a new blog. A hopefully more career fortuitous blog about not just me, but about Paul and I's journey into the unknown. Again and together this time. So please follow us and read along about the stupid crap we get into in HK.

Thank you for reading and we'll see you in Hong Kong!!

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