Adventure of a Farang Thai in Nepal

This blog post is an excerpt taken from the original blog post by Mae Friedrich. Click here to read the original post.

Mae is an 18 year old thai-australian who loves traveling and wants to encourage other people to travel as well. When Mae and her friend Marina made a daring decision to go on a very first overseas trip to Nepal on their own, they had no idea what they were signing up for. A flashy flyer for a school trip to Nepal made them take that decision.

Affording an overseas trip was quite a big deal for them but when the willpower knows no hurdles, nothing seems impossible. Mia and 8 of her friends spent the remaining days raising funds for their flight and donation to the children welfare center they would be visiting.

After staying in a transit hotel in Bangkok for 8 hours, they finally landed in Tribhuvan International Airport. Despite the insane mess and chaos at the Tribhuvan International Airport, Mae loved the entire experience as it was something she had never experienced before.

They spent the next few days roaming around the streets of Thamel where they made a lot of new friends. Mae writes : “Everyone was super friendly and happy to joke around with us whilst putting up with some superior bartering skills. But seriously though, we had a few pro-level hagglers in our group who managed to get us ridiculously good deals on a few souvenirs. I, however; had a few weird as experiences shopping around Nepal.”

Next on their list was visiting the children welfare center in Godawari. With the funds raised, they were able to buy some tiny stuffed kangaroos toys for the children. After spending few days with the little ones, Mae grew quite fond of the kids and she still recalls the experience with glee. Recalling her days in the children welfare center, she writes :” The hours we spent were full of hopscotch, sack races, bracelet-making, soccer and even a bit of cooking. Every second we spent there was an opportunity for us to learn and grow from the kids. Many of them had a lot more life experience than us. Some had lived through the civil war, endured the coldest winters in rural villages, dealt with the death of a parent or been victims of abuse. But every time I heard a smile or a laugh, it reminded me of something.”

Mae realized that the trip to Nepal had made a big impact in her life after she came back to her hometown. She kept getting flashbacks of Nepal, memories with the little kids sliding into her mind making her nostalgic. Mae writes : “After one particular night of waking up on the verge of tears, I decided that I wasn’t just going to leave my promise to the kids unfulfilled. I was going to keep my promise to visit again and the very next day I contacted a friend and within just a few weeks, we bought the plane tickets that would make those dreams come to life.”

After one particular night of waking up on the verge of tears, I decided that I wasn’t just going to leave my promise to the kids unfulfilled. I was going to keep my promise to visit again and the very next day I contacted a friend and within just a few weeks, we bought the plane tickets that would make those dreams come to life.