Sunday, October 29, 2006

Annapurna Teaser

I'm BAAACK!

Internet here in Pokhara is REDICULOUSLY expensive (WTF is with set prices?) so no time to update the whole Annapurna story yet....But here's a little teaser

- Did the whole circut in a speedy 16 days
- Made it over the 5416m Throung La pass
- Got Acute Mountain Sickess big time and lived to tell about it.
- Ate Yak, Saw a Yak being killed, stayed in a town named after Yaks and wore a Yak hat
- Got DOMINATED by a pony/donkey convoy and came out with only a scratch
- Made a new best friend in our porter Nirpa

See you in Kathmandu

Thursday, October 12, 2006

3 Weeks in Pics....

Alright, you lucky kids. Here's the deal. I'm in Katmandu preping for our huge Annapurna trek that starts in something like 15 hours...and found the best internet place that has decent comps and will upload my pics. So you're getting a double dose of blog entries (just to last you the next 3 weeks) Here are some random funny pics from the last few weeks in India/Nepal.


Our favourite part of Katmandu is Tuk shopping.... 2000+ at your basic street stall

Justina looking for Buddha-esq enlightenment in Bodgaya

A good place to eat and feel good about yourself in Bodgaya



One of our bazillion train rides on good ol' Indian Rail.

Along the Ganges river in Varanassi, I look super awkward since my feet are IN the Ganges and I don't know if i'll ever walk again....

More of the scene in Varnassi, the holiest of Hindu cities.


A festival in Agra, on our way to the Train stn. I bought the hat/whistle combo, but didn't have enough rupees for a baby...



Rickshaws, Brangelina aren't the only ones.....



Really excited to be Pony Trekking in Darjeeling.



Size matters in Bodgaya


Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Make That a LARGE Pot of Tea....


Nepal, Nepal, Nepal, why do I love you so???

It's not the ease in which things can be done here thanks to a little common sense and a reasonable climate. Nor is it the friendlyness of people and their honesty that makes it more enjoyable to travel. I don't think its the plethora of adventurous, fun and outdoor-oriented tourists who are here either. I really truly think its due to their tea. Yes Nepali tea is just about the greatest concoction to ever touch my lips. It's sorta like Chai, but more milky (probably Yak milk) and more pumpkiny spicy....yeah. Its just great. 2 pots a day at least. I told a storekeeper today I'd marry a Nepali man just to stay here and drink tea for the rest of my life.

Actually Justina and I have been doing more than drinking Nepali tea during our first week here in Nepal. We first arrived in Katmandu during the festive season for Hindus, so the streets were empty and there were zero crowds, we spent a lot of time sorting out visa and money junk. But also found time to explore the real Katmandu past the Thamel district which is the Khao San rd. of Nepal. (Thamel is basically Wreck Beach and the Grouse Grind smushed together, you get dreds with your goretex and cotton pants with your Northface)

We did a 1/2 day walking tour, trusting our map skills, through old Katmandu to Durbar Square, which is a really cool centre of town from the old OLD days. Incredible architectuer and even mroe incredible Monestaries and Hindu shrines that dot the landscape as much as the embroidered t-shirt shops. A few wrong turns down skinny cobblestone alleyways later we were back in Thamel drinking ice cold LEMON Fantas (yes i haven't gone crazy, but these Lemon fantas are almost better than orange ones...I know i'm investing in that company asap) contemplating how we were going to get to the Monkey Temple. The Monkey Temple actually has a much longer Tibetian name, but its up on this hill overlloking the Katmandu valley and overpopulated with monkeys big and small. Still confident in our mapping abilities we decided to attempt the walk, even though our map kinda blurred over the area we needed. We got there with only one small wrong turn, and proceeded up the steep steep steps that made it seem like we were climbing Everest already. Saw tons of Monkeys and got a beautiful view of the pollution that hangs over Katmandu like my dirty-wet trekking socks. Walk home in time to catch sunset from a rooftop restaurant in Thamel eating Eggplant Lasagne and Tomato soup.

We really wanted to head south to the Chitwan National Park, but wasn't interested in the package tours that everyone and their monkey tries to sell you. No one seemed to understand why we didn't want their package, maybe because when we got there - the place is 80% empty thanks to the Maoist insurgency and tourists reluctance to stray past the Thamel bubble. We got incredible deals on our accomodation, and had the whole safari camp to ourselves the majority of our time there. Big room, big balcony, big bathroom, really all I ask for in life these days.

Chitwan is famous for its elephants, tigers and rhinos. We focused hardcore on the first one. Our first day we went down to the river and got to bathe with the elephants. Pretty much the best experience in my life to date I'd have to say. They'd lie down in the river and you'd scrub them with rocks and mud, basically an elephant massage! Then they'd lift you up with their trunks and if you could climb over their head and on to the ir back you could dive in the river, OFF AN ELEPHANT! They were so so playful, never more than wehn you'd be sitting on their back and instead of just drinking the water, they'd suck it up and spray you with it, soaking you from head to toe. A fun morning to say the least. That afternoon we rented bikes and tried to cycle through the local villages to the Elephant Breeding Centre, where all the Elephants used in the park are raised. Of course my crappy Indian-made mountain bike broke 1/2 way there, so it turned into a muddy walk. The centre was really informative, but really we went to see the baby elephants. There were 4 moms and their elephanties. The youngest only 4 months old! Most of the babies were the size of my old Tracker, but this one was just so small Justina really thought we could put a leash on it and bring it home on the plane.

Just to complete the elephant triple-crown, the next morning we took an elephant safari at 6am through the actual national park. It was pretty incredible sitting on an elephant as it meandered through the jungle and into rivers. You had to keep an eye out for big branches and deadly spiders (nothing that we don't usually encounter in our bathrooms here though...) but there was tons of time to relax and look at the tons of wildlife around. We saw crocodiles and wild pigs, and tons and tons and tons of birds. No rhinos or tigers, but really now... I was on an elephant!


Coming back to Katmandu was an adventure too as our minibus clinged to the side of the cliff/road for the whole 4 hours. Not to mention we saw a huge truck accident at one point which just brings you back to what kind of risks you have to consider when traveling in places like this. But we're safe and sound of course and ready for the next adventure. Which starts tommorow. Justina and I got so good at Katman-doing stuff that we've fast-tracked our trek around the Annapurna conservation area to start tommorow. Today we organized our Sherpa (porter) who is going to carry all our crap, and help us keep to the path for 21 days. We've decided to go big, and not home, and do the whole Annapurna circut. The Annapurna Himals are a section of the Himalayas that has a dense concentration of 7500m + peaks. Basically its the most scenic trek in Nepal. Its just that the trek itself is long (21 days) and goes through a pass that is one of the highest in Nepal (5400m) So around October 20th think of what your doing, and then think of me, taking 3 breaths for every step I take. Excited? Yes I am. Nervous? Of course. But we're here and I don't want to have to come back and do this when I'm old. haha.

So that's to where Justina, our Sherpa and I are now. Off to the Himalayas for 3 weeks.

Thursday, October 05, 2006

Ponies, Toy Trains and Automo-jeeps

*The runner up title to this blog is "Pimp My Pony"

After our crazy trip to Darjeeling, we were ready for a sleep, some mountain vistas and a shower. Considering that there was no water in the whole town thanks to a landslide the week before, we could only manage 2/3.

Our first day there was spent doing stuff. I know it doesn't sound blog-worthy, but actually getting stuff done in India is such an accomplishment. We also wandered up and down and up and down the town that is a quintisential British Colonial hill-station (read on a 5km mountain face) We sampled the incredible Darjeeling teas that are all around town, and found some great bakeries that may have been better than their Lao equivillants. We bought our first himilayan touques (aka TUK) and just enjoyed breathing fresh clean mountain air.

At the end of our first day we were walking home after dinner and wandered past a horse stable. Randomlly Justina asks the owner if we could rent some of his ponies to trek to Tiger Hill where you can see 4/5 of the world's highest mountain peaks. I don't think I can stress the randomness of this request. In NO guidebooks, or travel agencies or through NO travelers recommendations did we hear that this was an option. I'm pretty sure we were the first to do this. The guy agrees to set us up with 2 ponies and a guide to take us to the hill for sunrise. We were to be ready at 3am. Yes 3am. In Vancouver, no problem staying up - I usually come home from the PIT at 3am....But in India, we still tried to get 6 hours of sleep by goign to bed at 8pm. "Morning" comes and the skies are full of stars - but we have no ponies. 1/2 hour later, on Indian time, comes 2 guides and 3 ponies. Instead of all of us riding down the village paths along the mountain sides, the two guides walk our two ponies (Petting zoo styles) and lead their other pony. It was such a random set up, and took us over 2 hours to get there since we were at walking pace. Plus the ponies were teeny-tiny little things. My poor Thukpa was not having anythng of me. We get there after weaving in and out of the jeep convoy that the normal tourists take too see the sunrise (the looks we got on those ponies...) we watch the sunrise from a nice grass meadow and decide to hike up the last 500m to the summit to see the 360* view. Once you get up there it was so crowded with pushy and annoying Indian and Bengali tourists we didn't stay long. As we were walking down the path back to our ponies we see a huge crowd of people around them. While we were gone our guides Pimped out our Ponies. Yes for 20 rupees you could sit on it and get your pic taken. The Bengalis were loving it, Justina and I tried to demand 50% of the profits...but suddenly the guides lost thier English skills.


The way home was more of the same, uncomfortable saddles and slow walking paces. Justina's horse had its shoe fall off and slipped down the path a few times. Mine was just plain slow. 6 hours after we left Darjeeling we were back with much MUCH sorer bottoms. Luckly the fog rolled in and we didn't feel bad about spendign the rest of the day in bed.

The next day we took a joy ride on the Darjeeling toy train. It's pretty famous. Something about being really small and having a really long and steep journey, I was still pony-exhausted so didn't pay too much attention. You can google it. It was a fun little 2 hour ride on the Queen of the Himilayas (Much better than going to Langdale on the Queen of Surrey).

The rains came in the next day, everyone was saying it's because the Himilayan weather gods are upset about the WWF helicopter crash, but luckly we were leaving for Katmandu, Nepal. Little did we know what we were in store for there..... Got in a shared jeep. 2 flat tires and 3 hours into a 1.5 hour ride we ditched that jeep and flagged down another one. Got into Sirigurli to board another shared jeep to the Nepal border, in which I faced death about 3 times thanks to an untrained and I think unconscious driver. All in all it took us 8 hours to go 80km. Then from the Nepalese border (where apparently there is a height restriction b/c all the gates are about 4ft high) we boarded a local bus to Katmandu. The said 14 hour journey extended into 21 hours after we stopped to pick up 8 squeeling pigs from a farm, and everyone who was standing on the roadway (note I did not call it a highway) who wanted to go for a ride.

Our reward was arriving in Katmandu 25 hours after we left Darjeeling. Beaten, but not battered. I love this town! We're here for a few days as I get my visa situation sorted out for India, and we are loving the Thamel area. It's basically the Khao San rd of Nepal. But more outdoor gear than pad-thai stalls. Basically it seems like MEC threw up all over the streets. You can get anythign and everything you need to hike Everest here. All I need is sunglasses though as my Lao pair just broke as I was typing this blog....

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