Trekking

I think we'll do this with minimal commentary today. Pictures of mountains tend to be pretty self explanatory. Also, I'm rather famished and planning on another excellent steak at K-Too Steakhouse with Peter in a few minutes. I'm back from what was an abbreviated trek due to an excessive amount of snow thus leading to avalanches that kill people. I told my guide I wasn't scared of a little snow but he prevailed and we stayed relatively low. However, we did see some snow and some pretty mountains. This is Peter the Dane and I the morning we left for the trek on the balconey of our hotel in Pohkara. You can see some mountains behind us and unseen is a lake that is rather nice as well. Us looking rather chipper on the 1st day I think. Day 2 is the one that starts with 3,500 steep stone steps for the first 1/3rd of the day and doesn't get much easier from there.One of many waterfalls
Sunrise at Poon Hill Mountains and of course us on Poon Hill
Another from the morning at Poon Hill
A mountain
A particularly sad and dirty child that I couldn't understand too well but sat by me as I waited to Peter who managed to get lost during our descent back to Pohkara.
And of course the neighborhood "chicken donkey"

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Bodnath Stupa and Pasupati Temple

This afternoon Niraj and I went to visit a few more famous temples. This is a picture of the Bodnath Stupa which is very famous. The whole area is owned by Tibetians and many monks live in the area. While I didn't take pictures of them we did walk into some of the rooms where they were meditating. We also saw a "Holy Body" of a famous monk who recently died. His body will be cremated in 10 days but in the meantime there is a display set up with him in it.A doorway in one of the buidlings surrounding the stupa A calendar depicting heaven and hellMe at one of the many buidlings surrounding the stupaNiraj on the phone in the area surrounding Pasupati - a very famous Shiva temple


Me in front of a Shiva statue. Shiva never has a face and is always depicted by a phallic symbol of sorts. I apologize to all of you with better understanding of the religious and cultural aspects. But here is a picture of the statue nonetheless. The main Pasupati Temple. On Shiva Day last week is was absolutely mobbed with people lined up for nearly a mile waiting to get in. It don't know where the fire marshall was during all of this.
A cremation in process. Everyday there are many cremations at this temple.
One of many depictions of Ganesh. He is the son of Shiva and there is an elaborate story about how he came about his unique form. It involves his mother and Shiva becoming angry with him and chopping off his head then having to save him at his mother's request. He used an elephant head and now prayers go through him making him on of the most famous gods. Like I said before, there are over 1,000 Ganesh temples in the Kathmandu Valley.
Milk Baba - this fellow only drink milk for sustanence and meditates alot.

My Danish friend Peter at dinner tonight. We met rather coincidentally on the way to Chitwan last week. He was on a different bus but we happened to stop at the same place for breakfast and chatted a bit. Thought we were at the same hotel but weren't so figured we lost touch. Turns out we were on the same bus back together so we've been hanging out a bit the last few days. He's going to join our trek so now we'll have 4 - Niraj, Peter, myself, and a Sherpa. Tonight I had a rather good filet mignon at a very nice place serving western style food. Tomorrow I'll take it easy and try and get over my illness. Not enough to be crippling but I'll be miserable if I try and trek in my current condition. I'm hoping a few days will fix me.

Back to Kathmandu

It was nice to get away from the city again for a few days. The lodge I stayed at was nice and clean in Chitwan but not too many people to socialize with. I read my book and enjoyed the quite. It was a rather long bus ride and I'm happy to be in one place for a few days but am very much looking forward to getting out in the mountains this week. The trip was rather uneventful although seeing the recently overturned bus at the botton of the canyon 50meters below undermined my faith in the mountain highways a bit. However, it didn't keep me from relaxing on the bus and I don't mind the long rides all that much. It was 6 or so hours to Chitwan and will be a bit further to Pohkara where we'll begin our trek. Pohkara is supposed to be very nice. It's right next to a lake at the base of the mountains. There is a great view of the mountains and their reflection can be seen in the lake.

I got back mid-afternoon yesterday and wandered my way back to Thamel with a few folks I'd met on the trip, Peter from Denmark and Christina from Switzerland. Anyway, we stopped at a rooftop cafe and chatted. I was starting to feel a bit under the weather and I continued to get sick as the evening went on. I stayed in my room most of today and downstairs to the Internet cafe is as far as I've made it. More cold/flu symptoms than your typical traveler's illnesses. I'm just a bit achy with a cold but enough to make me feel lousy. I'm hoping I kick it in the next day or so or I'll have to postpone the trek and shorten it. I'm optimistic though and think I'll be up for at least a little sightseeing tomorrow. Anyway, that's about it. I'm going to go meet Peter at a cafe in a few minutes and hopefully eat something. The Danes have the hook up for education as do most of northern Europe. He's studying the political climate in Nepal for his master's but has really spent the last 3 months hanging out trekking and diving between Nepal and Thailand. He's exhausted his education expenditures but for anyone tuition is paid and you get a stipend to live on. Like my set up but he doesn't have to pay it back. Anyway, nice guy and it's nice to have someone fluent in English to hang out with for a few days.

Royal Chitwan National Park

Me on my elephant safari - you can also see my Swiss friend Christina who is facing the camera behind me. I met her on our canoe ride in the morning and we just happened to be on the same elephant ride as well. She's been traveling for months and months now. Did a tour of Europe then more recently spent 3 months in India but she'll be returning home to find a job this weekend.

Here is one of the bull elephants at the breeding center outside Royal Chitwan National Park. After I arrived on Monday afternoon I went to the visitors center then over here to see some of the elephants and briefly walked through the edge of the jungle before settling by the river that marks the park boundary.

Here is the sunset over the park. The dugout canoes seen in the picture are what we took about 5km down the river the next morning to view the wildlife. Following the canoe ride I got out and had a guide that took me on a jungle walk. We saw lots of crocodiles and many evidences of other animals but didn't actually run into any of them.

A waterlilly of sorts that populate the river and float along in it

One of the 2 types of crocodiles they have. This one resembles and alligator with the longer snout. It eats only fish.

The other crocodile species is "much more aggressive" and will eat just about anything. Seeing at this guy was only 12 or 15 feet long I figured he'd probably start to get full by the time he got to my torso.


After the jungle walk I went by the river where they daily have "elephant bathing" and let the tourist get in the water with them. The elephants play, let people ride them, buck them off into the water, and spray them.


I think this picture actually happened first. We went and got on the elephant and at the last minute before he stood up this German fellow in quite a nice speedo decided to join me. Unfortunately, he didn't situate himself quite right and mauled me in order to stay on the elephant nearly causing us both to plunge into the water and providing quite the entertainment for the onlookers.
Here is another photo of the elephant safari. This is a different group. Turns out our elephant was giant - they all are but ours towered above the rest by at least a meter or more. It was a fun although bumpy ride. We saw some spotted deer and a wild boar in addition to the rhinos shown below.

Mother and baby rhino

And more pictures with no particular theme in no particular order

Me on the bungy bridge Another posting of the canyon since I managed to distort it below while attempting to enlarge it

On my porch during one of many rainstorms drinking tea, listening to music, and watching the rain Children during morning prayers and exercises
Some kids outside the hospital

Nepali paper drying in a particularly nice piece of farmland Monkeys (seriously, does this really need a label?)

Buff meat for sale - who's hungry? Upendra and Bimala on our walk to the Buddhist temple
Me on a mountain somewhere

Some pictures

A women using her scale at the Saturday market in Khandbari A man and his spices at the market

Upendra and Ganga taking a break during our hike down to Tumlintar to catch my flight to Kathmandu. We ended up catching a taxi for the last 3rd after we had completed the steep part.

Dr. Rajesh and the district hospital's x-ray tech our last day. Dr. Rajesh is looking in on his replacement as he does rounds.

Ok, some minimal success with photos. The first is me at the resort with the prejump jitters. The second one is me standing on the ledge about to plunge to certain death. Then is a shot of where I will meet my gruelling fate. The last picture is the next day after I've survived the jump and am headed to possibly the bigger challenge of returning to Kathmandu on public transportation. See below for the extended version of my weekend excusion.

Adventure

If you want to be really adventurous you should take a local bus through the mountains in Nepal. It's like playing rush and roulette...you never know what you're going to get but it's always exciting. As if hugging the edge of a giant canyon in a bus made in the model T era wasn't enough the passengers add to the fun. Our first but this morning on the "included transportation" which included about a US $5 reimbursement for bus fare was packed. We got on relatively early and snagged the last 2 seats in the very back amidst a pile of boxes that appeared to be full of bottles and a lone child. Within minutes the bus began to fill. Basically, there is only one road and you just kind of wave any bus down wherever you want and they'll stop (not pull over...just stop) and pick you up. Anyway, I soon had people sitting on me as all the standing room was consumed. On our second bus we were greated by an intoxicated gentleman (at 9am) who was telling someone how to catch tigers in Nepali. He pleasantly said goodnight to me as he exited the bus 30 minutes later and 9:30am. Aided by a traffic jam and detour coupled with our needed to stop every 20 minutes or so to put air in one of the tires we managed to spend only 7 hours on buses today. I have an 11 hour reprieve before I load up again tomorrow morning for my safari.

So, onto bungy jumping. Yesterday I awoke around 4:30 and Niraj arrived and we walked to The Last Resort offices where we were to leave at quarter til six. It took awhile to get going and our bus wasn't anything special. There was a large group going representing a half dozen or so nationalities. My entertainment while waiting to leave was the British guys who couldn't remember what hotel they were staying in although they'd just left it minutes before. They got the bungy people to dig out their documents to see if it was listed...it wasn't probably because they didn't know it then either. Don't know if they ever made it back to their hotel last night. Niraj and I were the only ones that decided to stay overnight at the resort. Anyway, we eventually made it to the resort which is in a beautiful location about 12km south of the Tibetian border.

Once there we all walked across the bridge to the resort. There were gasps and much cursing as we walked the suspension walking bridge over the gorge...the one most of us were about to plunge off of. After the weigh in I found out that I was lucky enough to go first as I topped the heavyweight division. I edged out the Icelanders by one kilogram (but I got the Malaysians by a good 15 or 20 an at least 6 inches). Anyway, not only did I find out I'm fat I also had to jump off the bridge first. The "heavy group" marched out onto the bridge. It inclued the 2 medical students from Iceland and the Brits all of whom were pretty pumped and vocal and very very scared. I figured they'd demonstrate or something or at least test the bungy cord that had just been set up with a dead weight or something but no...I was the dead weight to make sure it was safe for everyone else. If it could hold me and not bash my skull against the rocks everyone else was ok. So, like I said 160m or almost 500ft doesn't sound all that high to jump off of but let me tell you it looks pretty far. Anyway, I walked up, got strapped in by my ankles, walked to the edge, waved to the camera and when the bungy instructor (the largest Nepalese man I've seen thus far wearing a jacket with "DIESEL" stenciled on the back) said "1, 2, 3, bungy" I plunged off headfirst. It was rather anticlimactic actually but still a ton of fun. It's the 2nd highest bungy jump in the world. Only one that is 220m in South Africa is higher. I waited at the bottom and the Icelander's made it down. They were pretty pumped and we all shared stories and watched a few more people jump before the hike back up the canyon.

Afterwards I hung out with the Icelanders. They're medical students although they're only one semester in and are taking time off. It didn't start so smooth for them and they're aloud to take 2 breaks so they've been traveling. They just spent a month in India and are headed to Bangkok tomorrow. Anyway, nice guys. Iceland sounds pretty good other than the fact it will be one of the first casualties of global warming. Only 300,000 people all employed with basically no poverty they said. I think all of their education is paid for also. After lunch and watching everyone's videos the bus departed taking everyone except for Niraj and I. We stayed the night and had dinner there. The lodge is a beautiful open building with a tin roof and very nicely arranged with lowlying tables on slightly raised portions of the lodge surrounded by pillows for lounging. There is a bar at one end and nice lighting. They played music through the system and I sat in there and read most of the afternoon. We had a rather American dinner of grilled chicken breast, mashed potatoes, mixed vegetables, and cole slaw. We retired early to a nice tent with beds and we stole extra blankets from another vacant tent. I'm glad we stayed up there despite the bus ride today. It was peaceful and comfortable. I wish I had the energy to describe the setting and the resort more adequately but the scenery is stunning and the resort very classy and tasteful. It's the kind of place I'd like to spend an extended amount of time at again or maybe own and run in my 20th imaginary career/retirement plan. Anyway, great trip. Wish I could get the pictures on here for you. I've gotta go grab some dinner and repack for my safari tomorrow. I'm flying solo this time but I think I'll have a tourist bus both ways so I shouldn't get too lost. I got so lost wandering Thamel (and greater Kathmandu) this evening looking for a particular book that I had to take one of the bicycle cabs back to my hotel. I don't think I'll stray too far for dinner.

Shiva Day

Ok, so I'm foolishly attempting to replicate my picture success from Friday morning. However, I also foolishly assumed that the electricity and Internet would concurrently cooperate all day Friday and that failed to be the case. Anyway, after my big picture posting success Friday morning Niraj met me here at the Internet cafe and we went on a temple tour. Kathmandu has approximately a billion temples. For Ganesh alone there are literally 1,000 temples in the Kathmandu Valley. Our main objective was to visit the Monkey Temple which has another more professional sounding name but is thus referred because monkeys line the walkway to it. To reach if from the front you must climb 365 steps up a large hill. From the temple you can see the entire valley. The view is quite spectacular and is only marred by the pollution. It's rumored Kathmandu has the 2nd worst pollution in the world following only Mexico City. What an illustrious claim to fame. Anyway, we also visited a variety of Hindu temples along the way. Friday was a huge holiday here. It was Shiva's birthday so the temples were full of people making offerings and prayers. The streets also had intermittent civilian road blocks where children (and some teenagers - they blocked a main road with a giant bamboo pole) would hold up string across the road to stop vehicles to request money. They use the money collected to have a big party at night. I went to bed early on Friday but definitely heard parties until 4am (I had to get up at 4:30am to leave for the bungy trip). Anyway, the holiday made for some good sightseeing/people watching.

The monkey temple is quite impressive and I'm not brave enough to attempt spelling the real name in print. The steps up to the temple are lined with vendors, statues, and monkeys. One of the more interesting and horrifying things we saw was some of the monkeys carrying something and then taking it up into a tree and dropping it repeatedly. On closer inspection it turned out to be a rather large frog they had found and the repeatedly took it up into a tree and dropped it onto the rocks. After 5 or 6 repetitions that Niraj and I observed they managed to kill it and instantly lost interest. On the way down we fed them some cookies we purchased at the top. The monkeys are shameless and will pluck them right out of your hand with the big ones wrestling food away from the smaller ones if you aren't very deliberate. We also visited the Durbar Square in Kathmandu. The architecture is interesting. Lots of very old temples. Many of which have been converted into businesses. Alright, better move onto the rest of the weekend before it gets too late.

Another Picture Attempt

Ok, I think this may actually work. Here is a picture of Bimala in our "living room" with a chicken. The other picture is Upendra and I attempting to get Makalu in the background. Unfortunately, it is 90% obscurred by the tree. I'm back in Kathmandu now and am heading out in a few minutes to do some sightseeing with Niraj my tourguide/trekking guide. I think it'll be a fun day. We're going to the Monkey Temple which is a famous Buddhist temple. The name comes from the Monkeys that live there and entertain tourists. Then we'll go to Durbar Square in Kathmandu and look at the Malla Architecture. Finally we'll wander around Thamel and do some shopping. I think I'm going to try and get a down jacket. It has persisted to be cold. The day before yesterday they had the first snow in the Kathmandu Valley in 60 years. Yesterday was beautiful and warm but it is cloudy and cold again today. I slept in my sleeping bag and under the covers at the hotel last night as they don't have heat anywhere. However, there is hot water and a bit more variety in food both of which are a welcome change. Ok, going to attempt to publish this with the pictures. If it works I'll give a more thorough update along with more pictures this evening. I also changed the timestamp so that it reflects my time now.