9 Days of Himalayan Fun

Let it be confirmed that the Himalayas are really big (Annapurna South on the left). After nearly a week of lazy lounging in the laid back city of Pokhara, we rented a backpack, a couple of sleeping bags, and started out on one of the most famous treks in Nepal, called the Jomsom Trail (or appropriately dubbed the 'Apple Pie Trail' because of the number of westerner trekkers--and the apple orchards).

The original plan was to take a 20 minute flight to the top of the trek, and then make the 9 day journey back down to Pokhara. As it turns out, we spent yet another morning waiting in a small airport for a flight that would never leave--seems to happen a lot here because of the wind in Jomsom. It was slightly reminiscent of our experience in Bolivia so many months ago.

Anyway, we decided to start from the bottom of the trail and hope that we would actually reach the end destination, then be able to fly back....more on that later.

A two hour bus ride took us to our trailhead where we started. To our surprise we were feeling rather good for how out of shape we've become after not getting much exercise since S. Africa. Then the steps began--and they didn't stop for about 3.5 hours. At some point in time the Nepali people decided that the quickest way to travel from point A to point B was a straight line--no matter what was in the way of that line. Not only do the local people of the foothill villages cover ground quickly (up hundreds of thousads of meters at a time), they do it with massive loads of goods and sometimes they're wearing flip-flops. Even the porters who are over 70 years old move at a pace that put us to shame. Really amazing to witness.

The views on the trek are all of the Annapurna Range, and while making the ascent there are soaring peaks of varying heights, some of them up to 15,000 feet or more. Then after hiking for a while and we were on higher ground the REALLY big mountains come into view. In this range of the Himalaya there are several peaks over 8,000 meters (25,000 ft.+).

Along our route we stayed in guest houses that line the trail (which is sadly being converted into a road), some of which were pretty nice. Most days we stared hiking about 8:30 and would finish mid-afternoon in one of the villages that dot the trail--in fact, you can hardly walk 10 minutes without encountering people working their crop terraces, collecting cow dung to use as a fuel source, washing clothes or lazing about in the afternoon sun.
Near Jomsom I came down with something, still not sure what, and had a long night of night terrors and feverish ramblings while poor Shanon devised evacuation plans in her head and tried to figure out how she was going to get me to a good hospital in Bangkok. I survived the night, thankfully, and we made it Jomsom and scheduled our flight back to Pokhara for the next day. As fate would have it no planes were leaving again because of wind, and so instead of hoping for good luck the next day we decided to retrace or steps--some of them by jeep, and get back down the long way. In other words, our 20 minute flight back to Pokhara turned into 2 more days of trekking/transit.

Overall....
The Views: Woweee.

The Villages: About every 10 minutes or so--but fascinating to see how people live up here.

The Food: Decent, but after four days we decided that they might be recycling grease up there, and everything started tasting the same.

The Smells: Ahhhh....Fresh Himalayan air, lots of body odor, and plenty o' mule stench.

The Trekkers: Slightly sore, but happy (and healthy).

In the end...success. The struggles always prove to be some of the best stories when you look back on an adventure, and this trek definitely had a few struggles. But what a beautiful region and what friendly people. Since it's winter here there weren't alot of trekkers, so we were often the only two people in the guesthouses we'd end up in, but one friendly local told us that in October his small village sees more than 250 foreigners roll through in a single day. We love the off-season.

We're now safe and sound back in Pokhara, and planning our next move. Nepal is a small country, so it's been a nice change from having to take 10 hour bus/train rides to get to our next destination. Next up will likely be the noisy capital of Katmandu.

The trekkers cheating a bit and catching a ride on top of a local Himalayan taxi.

N-E-P-A-L, Viva Nepal

Oh yeah! We sucessfully crossed the boarder (easiest boarder crossing so far) into Nepal after 2 horrific and caustrophobic days of bus rides. I feel much better and we are loving Nepal.


First though, our last stop in India.

Varanasi is a holy city for hindu people as it is the site of the holy Ganges river and religious ghats (stairs/platforms to the river) line the bank. Many Indian people make a pilgramage to this city each year to bathe in the river, it is believed to wash one of all their sins and help them achieve Nirvana. The old city lies right along the river and there is a walkway along all of the ghats. There are hundreds if temples in this city as well.

Each ghat is special for its own religious reason and some date back thousands of years. As you walk along the ghats and river you can see many people bathing, making religious offerings or priests performing religious rites. I tell you the people watching is at its best here.

One especially bizaar ghat was Manikarnika where cremations are performed all day, every day. A worker told us that there are about 350 cremations done each day. As a foreigner, this is really a bizaar sight and strange to be standing there watching these proceedings. For Indians, this is the place to come and die. The most holy place and people come from all over India to spend their last days.

Another ghat has nightly Hindu ceremonies where people buy floating candels and orange marigolds to float down the river and the priests perform some religious songs/actions. The river lights up as hundreds of these candles float buy.

The river itself is said (by western scientists) to be dead, or septic; so polluted and dirty that it is shocking that people (by the hundreds) are bathing in it and drinking it. But the Hindus believe that it is holy and will cure ills, clean them physically, spiritually and emotionally. You can watch the bathers lined along the ghats and flintch as they wash their babies, rinse their mouth and swim across the water. They say that you may also see an occasional dead cow (or body) floating down the water, but luckily we didn't get to see this. People on land will be going the bathroom (not just #1) a few feet from the shore and raw sewage is another big pollution in the river. With my western conception of sanitation, it was hard to watch and we often had to cover our mouths and look away. It's hard not to pass judgement, this is their beliefs and way of living, and they have been making pilgramages here for thousands of years.

After a few mind-blowing days in Varanasai, we finally said farewell to India (good riddance) and headed into Nepal. It took two full days of train rides and horrifying bus rides to get to Pokara, Nepal where we dropped our things and stayed for 4 days. We are so happy to have some fresh air and mountain stuff to do (the trekking, rafting, hiking, yoga, climbing...possibilities are endless). We were feeling quite a bit out of sorts in India where there isn't much activity other than fighting off rickshaw drivers, eating, and coughing. We met a great couple from England on our last train in India and crossed the boarder together. They also had mixed feelings about India and we had many a great moments rehashing our crazy stories together. We really did see some great things, and man the stories to tell.... but it was a test of severe patience every day, and we are happy to be in the slower, friendlier, not so pushy northern neighbor now. Ahhhh (you can see my happiness in one of these pictures).




We have already done a couple of wonderful day hikes; one to a tibetan world peace pagoda which looks out over all of Pokara and the lake. We were escorted by some very good guides who kept us safe and entertained the whole way up.



Another hike was bright and early to a viewpoint at sunrise to watch the amazing, towering, close Annapurna range change from blue to pink to white, beautiful.

We are scheduled to fly to Jomosom tomorrow to start a 10 day trek among small Nepali villages and massive Himalayan peaks. So excited, but it is going to be freezing again. We will be out of internet range for the trek so we will update this blog when we get back to Pokara (not sure how long we will take maybe a little more than a week).

Many Places, One Short Post

It's hard to feel the love when one is under the weather in a place like India. Just ask Shanon. She's gone from stomach sickness to a pneumonia like cough in a matter of a few days. I'm sure that an abundance of spicy food and the fine Indian air quality was a contributing force. Nonetheless, she perservered and is on the mend.

We spent a few lung burning days in a place called Pushkar (see right)...actually a small mountain'ish' holy town full of temples, rolling hills and a vibrant bizarre. Poor Shanon spent a lot of time in our ice-box hotel room coughing her lights out with a fever, while I ventured to a nearby hilltop temple like a good husband should while his wife is sick. Along the way I met 10-12 loud and very vocal Indian guys who became my best friends along the way. At the top they joked in Hindi (probably making fun of me), drank all my water, practiced their English and then disappeared down the mountain.

Our last stop in Rajasthan was a small city called Bundi. There was not much to do in the town itself, but our hotel sat right at the base of a massive, monkey invaded fort. Feeling better now, Shanon was able to venture out this time and we got a chance to explore some of the ruins. Since this place is off the beaten path a bit the ruins of the palace and fort were mostly open for self-exploration--a refreshing change. We were sure to carry sticks to keep the primates away. "A teardrop on the face of eternity" is how an Indian poet once described the Taj Mahal. Like Macchu Picchu, this place is almost too hard to describe in words, and photos can't really give one an idea of what it is like to see it first-hand. People see pictures of this place all their lives, but when seeing it in person you have no choice but to throw out any preconceived notions you may have had. This place is truly spectacular, and it's no wonder why it is the crown-jewel of India's tourist attractions. We got up at 6:00am and joined the masses at the gate so that we could be there for the sunrise, and although the heavy pollution made the colors less dramatic, just being in the presence of the grand mouseleum was really a special experience. By the way, notice that our attire has reverted back to what it was during the cold days in South America? Yeah, we've been cold in India, and we're heading into Nepal in a few days. Looks like we may be investing in some new Gore-Tex sometime very soon.

Update to my Food Update

So immediately after I wrote my food update, I proceeded to get sick for the whole following week and therefore haven't touched the stuff since then. Unfortunately, now I am a little wary of the flavors and even resorted to a meal and the golden arches which I haven't patroned since I was in 6th grade. Interesting that their menu had no hamburgers only chicken and veggie burgers (and paneer masala). The good news is that I am on the mend and have had a few meals of Tikki Masala and Naan since then. We'll see how we do in the state of Utter Pradesh where apparently everyone gets sick. Bah.

My birthday was spent on a train full of dust and hard seats so that we could get to Bikaner for the Camel Festival. The night ended good though and we had a nice dinner in a city palace with live music and traditional dancing in the background. Wow, I am old.

I know that Jared wrote a bit on the camel festival, but seriously it was about the coolest thing I have seen in a while. We sat all day laughing at the events that we witnessed. Seriously, camel dancing? Who knew. Also, the rat temple was a sight. I can't think of any other country that has a temple dedicated to the worshiping of holy rats. They run free there, all over. We had to jump around so that they wouldn't scurry acrossed our feet. How bizaar. I don't think animals have it so good and free in any other country. All animals except the dogs, which are everywhere here and are treated like street rats. So sad, I wish I could bring them all home with me. Here are a few more photos of the camel safari, camel festival, rat temple and others. I guess pictures are worth a thousand words, right?

Time is flying by, we are already 5 months into this. Weird. We also ran into a couple from Texas that we had met 2 months ago in South Africa. Small, strange, exciting world.

So Much to Say, Such Bad Internet Connections

So there are a lot of ups and downs that come with being in India...reliable internet connections being one of the downs. As a result, there is a lot to catch up on since our last update--here's the abridged version. Coincidentally, we have spent most of our time here in one Indian state (which I think I mentioned in an earlier post) called Rahjistan--home of grand cenotaphs, or monuments, built for the Maharajas (kings), towering palaces, massive forts and all the rest of the insanity that comes with the life in India.



The beauty of most Indian cities in Rajhistan is the rooftop restaurant--a brilliant way to get above the day-to-day chaos of the streets. It's a welcome relief after battling our way through the masses, beating away the touts, and playing intense games of "Frogger" trying to get across the streets.

Most cities here seem to be associated with a color. Jodhpur is the 'Blue City', named after the many blue houses (a religious indication and apparently a good color to keep away misquitos)inside the old city walls. Standing like a monolith in the center of the city is a massive sandstone escarpment, holding up one of the most grand palaces in the state. Most of the fort and palace are open to tourists, and we threw away our tacky tourist inhibitions for what turned out to be a really good audio tour which described all the main attractions. Quite nice.

Somehow we were convinced by the guy at our hotel in Jodhpur that we should take the bus to our next destination. I'm not sure how he convinced us, but he did, and luckily it was a better ride than our previous trip. Trains are definately the way the travel here. Our next stop was in a place called Jaisalmer--know as the 'Golden City', because most of the buildings here are made of golden sandstone. This palace (almost every city has one) is occupied by 25% of the cities 90,000 residents. Sadly, the walls are starting to sink into the earth as a result of poor sewage and water drainage systems. It was interesting to wander around the interior of the fort though, with its maze-like narrow streets. We even had dinner on top of the west wall where we watched the sun drop along the Indian-Pakistani border which was about 45 miles away. Strange to think we were so close to such a volitile part of the world.
The landscape in Jaisalmer was a lot like home, and the main draw to the city are the extensive camel safaris that run into the Great Thar Desert. Being that we're already desert rats, thanks to Southern Utah, we decided to skip the long stints under the stars and just do a half day--which consisted mostly of jeep rides and then ending with a few hours on camels with a couple of older Rahjistani guides. Such weird animals (the camels, not the guides), and yet another zoo-like novelty to westerners. In this part of the world the camel is just another beast of burden, and they are a regular part of everyday traffic here.

Speaking of camels, we enjoyed them so much that we jumped on a train and went to a dirty, relatively untouristed city called Bikaner, for the annual Camel Festival. Yeah, that's right, a camel festival. What we witnessed there was a pure camel extravaganza full of events we couldn't have even dreamed up--good fun like camel dancing, camel acrobatics, camel milking competition, camel haircutting, and on and on....the locals even join in and the Rahjistan men compete in the Mr. Bikaner competition, full of colorful turbans, whispy beards and long spears. Wow is all that can really be said. Wow. It was so much that we were on camel overload (and a bit burned out on the city itself) and only opted for one day of the three day long festival. It was hands down the best camel show we have ever been to. We highly recommend.

The only real attraction in Bikaner besides the annual festival is the strange and somewhat revolting 'Rat Temple'. I'm not really sure what to say about this place. In fact, we never got an explanation as to why it really exists. Just look at these few photos, and know that this is no side-show, but a place where people come to worship. Only in India.

At the moment we are spending our last day in the state's capital city of Jaipur, or the 'Pink City' which has a somewhat dainty population for an Indian capital with only 2.5 million residents. The scene here is chaotic, but the shopping was pretty good and we visited a nice temple inhabitated mostly by monkeys--not quite as revolting as the rats.

A great way to knock out many attractions in a few hours is to hire a rickshaw for the day. After bargaining hard to get what may, or may not be a fair price, the drivers will cart you all over the place in a horn-honking, exhaust-sucking frenzy. While we're busy looking at the sights the driver will sit outside and wait. It's a pretty good system--especially when Shanon bargains hard and gets us three or four hours of sightseeing for around $5.

So much to say, so little time. I wish we could tell you more stories and show you more pictures. Every moment is an adventure here. More photos soon to come....