Goodbye India

This is the last post I'll make from India. We've done a lot in the past week - We had three nights in Varanasi. Hotel sunrise where we were staying was full of backpackers and we made quite a few friends there sitting around in the communal rooftop area eating, drinking and listening to music. There wasn't a great deal to see in Varanasi other than the Ganges and a few temples and we ticked them all off with a package tour deal from the hotel including a sunset boat ride, sunrise boat ride and temple tour for Rs. 250 - not bad value there. The morning we went on the sunrise cruise, I had been up till 4am playing chess with one of the other backpackers at the hotel, then had to be up at 5.30 again for the sunrise. After we got back from the boat I went back to bed, so the boatride seems like it happened in a dream. There wasn't much of a view of the sun anyway, it was quite cold and foggy (or was it smog??). We had a brief tour of the Varanasi University and it's temple, the Mother India temple with a huge map of India with 3D elevation sculpted from marble, and the local Monkey temple (there's lots of those!)

We left Varanasi at 6pm one night and arrived in Jaipur at 4pm the next day (the 22hr train ride was only meant to be 17hr...dodgy). We met up with Joel Tuckett the next morning (he had just flown up from Goa) and he has been with us since. An Israeli girl from the hotel in Varanasi called Maayan was also on her way to Pushkar so she was travelling with us too. We were offered a free ride to a nightclub by someone we think was in the Mafia. We stopped at a different club and the guy asked us to change cars, so we just thanked him and went in to that one. It was a really good 'western' club and we had heaps of fun (and scotch hehe) . We had booked a bus for the next morning at 9am but due to alcohol we only woke at 11. We quickly re-booked our bus to Pushkar for 1pm and rushed to make it - all of us sporting naaasty hangovers. The busride was on a really good tollroad in a really nice tourist bus with plenty of head and leg room which Kev and I were thankful for.

Pushkar is a small town situated on a lake north of Ajmer. It is renowned for its shopping and we did plenty of that. The morning after we got there we climbed 'Snake Mountain' for some great views and then hit the shops with our wallets full of cash (which we were lucky to get - the only ATM in the town was out of order so we had to get cash from a western union). We said goodbye to Maayan and hopped on an overnight bus to Agra, the home of the Taj Mahal. We had 'beds' on the bus but it was so cold we didn't sleep much (I had my sleeping bag so I was ok but Kev had to put on all the clothes he had bought in Pushkar to stop himself freezing - he had his feet in his bag to keep them warm!)

We met up with Georgie again on a rooftop restaurant overlooking the Taj just after the sun had risen. It really is an impressive sight. We'd heard that it was better to see the Taj at sunset, so we spent the morning at the almost-as-impressive Agra Fort, a 20 min walk from the Taj. We entered the Taj precinct about 3pm (along with half of India) and chilled out in the grounds until the sun started to set. As we weren't staying in Agra, we headed to the train station. Our train was delayed 2 hours and we finally made it to Delhi around 1am, cold and tired. Suzie and Jenna joined us yesterday morning and we spent the day yesterday catching up on stories and doing more shopping. We went to a great textbook emporium and stocked up for the academic year at prices about 10% what we'd pay at home. Admittedly, we had to pay a king's ransom to send them home, but the total was still a great deal.

Tonight the fantastic five parts company for the last time. Suzie is heading to Helsinki, I'm off to Thailand, Kev is going home to Canada, and Jenna, Georgie and Joel are heading back to Oz. It's been an amazing 2 months in this part of the world - I'm never going to forget it. Seeing how excited the others are to get home makes me a little jealous, and I am going to miss everyone over Christmas and New Years. Very excited about Thailand though :)

All the very best to all for Christmas and New Years, wherever you are in the world, and I can't wait to catch up with everyone when I get back on Jan 9th.

Namaste!

Back to India

Hello again

We're now in Varanasi, the city on the Ganges, in India. After Pokhara we made the overland trek over two days by bus to get here. After an 8 hour busride from Pokhara to Senaouli on the Nepal-India border, we took another busride 20km to the birthplace of Buddha, Lumbini. This consists of the actual birthplace of Buddha preserved under a temple, and various Buddhist temples from many different coutries. An American buddhist nun told us that we could stay at the Korean temple for nothing but a donation of our choosing, so we accepted. They provided a great meal of Korean food, and after wandering around the site and seeing some temples, etc we organised our busride for the next day. It was the last day of a 10-week festival around Buddha's birthday, so there were monks and nuns from all over the world camped out in huge tent cities around the place. The actual birthplace was surrounded by thousands of candles (the Festival of 100,000 lights apparently) and was really beautiful.

Our bus left Senouli at 7.30 the next day so we got a taxi at 6 and crossed the border back into India, which was very lax. Plenty of people with guns, but not a great deal of security. Turns out we had booked on a government bus, and it was an absolute sh*t-heap of a bus. The roads were absoutely terrible for the first few hours, and some of the seats broke from the vibrations. For about an hour of driving through a dense forest, we were thrown about a foot in the air every few seconds and it was going to be a long day... after that the roads improved and after an exhausting 13 hours on the bus, we arrived in Varanasi last night. After checking our results at the nearest internet place, we followed this guy around the narrow alleys of the old city on the banks of the Ganges trying places (from Lonely Planet). The first two were full, so we relented and went to the place the rickshaw driver had been touting all along (we just wanted to sleep, we didn't have the energy to avoid being duped...). Turns out Hotel Sunrise is actually quite nice...the hot shower was a too-long-awaited treat :)

Tonight we are going on a sunset boat ride along the Ganges to see the Ghats, and again in the morning for the sunrise. Tomorrow we're also going on a temple tour of about 5 temples in the area...both boat tours and the temple tour are only going to set us back Rs 200 - about $6. Bargain.

Just uploaded photos from the trek too, so sink your eyes into those juicy shots and enjoy.

Think I'll go and wash away my sins in the Ganges.

Annapurna Sanctuary Trek - High in the Himalaya with Hari

Namaste!!!

Well, we survived. Now back in Pokhara after a week of the most amazing scenery I have ever seen. Following is a day-by-day description of the trek. Enjoy.

DAY 1 - 29 NOV - Kathmandu to Pokhara
Up early to catch the bus to Pokhara. 7 hour busride through some increasingly mountainous terrain. Arrived in Pokhara around 4pm. Stayed at Kiwi Guest House. Wandered around Fewa Lake for a bit taking happy snaps, then had some dinner at the hotel, before hitting the 'town'. It's a pretty happening place in the high season, but as its trekking shoulder season now there weren't that many tourists about. Saw an awesome live band at Club Paradiso, we were the only audience! Played a bit of pool, sunk the white off the black too many times.

DAY 2 - 30 NOV - Pokhara to Landrung
UP : tba DN : tba NET : tba

Up early to watch the sunrise over the Annapurna range from the roof of the hotel. Bus to our trekking start point, Pedhi (means 'low place'). First hour or so was straight up steps. Lunch at Dhampus, introduced to our staple food for the next 5 days : Dahl Baht (rice with dahl, which is a sort of soup with grains and some vegies in it, also with a nice vegie curry). After lunch, continued to Landrung, where we stayed in our first guesthouse for the trip, the Maya Guest House. Dinner: Dahl Baht (awsome!) After dinner watched Enter the Dragon and a Hindi movie called 'Hey Baby' which was obviously based (almost directly) on 3 Men and a Baby. Loved its originality.

DAY 3 - 1 DEC - Landrung to Sinuwa
UP : tba DN : tba NET : tba

Left Landrung 7.30am. Morning was spent on stone steps going a long way down, then a long way back up the other side of the valley. Arrived in Sinuwa (2275m) at 3pm. Stayed at the Hilltop Lodge. Best Dahl Baht so far for dinner. Sinuwa is perched high atop a ridge and gave great views of the valley we had just walked up and also the valley leading up to the base of Macchupare and then on towards Annapurna Base Camp (4130m) which was our ultimate destination. At night we could see the lights of all the small villages along the trails on both sides of the valley stretching off into the distance - very pretty.

DAY 4 - 2 DEC - Sinuwa to Annapurna Base Camp (ABC)
UP : tba DN : tba NET : +1855m

Woke 6.30am for sunrise. Brunch (Dahl Baht) at Bamboo . We were still a long way from ABC, but Hari our guide thought that the weather was going to get worse so if we didn't make it to ABC today we would see nothing but cloud once we did get there. So we decided to do the unthinkable...go for ABC in one day from Sinuwa. They said it couldn't be done! The entire day was uphill, which made it pretty tough going, but it was along the base of the valley, not straight up the hillsides, so it wasn't too steep thankfully. Early in the afternoon we left the trees behind and were now walking surrounded by nothing by apline grass and rock. Snow started to appear in the shadows and a few of the waterfalls we passed were frozen, so it was obviously getting cold! We didn't really notice...walking uphill all day tends to keep you warm. Hari made sure we had our headlamps working before we decided to push for ABC. We arrived at Machhapuchhre Base Camp (MBC) at 3pm, then trudged on up the valley to ABC, arriving at 4.45pm, just before sunset (it gets dark pretty early in the shadow of the mountains). It was a huge day of walking and we were really stoked to make it all the way to ABC. We were the only tenants at the Sanctuary Lodge. Dahl Baht again for dinner...after dinner we sat in the dining room with some locals (who run the lodge) and listened to music (some ours, some theirs). Kev hit a massive wall at about 6.30pm (altitude suspected), had a nap and returned soon after, reinvigorated. We'd bought a bottle of Royal Stag scotch in Chhomrung on the way up and it was just the thing to keep us warm. In the dining room of most of the high camps, they have blankets hanging down from the sides of the table which you put your legs under, and they have a kerosene heater under the table to keep your legs warm. It's the only heating there is in any of the places - all the buildings are very simple, drafty and cold stone buildings and you even pay Rs. 50 for the privilege of warming your legs up. Altitude didn't really seem a problem on the walk up to ABC, but once we were there we all felt a bit stupid, and I was having a little bit of trouble putting sentences together (it could have been the scotch). We went to bed at about 7.45pm (thats late in Mountain Time). Hari suggested we push three beds together to stay warm, an idea brilliantly suggested by saying : "Lets sleep three-gether for warmth". 'Three-gether' entered our vocabulary (and any other derivative...five-gether, six-gether, etc).

DAY 5 - 3 DEC - ABC to Sinuwa
UP : tba DN : tba NET : tba

Up at first light - got a few good glimpses of mountains between the clouds, which Hari had correctly predicted would arrive today. Ridiculously cold!! Hari took us up about 10m walk uphill from the camp to the edge of the Annapurna glacier which was amazing! Kev and I both neglected to bring our gloves and after 10minutes out in the open at 4130m our hands were numb. We set off back down the hill at 8am, and at that moment a blizzard started. We trudged downhill (thankfully not uphill) with snow coming in horizontally for about an hour, then it calmed from a blizzard to just heavy snow. The further we went down, the lighter the snow got, until eventually it had turned to sleet, and then just plain rain. The waterproof jacket I'd hired in Pokhara showed its true colours (it was NOT waterproof) - by the end of the day I had water running down my arms inside my jacket and dripping off my fingertips. As if taunting us, the sun showed its face for the first time right as we were walking into Sinuwa (our camp for the night) at about 4pm. We tried to dry everything (literally EVERYTHING got wet - even inside the packs) under the table with limited success. Played chess in the dining room till late - had the Tomato and Cheese Pizza of the year for dinner (probably because we'd had nothing but Dahl Baht until that point!). Slept threegether.

DAY 6 - 4 DEC - Sinuwa to Jhinu
UP : tba DN : tba NET : tba

Left Sinuwa 8.15am - down a lot of steps, then up about the same number (one staircase had 388 steps in a row - counting is a good distraction) Lunch at Chhomrung. Spent all afternoon walking down steep, steep steps to Jhinu. 20 min from the hotel (Jhinu Guest House) there are natural hot springs next to the river. We took some beers down with us and had a very relaxing hot bath surrounded by mountain views. This was the first 'shower' we'd had since leaving Pokhara so it was all the more refreshing! After our spa, we climbed back up to Jhinu and chilled on the roof of the hotel for the sunset with perfectly clear skies - a very relaxing afternoon was very appreciated after the past two intense days of trekking. Hari beat Kev at chess.

DAY 7 - 5 DEC - Jhinu to Seuli Bazar
UP : tba DN : tba NET : tba

Left Jhinu 7.45am. Walked along the river down the valley all morning. Break at New Bridge. We met up with a Korean guy who we had met on the way up to ABC who was coming back down quickly because he thought he may have broken his wrist and needed to get back to Pokhara quickly. He walked with us until lunch at Bee Hive View Guest House in Kiwi. Out of gratitude for his help, the dude gave Hari his watch, which Hari was (and is) pretty stoked about! Dahl Baht got the thumbs down from Hari. Luckly I had the mixed noodles (turns out the tuna wasn't off...luckily). Played chess in a clearing on the way to Seuli Bazar.

DAY 8 - 6 DEC - Seuli Bazar to Pokhara
UP : tba DN : tba NET : tba

"Slowly slowly" (Hari's saying of the week) headed to New Bridge (a different one than yesterday). Passed through the Maoist checkpoint and got through showing our receipt from the checkpoint on day 2. As we later discovered, a Swiss guy had been beaten at the same Maoist checkpoint an hour before we got there, sustaining moderate head injuries (it was in the paper the next day). Apparently he had been unwilling to pay and was in the mood to fight. The Maoists sticks changed his tune...we had nothing but smiles though. Lesson learned today : pay your Maoist taxes, don't get a broken head. Arrived at the bus stop at Naya Pul (Naya Bridge) then jumped on the bus for a sleepy but picturesque 2 hr bus ride back to Pokhara. Stayed at Kiwi Guest House again. Took a rowboat out on Fewa Lake in the afternoon, saw the Barahi Temple on an island in the middle of the lake. Headed to the other side for beers overlooking sunset on the Annapurna Range. Dinner at Boomerang restaurant, saw some Nepali dancing and singing. Scotch, scotch, scotch. I love scotch. Saw our favourite live band again at Paradiso bar (and played some more pool).

DAY 9 - 7 DEC - Chillin in Pokhara

Got back on the net to check the emails and reassure everyone we're still alive, burned all the photos of the trek onto a DVD for Hari. Walked about an hour around Pokhara to Davis' Falls, which is a 100 foot waterfall into a hole in the ground, followed by a 500m underground water flow. Saw another temple in a cave next to the falls. Got back to the hotel and rested until dinner at the hotel. Had a few more beers, headed out to hit the town again, but the turnout was a bit poor and Hari was a bit sick so we headed back for an early night.