Archive for April, 2008

Almost done..

April 21, 2008 at 6:03 am · Filed under bhutan, delhi, travel

We had a wonderful, relaxing week in Bhutan.  We’re now eagerly (and I mean *really* eagerly) awaiting our flight back home.  In fact, Brian is currently checking if we can return a day early. 

Yesterday we spent almost 3 hours in the baggage claim offices of Jet Airways and Air France.  Dennis’ luggage was still stuck in the Delhi airport (after 6 days) and we were on a mission to free his luggage.  Incidentally his lost luggage also included all of our trekking gear and souveniers as well.. so there was added incentive to get these bags back.  After a failed attempt to free the bags from customs, we discovered that the entire process of getting the bags from Jet Airways to Air France was blocked due to 2 little pieces of paper needed by Air France from Jet.  Brian ended up physically walking the papers from the Jet Airways office to the Air France office (about 200 yards away).  The bags are supposedly now on a flight back to Boston, our fingers are crossed.  Lessons learned:  (1) Any time you cross customs, your bags need to cross with you; (2) It’s MUCH faster solving these sort of problems in person.  Now we just have to hope that no one stole anything out of our bags.. fun!

After the baggage claim incident, we met up with Ric in Defence Colony where he’s currently living.  We experienced Delhi in 40 degree weather (that’s about 100F) and it was HOT!!!  I hear that it’s snowing back in Seattle.. we’re not sure what’s worse.. snow, or extreme heat.  Right now we’re leaning towards snow :)

I suppose I should write a little about Bhutan as well.  We spent 7 days there total and wandered through many many dzongs, monasteries and temples.  Dzongs are giant fortresses that were used in the wars with Tibet and have now been turned into part government administration office and part monestary.  There are classrooms and large halls for the monks along with goverment officials – a strange combination.  The size of these structures is mind blowing, each containing a huge watch tower, courtyards, residences and rooms for various functions.  My favourite moments:
Tiger’s Nest:  On our first day in Bhutan we hiked up to the Tiger’s Nest Monastary at about 10,000 feet (that’s the picture on our blog).  For the majority of the hike we were the only people on the trail and it felt magical.  As we approached the monestary we had some breathtaking views.  It felt as if you could just reach out and touch it.  For me, this was the pinnacle of our adventure. 
Kyichu Lhakhang:  Near the end of our week in Bhutan we visited the Kyichu Lhakhang in Paro.  On first look it seems like any temple.  Even inside, it had the usual statues, scrolls, butter lamps and thangkas (large paintings of the Buddha and his teachings).  A monk then opened a gigantic vault and inside were rows and rows of ancient statues of the Buddha and various Bhutanese deities.  I felt as though we had stumbled upon a secret treasure.  It was a scene our of National Geographic. 
Celebrating my birthday:  Brian surprised me on my birthday with a special Bhutanese dinner and cake (yum!!).  I can’t imagine a better way to have spent my 29th bday :)

Looking forward.. we’re itching to get back home.  We miss our friends, family, good food and being in a familiar place.  Brian’s been craving a burrito while I’ve been dreaming about sushi… :)  See you all soon!!!

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We’re alive

April 16, 2008 at 2:31 pm · Filed under Uncategorized

Hello world!

Just wanted to let y’all know that we’re alive and kicking here in Bhutan.  Once again our post will be constrained by ridiculous internet prices, so I’ll keep it brief.  Bhutan is a beautiful place, we’ve seen many amazing dzongs, monestaries, and the like.  Will give a full update when we get back.  We are now just a week away from home, where we will provide the full debrief, including the much-anticipated pictures!

 

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Off to Bhutan!

April 13, 2008 at 9:11 am · Filed under Uncategorized

Big D just headed out for his flight back to the US.  And we’re now poised for our third and final leg of the journey, Bhutan.  This particular leg will be quite different from the others, a much more typical touristy trip, but in a very cool and un-touristy place. 

Bhutan is a very small mountain kingdom that has been largely closed to outside influence until recently.  It is a very traditional Buddhist country, and most of our trip will be dedicated to visiting Buddhist monestaries and the like.  The main attraction, which just so happens to be the picture at the top of our blog, is called Tiger’s Nest Monestary.  It’s precariously perched on the side of a cliff, supposedly a pretty arduous hike from any road.  We’re really looking forward to checking this place out!

And, to be perfectly honest, we’re pretty much ready to be home as well.  This has been an amazing trip, one filled with incredible memories that will last a lifetime.  But home, with all its comforts and conveniences, is sounding better and better every day :)   Not to fear, we’ve only got about 10 days left until our return.  And from past experience, we know that as soon as we do arrive home again, we’ll be longing to be back on the road.  Such is life.

As an interesting update to the political situation here in Nepal, it appears that the Moaist (Communist)) Party has pulled a surprising electoral upset.  Has a Communist goverment ever been freely elected????  This should make for some interesting times in Nepal.  It will also be quite interesting to see the reaction of the international community, to whom communism is still a threat.  Stay tuned!

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Some stories

April 12, 2008 at 6:19 am · Filed under everest base camp, nepal, travel

As Brian mentioned, our trek was unexpectedly miserable at times.  There were definitely some moments though that are unforgetable..

The Freedom Pee at 16,000 feet
Finding a good spot to pee in the Everest region is tough for a girl.  There weren’t a lot of bushes or boulders to hide behind and there was always someone (or a yak) nearby.   You couldn’t just squat off the side of the trail.  It was in a town called Lobuche around 16,000 feet where I was finally fed up with the peeing situation.  The outhouses were filthy and it seemed so unnecessary to have to go in there just to pee.  No man ever squats to pee, so why should I??  That’s when I decided to create a device to let me pee standing up.  In short, it consisted of a water bottle that I sawed off at one end (at an angle) and covered in duct tape so it wouldn’t hurt any tender spots.  The aim was to pee using the funnel – the freedom pee.  It worked beautifully!  Everyone thought I was nuts.. and maybe i was since this was a high altitude innovation and I was probably depriving my brain of valuable oxygen.  Regardless, the funnel traveled with me all the way to Gorak Shep.. and I never had to squat to pee again.  I have pictures of course.. hehe..

The Korean Expedition Team
During our descent we stayed a night in a small lodge in Debouche.  Also spending the night there were 7 Koreans who were attempting to summit Everest.  For some reason, they zero’d in on Brian.  Brian was really good at gesticulating so there seemed to be no language barrier.  Before we knew it, they had us sampling Kimchee and drinking sake with them.  They had brought along their own chef and food (including a 2 litre plastic bottle of sake).  At one point, Brian opened the floodgates by asking them if they knew any songs.  That started a night of singing and dancing.. Brian rapped “the Humpty Dance”, the Koreans sang their national anthem and a couple English songs, our guides entertained us with some Nepali songs.  It’s hard to describe the night in words.  Just imagine 7 Koreans, a couple Nepalis and us singing, dancing, eating and drinking.. neither of us fully understanding what the other group is saying.. it was too funny!

Being Sick at Gorak Shep
Unfortunately, Brian and I both got sick at Gorak Shep and weren’t able to hike up to Kala Patthar.  On the first day at Gorak Shep I acquired a terrible altitude headache.. it lasted over 24 hours and even 8 tylenols couldn’t take care of it.  I decided to attempt the trek to Base Camp even with the headache because there was no way that I hiked so many days to get sick at the end.  We managed to get to Base Camp without incident (I think it was all the tylenol) but the trek back was something else.  Brian, Buddhi and I slowly hiked back, but it’s an experience I will never forget.  The hike to/from base camp is along a ridge about 4 feet wide with 1000 foot drops on either side.  The ridge is full of obstacles, climbs and descents.  If you’ve ever had any AMS symptoms then you’ll understand how difficult this was.  I had a throbbing headache, felt dizzy at times, and had to stop myself from throwing up.  It tooks us about 4 hours to hike back to Gorak Shep from basecamp.. it was one of those experiences where you just accept the torture and put one foot in front of the other.  I mentioned that Brian was sick as well, but we don’t think it was AMS.  We suspected the water at Gorak Shep – they probably didn’t boil it long enough and he acquired some bacteria.  Regardless, we decided to skip the hike the next day to Kala Patthar and head down as fast as we could.

We’re safe and sound now in Kathmandu.  The other trekkers, John and Mike, left this morning.  The Big D departs tomorrow.  We’re tentative to depart for Bhutan on Monday but our plans are still in flux as our flight is unconfirmed. 

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An historic day in Nepal

April 10, 2008 at 11:40 am · Filed under Uncategorized

Today in Kathmandu

As luck would have it, we’ve landed back in Kathmandu just in time for Nepal’s first-ever country wide election. The elections for Parliament, happening today, mark the beginning of the end for the country’s royal family. The newly elected parliament is expected as first business to oust the monarchy, and elect a president for a standard democracy. There has been lots of intrigue about the election here, as nothing of this type has ever taken place. The government even went so far as to impose an almost total curfew, no cars are allowed on the road, most businesses are closed. It’s really pretty eery to see a country so completely shut down. Luckily, we were able to find a restaurant open for lunch, and now we’ve stumbled upon an internet cafe.

Other Everest Stuff

We have some great pictures from our Everest Trek… unfortunately we’ll have to wait until we get home (in a couple of weeks) to post them up. Bandwidth is at a serious premium here, it would probably take a week to upload!

In the meantime, a some more details and a couple of stories about our trip.

A detailed itinerary of our trek can be found here.

Basically, the trek is about two weeks long, and follows a high basin up to the foot of Mount Everest. We hiked every day, even the the two “rest days” that Mira was so fond of :) How much hiking you do each day depends largely upon your need to acclimatize to the elevation. Towards the beginning of the hike, we put in some longer days (6-7 hours). As you get to higher elevation (13,000 ft +), you need to be very careful about how much elevation you gain, and our itinerary erred on the side of caution, so we would only hike for 2-3 hours. On the way down, the sky was the limit, and we ended up hiking nearly all day.

Our group consisted of a head guide (Buddhi), assistant guide (Devraj), and three porters (Krishna, Dendu, Gunkumar), and our trekkers (Mira, Dennis, Brian, Mike (from North Carolina), and John (from Louisiana)). We spent every waking hour together, and didn’t have a single conflict. Not too shabby!

Each night, we stayed in a “lodge” of varying comfort levels. Generally, the higher you got the less comfortable you were. A lodge consists of individual bedrooms and a single shared common room where you spend your non-sleeping hours. Being very cold, the main attraction of the lodge is invariably the stove, centrally located in the common room. Below tree level, the stove used wood fuel, after that we turned to the much less attractive yak dung as the fuel source. Yes, you read that right, yak dung. Lord knows there was plenty of it around! We spent the majority of our downtime sitting around the fire, chatting or reading or playing cards. We were in bed at about 8 o’clock every night. And we would start our day around 6 or 6:30. Farmer’s hours!

The Everest trek winds through Sherpa country, a group of people that has become famous for their exploits in climbing Everest and other high peaks. They are (rightfully) known as the Himalayan Tigers, very strong and loyal. They were quite friendly with tourists, though we found out after the trip that this hospitality did not extend to the porters, who are considered third class citizens (despite being the ones doing all of the work).

We ate better than expected on the trek, as we were able to order each meal individually from a fairly comprehensive (though quite unimaginative) menu. Only Dennis dared order meat, after we saw the dead animals making their way up the mountain, on the back of a 10 year old kid! Primarily, we ate soup, pasta, eggs, pizzas, and momos (local version of dumplings). Tea and soup are especially good for high-altitude trekking, and we consumed more of these things than we ever though possible. If we never see another cup of tea again it will be too soon! Well, for me anyway. Mira is a tea snob eager to get back to her prized Pu Er :)

The most common form of transport on the trail was the almighty Yak. You’ll see some pictures of these guys, they’re basically like small bulls. They load these big boys up and herd them up and down the trail. For serious expeditions, they’ll load up dozens of them and send the gear to the Base Camp. For their size and strength, they are amazingly docile and well-mannered. When they come, however, you quickly get out of the way, as they’re easily 600+ pounds and have big sharp horns. Sometimes we waited for 15+minutes for a pack to go by. They don’t move very quickly, and needed constant encouragement (in the form of yelling, whipping, and rock throwing) to proceed onward. Luckily, they all wear big bells, so you can hear them coming from a mile away. Very cool animals.

A cousin of the Yak, at least in terms of job description, was the porter. There are many, many people out there who make a living carrying things up and down the trail. As there are no roads, all of the provisions for lodges and trekking groups are carried by these guys. They put a huge load on their back, carrying much of the weight on their head, then walk faster than us meek unburdened tourists. All for about a buck or two a day. Very tough dudes!

Mira will tell some of the stories from our trip….

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Success! At What Price?

April 7, 2008 at 12:27 pm · Filed under everest base camp, nepal, travel

Hi all!

We’re now just one day away from the end of our (seemingly endless) Himalayan adventure. I’m proud to report that we have succeeded in reaching Everest Base Camp!  We reached the zenith of the trek, at ~17,500 feet, three days ago.  The trip has been amazing, though somewhat more challenging than we had bargained for in a number of ways.

The Good Parts

There is simply no way to describe in words the beauty and majesty of the Himalayas.  The size of these mountains will forever alter our internal scale.  You’re at 12,000 feet, looking up at mountains that tower another 10,000 feet over your head.  And we thought the Cascades were sizable! 

I should also mention that, true to form, the Nepalese people are amazingly hospitable and friendly.  This country has really got an amazing vibe.  Despite their relatiely rough existence in somewhat harsh conditions, you are most likely to find a Nepali singing and smiling, day in and day out.  Great country to visit should you be a traveler!

The Bad Parts

This has been a long, LONG trip.  17 days at high elevation, in very cold temperatures, with somewhat primitive accomodations, becomes fatiguing.  We weren’t prepared for the drain of the combination of elevation and cold.  To top it off, for me, the most difficult aspect was the overabundance of downtime.  Due to the need to properly accilimtize, you sometimes only hike 2 or 3 hours a day.  That leaves 21 or 22 hours to freeze your arse off and stare at the wall.  No matter how many books you’ve brought, you tend to get pretty bored.  Sleeping was a chore as well, as the body really struggles with the ~50% oxygen content.  Many times I would awaken struggling to catch my breath, as apparently mybody forgot to double its breath rate.

The food on this trip exceeded expectations, but the limited menu quickly became tired.  You can only eat so many plates of spaghetti or momos (local dumpling-like delicacies) before a piece of chicken becomes your sole desire. 

The toughest part of this trip, however, has been our constant sickness.  I drank some bad water and spent a day with yet another case of Delhi-belly.  Mira and elevation don’t mix well, and she dealt with symptoms of altitude sickness throughout, especially the last day on the way back from base camp (see future story).  Now we’ve both got colds, and are longing for the comforts and sanitation of home! 

Quick Summary

We’re again in expensive internet territory, so I’ll keep it brief for now.  We have a number of interesting stories to share, and we will do that in the next week or so.  All in all, our trek to Everest Base Camp has been an interesting journey, yet one that will no doubt be better in hindsight than in reality.  You know that kind of trip :)   We’ve gained an appreciation for this beautiful place, and the people that call it home.  We’ve challenged ourselves in many ways, and proven once again that we are a great team capable of handling our fair share of adversity. But this will probably be our last high-altitude adventure for some time.

I hope everyone is well.  We’ll be seeing you soon!

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