We’ve been sucked back into the vortex of “real life”, but are still planning a final blog post (which had better be damn good given the elapsed time!). In the meantime, here’s what you’ve really been waiting for, our pictures:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/miralane/collections/72157604714438125/
Namaste,
Mira and Brian
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!
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!
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….
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!
Sorry we’ve been so quiet of late. This partiular portion of our trip, spent in a different part of Rishikesh, has been pretty uneventful. Well, except for our rafting trip Mira has been a bit sick of tummy for almost a week, and it’s becoming oven-like for most of each day. To top it off, this week has really been about turning inside ourselves, quite rewarding for us but not very exciting for a blog reader. The next portion of our trip. a trek to Everest Base Camp in Nepal, will surely be more blogable, if that’s even a word.
Tomorrow morning we shove off for Delhi, where we are due to arrive just before Dennis. From there, we’ll have two days to bum around Delhi before flying to Kathmandhu to begin our trek. I’m very much looking forward to some chicken and a beer after 2.5 weeks in this holy yet dry and veg town!
Namaste!
I had written a post yesterday imploring people to drop out of life and travel. I have been having such a great time, I wanted everyone to experience the same joy. I posted without re-reading it, and thought nothing of it. Mira, however, was a bit perturbed at the post, as it was in generlly bad form to taunt people with unrealisitic ideas. If people want to travel, they will travel! They don’t need my hounding. She was right.
Immediately after posting that piece of poo, bad things a started to happen. We were kicked out of our hotel in favor of a large tour group. Curiously, though, people were checking in as we were being told this. We then spent the better part of the day trying to find a suitable landing spot in our little area, and were forced to settle on a pretty dingy establishment. Cost = $5 per day. We quickly came to the realization that we weren’t going to be able to spend a week there, and had to hoof it 30 minutes to another part of town to find something halfway decent. To top it off, right as we were leaving with all of our stuff to re-walk the 30 minutes, it started to rain. This was pretty curious, as we had not seen any weather but bright sunshine in the previous 5 weeks. We paid our penance by sloshing through mud and poop puddles, in the dark, in the rain, with all of our gear.
I deleted the offensive post on the way. Since then, we have settled comfortably into our new hotel, and the sun has returned. Coincidence?????? Lesson learned!
I know that a lot of people are interested in giving but it’s often difficult to decide where to donate. You’re never quite sure if your money will reach the people and what your impact will be. Here are two organizations in India that we’ve personally witnessed having a positive impact on children in India.
BIG DISCLAIMER - these organizations do not have 501(c)3 status in the US so you will not be able to deduct your donation from your taxes. For those of you at Microsoft, you will not be able to obtain a match from MS.
Parmarth Niketan
website: http://www.parmarth.com/gurukul.html , http://www.parmarth.com/how_you_can_help.html
Parmarth operates an orphanage /gurukul in Rishikesh where 100 young boys live and study. These are children that have been abandoned by their parents, found roaming the streets and have been taken in by the ashram. We’ve personally witnessed these children running around the ashram, bright-eyed and filled with purpose.
Project Why
website: http://www.projectwhy.org/support.htm , http://projectwhy.blogspot.com
We’ve written quite a bit about Project Why already. It’s a New Delhi based non-profit organization engaged in education support and life skill enhancement of slum children and their families. We’ve visited all of the classrooms and the women’s center and have seen the many women and children who have been positively impacted by this organization.
I read an article by Vimala Thakar the other day which struck me as still being relevant.. here’s an excerpt:
“The world today forces us to accept, at least intellectually, our oneness, our interrelatedness. And more and more people are awakening to the urgency of arresting the accelerating madness around us. As yet, however, our ways of responding are superficial, unequal to the complexities of the challenge. We do not take or even consider actions that threaten our security or alter our habitual ways of drifting through life. If we continue to live carelessly, indifferently, emphasizing private gain and personal indulgence, we are essentially opting for the suicide of humanity.”
Have a wonderful day
Not taken by us.. but in case you’re wondering what Rishikesh is like, here are some pics from the Parmarth Ashram website:
http://www.parmarth.com/gallery-ashram.html
http://www.parmarth.com/gallery-ganga.html
http://www.parmarth.com/gallery-aarti-yagna.html
I missed an important point in my last post, perhaps the most important. While I personally have chosen a different path, I don’t believe Christianity to be bad at all. For many, many people, it provides a foundation of existence, moral and spiritual guidance. And that’s a very good thing indeed!
In the department of “the more you know, the more you don’t know anything”… one of the primary problems I’ve had with Christianity all along is the continuous desire to evangelize. Why do you need to save people? Can’t you just be content with your own relationship with God? Well, ironically, I’ve become a bit of an evangelist myself, for the yogic path! It’s hard NOT to sell people on yoga, given how much it’s done for me personally. Guess I’ll have a side of crow with my lunch 
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