It's been too long again since I've posted one. Partially the Chinese Internet-byrocracy, partially me is to blame. Also I'm not able to upload pictures to the picasa site so will have to the story without them. Anyway let's continue where we last dropped off.
After getting back to Pokhara I immediatly got the commonly known "Delhi-belly" again which took a couple of days to recover. Diet was mostly brown rolls, porridge and hot chocolate. Still dont know why I didnt get it during the sancuarry trek though. When I left for the trek I had left my passport to one tourist office so that they could handle my Chinese passport while I'm doing some trekking. Saves time and effort.. or so I thought. Once I got back from the trek I was told that my passport is still in Kathmandu (where they issue the visas) because my passport already had a chinese visa and the embassy was currious why I hadnt used before. The truth was that I had no previous visa to China and the other office had mixed my passport up with somebody elses. After clearing this up it was time to get the plane ticket to Shanghai. The fact that the same tourist office in Kathmandu was handeling that also didnt make my heart feel at ease. After waiting a couple of days the passport and plane ticket arrived Pokhara. Guess what. The ticket is not to Shanghai but to Bejing!!! So lets send everything back to Kathmandu and wait a week to get the right plane ticket. All ends well but because of these errors I didnt have time to visit the lovely village of Bandipur which lies between Pokhara and Kathmandu. Of to Kathmandu then it is.
Durbar Square, Monkey Temple and the tourist ghetto of Thamel. Thats my Kathmandu in a nutshell. After living it cheap in Pokhara for almost a month! I decided that spending a few extra bucks in Kathmandu wont hurt anybody. So i decided to book in to the Kathmandu Guest House, one of the first guest houses to operate there and its been around from the 70's. 5 US dollar rooms werent that much of a bargain but the lobby with hotel like reception and satelite tv, the courtyard with its own restaurant and sauna facilities were more than the moneys worth. The lobby was a good place to meet other travelers, read Shogun which is taking way too long to read and watch the news or movies on the telefizel. Situated in the center of Thamel as it is, after stepping out of the complex gates you will be surrounded by drug sellers, rickshaw drivers and trek operators who all want your money. Coming from India though, this is more like the kiddies corner of Varanasi so I managed alright.
As for the sightseeings.. Durbar Square is the blessing and living point of the kings but nowadays it works as one of the main turist attractions of the city with lots of local people handling everyday business in the mix. Flock of tourist here, a couple of goat heads there and a million pidgeons everywhere. You know how it is.. The Monkey Temple was a bit of a let down though. Sure there were monkeys who tried to steal practically anything plastic you were carrying around but otherwise it was just another temple. Think I'm getting templed out after India and Nepal.
Besides the briliant german bakery's and lovely italian cusine, Kathmandu has live music for every day of the week. The narrow streets of Thamel are filled with the golden oldies of The Doors, The Beatles and Led Zeppelin that invade even the hotel rooms. Naturally I was compelled to buy some tourist crap before I left this pleasent country so bought myself some fancy pirate gear! More of that later. Now it's time hit Shanghai!
PS. My lovely girlfriend Sas told me I should write a list of my favorite things so stay tuned for that!
More pictures at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/timo.laaksonen/
Friday, February 22, 2008
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Trekking
Yes, I know. It was I shame that I survived the accent to the Annapurna base camp (from now on it will be shortened to ABC). It took 7 days to go back and forth. 4 and half day going up and 2 and half coming down. I imagined the experience to be more exhausting but it really was a peace of cake! Watch out for avalanches there, jump off a cliff there and boom, your at the base camp. As the explanation may sound a bit dubious, I will explain how I got up there.
Day 1-2:
Started off in around 11 AM in Pokhara by walking to the buss station to catch a buss on the way to Baglund. Then it’s a easy ride for 20 minutes and I got off at this village called Khare. From there the walking starts and with a accent of around 500 meters or so to the place called Australia camp. The people there don’t even know why it’s called that so it is hard to say where the name comes from. Anyway decided to have lunch later on so strolled around the cloudy landscape and watched the world go by. Wasn’t really much to see on the way because of the shitty weather so can’t really tell much except I ran in to a apparent bunch of western missionary at lunch brake. They were carrying their lives with them up to the mountain so I decided not to stick around too long with my lightweight backpack. First night was spent in a place called Tolka basically eating dhall bhat and rescuing baby chickens from the gorges of hell! Second day was a bit of a bore as it was raining when I woke around 7 AM. It took a couple of hours to pass and then it was cloudy all day. Tolka should be the first places where you really get to see the mountains close so naturally the clouds were disappointing. Passed a bunch of Koreans on the way and their porters were carrying ridiculous amounts of stuff with them. The route followed down to the river Modi Kola and stayed with it until the next big accent to Jinu and Chhomrong up almost 800 meters. Jinu is good place to stop for the hot springs but as the weather wasn’t getting any better I decided to head all the way up to Chhomrong. Their I stayed a lodge listening to the horror stories of the people coming down from the ABC telling how already half way up there is waist high snow. Seriously doubting that, I went to sleep.
Day 3-4:
Weather was clearing up a bit in the morning so decided I will at least try to get as far up as I can. So I set off to Bamboo! The day was pretty boring with only the cloudy forest as my only real sightsee that day. Fortunately at the resting place, the household cat Jenny kept me company in my lap and I decided to rename her to Sarah because she used to purr the same way. The pink haired island girl was on my mind a lot that day and wrote some stuff about her in my journal. I’ll keep that part private :). During the evening a Korean couple with their annoying Nepalese porter arrived at the same lodge and I decided by myself to use them to lead the way to the next checkpoint so I get a better foothold on the ground as they walk before me. The next day was beautiful! All the clouds were gone and the Fish Tail -mountain could be seen clearly. Definitely took too many pictures of that damn thing which apparently has never conquered. Snow was so bright that you really needed sunglasses to see the way you were going. The accent that day was up to Deorali and 3 200 meters. During the evening we met 3 Nepali cooks coming down from the ABC and MBC lodges telling us it is too dangerous to go there as the snow is almost neck high! They told the locals they were going down to Chhomrong for a week and would come back after that. The Koreans who had intended to stay up at ABC or MBC were shocked and could not believe that they couldn’t stay up there the in the following nights. After listening to the uncomprehending English between the Koreans and the Nepali I really didn’t know should I laugh or cry. They just could not understand that I can’t stay up there. I was going up and coming down the same day. No biggie.
Day 5:
By morning, the Koreans had finally understood that they would have to do the same accent/decent thing as I was planning to do and we went off. Part of the trail goes through dangerous avalanche chutes and you have to clear off them before the sun has shined too long on them. We started around 8.30 AM and were at MBC after a relatively easy 2 hour walk even though oxygen was little bit lower at this height. From there on, it was going to be difficult. Not a lot of people had crossed between ABC and MBC so there was only a slight trail and the snow was knee high, sometimes even more. It was though but half way through we could already see all the mountains and it became easier to walk as wind had blown the snow of the rocky surface. The sights were to say the least breathtaking and pictures don’t really give justice to the place. I could see that the usual mountain clouds had started forming around the edges of the pass and asked the porter how long it would take to get to base camp. The answer was around one hour and I could make it out from the distance. No way were we going to get there before the clouds cover all the mountains and there is nothing left to see from there so I decided to turn back there. One of the Koreans was so eager to get to the base camp that they decided to go up anyway. In 15 minutes everything was clouded and that was the last I saw of them. Coming down seemed to take for ever and I had decided to get as down as I could that day as I didn’t want to waste time looking at the same stuff twice. I got to Bamboo around 6 PM and was beat. After hanging my stuff to dry I just sat there and looked at the table corner for a hour. Everything I was wearing was almost completely wet and smelled horrible. It was time for bed.
Day 6-7:
I wake up at 7 AM and want to kill myself. I wake up at 8 AM and want to kill myself. I wake up at 9 AM and ask the doctor am I dead yet. Don’t remember when I have been so tired last time. 9 hours a day trekking is not a good idea after all. But I got to keep going and sleep when I’m dead. Decided then and there that I’m only going to get to the river side today because after that there will be no more accents on the way back for the last day of trekking so it will be easy. Clouds had gathered again so 5 hours later I was at New Bridge waiting for my lunch and went to look at the dried up river more closely for the rest of the day. Last day was a easy walk around a different route which I found to be surprisingly joyful as you really went through a nice variety of small villages with lovely people, scenery and sounds. Finally I got to Birethani and on to a bus. The journey to the mountains was over. On a side note I have to say that I have never seen so many Korean people in such numbers. I saw maybe 5 people from western countries and 100 people from Korea. There were more Koreans than Nepali people.
More pictures at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/timo.laaksonen/
Day 1-2:
Started off in around 11 AM in Pokhara by walking to the buss station to catch a buss on the way to Baglund. Then it’s a easy ride for 20 minutes and I got off at this village called Khare. From there the walking starts and with a accent of around 500 meters or so to the place called Australia camp. The people there don’t even know why it’s called that so it is hard to say where the name comes from. Anyway decided to have lunch later on so strolled around the cloudy landscape and watched the world go by. Wasn’t really much to see on the way because of the shitty weather so can’t really tell much except I ran in to a apparent bunch of western missionary at lunch brake. They were carrying their lives with them up to the mountain so I decided not to stick around too long with my lightweight backpack. First night was spent in a place called Tolka basically eating dhall bhat and rescuing baby chickens from the gorges of hell! Second day was a bit of a bore as it was raining when I woke around 7 AM. It took a couple of hours to pass and then it was cloudy all day. Tolka should be the first places where you really get to see the mountains close so naturally the clouds were disappointing. Passed a bunch of Koreans on the way and their porters were carrying ridiculous amounts of stuff with them. The route followed down to the river Modi Kola and stayed with it until the next big accent to Jinu and Chhomrong up almost 800 meters. Jinu is good place to stop for the hot springs but as the weather wasn’t getting any better I decided to head all the way up to Chhomrong. Their I stayed a lodge listening to the horror stories of the people coming down from the ABC telling how already half way up there is waist high snow. Seriously doubting that, I went to sleep.
Day 3-4:
Weather was clearing up a bit in the morning so decided I will at least try to get as far up as I can. So I set off to Bamboo! The day was pretty boring with only the cloudy forest as my only real sightsee that day. Fortunately at the resting place, the household cat Jenny kept me company in my lap and I decided to rename her to Sarah because she used to purr the same way. The pink haired island girl was on my mind a lot that day and wrote some stuff about her in my journal. I’ll keep that part private :). During the evening a Korean couple with their annoying Nepalese porter arrived at the same lodge and I decided by myself to use them to lead the way to the next checkpoint so I get a better foothold on the ground as they walk before me. The next day was beautiful! All the clouds were gone and the Fish Tail -mountain could be seen clearly. Definitely took too many pictures of that damn thing which apparently has never conquered. Snow was so bright that you really needed sunglasses to see the way you were going. The accent that day was up to Deorali and 3 200 meters. During the evening we met 3 Nepali cooks coming down from the ABC and MBC lodges telling us it is too dangerous to go there as the snow is almost neck high! They told the locals they were going down to Chhomrong for a week and would come back after that. The Koreans who had intended to stay up at ABC or MBC were shocked and could not believe that they couldn’t stay up there the in the following nights. After listening to the uncomprehending English between the Koreans and the Nepali I really didn’t know should I laugh or cry. They just could not understand that I can’t stay up there. I was going up and coming down the same day. No biggie.
Day 5:
By morning, the Koreans had finally understood that they would have to do the same accent/decent thing as I was planning to do and we went off. Part of the trail goes through dangerous avalanche chutes and you have to clear off them before the sun has shined too long on them. We started around 8.30 AM and were at MBC after a relatively easy 2 hour walk even though oxygen was little bit lower at this height. From there on, it was going to be difficult. Not a lot of people had crossed between ABC and MBC so there was only a slight trail and the snow was knee high, sometimes even more. It was though but half way through we could already see all the mountains and it became easier to walk as wind had blown the snow of the rocky surface. The sights were to say the least breathtaking and pictures don’t really give justice to the place. I could see that the usual mountain clouds had started forming around the edges of the pass and asked the porter how long it would take to get to base camp. The answer was around one hour and I could make it out from the distance. No way were we going to get there before the clouds cover all the mountains and there is nothing left to see from there so I decided to turn back there. One of the Koreans was so eager to get to the base camp that they decided to go up anyway. In 15 minutes everything was clouded and that was the last I saw of them. Coming down seemed to take for ever and I had decided to get as down as I could that day as I didn’t want to waste time looking at the same stuff twice. I got to Bamboo around 6 PM and was beat. After hanging my stuff to dry I just sat there and looked at the table corner for a hour. Everything I was wearing was almost completely wet and smelled horrible. It was time for bed.
Day 6-7:
I wake up at 7 AM and want to kill myself. I wake up at 8 AM and want to kill myself. I wake up at 9 AM and ask the doctor am I dead yet. Don’t remember when I have been so tired last time. 9 hours a day trekking is not a good idea after all. But I got to keep going and sleep when I’m dead. Decided then and there that I’m only going to get to the river side today because after that there will be no more accents on the way back for the last day of trekking so it will be easy. Clouds had gathered again so 5 hours later I was at New Bridge waiting for my lunch and went to look at the dried up river more closely for the rest of the day. Last day was a easy walk around a different route which I found to be surprisingly joyful as you really went through a nice variety of small villages with lovely people, scenery and sounds. Finally I got to Birethani and on to a bus. The journey to the mountains was over. On a side note I have to say that I have never seen so many Korean people in such numbers. I saw maybe 5 people from western countries and 100 people from Korea. There were more Koreans than Nepali people.
More pictures at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/timo.laaksonen/
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