Thursday, June 26, 2008
Life in Pokhara
As you might (or probably don't) know, Nepal has a fuel crisis. A few months ago, the Nepalese government stopped paying Indian Oil for fuel. And Indian Oil didn't like that. Seeing as Nepal is a landlocked country, and has no oil reserves of its own, all oil comes from India via Indian Oil. Anyhow, there was a strike a few days ago, where the buses and taxis were all off the roads. For me, the cyclist, this was bliss!! The buses here chug along and release huge clouds of black exhaust - yuck!! So for 5 days there was gloriously semi-unpoluted air (still motor cycles around). Anyhow, now that the buses and taxis are back, the air is gross and gritty and black in areas. And it doesnt help that it hasn't rained really well in a few days - but it is raining now!! Hopefully there is a good soaking tonight, and the rain stops tomorrow when I have to leave again for work.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Life in Nepal
So as you all know, Kat and I are staying with a host family in Pokhara. My volunteer placement is a ways away from our home, so I rented a bicycle and cycle to and from work everday. It is ~10-15 minutes there (nice gentle downhill slope) and 17-25 minutes back (uphill, of course). The main obstacles are major potholes, erratic motorcyclists and taxi drivers, stray cows and water buffalos, and the ever present black exhaust from every vehicle. I swear my lungs must be black by now. Oh yea, I forgot about the suicidal buses. Nevertheless, it is a pleasant enough ride. On the way home I cut through Chipledunga (how cool of a name is that?) which is a market area, and buy goodies. Like the other day I bought a kilo of mangoes for 50 NRs. Yes, I overpaid, since I heard a local getting them for 40 NRs, but in CAD, 10 NRs is really not much. Like 15 cents. Today I bought a cucumber for 5NRs. They are 15NRs per kilo. Food is pretty cheap here. Kat and I like going to the supermarket and stocking up on cookies and candy :) North American brands are obviously more pricy, but the things produced in Nepal or India tend to be pretty cheap. We've been trying various types of cookies. The last pack we bought was mango creme cookies, for 20 NRs :D So in addition to the LOADS of food that our host family feeds us (seriously, its tons, I'll take a picture tonight :p ) We are eating tons of junk. Good times. So get ready to see Kat and Dan Ver. 2.0. meaning twice the size :p lol jk
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Croc Tan - because its too funny
Prior to setting out on this trip, many people suggested bringing crocs for the rainy weather. Normally, I would turn my nose up at the thought of wearing crocs, but the wet runners issue made me come around. Thankfully I did not have to shell out any moolah for a pair, cause my grandma had a pair that was too big for her :D Anyhow, I am now a semi-convert to wearing crocs. Why? Because of torential downpours. When it rains, it pours! Plus, my runners are sopping wet as we speak, cause Kat and I got caught in a torrential downpour yesterday. Apparently yesterday was the start of the monsoon, but you could've fooled me, since there has been torrential rain periodically pretty much since we landed in Delhi. Anyhow, back to the title... In Pelling, my runners got soaked after getting caught in yet another torrential downpour. So, in Darjeeling I had to wear crocs, since my runner smelt like rotting. Seriously. After a long day of walking in Darjeeling (and a subsequent shower) I looked at my feet, and what'd you know? Dark spots. Seriously. I still have a distinct croc tan, since during trekking I wore runners (which thankfully dried in Pokhara). So I have 5 dark dots on my right foot. Amusing, eh?
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Trekking
Kat and I went on a 6 day (but really more like 5.5 days) trek in the hills surrounding Pokhara. Much of the trail was uphill, or downhill, not much inbetween. Needless to say, my legs are sooooo sore! We got nice views of Annapurna South, Hiuncholi, and Machapuchre from many of our stops. The weather held up nicely, as it is the beginning of the monsoon. It only poured once during the day, but every day was pretty wet. And there was a huge abundance of leeches - ewww! I never got bitten, but at one point I had 2 leeches on one shoe, and 3 leeches INSIDE the other shoe. Kat got one bite though:p The grossest thing is when they climb up your legs. The best/quickest way to get rid of them is to either flick them off with your finger, or pinch them and roll them into a ball and throw them away :p
Day one was taking a bus from Pokhara to Nayapul, and hiking up to Tikendunga, where we spent the night in a guest house. This one was pretty nice, but its all relative :p Nice means low levels of bugs, bright, and a cleanish bathroom:p Food is really expensive (again, relative) on the trail, because everything has to be carried in either by porters, or by donkeys. I think more often than not it is human porters that are used though.
Day 2 was killer, we hiked up from Tikendunga to Ghorepani. Straight up a gazillion steps. In the rain (this was the rain day). On the way, there was a dead man under a plastic sheet, with some villagers surrounding him. Kat thought he was asleep. He was definately dead. Another foreigner's guide told her that the man had been drinking and had fallen off the mountain. I believe it is possible to die from falling down those blasted steps!! Our stay in Ghorepani was nice. The guesthouse was by far the nicest - no bugs!! We met a Finnish couple there and the man was quite interesting, and we learnt alot about the Finnish med school :p
Day 3 was the short hike to Tadapani. The guesthouse here was gross. The shower had dead worms and live leeches in it :S But the company here was quite nice. We met a British girl, and her smiley guide, an American lady and her Tibetan guide (and very fast walking porter), and an Aussie girl and her guide. Most people here trek with guides, because well, they know the area so well. Kat and I had a guide arranged for us via our volunteer program. He was nice at first, but got to be quite annoying by day 4ish. Anyhow, the afternoon in Tadapani was raining, so we played cards with the British girl and her guide. Its quite amusing how no one knows each other's names, we just refer to eachother by their country of orgin. The American lady was over 70 years old, but was doing a 17 day trek! Incredible! She seriously has been to so many countries - I definately want to do the same!! (not the trekking part :p, 6 days is enough for me) We kept on crossing paths with these 3 other groups, during the rest of our trek.
Day 4 was trekto Landruk. Here we saw the villagers butcher a young water buffalo for meat. It was pretty cool! 6 families pitch in to buy the buffalo, and they all share the meat equally. They also all share the workload of killing and butchering the meat. Kat and I spent about 3 hours just watching them! It was like a party/celebration for them. The kids came out, the wives watched and some helped with the cleanup, and the local wine was brought out. They invited us to share wine, but we declined. They also insisted we try the freshly grilled buffalo liver, so Kat and I both had 2 small pieces, not wanting to get ill from anything! It was really good. Oh I should note that we didnt actually see the buffalo get killed, it was already dead by the time we came accross the activity. Landruk was my favourite stop, because it has a community feel to it. And this is where we met the eccentric Irish-Aussie girl and her of Mongolian descent guide. A dog followed the girl down from Gandruk, which is about 1.5 hours away, and she bought it food to eat, and gave it all her leftovers. So from that point it followed her all the way down to the end of the trail.
Day 5 we walked to Dhampus, which was actually pretty flat, which was a nice change. And it was a boring town lol. So Kat and I spent the late afternoon/evening watching the water buffalos walk around.
Day 6 - Today! Finally reached the end of the trail in Phedi! Part of the trail wound around rice paddies, while the rest was down some steep steps. Oh how I hate steps!! Anyhow, caught a bus (that had a seriouisly suicidal driver) back to Pokhara, and here I am now :p
So that is my Nepal trip up to date. And I got kinda bored writing it lol. Kat and I move in with our host family tonight. They live kinda far from both our volunteer placements, so we will be looking into renting bicycles.
Thats All!
Day one was taking a bus from Pokhara to Nayapul, and hiking up to Tikendunga, where we spent the night in a guest house. This one was pretty nice, but its all relative :p Nice means low levels of bugs, bright, and a cleanish bathroom:p Food is really expensive (again, relative) on the trail, because everything has to be carried in either by porters, or by donkeys. I think more often than not it is human porters that are used though.
Day 2 was killer, we hiked up from Tikendunga to Ghorepani. Straight up a gazillion steps. In the rain (this was the rain day). On the way, there was a dead man under a plastic sheet, with some villagers surrounding him. Kat thought he was asleep. He was definately dead. Another foreigner's guide told her that the man had been drinking and had fallen off the mountain. I believe it is possible to die from falling down those blasted steps!! Our stay in Ghorepani was nice. The guesthouse was by far the nicest - no bugs!! We met a Finnish couple there and the man was quite interesting, and we learnt alot about the Finnish med school :p
Day 3 was the short hike to Tadapani. The guesthouse here was gross. The shower had dead worms and live leeches in it :S But the company here was quite nice. We met a British girl, and her smiley guide, an American lady and her Tibetan guide (and very fast walking porter), and an Aussie girl and her guide. Most people here trek with guides, because well, they know the area so well. Kat and I had a guide arranged for us via our volunteer program. He was nice at first, but got to be quite annoying by day 4ish. Anyhow, the afternoon in Tadapani was raining, so we played cards with the British girl and her guide. Its quite amusing how no one knows each other's names, we just refer to eachother by their country of orgin. The American lady was over 70 years old, but was doing a 17 day trek! Incredible! She seriously has been to so many countries - I definately want to do the same!! (not the trekking part :p, 6 days is enough for me) We kept on crossing paths with these 3 other groups, during the rest of our trek.
Day 4 was trekto Landruk. Here we saw the villagers butcher a young water buffalo for meat. It was pretty cool! 6 families pitch in to buy the buffalo, and they all share the meat equally. They also all share the workload of killing and butchering the meat. Kat and I spent about 3 hours just watching them! It was like a party/celebration for them. The kids came out, the wives watched and some helped with the cleanup, and the local wine was brought out. They invited us to share wine, but we declined. They also insisted we try the freshly grilled buffalo liver, so Kat and I both had 2 small pieces, not wanting to get ill from anything! It was really good. Oh I should note that we didnt actually see the buffalo get killed, it was already dead by the time we came accross the activity. Landruk was my favourite stop, because it has a community feel to it. And this is where we met the eccentric Irish-Aussie girl and her of Mongolian descent guide. A dog followed the girl down from Gandruk, which is about 1.5 hours away, and she bought it food to eat, and gave it all her leftovers. So from that point it followed her all the way down to the end of the trail.
Day 5 we walked to Dhampus, which was actually pretty flat, which was a nice change. And it was a boring town lol. So Kat and I spent the late afternoon/evening watching the water buffalos walk around.
Day 6 - Today! Finally reached the end of the trail in Phedi! Part of the trail wound around rice paddies, while the rest was down some steep steps. Oh how I hate steps!! Anyhow, caught a bus (that had a seriouisly suicidal driver) back to Pokhara, and here I am now :p
So that is my Nepal trip up to date. And I got kinda bored writing it lol. Kat and I move in with our host family tonight. They live kinda far from both our volunteer placements, so we will be looking into renting bicycles.
Thats All!
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Darjeeling to Nepal
Last post had our intrepid heroines rendez-vous -ing in the exotic locale of Darjeeling. In this episode of summer travels in far far away land, our heroines are in another country, miles away from home.
Kat and I spent a total of 3 nights in Darjeeling. I managed to get a minor cold during this time. It sucks. We also discovered the wonders of sending laundry out to get done. We tried to do our own laundry in Pelling, but it refused to dry, and as a result we had some pretty nasty smelling laundry by the time we got to Darjeeling. Since Darjeeling has a water shortage, the guest house requests that guests do not do their own laundry to save water. Thus, we sent our laundry out, and it came back smelling fresher than we could have ever imagined!! It was slightly pricey, but worth every penny!! (you would aggree too, if you smelt it prior to being sent away... phew!!!)
Anyhow, back to Darjeeling. We went to the Shree Mahakal Mandir, where there are lots of monkeys about. Mandir means temple. Our guide book warned us of the monkeys. We were very excited to see the monkeys! Kat went up to a mom and baby to take its picture, and she got too close. So she ran away while the monkey hissed. I was busy taking pictures of the prayer flags, and did not notice the monkey coming towards me. So it cornered me and raised its creepy paw and I screamed. Other tourists laughed, and I eventually ran away from that freaking monkey. So that is how Kat got a monkey to attack me. She usually leaves out the part how she was the instigator, and how I was an innocent bystander. Anyhow, these monkeys are vicious. They were chasing other tourists around. There was a guy with a big stick whacking the monkeys that got too close to him. Another monkey also grabbed the hair of a girl, as she walked by it. Kat has this on film. So, if you're ever in Darjeeling, and go to the Shree Mahakal Mandir, avoid the monkeys. And travel in a big group.
Darjeeling was also the site of the almost dog attack. Like most cities here, there are plenty of stray dogs wandering about. Who knows if they have rabies or not. Anyhow, Kat and I woke up about 3amish to catch a jeep upto tiger hill to see the sunrise. Tons of tourists do this, it is seriously a mass exodus out of town. Hundreds of tourists and jeeps leave Darjeeling early early early to head out to tiger hill. Unfortuneatley it was cloudy the day that we went, so there wasnt much to see. It was also very cold, and slightyly amusing to see the Indian tourists so bundled up. Darjeeling must be one of the few places where Indian men walk around with scarves tied around their heads and women's shawls wrapped around them!! It was cold even for Kat and I, so imagine how cold it must feel for someone used to the heat!! Anyhow, about those dogs. We were walking down the deserted street, and suddenly these stupid dogs run up to us and bark ferociously. My instinct is to run (bad). Kat apparently knows how dog's eyes work, so she stays still (cause apparently they can't see you if you dont move?!) So eventually the dogs stop barking and we slowly skulk off. Later on in the day, when the crows are out, the same dogs tried to attack a boy. All a man had to do was pretend to kick them, and they ran off. So maybe thats how the locals avoid dog attacks!!
After Darjeeling, we took a very cramped bus down to Siliguri. This took 5ish hours. There were 15 people in jeep!! From Siliguri, we took another jeep to Panitanki, which is the Indian border town. There we waited FOREVER to exit the country. There was a big group of Bangledashi tourists, and they processed all of them before they got to us. It was hot, and painfully slow. Finally we got our exit stamps, and walked accross the border to Kakarbhitta (Nepalese border town). The guide book says its about 100 m, but its more like 1km. Or it felt like that with the heavy packs and hot hot heat. The bridge that connects Panitanki with Kakarbitta is very nice though, the views are of rice paddies and cows! It took much quicker to get our Nepal visas. We spent the night in Kakarbhitta, because the next day we flew to Kathmandu, via Bhadrapur. We decided to fly, due to my tendency to get carsick. Also, the political situation in the far east isn't great, we hear, so flying may have been a good idea. After experiencing the 7hr busride from Kathmandu to Pokhara, I am very glad that we flew!! We flew Buddha Airlines, which was very nice. The plane carried ~20 people, but looked very new. It even had an open cockpit, so we could see directly into the cockpit and see the piolet and copilet flying!!
We spent 1 night in Kathmandu, before taking the bus to Pokhara. Kathmandu is dirty, dusty, and hectic. But, it has some very nice old temples, that are very much used! It is refreshing to see how life occurs around these temples still, rather than roping them off. We also saw the house of the Royal Kumari, who is a living goddess. She is replaced approx every 8 years, when she reaches the age of 12. We didnt see her though, but maybe we will be lucky enough on our return trip to Kathmandu.
Busride to Pokhara was uneventful. The buses are less comfortable than the shared Jeeps. It was a HOT ride!! I am not made for such hot weather!! Luckily, Pokhara is cooler. There are afternoon thunderstorms, that cool off the air. Today we started our Nepalese lessons. I am not very good, but hopefully with practice I can improve :) I can say 'Mero ghar Canada ho", which means I am from Canada.
We will do some trekking on the weekend, then start our volunteer placements. The reasoning of trecking first, is to avoid the monsoon, which will be starting soon.
Till next time,
D
Kat and I spent a total of 3 nights in Darjeeling. I managed to get a minor cold during this time. It sucks. We also discovered the wonders of sending laundry out to get done. We tried to do our own laundry in Pelling, but it refused to dry, and as a result we had some pretty nasty smelling laundry by the time we got to Darjeeling. Since Darjeeling has a water shortage, the guest house requests that guests do not do their own laundry to save water. Thus, we sent our laundry out, and it came back smelling fresher than we could have ever imagined!! It was slightly pricey, but worth every penny!! (you would aggree too, if you smelt it prior to being sent away... phew!!!)
Anyhow, back to Darjeeling. We went to the Shree Mahakal Mandir, where there are lots of monkeys about. Mandir means temple. Our guide book warned us of the monkeys. We were very excited to see the monkeys! Kat went up to a mom and baby to take its picture, and she got too close. So she ran away while the monkey hissed. I was busy taking pictures of the prayer flags, and did not notice the monkey coming towards me. So it cornered me and raised its creepy paw and I screamed. Other tourists laughed, and I eventually ran away from that freaking monkey. So that is how Kat got a monkey to attack me. She usually leaves out the part how she was the instigator, and how I was an innocent bystander. Anyhow, these monkeys are vicious. They were chasing other tourists around. There was a guy with a big stick whacking the monkeys that got too close to him. Another monkey also grabbed the hair of a girl, as she walked by it. Kat has this on film. So, if you're ever in Darjeeling, and go to the Shree Mahakal Mandir, avoid the monkeys. And travel in a big group.
Darjeeling was also the site of the almost dog attack. Like most cities here, there are plenty of stray dogs wandering about. Who knows if they have rabies or not. Anyhow, Kat and I woke up about 3amish to catch a jeep upto tiger hill to see the sunrise. Tons of tourists do this, it is seriously a mass exodus out of town. Hundreds of tourists and jeeps leave Darjeeling early early early to head out to tiger hill. Unfortuneatley it was cloudy the day that we went, so there wasnt much to see. It was also very cold, and slightyly amusing to see the Indian tourists so bundled up. Darjeeling must be one of the few places where Indian men walk around with scarves tied around their heads and women's shawls wrapped around them!! It was cold even for Kat and I, so imagine how cold it must feel for someone used to the heat!! Anyhow, about those dogs. We were walking down the deserted street, and suddenly these stupid dogs run up to us and bark ferociously. My instinct is to run (bad). Kat apparently knows how dog's eyes work, so she stays still (cause apparently they can't see you if you dont move?!) So eventually the dogs stop barking and we slowly skulk off. Later on in the day, when the crows are out, the same dogs tried to attack a boy. All a man had to do was pretend to kick them, and they ran off. So maybe thats how the locals avoid dog attacks!!
After Darjeeling, we took a very cramped bus down to Siliguri. This took 5ish hours. There were 15 people in jeep!! From Siliguri, we took another jeep to Panitanki, which is the Indian border town. There we waited FOREVER to exit the country. There was a big group of Bangledashi tourists, and they processed all of them before they got to us. It was hot, and painfully slow. Finally we got our exit stamps, and walked accross the border to Kakarbhitta (Nepalese border town). The guide book says its about 100 m, but its more like 1km. Or it felt like that with the heavy packs and hot hot heat. The bridge that connects Panitanki with Kakarbitta is very nice though, the views are of rice paddies and cows! It took much quicker to get our Nepal visas. We spent the night in Kakarbhitta, because the next day we flew to Kathmandu, via Bhadrapur. We decided to fly, due to my tendency to get carsick. Also, the political situation in the far east isn't great, we hear, so flying may have been a good idea. After experiencing the 7hr busride from Kathmandu to Pokhara, I am very glad that we flew!! We flew Buddha Airlines, which was very nice. The plane carried ~20 people, but looked very new. It even had an open cockpit, so we could see directly into the cockpit and see the piolet and copilet flying!!
We spent 1 night in Kathmandu, before taking the bus to Pokhara. Kathmandu is dirty, dusty, and hectic. But, it has some very nice old temples, that are very much used! It is refreshing to see how life occurs around these temples still, rather than roping them off. We also saw the house of the Royal Kumari, who is a living goddess. She is replaced approx every 8 years, when she reaches the age of 12. We didnt see her though, but maybe we will be lucky enough on our return trip to Kathmandu.
Busride to Pokhara was uneventful. The buses are less comfortable than the shared Jeeps. It was a HOT ride!! I am not made for such hot weather!! Luckily, Pokhara is cooler. There are afternoon thunderstorms, that cool off the air. Today we started our Nepalese lessons. I am not very good, but hopefully with practice I can improve :) I can say 'Mero ghar Canada ho", which means I am from Canada.
We will do some trekking on the weekend, then start our volunteer placements. The reasoning of trecking first, is to avoid the monsoon, which will be starting soon.
Till next time,
D
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