Leaving London

This has nothing to do with the story, I just thought I'd add a pretty picture!

As always today we woke up bright and early and walked through the London fog to the airport (only managing to get lost once). Everything went surprisingly smoothly until we got on the air plane… we taxied down the runway, in thick fog, built up speed and just as we were about to lift off the pilot slammed on the brakes and we came to a screeching halt. It turned out that the speedometer was malfunctioning and the sudden stop had caused the brakes to overheat so they had to call the fire brigade. Sure enough several minutes later an ambulance and a fire truck came screeching up along side us. We waited on the tarmac for 3 hours trying to see if they could fix the part then when they decided they couldn't they transferred us to a different plane (another long story), where we waited for another 2 hours. After 5 hours of waiting on the tarmac we were finally in the air. But, the fun was only beginning! The stewardess told us that they would be handing out complimentary free food (which Easy Jet normally doesn’t do because they’re super cheap) and they would pass it out starting from both the front and the back so the people in the middle might not get their first choice. Immediately several of the biggest scariest looking guys came up to the front and started loudly complaining. The stewardess handled it all remarkably well and we continued on our way. Then someone started smoking in the bathroom! Bad idea. The crew had to race back and deal with that. Finally, the plane approached the landing strip and then at the last minute the pilot pulled the plane in a steep angle back up into the sky! What? After the failed landing attempt (during which several people started crying “oh no were going to die!”) we circled around and finally touched down in Marrakech! What a ride! Was I ever glad to be on the ground!

Lovely huh?

Morocco was completely different then what I was expecting.  It was beautiful and the people were so nice, but the terrain is completely desolate. It’s like a combination of the southwest and the deserts of Baja. We walked out of the airport into the blazing sun, I breathed a sigh of relief, finally it was time to put on my T-shirts, shorts and my favorite pair of fake Ray Bans. This was in total contrast to both Nepal and London. We took a taxi into the old town and carried our bags through the winding streets full of motorbikes and scooters until we came to our “Riad” (which means a traditional Moroccan house or palace with an interior garden or courtyard in Arabic). Godwin’s family had already arrived and we had a big get together dinner at a local restaurant. It was a blast to have them along (and a big shout out to you guys if your reading this, thanks a lot, we should do that again sometime!)

We stayed in the wonderful and slightly bizarre city of Marrakech for four days. We had rented out the whole riad so there was nobody else and we got the whole thing to ourselves! It was a great little place and it was far enough from the road that we couldn’t hear the cars and all other manner of vehicles. Actually though there aren’t many cars here in the old town, instead people prefer the smaller and unfortunately louder motor bikes and scooters, which are much better adapted to the small and winding ally’s of Marrakech.

This isn't a picture of where we went, but closely resembles it.

 On our fourth and final night in Marrakech everyone, except for my dad, decided to try out the Hamam (Morocco’s form of Turkish baths). I admit, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect.  I had been to one in Turkey when I was young but it was at a really fancy place and a completely different country. All of us guys walked into the entrance room, that’s when we knew we had a problem, none of us spoke French or Arabic. But thankfully the towel clad attendants somehow managed to understand our crazy hand gestures and they gestured for us to take off our cloths. For a few very confusing moments we stood in the steamy room wearing only our underwear, we looked to one another, not sure what to do. After a couple minuets of this someone came up to us and took us into the inner rooms. The further we went the hotter it got and by the time we reached the last room it felt like we were in the center of a volcano. Over the next half hour or so, we moved from room to room, washing ourselves with both hot and cold water. When we eventually reached the final room they rubbed us raw and sent us to the masseuse. Matthew took the first turn, it started out as a soothing looking massage, but then turned into what looked like torture. When it was my turn I climbed onto the mat prepared for the worst, and it sure was pretty darn bad, it felt like I was being turned into a pretzel! Although I did feel better afterwards I was pretty sore the next day.

A Small nomadic village. 

Probably not the best thing to wear on a plane...

Holi and beyond

Holi:

Geez I can’t believe today is our last full day in Nepal. This time tomorrow, if all goes according to plan we’ll be on the 1:30 flight to Qatar. It’s almost impossible to think that it has already been a month, and I’m actually really sad to leave.  We’ve had some great times here, and it was starting to feel like home.

On a completely different note, Holi was a complete blast! We went over to our friend Nhucche’s house so that my parents could talk about sweaters and business stuff.  Also, they have one of the highest roofs in the whole neighborhood so you can fill water balloons and completely drench everyone from up high. Before I get to into it though, let me give you a brief insight into what Holi is.

Godwin and I after Holi!

Holi (or the festival of colors), is celebrated by Hindu’s in country’s such as India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nepal. Holi is celebrated at the end of the winter season on the last full moon day of the lunar month. Now if you don’t mind I will take a quote out of good ol’ Wikipedia “Originally, it was a festival that commemorated good harvests and the fertile land. In addition to celebrating the coming of spring, Holi has even greater purposes. Hindus believe it is a time of enjoying spring's abundant colors and saying farewell to winter.” But in my opinion it’s just a good excuse to let loose, party, and throw stuff at people. Typically people celebrate it by either filling up plastic bags and/or buckets with water and throwing them at people from either up on rooftops or ground level. 

My friend Godwin and I braved the streets for several hours. Clean people don’t stay clean for long. Almost immediately we were mobbed by a crowd of colorful Nepalis.  We reemerged from the crowd and Godwin and I hardly recognized each other. We were a riot of color! We roamed the streets shouting “Happy Holi!” and throwing colorful powder at people and getting “Holi’d” ourselves.

Ahh so much to do, so little time!

Our friend Ram Karki and his family.

We left Nepal on Saturday, it was really sad as always. Of course all of our friends,  Rams family (and Raji our porter) came to have breakfast with us and see us off, which was very sweet, but very chaotic. We had a great last breakfast at our favorite restaurant called “Pumpernickel” and rushed back to the Tibet Guest house after discovering that our plane was going to leave half an hour earlier than we thought.  It was sad to think that I probably wouldn’t wander these meandering streets again for a long time, most likely not until I finish high school (oh the joys of the public educational system).  It was strange, I wouldn’t have to smell the rubbish filled Baghmati or dodge countless crazy taxi drivers for a while, and for some reason I was sad. But I knew the hardest part would be leaving all these amazing people here, all the amazing smart, strong, crazy and incredibly kind people.

            When the time finally came to get into the van and leave for the airport there was a small crowd of our friends in the lobby of the hotel, everyone was giving us khatas (the Nepali prayer scarves). With a “Namaste!” here and a “see you soon!” there, everyone except Austin climbed into the van and we left behind the good old Tibet guest house which had become our little home away from home for the past month. Waving goodbye to our family away from home, I thought how much I would miss this place, and how I couldn’t wait to return.        

            We flew into the Gatwick airport and took the tube back to our hotel. Unfortunately though it was a Friday night and as I now know, those Brits sure like to party. Before long the subway car was filled with extremely friendly young Londoners. Finally though we had to say goodbye to our new friends and wrestle our way out of the packed car and walk out into the crisp London air and though the enchanting English night.

As always, we woke up bright and early the next morning, had a lovely breakfast of bacon, eggs and tomato and took the # 24 bus to Camden market.  It was a crazy! Next time I have a couple hundred bucks to blow I’m comin here! It was like Pikes-Place Market on steroids! Anything you could possibly want to buy was there.

Pictures!

Trekking to Annapurna Base Camp

On Friday, February 24^th, we took a small plane to Pokhara. It was a beautiful flight in and we could see almost the whole Annapurna range, it was incredible to think that in just a few days we would be up and behind those mountains. It seemed impossibly far away.  I’m writing this after upon our return. It was an amazing and incredible 10 day journey to Annapurna basecamp and back again. It is hard to put words to such a staggering and incredible experience. But after all that’s why I have this blog, so I might as well give it a shot. My goal for this is to share with you the true beauty and amazement I felt during this time, and to give you a glimpse through my eyes and to imagine a different world. This is one of my major goals in writing about my travels.  Here’s the briefest of summaries.

We met up with our porters outside of the Pokhara airport (they had taken the 8 hour bus ride to get here), one was a young man named Rajindra and another a seasoned porter named Santosh. We attained our permits at the Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP) center and then all packed into two small taxis. During our 1 ½ hour taxi ride, our driver played everything from traditional Nepali and Tibetan music, to Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift (how’s that for a culture shock) all while bouncing along roads hardly fit for a land rover, let alone a small city taxi. Eventually we bailed out at a small town called Birithanti… and started walking.

Geez, yet another amazing couple of days. We are now in the Buddha guesthouse in the extremely small town of Bamboo, it’s actually a very nice place for being out in the middle of nowhere and 3 days walk from the nearest road. All supplies that are here have been carried up on the backs of locals, sometimes a hundred kilos at a time. Often we pass these porters on the trail, its amazing to see someone who barely comes up to my ears carrying hundreds of pounds of coca cola, toilet paper, snickers or tanks of Kerosene up the many vertical miles to the next village (mostly in bathroom flip-flops (it was really interesting to see how Coke got progressively more expensive the closer we got to Annapurna Base Camp called ABC). At one point we had just finished hiking up a mountain (which honestly must have been half a mile almost straight up) and as we sat at the top, trying to catch our breath, an old man possibly in his 70’s came up and over the top and briskly continued walking along the trail.  

OK unfortunately I have to get a little more vague now in order to save both my time and yours. It is hard to tell how far we walked those first few days, most likely not all that far. Although nothing, absolutely NOTHING is flat here (especially your mattresses) so it seems like quite a bit further. While it might be just 5 or 6 miles as the crow flies you climb at least another 4-5 or more straight up and/or straight down. On the hike from Jinu to Bamboo on the 3^rd day, we were actually able to look back and see the distance we’d gone, it was immensely gratifying.

In the beginning we would round a bend and a huge ring of mountains would sprawl out before us. But as we walked further and further into the roots of the Himalayas, they no longer reached out in front of us as a distant goal but loomed daunting and fearless above our heads. Huge giants that have been here since the beginning of time, bring down with them a crushing reminder of mans mortality. After almost 5 days of strenuous and sometimes slightly sketchy trekking, we arrived at Annapurna Base Camp (ABC) almost 13,000 ft above sea level. Within the span of less then 5 days we had climbed around 2 miles straight up, you know your getting up there when you can see clouds drifting by your window. I couldn’t believe it, we had finally made it, and it was worth every step.

This is a small quote that I wrote in my journal while sitting among the giants:   “Wow, all I can say is Wow! We are sitting outside among these peeks drinking lemon tea. From where I am sitting I have an almost perfect 360° view of the mountains that surround us. Including Annapurna 1 which is 8,066 Meters tall” (I would like to add here that there are only 14 peaks above 8,000 meters 8 of which are in Nepal.) “It is such a honor to be among these giants, and they are so beautiful that it takes my breath away (although that may be the altitude). The sun paints them a warm glow and the clouds ring their tops like shimmering halos.”

Unfortunately though all good things must come to an end.  It was sad and at the same time immensely gratifying to turn my back walk away from there. I felt as if I was a better person for having come (although that’s not for me to judge) and I felt as if those mountains would always watch over me throughout my whole life, like silent, majestic angels. It only took us around 3 short days, with a lot of downhill,  to get back to Birithanti and then a quickish taxi ride back to Polkara where we spent two days before flying back to Kathmandu.   

It was extremely hard to return to the pollution and hustle and bustle of Kathmandu after the pristine quiet and beauty of the forest and mountains. But all good things must come to an end, and going from one extreme to another makes me realize how lucky we all are to live in a place where nature and humankind come together in a fairly peaceful manner. 

Catching up

Hey guys, sorry I haven't written for a while, we've been super busy and its been hard to get internet. 

Well, were back in London! We met up with Godwin right outside of baggage claim and took the train to Victoria Station. From there we got on the Tube back to the good old Ridgemount Hotel; everything actually went pretty smoothly for once.  We did a little shopping on Oxford Street so we could try and blend in with the London crowd.

 We took another stroll through the British Museum, just covering the highlights. Had some mighty fine fish and chips across the way and hopped on a bus for the War museum.

Now unfortunately we are leaving London, but we’ll be back soon.  We have a 6 hour flight to Qatar and then a 4-hour flight on to Nepal, hopefully they have TV’s!

Well were back in Nepal, for better or worse! It was an interesting flight in, no cows on the runway this time, which was nice. We were met at the airport by some friends and a van sent from the hotel which took us directly to the Tibet Guest House in the heart of Thamel. This would be our home for the next month or so. Watching Godwin’s face as we took our first ride around this interesting city was very entertaining. For someone who has never been in Asia he took it remarkably well.  As we drove by the garbage filled Baghmati River his face remained remarkably calm and only revealed a hint of “oh my goodness what the hell am I doing here”.        

Wow, big day. We’ve only been here a little over 2 days and it already feels like two months. Today we went to ACP (Association of Craft Producers). I always love going there, everyone is so incredibly nice and their products are beautiful. Also the President of ACP a woman named Meera Bhatterai, is one of the smartest people I know. The women who work at ACP have known me since I was 5 months old,  so almost as soon as I walk into the room their all shouting “Babu!” and beckoning me over to sit on their laps.

After a while we left the girls behind and decided to walk back to the hotel instead of taking a taxi, and I’m really glad we did. As much time as I have spent in Nepal it always amazes me how Kathmandu can vary, I love going out of Thamel (the main tourist spot) and walking through the actual city. It is still chaos but it is a different type of chaos. The streets are wider and the shops don’t just sell things for tourists. Instead they sell every day household items. We walked through and discovered a vegetable market, with all the locals bartering over onions and trading gossip. Several friendly goats munched away quietly at garbage in a corner. We walked through Durbar Square where people were selling strings of flowers for Shivaratri and plucked chickens with their necks broken hanging over the stalls.

Godwin and I got several books at a great local bookshop called Pilgrims. The Snow Leopard, Into Thin Air, and Siddhartha have now been added to my list of books to read.

(Who was the genius that decided to put 2 d’s in Wednesday?) Whew what a couple of days, we’ve all been super busy and tomorrow were leaving for the trek, so I’m going to try and get right down to it. Monday was Shivaratri (which means night of Shiva) we met up with Ram and his two son’s, Pradeep and Roshan. We caught a bus heading for Pashpadinath and once we got off we were immediately engulfed by a sea of people. It must have been really interesting for Godwin because he was at least a head taller then most of the people and could see above the crowd. At one point I asked him what was going on up there, he said that along the road in both directions as far as he could see it was packed with people, dogs and cows. Lucky for us we were heading the same way everyone else was.

We must have walked for at least 2 miles, always trying to keep track of each other through the dense crowd. We finally found an entrance that wasn’t jam packed with people and slipped through. We squeezed through a tight walkway with ramshackle huts on each side, and random Sadhus (holy men) passed out everywhere. As we crossed the river the smell of burning flesh filled my nostrils and I forced myself not to gag. As I looked upwind I saw that further along the river where the Ghats where they cremate their dead and then throw the ashes into the river. Between that, the smell of the rubbish filled Baghmati, the smell of hundreds of thousands of people and the smell of 20,000 sadhus getting totally baked it got kind of hard to breathe.

As we were climbing up a hill to get a better look at the festivities people started yelling and running. Not sure quite what was happening, we all looked to each other in confusion, then we all scampered up the walls if nothing else to avoid getting trampled but also to get a better look at what was going on. Unfortunately though we couldn’t see anything through the smoky haze. Later we asked Ram what he thought had happened, he said someone was probably teasing a Sadhu and then got into a fight, after which the police got involved and started hitting everybody in sight.

We finally made it up to the top of a small hill next to the river. From this vantage point we could see the masses of people poring in, and the fires burning the bodies of the dead, the Sadhus lying around surrounded by clouds of smoke and dogs scampering here and there. People dancing in their traditional cloths and some singing songs surrounded by people shouting and crying or sleeping. It was an amazing sight and I wish more people could see it. The beauty of cultures other then their own, and seeing and experiencing thing way it is outside of their own little worlds.

We ended our trip with a lap around a small temple, ringing a bell and got a tika (blessing) from the statue of a lion’s head. Then we walked back through the chaos, said goodbye and parted ways with Ram and his boys, climbed into a taxi and headed off.