Merry Christmas!!!

"Welcome, Christmas, bring your cheer. Cheer to all Whos far and near. Christmas Day is in our grasp, so long as we have hands to clasp. Christmas Day will always be just as long as we have we. Welcome Christmas while we stand, heart to heart, and hand in hand."

- How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Love,
Nouri, Christina and Vanessa

PS just in case you were wondering, yes, we wore santa hats for Christmas morning surfing. They turned out to be suprisingly effective at keeping one's head cool in the water... though they don't stay on too well if you wipe out.

Also, yes, that is a Christmas ficus tree.

Surfin India?

For the last two weeks we’ve been living the dream…Literally and figuratively. Rarely has a day gone by where we don’t nap for several hours! Add to the mix malaria meds and the result is some crazy dreaming. We got ourselves in this situation because we decided southern India is hot, and travelling in the heat sucks, so it would probably be best if we just found someplace nice to settle down for a while. And settle we did. At an ashram. With surfing. And Yoga. And delicious food. Told you we’re living the dream.

We’ve been staying at a Hari Krishna ashram in Mulki, a small town on the Southern coast of Karnataka. We’ll be here until the new year, then we travel around for a few days and fly home. The ashram isn’t like any other ashram, because these guys surf. In fact, they were the first surfers in India and are in the middle of setting up a surfing federation for Indian surfers. There are between 4 and 6 devotees at the ashram at any one time, and anywhere from zero to 10 guests. The devotees cook two meals a day, perform pujas and offerings (to Krishna) several times a day, and then surf and play volleyball and ping pong the rest of the time. They’ve got a pretty sweet set up. But ours is better. Let us take you through a typical day for us:

We get up at about 6am for yoga as the sun comes up… nice way to start the day and we’re all much more bendy than we were 2 weeks ago. After yoga, we chow down on a bit of fruit and some muesli before piling into a tiny zodiac and slowly put-put-ing our way to the break. This nautical commute deserves special mention as anywhere from 4 to 8 boards are piled onto the front of this little inflatable plus the corresponding number of people. As if we didn’t look like a clown car enough at this point, the boat also slowly fills with water from a massive leak and we’re all ankle deep by the time we reach the sand bar across the river. At least we provide the local fishermen with some early morning entertainment. We surf for a few hours (unless the surf is flat, then we do more yoga on the beach, or play soccer, or play a little game we like to call “beach nap”), then load up the clown boat and head back to the ashram. We arrive to a delicious feast, including fresh made juice (some mornings its lemon, sometimes its cantaloupe, but the best is watermelon). After breakfast (which is more like brunch, since its eaten between 11 and 12) we usually nap for a few hours. After our nap we spend the rest of our day reading, playing ping pong, watching movies, playing cards or chess with the ashram boys, or checking out some of the local sights (i.e., ice cream). Occasionally we do work, but that’s a rare occurrence.

The surf here this time of year isn’t amazing (usually less than 4 ft), but the waves are very fun and the water is warm! Apparently the surf gets pretty big here in the peak seasons (around monsoon season), with 8ft hollow waves and the occasional barrel.

We’ve gone on a couple day trips of note. The first trip was up to Udupi, which is a town 40 minutes north of Mulki. As far as we could tell Udupi is famous for three things: its temple complex, which contains 4 or 5 connected temples; an ice cream dessert called Gudbud, which is basically just fruit and ice cream, but for some reason it’s supposed to be better in Udupi, and kettle cooked potato chips, which are also available all over India, but again are inexplicably better in Udupi. Run down on Udupi: The temple was pretty impressive. The main temple room houses one of the most expensive deities in India, which is a gold statue of Krishna. Christina and Vanessa, for the low price of 10 rupees a piece, were also blessed by the temple elephant! The Gudbud was only “ok” according to our ashram friend who came with us. But the chips were amazing.

The second trip was a short trip into Mangalore (which we’ve done several times), but this one was special because we we’re there to celebrate Christina’s birthday! To celebrate we tracked down the Natural Ice Cream Shop… but wait, isn’t Christina lactose intolerant you say? True, however, Natural Ice Cream is made with water buffalo milk which contains far less lactose than cow milk. So as the best birthday treat in existence we brought joy and happiness to the lactose intolerant Christina through the enjoyment of the usually gastrically forbidden ice cream. Other birthday treats we tracked down in Mangalore include Masala Dosa’s (which are delicious and satisfying as they are paper thin but almost half a meter in diameter) and coffee. Back at the ashram we celebrated with a fantastic homemade pizza party (as we are currently living every 12 year old’s dream it seemed fitting). The boys even made a pizza sans cheese for Christina.

Now, we must end this blog, because food is ready and then its nap time…

I'm on a Boat!

T-minus one week until our month of surfing begins, so to kill some time we thought we’d check out Kerala and the famed backwaters (backwaters: noun. The Kerala backwaters are a chain of brackish lagoons and lakes lying parallel to the Arabian Sea coast of Kerala state in southern India). We left Bangalore aboard a night bus, and yes Harry Potter fans, it was EXACTLY like the knight bus in Harry potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. The following morning we arrived in Kerala, one of India’s southern most states. Our starting point was Fort Cochin, an old Colonial town midway down the coast. Fort Cochin was settled by the Portuguese and Dutch (after the locals of course) some 400 years ago, and the architecture and culture of the area reflect this history. Catholicism has a noticeable presence here too, thanks to the Portuguese. Fort Cochin has a number of Catholic churches and religious monuments, including India’s oldest European church (built in 1503). We also met many catholic locals.   

Since we arrived at about 7am, we had the whole day to spend exploring. After checking into one of the heritage homes-turned guest house, we went on a whirlwind tour via auto rickshaw. Our very informative driver took us everywhere from the Dutch palace to the Santa Maria Basilica to the town laundry station (quite literally ALL the laundry for the town is done here, everything is hung to dry in a massive field and they even use a real iron iron…hot embers inside and everything!). He also took us to visit the Water Temple which is where people get married but what was more impressive was that it has its own guard elephants. 

That evening we took a cooking class with the lady who ran the guest house that we were staying in. She taught us to make chapathi and veg curry from scratch…. DEE-lish! Oh and it gets better: in the morning we learned to make “puttu” which are columns of steamed coconut mixed with rice flour  that you mush into banana….. yummers! Side note: one of the best parts about being in the south is that fresh coconut is used for virtually everything! Almost makes up for the relentless mosquitoes….  Don’t worry moms, we take our malaria drugs religiously

That day we left Fort Cochin to spend two nights on a houseboat that looked like it might be owned by Bilbo Baggins. Our vessel’s Hobbit-esque feel was charming… the hobbit sized double bed  equipped with three pillows meant to sleep the three of us was a bit less charming. Not anyone’s fault really; these boats are often taken as a romantic cruise for couples…. Not particularly intended for couple+ Vanessa. Other than the tight sleeping quarters, our float on the backwaters was lovely and the food was unanimously voted the best we’ve had in India so far (see Figure below) and was served to each of us on a Banana leaf. The scenery was also stunning with coconut trees as far as the eye could see as we quietly floated through the spiderweb of inter-connected channels that Kerala is famous for.

After our relaxing vacation (from our vacation) we spent two days in Alleppey where we were finally reunited with the ocean! After a bit of running around in town, we spent our last afternoon in Kerala hanging out at the beach reading, taking in a beautiful sunset and watching a camel go by (yes you read correctly, someone was taking a camel for a stroll on the beach, though camel expert Nouri informed us that it was actually a dromedary. 

That night we hopped on yet another train bound for Mangalore and 4 whole weeks of surfing, yoga and vegetarian food heaven!

Smashing Good Chai!

Before you think India has transformed Nouri and Vanessa into cup smashing jerks, this is actually a common sight in the city. Men sell chai in terra cotta cups intended to be smashed on the roadside after its delicious contents are enjoyed. Naturally we had to try for ourselves....

Colonial Calcutta and the City of Boiling Beans

Ready for warmer weather we boarded a train to visit some friends from the mountaineering course in Calcutta. As you may have guessed from the title of this blog we are keen fans of the train travel (and Wes Anderson for that matter…okay, until this trip none of us had been on a train but we certainly liked the idea). Alarmingly, we almost missed catching our first “big boy train” (the toy train doesn’t fully count..) as all three of us were on waitlist and we couldn’t find any direction on which berth we were supposed to go into once the train arrived. Luckily we all made it onto the train, which was going to travel overnight to Calcutta, unfortunately only 2 of us actually made it off of the waitlist, leaving one of us without a sleeping berth. As a result Christina and Nouri shared a berth (already made for indian sized folk… which Nouri is not by the way) by contorting their bodies in various renditions of the foetal position throughout the night. Needless to say, it was not quite the romanticized version of our first train travel we had conjured in our imagination. 

We arrived in Calcutta at 6 in the morning… way earlier than any establishment that we could loiter in opens. So we found a park with suitable benches and entertained ourselves for several hours eating the most time consuming fruit known to man… the pomegranate. Luckily for us this park was also the popular hangout for the city’s senior citizen crowd, who spend the mornings performing their fitness routines. Highlight of the morning incudes a local senior who chatted us up and performed not only a pretty good cover of “Adelwise” from the sound of music but also rapped us some Frank Zappa songs. Talk about vocal versatility. After a full day of aimless city wandering we met up with our hospitable friends Nikhil and Madhu who cooked us up a delicious Indian feast and treated us to great conversation till the hours of early morn… You heard right Christina stayed awake past midnight (insert gasps here). 

The next day we checked out College street area where one can feast their eyes on more book stalls than seems sustainable in a city of any size. We also rode one of Calcutta’s famous antiquated trams around the city. Once they were off work we met up with Nikhil and Madhu for some dinner great live music. Before our departure Nikhil toured us around the flower market and the Ganges before guiding us to our next train to Bangalore—the city of boiled beans.

Thanks again to Nikhil and Madhu for being such great hosts!

The train to Bangalore was pretty amazing. First of all, as we booked our tickets late, we ended up having to travel first class. Not only that, but all THREE OF US had our own berth! Needless to say we were very excited as we boarded the train, would this ride fulfil our train riding dreams? Not to spoil the suspense, but it definitely did. Our cabin was huge and even had a door. As we set about organizing our bunks one of the servers came in to great us with a flower (yes, Nouri got one too) and bottled water. Off to a good start. After the train departed the server came around taking lunch orders (the two options were: “veg” or “non-veg”). Not only was the food good, but it was plentiful. Our meal started with soup and bread sticks, then came out the actual meal (which was dal and rice!, but it was tasty and accompanied by some other snacks), after a suitable digestion period they even brought out ice cream! We spent a couple hours watching India roll by the window (which meant watching a lot of cows mostly) and napping, after which the server came by to drop off more snacks (which was almost a full sized meal). Again, we passed the next few hours reading, sleeping, and gazing out the window. It doesn’t sound particularly amazing, but keep in mind that sleeping and eating constitutes an almost perfect day for most of us...

And so, after 26 hours of read-eat-sleep-repeat we reached Bangalore at about 4pm at which point we pretty much met up with Arvind, our super friendly couchsurfing host, ate a few dosas and went to bed (ya know, because our train ride was exhausting). Our following day in Bangalore could be described as a vacation from our vacation: Bangalore, being the IT capital of India, is a very large modern city complete with Booster Juice and Levis Jeans outlet stores. So in our days here we got legs waxed (not Nouri), beards trimmed (only Nouri) and ate at a decadent buffet on the thirteenth floor of a building where we were obviously judged for going back for seconds on the dessert round (all three were involved in this one). Oh and we also saw a matinee of TinTin in 3D.

That night we met up with Vishal, Smitha, and Shirley, all friends Nouri and Christina met mountaineering. They took us to get South Indian chat (which are basically Indian tapas) and coffee (which is like any filtered coffee, except it’s made with chickory), and then we checked out one of Bangalore’s many restaurants. 

The next day we were off to Kerala, the neighbouring state, to check out the famed “backwaters” and tour a bit more of the south before heading to our month of surfing. 

Reunited!

After one month of separation the Darjeeling ltd blog team has been reunited! Vanessa survived the long Kathmandu to Darjeeling journey with an escort of a few Israeli travellers and the three of us celebrated with balloons, cookies and chocolate (and hugs…hugs are key). Despite Nouri and Christina spending their loitering days in darjeeling waiting for Vanessa to arrive in fog, rain and general miserable wetness, we were treated to clear views of the Sikkim Himalaya and bluebird skies during Vanessa’s stay. To take advantage of the weather, we took a stroll around the town to some great view points of kanchenchunga (the third highest mountain in the world I’ll have you know), visited a tea estate, the Himalayan mountaineering institute (to show Vanessa, Christina and Nouris home sweet home for the past month) and the Darjeeling zoo (of Red Panda fame… google how cute these guys are and you won’t be disappointed). Oh and we ate. A lot. All sorts of things. Waffles, French toast, chocolates, pasta, banana bread, cookies, veg sizzlers, smootheis, hummus sandwiches… the list goes on. While waiting for several days in Darjeeling for Vanessa to arrive Christina and Nouri took it upon themselves to diligently track down the best food options of the city (before passing judgement sympathize that we ate the same repetitive meal of rice and dal for a month ). 

And now to the exciting part… the train of blogname fame! We spent a sunny afternoon riding the world heritage steam train of the Himalaya railway in darjeeling with permanent smiles of glee plastered upon our faces. In reality, the experience was actually quite slow (had we not been eating so many cookies we probably could have run faster than the speed it travelled) and dirty from all the coal. But as a bonus Christina did convince a reluctant conductor to let her stoke the steam engine!

Month of Mountain Madness

After a horrendous 26 hours of bus/jeeping Christina and I made it up to Darjeeling and the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, our home for 28 days. Brief overview: Christina and I took a mountaineering course at HMI. The course lasted for 28 days, with 18 of those days being our "expedition". What was the course like you ask? Well, let me tell you...

We arrived to HMI, which is literally in a zoo, the night before the course started. The campus is quite large, and to access it you walk through Darjeeling's Himalayan Zoo, which is home to Red Pandas, Bengal Tigers, Clouded Leopards, and lots of other Himalayan animals. The campus has two artificial rock walls (indoor and outdoors), a hostel, a dinning hall, a "movie" theatre (where they show rock climbing movies from the 70s), accommodations for all the staff and sherpas (yah, they continuously employ a fleet of sherpas), and (inexplicably) dozens of defunct kayaks. The first night was very exciting, as we got to meet all of our co-mountaineers, and most importantly to us, found out our culinary plan of the next month. Turns out our first meal was a very good predictor of every other meal: dahl, rice, sabji (some form of curried veg), and chapati. The food was pretty good, but we could tell we'd be very sick of it very soon. The people, fortunately, we did not tire of, as we managed to make some great friends very quickly.

The first day was equally exciting, as we soon discovered we had joined the Indian army! Not really, but it felt like it, as we were expected to "fall in" (meaning line up in order and stand at attention) frequently, address everyone as sir, and BE ON TIME FOR THINGS! We also discovered that when HMI's website said "instruction in Hindi and English" what they meant was instruction in either Hindi or English, not both. So we had to get some very kind Hindi speakers to translate many of the lectures for us.

For the first week we were based out of HMI. We spent each morning doing PT (physical training) which either meant running and yoga, or practice hiking. We would then practice climbing and rappelling until lunch. After lunch was everyone's favorite: hours of lectures! Particularly boring for us when they were in Hindi...

After the "theory" section of the course came the "practical" part. We left our cozy little zoo for the mountains of West Sikkim. To get there took one day of driving and four days of trekking. The trek was gorgeous, but our bags were very heavy and the terrain steep. The average bag weight was probably 20 kilos (we know because we weighed them...). Christina and I enjoyed the trek, but many of the people found it tough beyond enjoyment. This was probably the most physically demanding thing many of them have done. Lots of the Indian trainees were from the south, which has lots of trekking, but none of it particularly hilly. When we arrived at base camp many people collapsed on their beds (as soon as they had set them up that is). Base camp was a pretty impressive sight. It is located at the base of the Singalia and Sangri ranges, and is about 4500m above sea level. The camp has two barraks, one for guys and one for girls, a dining shack, a kitchen, and many other random buildings. It must have taken a lot of yaks to get all that wood up there!

We had 12 days at base camp, so we got to know it well. Every day we either hiked 3 hours to the glacier for ice climbing, crevasse rescue, glacier travel, or ice rappelling practice, or stayed at base camp and went bouldering, practiced rappelling without a harness, went jumaring, or learned medical stuff (like building a stretcher out of climbing rope). The 12 days were tough, as we were in very close quarters and had minimal amenities, but we survived the cold and enjoyed the 2 weeks. The journey from HMI to the base camp took 5 days -- but somehow the return trip only took 2...Needless to stay it was an exhausting journey!

Once we arrived at HMI we spent 4 days doing very little. We had a day of competitions: climbing and cross country running. Neither Christina nor I took it very seriously (we didn't think it was worth blowing out our knees running down steep pavement), but Christina managed to win bronze medals in both events! Go Canada go! We also practice our graduation routine 4 times, which was extremely excessive considering there were no guests besides our instructors. As a nerdy bonus we did get to wear matching jumpers for our graduation ceremony!

The days following we awaited Vanessa's arrival by drinking copious amounts of tea, eating bengali sweets and all forms of food that didn't contain dal and rice. Our plans once reunited include brief visits in Kolkata, Bangalore and Kerala before heading for a month of surfing and yoga in Karnataka! We are definitely excited to find some warm weather in the south!

Nouri (and Christina)

Banepa Banepa Banepa Banepa: Volunteering at the Hospital for Rehabilitation of Disabled Children (HRDC)

So, for the past month I have been volunteering at HRDC, The Hospital for Rehabilitation of Disabled Children. The hospital is located in the city of Banepa which is approx 30Km outside Kathmandu... which also translates into 1-2 hrs on a packed local bus with a kid hanging off the side yelling "BANEPA BANEPA BANEPA BANEPA" the whole time. The other volunteers (3-4 of us) lived in the home of and with the family of Damu, one of the physiotherapists at HRDC. As volunteers we are quite international, coming from Austria, Germany, Switzerland, France, Australia (and Canada obviously). The hospital is situated on a hill about the size of Mt. Doug and overlooks Banepa... and on a clear day offers a stunning view of the Langtang Himalaya range. Its a really nice facility receiving most funding from international sponsors. This support allows for a really cool set up: although many kids treated here come from poor villages, they are treated regardless of whether or not the child's parents can pay the fee. This includes treatment that range from major surgeries to prostheses to physiotherapy treatment. If unable to pay, parents give what they can and the rest is fronted by the hospital. From what I understand, this is the only hospital in Nepal where this is possible... Cool hey?

Most of the cases here are clubfoot, stiff elbow (improperly healed fractures that are mobilized under anesthesia), cerebral palsy and burn patients... but there are loads of cases each day that we just wouldn't see at home. To be honest, the first few days were tough as I knew it would be but I don't think there's any way to prepare yourself to witness kids in so much pain. These are without a doubt the bravest kids I've ever met in my whole life. While many of them have a family member staying with them, some are alone and others spend more than five months in the hospital. As volunteers, we typically follow the doctors, nurses and physios through the morning ward rounds. After, we usually watch and learn from the physios doing out-patient assessments or follow ups, or we work with in-patients doing range of motion exercises and stretching/strengthening. Physios here have a double role, acting as both physiotherapists and ortho techs so we also had many opportunities to help with plaster cast applications and removals. Needless to say, the language barrier occasionally posed as a challenge; while all of the docs and physios spoke english beautifully, there was a range in the english abilities of the kids. They got a kick out of teaching us to speak Nepali though, so we soon learned the essentials... at least for describing strength and flexibility exercises and for ordering tea. We still relied heavily on charades.... and due to this I think our primary roll was as entertainers.

This month hasn't been all work and no play however (though even our "work" often ended up being just goofing around with the kids). We had a few days off for Tihar, the festival of light. For this occation, we spent a few days back in Kathmandu to take in the craziness of a celebration that to us resembled halloween, Christmas and New Years all rolled into one. Windows and doorways were lit with candles and "Christmas lights" and Marigold garlands while kids go from business to business singing until they're given a few rupees.

So before I mentioned the "stunning view of the Langtang Himalaya range" but you better take note I specified "on a clear day".... for my first three weeks in Banepa, there were no such days. However, the weather FINALLY cooperated durring my last week and for those three days I think my most frequently used word was "wow". Taking advantage of the good weather we took an hour bus ride to Namo Buddha where the Thrangu Tashi Yangtse Monastery is located. Namo Buddha is a sacred pilgrimage site because it is where, according to Buddhist tradition, Buddha gave his life to feed a starving tigress and her cubs. We stayed in the monastery guest house which meant we ate our meals with the monks and, thanks to a very kind monk called Lhakpa who showed us around, we were also allowed to sit in on a 4 hour puja (this is when the monks sit chanting and make offerings of sound and food). It was an incredible experience. The sound of the conch, the horns, the drums and the bells are intoxicating as is the sound of the Tibetan chants. Again, luck was on our side as durring this time the monks were preparing for a festival where Thrangu Rinpoche would be visiting. Though we had to leave before his arrival, we still got to watch the full Lama Dancing dress rehearsal.... did I mention this was an incredible experience?

Now sadly both my time at HRDC and in Nepal have come to an end, and I will greatly miss everyone Ive met this past month. Its bittersweet though; I am beyond excited to meet up with Christina and Nouri in Darjeeling!

Goodbye Nepal, I hope we meet again one day!

Vanessa

PS for more info on HRDC pleas visit: http://www.hrdcnepal.org/
and for more info on Namo Buddha please visit: http://www.namo-buddha.org

e

Rhinos, Tigers, and Sloth Bears, Oh My!

We all made it to Chitwan in one piece on a non-eventful bus ride
while still going over the mechanics of 90 degree kayak rolls in our
heads. Chitwan is real deal jungle... hot and humid with plenty of
mosquitoes to go around. After finding a place to stay, it dawned on us
that it was Thanksgiving and that required some form of celebration.
As we walked to our dinner destination, we spied a rhino and stopped
on the street to watch a convoy of elephants and their trainer go by.
We clanked long island iced teas and ate Indian food while watching
the sun go down over the river and Chitwan National park. Slightly
unconventional thanksgiving but so it goes.

The next day was packed with shamelessly touristy activities for all.
We started the day with a canoe ride down the river that divides the
park from the town. From the dugout canoe we saw a multitude of birds
including egrets and stunning kingfishers... as well as a few
crocodiles. Following our paddle, we stepped into the jungle with our
guide, who chose this moment to inform us about the high mortality
rate of wild elephant encounters, sloth bears that go for the face or
genitals and charging rhinos. We followed him on a 2 hour tramp
through the greenery and saw nothing but red cotton bugs and bear
poop. Not gonna lie, after his introductory speech, we were slightly
relived.

Next we waded into that same river we had spotted crocodiles in to
clamber aboard a submerged elephant. The pachyderm proceeded to rise and
shower us with its trunk whilst we squealed in delight. Of all the
whimsical activities one can conjure up, this must take the cake. It
was particularly amazing the observe the relationship between the
trainer and this huge creature; elephants and their trainers remain
partners for the whole of the elephant's life.

We barely had time for lunch before our next elephant encounter: a
jungle safari from the back of a giant. Its surprisingly peaceful and
quite to cruise through the jungle on the back of such a massive
animal. This time, we saw some huge spotted dear, a few monkeys and
some peacocks.

That evening as we went to dinner on our last sweaty night in Chitwan,
we were enthralled with another glimpse of the same rhino as the first
night, hanging out near the park boundary. A local informed us that he
is old and as a solitary creature, will no longer venture deep into
the 932 square km park. We bade farewell to hot and sticky Chitwan and
hopped on the bus for Kathmandu to spend our last few days together
before we head our separate ways: Nouri and Christina destined for the
mountains of Darjeeling while Vanessa will remain in Nepal for a
volunteering stint with a physiotherapist. And what better way to say
good bye for now than with Gorkha and Nepali cover bands playing Guns
and Roses?

Kayak Video

Check us out on the MASSIVE whitewater! No bails!

Roll, Roll, Roll Your Boat...

Good news: we all survived 4 days of white water kayaking! Better yet, we all learned how to Eskimo roll, so we can now add that to our extreme sport CVs. Day one was a training day in the lake (Fewa Tal, near Pokhara) learning the basics on flat water before jumping into the whitewater. We started off with some paddle strokes (much harder to go straight in a whitewater kayak than an ocean kayak apparently...) then moved on to several rescue techniques. Finally, we spent the majority of the afternoon learning the roll! To learn we started off half submerged with our ears full of water while the instructors tried to tell us what to do. Only problem was we couldn't hear them...so it took us a while to figure things out. Our instructors were great, but relentless. After one (usually failed) roll attempt we were immediately flung back under water for a second, then third, then fourth attempt. After several minutes we realized we may have inadvertently signed up for a water boarding punishment, not white water kayaking. Miraculously, though, we all got the roll! Apparently there are many types of eskimo rolls: the guitar roll, the 90 degree roll, the hand roll, helicopter roll, avacado roll...ok the last one is actually a sushi roll, but you get the idea. We started with the guitar roll, which is substantially easier than all the others. But by the end of our 4 days we had all gotten the 90 down too.

Day two was the actual start of our whitewater trip. We drove a couple hours out of Pokhara to the Lower Seti river. Once we arrived we all helped carry the gear down to the river. But before we could hop in, some Nepalese reporters came down to see what we were up to. We're not sure if this was something pre arranged, or if they just spotted the boats from the road, but they ended up taking down our names to include in their article. Vanessa they thought was named Banana (which became her nickname for the rest of the trip), they wrote Christina's name down as Krishna, they got the fourth member of our group's name correct, but that's only because his name (Guy) means Cow in Nepali, we're pretty sure they had no idea what Nouri's name was. After that we got right into the water, and proceeded to scream our way down the first section of river. We spent most of the first day stopping at pre-set locations to practice various maneuvers, such as eddying in and out, rolling in still water, rolling in the current, crossing the main current, and paddling upstream. By the end of the day we were all exhausted from both adrenaline and exertion. Fortunately, our guides whipped up an amazing meal in no time. Before we had even gotten out of our kayaks they had made us a huge vat of popcorn and had boiled water for tea. For dinner we had delicious spaghetti and curry. This was luxury camping at its finest!

The third day (second on river) was a bit tougher than the previous day, but we were also a bit more comfortable on the water. We had one large rapid (a 3-, for those keeping score) that managed to kick 3 of us out of our boats. Fortunately, our guides were quick to the rescue and we all made it out unscathed. That night we had another feast (past with alfredo sauce and french fries!) followed by a Nepalese dance and song performance provided by some local kids. When we say provided by the locals we mean they sort of sang for a while, then would periodically drag us up to dance in front of the fire. Every time we'd get tired some other kid would come out of the crowd, drag us all up again, and try to teach us his dance moves. Eventually we decided it would probably be less work if we just stayed up there the whole time, and we spent the next hour dancing a combination of our butchered Nepali dancing and our own Canadian dance moves. These moves included, but were not limited to: the Macarana, the robot, the moonwalk, and that Greek wedding dance you see in the movies. The Greek one was really popular, we didn't have the heart to tell them it wasn't really the proper dance. Exhausted, we eventually convinced them to wind it down so we could get some sleep. What party animals we are!

The last day was probably the most exciting. We only went for a half day, but we managed to cram 7 rapids into that time. We arrived at our final spot around lunch, helped pack things up, ate some lunch, then jumped on a very hot bus headed towards our next destination: Chitwan National Park.

Stay tuned for more on Chitwan (Rhinos, Tigers, and [Sloth] Bears, oh my!).

Up and over.... see ya on the other side!

We left Thurong Phedi at 6:30 am, giving ourselves plenty of time for "the pass".... other trekkers had left as early as 3 am! It was still snowing slightly when we left, though hardly any stuck. The first part was a steep climb to High Camp (4900 m) , during which we had our frozen fingers crossed that the clouds would lift and treat us to a eyefull of the concealed Himalayas. It was a tough climb but since we were more acclimatized than when we had ventured up to Tilicho Lake, it didn't seem so bad. After warming up for a bit, we left High Camp and continued on. Finally the clouds opened up and our winded and numb-nosed efforts were rewarded with some stunning views. We finally reached the highest point of our trek: Thurong La (the pass) at 5416 m above sea level. It was windy and bloody cold so we huddled in the small tea house at top drinking hot tea, thawing our hands and devouring celebratory oreo cookies.

Although technically speaking, it was "all down hill from here", it was another 4 hours of rocky steep down hill for a loss of 1700m of elevation before we could take our boots off. The landscape reminded us of mars... a windy rocky landscape with no life in site... aside from ourselves, a few other trekkers and of course the donkey trains. After a few hours of down down down we came to a plateau from which we could see a green oasis nestled in the valley below. It actually looked too good to be true.... like some hallucinatory side effect of the altitude. Actually it was the city Muktinath but bathed in the afternoon light with lush trees and brightly dressed inhabitants, it was more like utopia to us... espcially after 9 hours of hiking.

We spent the next day exploring the town and keeping our feet boot-free. The temple of Muktinath is an extremly holy place and so there is a constant stream of pilgrims from India flowing through the streets. They go there to bathe in the healing waters of a a sacred stream.

The next day we left Muktinath and headed for Kagbeni. Instead of taking the road, we opted for a route that took us through part of the Upper Mustang that until recently was restricted. The scenery has once again drastically changed and we found ourselves trekking through a vast desert. We descended past a Gompa and through a cavern to the city of Kagbeni. One can only describe Kagbeni as " a medieval town on Mars that is over run by baby cows. We refer to the environment as "Mars" alot. Thats because it really looks like Mars. They also have "Yak Donalds".

From Kagbeni we headed for Marpha. The trek itself was mostly on the road now which is slightly disappointing, especially as jeeps whizz by sending dust into your eyes, nose mouth ears.... everywhere. We stopped in Jomsom to see for ourselves the hotel where Jimi Hendrix allegedly stayed. We had some tea and took pictures of the door to room 6. but when they wanted $100 just to open the door we silently apologized to Jimi and made our exit. Rumor has it, inside he carved " If I don't see you in this life, ill see you in the next. Dont be late". From Jomsom we carried on to Marpha... the fruit capital of Nepal!! Our first night there we went to a place reccomended in the Lonely planet bible. LP states this place has excellent home made dried fruit, apple juice and good conversation. There we met Bhakti, the owner, who lived up to all three claims to fame. He invited us back the next night for a tour of his orchard and to try some apple brandy. Apple products we consumed within 48hrs in Marpha include:  apple cider, apple brandy, apple juice, apple chips, apple crisp and apple pie and apple pancakes. Hell, we even ate some plain old apples too.... Dee lish! We loved his dried fruit so much we bought as much as we could carry.

We left Marpha the next day. We did so sadly; Marpha was our favorite town so far ... not to mention the place we stayed had the best Dal Bhat so for AND kittens. Next we walked (still on road, unfortunately) to Larjung with hopes of hiking the the base of the Dhaliguiri Ice fall. However, Christina's tempermental stomach thwarted that plan and forced her to take a bed day. That evening, after three hours of waiting roadside, we caught a bus to Ghasa. It should be noted the bus rides are adventures on their own. They're gaudy and loud it the best kind of way, with tassels hanging from the ceiling which is already painted and designed so that it looks likes something from antiques road show. The horns all sound an obnoxious melody and are used to communicate with other busses, let the entire town know they've arrived and to make cows get off the road. And in these decorated tin cans they cram people and occasionally livestock into every square inch and blare Indian music (as loud as possible.... sensing a theme here?). Oh and then the tin can goes 4x4ing. Its the most fun you can ever have on a bus. Unless your claustrophobic, germaphobic, agoraphobic, Alektorophobic or get motion sickness.

We spent all of yesterday on buses matching the description above. When we finally made it back to Pokhara we had one mission: Beer and Pizza. And gellato.


We're hanging out in Pokhara the next few days before starting our river kayaking course.... until then some much needed R&R.

Later!

The trek continues...

Well rested and with countless chess games  (Nouri still yet to win a game) behind us from our rest day in Manang we set out for our side foray to Tilicho Lake (the highest lake in the world!). Although only planning to head to Khangasar after a awesome meal that we hung out with the cook as she made out meal over the wood fire we pushed on to the town of Shree Karka (which turned out to be a building rather than a town per say). The next day we headed for the Tilcho base camp. We lucked out with awesome weather to complement a bizzare but beautiful landscape ( Think Lord of The Rings Mordor.... on Mars...  in the small town Anakien was raised in from Star Wars). Several sketchy scree slopes later we arrived at base camp famished. Unfortunately we continued to be famished after lunch as well .... turns out vegetables are hard to come by at 4100m. Which translates into curry= wisps of cabbage in luke warm fluid. As we are all self admitted food lovers, tears nearly ensued until we were able to fill our selves with replacement dumplings to ease the panic hungry.  Taking advantage of the bluebird skies we spent the afternoon basking like turtles in the sun, reading and taking in some great peak views of Khangasar Khan. We were even treated to a yak caravan coming down the valley (complete with baby yaks!).  After a long, cold night at the base camp lodge (it was almost like...gasp... real camping) we set off early for the lake.Within the first hour we were treated to a great photoshoot with some blue sheep frolicking about! Turns out 1000m elevation gain hurts a little more at above 4000m. With Nouri and Vanessa coming down with some form of illness we set a relaxing pace- which made more time to savour the awesome views.  The alitude didn't treat Vanessa to kindly, in good news this resulted in some great sibling photos of me checking to make sure she was still having an okay time breathing. Mountains, rivers, sisterly love--these photos would make the selection comittee of Hallmark cards heart melt. Finally we made it up the lake for some awesome views and our highest elevation thusfar on the trip (5010m). With one of the longest day of the trip we made it all the way back to Shree Karaka.

Over the next several days we made our way over to Thoroung Phedi, the jumping off point to tackle to pass! Within this span Vanessa and Nouri got increasingly sick, so we scheduled another rest day in Yak Kharka (read more chess). We also met a man from Georgia who had spent significant amounts of time in jail and been on jeopordy. He was an excellent conversationalist.

Read the next post for more details on the last leg of the trek.

Cheers!

The Trek!

Hello again!

Twenty-two days later and we are back in Pokhara, sitting in the same internet café as our last update. What follows is a heralding account of the first third of our trek. Read on to hear the gruesome details. Spoilers: no one dies or is seriously injured; we are all still friends (two of us are still sisters in fact, you’ll have to figure out which two); and we all still like Nepal! One of us does have a rash, however.

September 11^th, 6am and we are off! Or so we thought…turns out the roads were closed so we actually only made it to the end of the bus depot before someone came running up to alert us that no, the bus was not leaving. The apology given by the driver was sincere, and accompanied by “this is Nepal,” a fairly common phrase we’ve heard.  We returned the next day to better luck, as we made it to Besi Sahar, the start of our trek. From there we had two options: walk along the road or take a bus. The sane option was to walk for three hours; we chose to bus instead. Best bus ride ever. Crammed full of people (all Nepali except us) and gear, we rolled over the ridiculous terrain (including rivers) and around knife-edge corners with “ease.” I don’t know how much the driver was being paid, but he definitely earned every rupee. After the bus we walked to our first night stop, a tiny village called Ngadi. We ended up staying at a guest house with 7 other random travelers we met on the way. The owner of the house was thrilled. Ten meals of Dal Baht! He struck gold, especially for the off season. The accommodation was rustic (probably the most basic of the whole trek), but the food was great and the service excellent.

The next day we moved on to Chir Chaur, which was about a 5 hour hike through muggy jungle. Turns out Nepal is much hotter than we had anticipated. We felt a bit ridiculous lugging around our down jackets, merino tops, and warm gloves! We hoped it would pay off (spoiler: it did), as all that gear was heavy. The trip took a bit longer than expected, as we kept stopping to take pictures of endless waterfalls, bridges, plants, and animals. We even attempted to photograph some butterflies, but without success. Fast fact: Nepal has over 500 species of butterflies, 200 of which can be found in the Annapurna Conservation Area. Now you know…

When we arrived at our destination we quickly found a suitable hotel (questions we’d ask the house managers: do you have hot water, good food, and clean rooms?) and then threw off our boots. Vanessa had a nice blister; Christina had at least two in the beginning stages (spoiler: Nouri escaped the whole trek blister free!). This was going to be a long few weeks!

The next few days were more of the same trekking wise: lots of amazing jungle and great views. Oh yeah, NO MOUNTAINS! Turns out Nepal is having a very late wet season, which means our trek so far was only giving us views of white fluffy clouds, but no peaks. But don’t worry, people assured us, once you get to Manang you enter the “dry Tibetan region of Nepal” (to quote the guide book). Guess what? We arrived in Manang to a nice dusting of rain. Dry region for sure! Although the Manang area did bring us into what we all agreed was terrain very similar to Montana, although none of us have ever been to Montana. At any rate, over the span of about 4 hours we went from jungle to sparce trees and dessert. Clearly it is dry hear sometimes, just not now. Manang itself was a charming little village, and is the first real settlement of the trek. There are about 200 homes, a number of shops, the Himalayan Rescue Association headquarters, and TWO MOVIE THEATRES! Ok, so the movie theatres are really just projector halls, but still, pretty impressive for 3500m above sea level. We had all agreed that one rest day was in order, so we spent the next day lounging around our hotel, walking around town, and checking out a movie at the cinema. The movie place was quite cool actually. Its in someone’s basement and includes about 6 rows of benches covered in yak pelts. The owner will play set movies at night and will let you run a private screening during the day, if you can chase him down in town that is. He also brings you a cup of the sugariest tea you’ll ever have and a small bag of popcorn.

After our rest day we did an acclimatization hike up to the nearby glacier. We went up to 4000m (highest point yet!) to a lovely view of the bottom of the glacier and a massive ceiling of clouds. Clearly Manang wasn’t going to offer us many amazing views, but we were able to get some glimpses later that night from our hotel. No views from our hike, but we did get one cool sight: our first yak! Turns out after Manang yaks become as common as people, more so in certain areas, but we were still pretty excited at our find. 

Thus concludes our retailing of the first bit of our trek. Read the next couple posts for more juicy details.