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.