Pokhara, Bandipur, Nepal just keeps getting better!

So after our trek we went out to Pokhara to relax by the lake for a couple of days...we rented a row boat with a few other tourists and set off across the lake...it was a tough paddle across as the other guys in the boat had never paddled before and didn't quite understand how it worked (Lou, you would've left these guys in the middle of the inlet...)...we climbed the hill on the far side of the lake up to a Japanese world peace pagoda, our third of this trip, and one of 100 planned for around the world...The trip back was even more of an adventure as a storm was closing in on us and we were battling the waves with basically only me with a single paddle (paddle is a bit of a stretch...heavy piece of wood with a bit of plywood at the end...) struggling to push a giant wooden boat against the waves...Brie was actually a much better help than these strongly muscled guys...
Our second day we went to the mountain museum which was interesting...we learned about the 14 mountains that are over 8,000 meters and later that day the sky cleared and we saw Annapurna 1, one of those 14!
We went to Bandipur the next day which is one of our favourite places in the world! It is perched on a hill, overlooking fertile farmsing valleys on either side...we stayed in a traditional old house converted into a hostel...it was an amazing building...and then we started talking to the family that ran it and they were an amazing family! The mom couldn't speak much English but she was very kind, the daughter spoke great English and stayed up with us playing Uno after Brie helped her with her homework, and the grandmother who didn't speak any English somehow managed to be the jokester! The Aunt came in and grabbed Brie and brought her up stairs and dressed her in a Nepali Sari--and then we had a photo shoot, complete with tika (red dot on the forehead) and fake flowers! The aunt even gave Brie all the bangles that she had tried on! The family was so generous...they were always giving us the most fragrant flowers and sent us off in the morning with bananas!
The town itself was amazing too--no cars(as is the case with most of my fav cities around the world!) and a wonderful town square surrounded by ancient building with beautifully carved wooden windows...we walked around town enjoying the architecture and the views then hiked up the hill on the far side for even better views...The next day we decided to hike down the hill to the main highway so that we could pass Nepal's biggest cave...it was all down hill so we though it would be no problem in our Keen sandals...the only problem was that we forgot about all the leeches that have shown up for the monsoon! I took of my shoes at one point and picked off 8 leeches and another time 5 more! There was blood gushing from my toe where a big sucker had cut me open...Brie escaped fairly unscathed although she had to pick off a couple as well...I picked off the majority while standing on a giant rock and the blood was gushing out of my toe so we decided to do a little sacrifice and ask for no more leeches! We left our flowers and our banana peels in a pattern around the blood and it may have worked because we had no more leeches (although that also could have been the bug spray that we put on or the much dryer ground...) We eventually got to the cave and went in--it was very interesting...from a fairly small opening in opens up to a 60 meter high cavern...we explored all the nooks and crannies with the help of a local guide and Brie shrieked a little as the bats swooped overhead...we walked down to the highway, jumped on a bus and came back to Kathmandu...
We walked around town yesterday and then up to the monkey temple today--Kathmandu is FULL of ancient  statues and temples and the architecture is amazing...we love this city...
Unfortunately, the buses and taxis went on strike today and we left both of our day trips to the end...we will still walk to Pashupatinath and Boudda if we have too but Bhaktapur is out if we can't get a bus...and getting to the airport will be a bit more interesting...oh well, all part of the adventure!
We fly from KTM to Delhi on the 21st and then from Delhi home at midnight on the 22nd so we will see you all soon!
This will probably be it...can't wait for salads at home...bye for now!

We're Back!

We made it!

But first to fill you in on what went on before trekking...which mostly involved a lot of traveling...

After leaving Varanasi, we set off for the border which involved a train, which was late, and took longer than expected, a bus, which got stuck in a traffic jam for 45 mins in 39 degree weather with 80%humidity and people on top of us dripping sweat onto us, and then another bus which didn't leave for over an hour in the scorching heat...all together, 14 hours of travel and litres of sweat lost!

Our last memory of India is a lovely Indian man, telling us Indian money is illegal in Nepal and that it would be taken from us and then pointing us to his friends store which had a HORRIBLE exchange rate...(large Indian bills are illegal to use in Nepal but not illegal to possess)...Our first memory of  Nepal is the tourism officials giving us an exchange rate that is BETTER than the actual rate with no service charge!

Lumbini was lovely! We rented bikes and rode around Buddha's birthplace and all of the buddhist temples that have been built there...we got to the far end and ended up getting stuck in torrential monsoon rains but it was still fun...

The next day saw more crazy travel...taking the local bus from Lumbini to Kathmandu..halfway into the trip we heard a big smash and looked up to see that the windshield was smashed...we quickly turned around and chased down another bus...apparently, someone had thrown something out of the window from the oncoming bus! Both buses emptied and after a lot of arguing we turned around again and continued along...not sure how they resolved it...needless to say it was late again...14 hours later we were in Kathmandu!


We spent a day sorting out all of our passes and buses to get to the park and the next day we set off for Langtang national park...it is 117 km away from Kathmandu but the bus managed to take 11 hours...we did have to get off at one point and walk half an hour across a landslide and then get on another bus...this bus ride was reminiscent of the trip to Leh in some parts...they had recently cleared another landslide but the road was just huge rocks that the bus would sway across...Brie was at the window and as we tipped towards the cliff with no guard rail she screamed(she says she pulled a Kim in the boat on the way to hot springs cove!) and the Nepali's laughed! It was actually incredibly frightening in parts where the road was no wider than the bus and perched on a fresh landslide which could shift at any time...it was so frightening that we were forced to shell out $100 to book a jeep home, rather than risk it on the dodgy $3 bus...tough call, but looking back, the roads were in even worse condition on the way home with recent rains causing new landslides and making parts of the road nearly impassable mud slicks, so we are happy about our decision...

We were a little shaken from the journey but the next morning we awoke to sunshine and set out on our 5 day trek...without a guide, we quickly got lost within 5 minutes of setting out, a common theme of our journey...but after climbing 800 metres up then returning to the river, we climbed the proper 800 meters up to our first stop in Gatlang--an amazing town...it was like going back in time...wooden plows pulled behind cows, everyone is reliant on farming...it has been preserved remarkably well and it was such a treat to be the only "whities" in the town...Our next day brought us through rice patties and up terraced corn fields...an exhausting day but our wonderful reward in Tatopani was a community run hotsprings! Such a treat after a long hike... The next day took us to our peak, 3200 metres(twice Golden Ears!), which was a beautiful plateau absolutely full of wild flowers! And then down, through a tropical forest...the clouds settled over us at this point and walking through the trees with moss hanging and low fog felt like walking through a fantasy tale...We ended up in the village of Thuman...Someone had given us a solar powered light before we left to leave in one of the villages and we picked Thuman due to how remote it was...we were not sure how to pick where it would be used the most but we decided that a family would use it a ton...not to mention the houses are stitched together in 3-5 house blocks so we figured it would be shared between many...we picked a woman on the bank who was watching 7 or 8 kids and walked over to give it to her...she didn't speak much English but she understood enough and was so excited for the lantern! She quickly invited us into her house and started making tea! It was so neat to be able to experience authentic Nepali culture in this way although we were a little confused about the tea...we saw her crack an egg into it...and then a handful of white powder...no tea bag in sight...hmmm... she churned it in a big wooden tube, then into a 20 year old thermos that needed a good cleaning, then into our cups...we nearly vomited after our first sip! It is traditional Tibetan tea...which isn't really tea as far as I am concerned...rather, it is hot water with salt, egg and butter...a great way to replenish electrolytes in the hills but vile to taste...the worst part is that it would be rude to not ask for seconds...so we choked down 2 glasses(Erin you owe us for this!)  and then told them we couldn't have more because we had to get going...It tasted like sea water, with a rotten egg and moldy thermos...yuck! That day we set off for Timure, our last stop! We found a good guest house with an extremely animated Nepali host--it was fun to listen to all of his stories! On our last day we walked up to the Tibetan border to check it out...although we stayed back so as to not offend any Chinese border guards who may be sensitive about Westerners coming up to the border...and then we walked back to Shyaphru Besi...Overall, it was 5 AMAZING days of exceptional valley views (with the odd snow capped peak in the morning) and traditional Nepali culture...Not meeting other tourists along the way made it even more special as the villages felt undisturbed...a far cry from some of the tourist hot spots along the more popular treks in high season...Thanks for the suggestion Kristy, it was absolutely amazing!

And that brings us to today! Back in Kathmandu for the night...we head out to Pokhara at 7am tomorrow morning...

Crazy to think we have less than 2 weeks left! Time has flown by--see you all soon!

PS. We are craving so many different foods from home! Fresh veggies and FRUIT and meat and cheese and milk and on and on!

It's off to trekking we go...

Hi all,
   Just a quick note to say that we are leaving early tomorrow morning to do our trek. We are doing the Tamang Heritage trail in the Langtang park. We will be gone for 8 days or so! We will post when we get back and organized and rested. So if you don't hear from us for 9 or 10 days no worries.
   P.s. We are SUPER sad that we didn't come into Nepal earlier... It has been spectacular so far and we do not have enough days to do everything that we want to do here... There are so many things we wish we didn't do in India so we could spend more time in this wonderful country!
   Chat soon,
Love us,
Brie and Taylor
xoxo

Delhi-Agra-Varanasi and beyond!

Hey all,

We are just in the middle of our whirlwind week...

We flew into Delhi from Leh on the 28th which was much more relaxing than that crazy drive we are still trying to forget...Delhi redeemed itself a bit during the day...we took the brand new metro line(built for the commonwealth games) to the train station...It was so weird to go from the airport (also newly renovated for the games) and the metro, which are new and sparkling, to the filthy dirty, smells like feces and rotting garbage train station! Anyways, after waiting through a huge queue we finally got our trains sorted with only a minor inconvenience of a short bus ride in between...as we were walking down the streets of Delhi wasting time waiting for our train we thought--Wow, that worked out remarkably well for India, wonder what is going to go wrong--to start, our train to Agra was over an hour late (fairly typical of the trains here) but it meant we were going to get into Agra around midnight...then we read through our book and realized that the Taj Mahal, the ONLY reason we were going to Agra, was closed on Friday and we would be arriving Thursday midnight and leaving Friday evening--meaning we would not get to go into the Taj...then the train was delayed en route another hour which meant we got into Agra after 1AM...by the time we found reasonable accommodation, which entails going to and negotiating with several different guest houses, it was after 2AM...Since we couldn't go into the Taj we decided we should wake up for sunset to see it at its finest so we were up after 3 hours sleep at 5AM... after waiting for an hour we realized that the sun was not going to set through the fog and pollution of the morning...Although we still enjoyed being up at that time, with the city quiet except for the scampering feet of monkeys on tin roofs! And the Taj was still magnificent to look at, even from afar...we went back to bed for a few hours and then met up with our tuk-tuk driver from the previous night who was actually amazingly kind, which is surprising for a tuk-tuk driver(notorious for scamming tourists!) He drove us around giving us a guided tour of Agra--first to the park across the river from the Taj for an excellent Taj view, then to the baby Taj, a monument that looks very similar to the actual Taj but on a smaller scale, then to another Tomb, that is falling into disrepair, but was once covered with brilliant blue tiles (mom, you would've liked this one!) then around Agra fort, which we were too cheap to actually enter! We ended up having a really great day and we got to see the streets and some of the lesser known places of Agra--and the Taj seemed that much more imposing and special having not been allowed in...Our driver even helped us figure out our bus to get to our train to come here, to Varanasi! The train station in Tundla was fairly small, and I have a great picture of a typical Indian scene--newish electronic train schedule board on crumbling stone wall with a massive cow inside the station!

And now here, Varanasi...we arrived around 7AM and it was already stifling hot...walking through the narrow streets with our massive bags on drained every once of water out of us...we were quickly soaked and parched and in need of accommodation and luckily, without too much hassle (by Indian standards), we found a reasonable place with a peak-a-boo view down an alley of the Ganges and a rooftop restaurant with a panoramic view of the Ganges! Unfortunately, having arrived here in the middle of the monsoon, we quickly found out that the two things that everyone does when they come to Varanasi, take a boat down the Ganges and walk along the steps of the Ghats, would be impossible for us due to a swollen river that was flooding the steps and running too fast for safe row-boat navigation (I know, when has anyone in India ever cared about safety when they can make money! But apparently the orders came straight from the government and everyone is obeying...for now...)
Our fisrt day here we relaxed and tried to cool down for most of the day...we thought it was hot up north but it was nothing...up north it was a hot August day in BC, high 20's to low 30's and dry...now that we are back down here we have been really struggling...it is high 30's and the humidity is unbelievable...we are soaked from morning till...well the next morning! We actually never stop sweating! We spend most of midday in our room, with as few clothes on as possible, laying under our fan!(we haven't caved and paid for an AC room yet, though I do fantasize about them occasionally!)
The evening of the first day we went to a Hindu ceremony at one of the Ghats about 20 mins away from us...I got a red line painted down my forehead upon arrival from someone searching for donations...we refused to pay to go out in a boat and so we may have missed a bit of the ceremony but it was wonderful to just sit ont he steps and watch all of the people come down to the water, pray, take a dip or even drink the water (yuck! The Ganges is very sacred to Hindu's and they are meant to bathe and/or drink from it--but it is ridiculously polluted--there are 116 cities on the Ganges, not one of which has a sewer treatment plant--the safe level of fecal choliform bacteria in bathing water is 500 per some fluid measurement...the ganges has 1.5 million! Not to mention all of the dead bodies that are dumped into it! Varanasi is a very sacred place to die, and if you die here or are transported here after death, you will have your body bathed in the Ganges, then cremated on the shore at one of the burning Ghats in an open fire, and then have your ashes dumped in the Ganges...unless you are a child under ten, a pregnant woman, a sadu(holy man), you died from a white cobra bite, or you are an animal, in which case you are dumped directly into the Ganges without burning...) We were able to witness both the cremation process and the ceremony of a boat, full of chanting people, go out into the Ganges and dump a body overboard... Both seemed very strange...it was weird to see bodies put on a fire although many people in Canada undergo the same process....I guess it is just the public spectacle of something that we tend to keep private and unknown...at the same time, it felt like a more personal approach, with the family being present to mourn the body all the way through...
Our second day here, today, was another fairly calm day...we went on a walking tour with an old man from our guest house and he explained a bit about the Hindu religion while showing us some of the temples around the old town...it was a good way to see Varanasi as the streets are so convoluted and confusing that we are easily lost when alone....

Varanasi...
Narrow, 3 to 6 foot streets, crumbling 3+ story buildings on either side...
Uneven bricks or paving stones or dirt...
Motorcycles, scooters, bicycles squeezing past...
Piles of garbage, cow, dog, rat, human? feces and urine...
Dead rats, dead cockroaches, dead dogs...
Cows with ribs and hips jutting out, dogs with skin falling off, blocking the way...
Dogs growling, cows mooing, horns beeping, people yelling...
Substances unknown, squishing under your feet, flip-flopping up the back of your leg...
Putrid, rotten smells, beyond belief, wafting through...
Garbage, feces, food, rotting, burning stench...
These are the streets, these are the sights, these are the sounds and these are the smells...

Enjoyable none-the-less!

We are leaving here early tomorrow morning...train to Gorakhpur then bus to the Nepali border...then, hopefully, if time allows, to Lumbini, birthplace of the Buddha...then on to Kathmandu the next day to meet the Irish couple for our trek--the Tamang Heritage trail! We will once again be away from internet for a bit as we transit but hopefully we will update once before our 5 day trek...

We are missing everyone and thinking about home--about my family reunion this weekend--fantasizing about soda bread with butter and cheese! I hope it went well without us!

Bye for now,
Taylor and Brie

Part 4: Leaving Leh

Tomorrow we leave Leh and we will be sad to go, although we are excited to get on with our journey and to get to a place where walking uphill is not such a chore! We fly out about midday to Delhi and from there we are hoping to go to Agra for a day for a fly by Taj Mahal sighting before heading to the spiritual center of Varanassi and then finally up to Nepal! We didn't manage any trekking in Leh thanks to our various illnesses but we have a trek planned for the day after we arrive in Kathmandu with our Irish friends we met back in McLeod Ganj...

If you don't hear from us for a few days it is because we are just too busy with a hectic schedule to find internet...we are trying to squeeze in a lot these next few days as we are anxious to get up to Nepal for the second half of our journey!

Part 3: Drama in the Diner (in Leh!)

Two nights ago, we were enjoying another lovely meal at our local restaurant, around the corner from our hotel—they serve the BEST paneer butter masala and excellent roti and naan! We were just finsihing up, when a French man around 60 years old came in screaming and pushing himself into the waiter's face...we couldn't make much out because his english was very poor, but we later realized he was saying 'where is my girl?' before switching to French and beratting the poor waiter...when the waiter said 'I don't know' the french man ripped the menu out of his hands, threw it on the ground, smashed his hands on the table, yelled in french again, then grabbed the waiter and threw him across the room—the waiter smashed into the door but with the french man yelling 'find her' he quickly ran off down the street...We were very confused about what was going on...it looked as if this man was having a psychotic break—he was infuriated, he was irrational—when the waiter returned with no results, the french man picked up two glasses, smashed one on the ground and held the other up threateningly...at this point I got up and grabbed his arm and told him 'don't do this...this restaurant cannot afford to buy new glasses' at which point he held the glass at me and yelled at me in french...we eventually talked to some friendly and helpful Indians beside us that were able to translate what was happening...apparently this man's 17 year old daughter had struck up a friendship with one of the waiters at this restaurant and this night, she had gone off with him and the father could not find her—I began to understand how he was feeling—his daughter was lost in a strange land in which he could not communicate to find her (he spoke VERY limited english and the waiters and owners had broken english at best...) but still, his behaviour was unacceptable...finally, we convinced him—if you are really worried, go tell the police because no one here knows where your daughter is...Well the police take crimes against foreigners very seriously and soon there were a half dozen cops outside the restaurant, they chatted with the man before coming in—4 of them went into the kitchen while two stood outside gaurding the curtain over the doorway and all we could hear were loud words in Ladakhi and the sound of sticks on flesh—they were beating information out of people who had no information to give...The nice Indian man tried to tell the police that this French man had abused two waiters, borken a glass, a menu and a triplicate bill pad and disrupted this business causing lost revenue over the dinner rush but the police did not care—if a foreigner complains then it supercedes all else—the sad truth of 'justice' in third world countries, especially those reliant on tourism dollars...about 10 minutes after the police arrived the missing daughter returned with the waiter—he had been showing her around town, exactly what we tried to tell the french man while he was going beserk...the man and his wife tried to hug the daughter but when she realized what was going on she pushed them away, crying, and grabbing on to the waiter to protect him from the police—the parents eventually grabbed her and dragged her back to their hotel and the man was put into the back of the police car and taken away...what justice...this waiter, who is here from Darjeeling (on the other side of the country) to work during the busy tourism season, is taken to jail, probably beaten, possibly jailed and certainly fired from his job—the sole reason he came to this place—simply for taking a willing foriegner around town and being on the wrong side of her father's fury which quickly morphed, via the colour of his skin, to being on the wrong side of the law...

Part 2: Lovely Leh!

On the evening of the second day, we struggled to drag ourselves out of bed and climb up to a viewpoint of the city to see the sunset—and wow, what a city it is! As I said before, Leh is at 3500 metres above sea level—it is in a desert plateau but the valley is irrigated thanks to the surrounding mountains—5, 6 and 7,000 metre Himalayan peaks that fill the sky in every direction. There are stupas, gompas and forts clinging to the hills...The city is placed in the nicest surroundings of any city I have ever been to—it is simply amazing (another great opportunity to google image search—Leh, India). The last few days have been filled with walking around Leh and taking in its beauty—through rural, stoned walled paths, cutting between farm houses, up to the Japanese Peace Stupa and to Leh palace and Tsemo fort, perched high on the hills above the town. This town is once again filled with Buddhist Monks and Tibetan people and has a much clamer atmosphere than the towns further south...Leh easily makes my top 5 cities and has redeemed itself for the hellish journey up here...

Yesterday, we went to a village called Stok, just under an hour bus ride away...it is a lovely rural town, much smaller than Leh...we walked through the streets and enjoyed the quiet that abandoned farm roads bring...we climbed another hill to a stupa for more breathtaking views over the valley and visited the Palace to learn about the dynasty that once ruled these parts...being such a rural community, there was no return bus until 6pm and we had seen all we came to see by 3ish so we quickly grabbed a bite (our choice of omlette, chapati or instant noodles! I had the first two, Brie had the latter) and we decided to walk! We ended up walking halfway to Leh, the first hour and a half a pleasant downhill stroll through beautiful farmland with a babling brook by our side, the last half an hour, through the not-yet irrigated desert, with a howling wind nearly blowing us sideways...but we finally made it to the main road and hopped a van back to Leh.