The Ugly, the Bad, and the Good

We're back from the Annapurna Base Camp trek! We survived 12 days of hiking in the completely, absolutely, totally breathtaking (in more ways than one) Himalayas and lived to tell the tale! We started in Nayapool, an hour from Pokhara, and hiked up to Ghorepani and saw all of the mountains from Poon Hill (a hill at an elevation of 3200m is somehow a "hill" here!) Then we walked further up to the Annapurna Base Camp, where we were surrounded by the mountains. They completley surrounded us. Each peak, from Annapurna I to Machhupuchhre, can't be taken in all at once; I had to blink. To see the range, I would have had to turn my head all the way around, Poltergeist-style. Each snow-capped peak was amazing on its own; the range was completely stunning. I won't give you a blow-by-blow account of everything; instead, I'll tell you what I liked and didn't like along the way.

The Ugly

I hated this part: the leeches. Yes, I said leeches. Bloodsuckers, whatever you call them, they're horrible, and guess what? They're here! In Canada I'm accustomed to the ones that live in murky, still lakes and swampy marsh areas. If you avoid those, you're good to go. In Nepal, there are ALSO leeches that live in trees and on leaves and grass along the hiking paths in the jungles of the Himalayas. BG got leeched twice -- both times in his shoe. We couldn't figure out how a leech would get into his sock to the bottom of his foot, but then I saw one of the nasty bastards working its way into a shoelace eye. Then our guide told us that they can squeeze into the fabric of a sock as well, the buggers. We met a man that had two leeches in his shirt from when they fell from the trees, and countless other trekkers had blood spots on their socks, shoes, and shirts as we met them along the way. It became a sort of trekker greeting: "Did you meet the leeches? Be careful of the leeches!"

They were actually only really bad in one section of the trek on the seventh day. I was prepared for them. I tied my shoes tight, put on my wide-brimmed hat, and basically ran through the forest while praying: "Deliver us from evil. Deliver us from evil. Deliver us from evil." Tsering, the super-Sherpa guide, walked ahead of me, and noting my terror, swatted the creatures from leaves and branches as he saw them, and then did a complete and total leech-check of my feet and ankles when we stopped.

I remain, happily, an un-leeched trekker.

The Bad

Even though this is technically the post-monsoon/dry season, it still rained seven or eight days out of the eleven we were trekking. Most of the time it rained only once we were done walking for the day, or lightly, but one day we got trapped in a torrential downpour in the forest with nowhere to go but up. One other day, it rained from 3:00 am to 1:00 pm, so that became our designated rest day. The rain left the terrain wet, muddy, slippery, and leechy (see above for reference.)

The other climate-induced difficulty is that it gets damn cold on the mountain once the sun goes down. I would be sizzling during the day, stripped down to a likely-inappropriately worn tank top, only to have to pile on hat, mitts, fleece, and even long johns before heading to dinner. I thought I would never warm up.

The Good

This is considered a moderate trek, and honestly, we saw a great many older trekkers while we were on our way to Annapurna Base Camp. I kept thinking to myself that if THEY could do it, I could do it too, even though I was dead tired and absolutely dripping with sweat. Our legs killed us for the first six days, and my ass is still deciding if it hates me or not. I hated the work at the time, but now I love it. How else could I have gotten sixty hours of uphill stair climbing in ten days? And I said ten. Somehow, even when we were coming down from Annapurna Base Camp at 4200m, we still had to climb up. Go figure.

The guest houses and lodges that we stayed at were actually decent. They were basic, and the walls were simply a sheet of wood paneling between our room and the next, but they were clean and had hot showers and great food. I have a new appreciation for a warm stomach full of fresh mountain rice, lentils, and potatoes, even though the price of the meal is tied directly to the elevation you're at. Hey, someone had to carry the lentils up the mountain! On Thanksgiving Monday we ordered pumpkin soup in celebration of our little Canadian holiday; moments after we placed our order, the lodge owner ran past us with a big knife... and moments after that, she ran back past us with a pumpkin tucked neatly under her arm. Needless to say, the soup was delicious, but I decided after that to stick to a vegetarian eating style for fear of what would happen to the chickens!

Our guide and porter, Tsering and Lhukpa, are brothers, and as I suspected, they are Sherpa. Both are incredibly strong and fast; they ran up and down the hills with full sized backpacks on and still had energy in the evenings to take care of our every need. BG had a bit of a scare one day and slipped off the trail and partway down into the jungle foliage below, but Lhukpa, this scrap of an 18-year-old who stands no taller than 5'4", reached down and pulled him back up on the trail -- and he still had on our backpack and all of our gear. They taught us a smidge of Nepalese and an even tinier smidge of the Sherpa language, but taught us tons about treating others well and "paying it forward."

Almost all of the local Nepali people and foreign travellers that we met along the way were a delight to be with. They were friendly, warm, and generous, and we are looking forward to staying in contact with many of them in the future.

And the best part of all: the view.

*this image is not ours, as uploading is still a pain, but it's almost as good as what we've got. Hah.*

Sherpa With a Cell Phone

OK, I lied. We found the Internet, or rather, it found us. We arrived in Pokhara a few hours ago, only 150km from Kathmandu, but 7 hours by bus! It was a winding, bumpy ride through the foothills of the Himalayas. Through the smog and diesel fumes we could see lush green jungle-like areas, terraced rice fields, fruit trees, and -- mountains. Because there was no way I could read anything on the bus ride, I spent a lot of time staring out the window, alone with my thoughts -- such compelling things as, "I wonder who invented tables? Do all cultures use tables to eat? Why do chairs in all parts of the world all look the same?" See? Deep. The only thing that could tear me from this train of thought was the stench from the truck full of buffalo and goat carcasses that we got stuck behind... twice.

Our trek really does begin tomorrow, so as of today this is really really REALLY my last post for a while, I swear! Our trekking guide, Tsering, is really nice. He seems quite young, but is very experienced. He's been trekking in the Himalayas since 1995 as a porter or guide, and proudly told us that he was part of the team in 1996 that filmed the IMAX film documenting a summit attempt on Everest. He pointed out that he made it as far up as the Hillary Step (the part of the climb that's really difficult and has thwarted many a summit attempt) without oxygen -- quite the feat. His brother has summitted Everest seven times, so it's safe to say that the mountains are in his blood. I believe he is a Sherpa. He is not at all an example of what I picture a Sherpa to be. Instead of a man in roughly woven clothing and a yak wool hat, I find a sleekly groomed young man with a modern spiky hair cut, blue jeans, a WWE t-shirt, and a cell phone more modern than the one I have at home. It's kind of embarrassing, really. This is why I travel -- to learn about what the world is truly like, and to delete the stereotypes that exist in my mind.

Oh! One more thing. We went to the Garden of Dreams in Kathmandu yesterday and spent the whole afternoon basking in its gorgeousness. We hung out on the manicured, terraced lawn, wandered the landscaped paths, and admired the trees, flowers, and fruit that grow amongst the fountains, Greek-styled buildings, and ornate gates. Every time I looked up there was something new to see. It was built in the 1920s but fell into disrepair over the years, and was recently renovated and opened again in 2006. It is, in my opinion, the very best thing to see in all of Kathmandu. I never imagined such a beautiful place could ever exist, and I will have the pictures up to prove it -- soon.

One Foot Goes in Front of the Other

I was hoping to have pictures to put up by now, and we do, but it seems that uploading them is going to be a monumental task. The interweb is s-l-o-w in Nepal, and uploading is even slower if possible at all (which we haven't found it to be yet.) So you're just going to have to take my word for it when I say that the sights are amazing.

Our travel plans are more or less worked out for the next month or so. Toorrow, we are leaving for a twelve-day trek of the Annapurna Sanctuary. We will be hiking up to the Annapurna Base Camp, up to a maximum elevation of 4200m, through jungle-y places and over the tree line and into the snowy elevations of the Annapurnas! We'll stay in tea houses and guest lodges along the way.

After that we return to Kathmandu for a day or so, then catch a flight to Lhasa, Tibet! We're going to Tibet and will even visit Everest Base Camp by Land Cruiser. That's at an elevation of over 5000m, so wish us luck!

FYI: Our current Chinese tourist visa is going to be cancelled because you can't hold a Tibet visa concurrently with a valid Chinese visa. We will have to get new visas for China before we go there. That's $60 down the drain.

This, of course, means that we will be unreachable for the next month or so. The few days between the trek and Tibet tour we will do our best to be online to let everyone know that we're safe and to recount the hilarity and insanity that is bound to occur. Actually, we've been online every day since we got here, so a bit of disconnect might not be bad for us (or our wallets.)

See you on the other side!!!

When Can I Stop Holding my Breath?

We're on the other side of the world right now. The flight from Toronto to Delhi was the most pleasant trans-atlantic flight either of us has ever experienced -- mad props to Jet Airways for the excellent food, service, and comfortable ride(nb, though, Shrek III is very very bad.) We slept for hours and arrived in Delhi rested and ready for our 12-hour layover! Yay!

The layover more than made up for the ride, though -- there was no place to rest, and as we had arrived at 11:00 pm local time, the urge to sleep arrived in a crashing way after a few hours of restless walking and twitching. We dozed, sideways, in chairs, and were introduced to some lovely Nepalese locals who gave us travel tips and let us hold an adorable baby. Then we tried to have "breakfast". I chose a vegetarian sandwich, and to my dismay realized that the vegetarian filling was a slice of brown bread... in between slices of white bread. For $2.

We got into a fight with a tooth-sucking, eye rolling, insolent Jet Airways employee who refused to give us his name when asked when we called him on his terrible manners... props get taken away from Jet Airways for this fool! The flight to Kathmandu was short, thank goodness, because it was about 300% less comfortable than the trans-Atlantic crossing had been.

After a long wait in line at the Kathmandu airport, we wrestled our way into the bus waiting to take us to our hotel, and realized we had truly arrived in Nepal. The streets of Kathmandu are crowded and dusty and full of bikes, scooters, vans, taxis, people, and... cows. I can't believe the small spaces that drivers can pass their vehicles through. I swear that our taxi yesterday made it through an opening smaller than the width of the van -- I'm not sure how, but it happened.

On arrival, we had a lukewarm shower, made friends with the cockroach living in our bathroom (BG introduced him to the sole of his sport sandal,) and slept, and slept, and slept some more. Then we got up, wandered around Thamel (this area of Kathmandu, and clearly the tourist part,) and slept some more. This morning we are bright eyed, and if we're bushy-tailed, it's only because we're constantly on terror alert from the car horns and vehicles passing our tourist butts by with millimetres to spare. I wish I could describe the cityscape, but I can't. We can see the mountains in the distance, and the town is a spider-web of cobblestones and paved streets with shops, restaurants, and internet cafes packed in sideways and on top of each other. Men on bicycles are selling fresh fruit in big baskets, children are rushing side to side and dodging the stray dogs that wander about, and every other Nepali local that approaches us is selling either Tiger Balm or sandalwood flutes.

This city reminds me of other cities I've visited in the past, like Stone Town in Zanzibar, Tanzania, and it's very exciting, but I'd be lying if I didn't say that I'm still a bit scared and sad. In the past I've been able to adjust by saying that life will be normal again in a few weeks -- I'll brush my teeth with tap water and be able to wear makeup without it melting off. This time I'm facing the reality that this is the reality for a very. long. time.

At least the coffee is good. Mmmmmmm, coffee.