Right, we will cntinue with the posts about our time in the hills soon. They are quite special memories so it will take a bit of time holed up in the manky Internet cafe so bear with us.
We'll just quickly update you with what we've been up to in Kathmandu, just because we know the parents like to be in the know ;)
On Sunday we just crashed. The result of an uncomfortable overnight bus and 3 days trekking. Our only real achievement was dropping off our disgusting sweaty clothes which after 3 weeks, had developed a disgustingly inhumane smell. Pleased to report that we got it all back today and they are smelling ffffrrreeessshhh. They won't have to evacuate the plane as soon as we step on board. Caught up with the wider world. Didn't miss much really. Queen is still alive. We still live in a democracy. Andy Murray failed to win a slam.
That evening we went to "the comfort zone", a Korean style restuarany which was kind of an inside/outside loft. They had incredible frozen cocktails. And acoustic Nepalese music. It was good.
Today, after a hot(!) shower (!) in our bathroom with a sit down toilet. (this is the thing we appreciated most when we returned, and a huge breakfast, we starts our day of hardcre sightseeing. Started at monkey temple where there were so many tourists. We have been usEd to being the only westerners within 100 miles for 3 weeks, so it felt weird that people WERENT staring at us. There are far more tourists in Kathmandu than when we left, because the monsoon is now tapering out so much less rain and more sun (30 degrees!). We the headed to boudhanath, another Buddhist stupa which is one of the biggest in the world and incredibly impressive. We walked round 3 times with our incredible guide petemba, who skillfully switched from mountainguide to tourist guide in a few days. We filled up on our new favourite mono, befOre heading back to thamel for another stupa. We visited 324 in total, as there are 107 extra small stupas at each site, as 108 is an auspicious number in Buddhism.
Now utilising the free wifi at our new favourite restaurant,"or2k" where we ordered far too much food, sat on cushions on the floor and drank more cocktails. Sorry mum!
Mad shopping planned tomorow, plus trying to find somewhere to make us some clothes.
Miss you all,
Vikki (and millie, who is eating!)
XXXXXXX
Monday 13 September 2010
Sunday 12 September 2010
The Trek to Yaphu
Day 1
The first day involved a full day of walking all the way down to the river and then all the way back up the other side via Tumlingtar (where we could have flown to in 45 minutes from Kathmandu if the airport had been open!) After a brief mirinda and daal bhaat takari stop in Tumlingtar, we continued our uphill struggle up to Khandbari, the capital of the Sankwasaba district. We spent most of the day trying to juggle our walking poles whilst greating all the children with the traditional Namaste (palms together!)Now we felt like proper hardcore trekkers, but we were put to shame by the entire Nepalese community who overtook us every step of the way, wearing flip flops and carrying huge bags of rice, while we were sweaty blobs pulling ourselves along with our fingertips, despite our snazzy poles, boots and miniscule (even non existent) backpacks. It was embarassing.
Day 2
After a night in a hotel, during which our main evening activity was watching the lizards crawl around the ceiling, praying they wouldn´t fall in our mouths as we slept. The second day of walking involved a very very long uphill climb in the blazing sun. (although, yet again we were overtaken by 4 year old school children in flip flops carrying their bags on their heads). We stopped for lunch in a small shop at the edge of Khandbari and took full advantage of ´having a long rest´ by laying on one of the beds. Vikki fell asleep and soon the whole nepalese family had gathered around to take a look. Arriving at the top of the hill on the way to Angala we were allowed another lovely long rest. We weren´t exactly looking at our most attractive at this point but a group of nepalese women thought it would be a great time to take photos and videos of us on their phones and then show them to us. Confirming our fears about how disgusting we looked. (Thankfully even Petemba, Dipendra, the health centre doctor and our porter were also looking fairly hot and tired which was slightly comforting! We then had a short 25 minute trot down the mountain to Angala where we were greated with hot Nepalese tea, put up our leaky tent and got a good nights sleep.
Day 3
The day we had been dreading. We had been promised that it would be a difficult day, so you can imagine that we were really excited...
It probably would´ve been fine (or at least easier) had it not been absolutely boiling. We started with a long climb down, then crossed a rather dubious bridge before climbing all the way back up again. Thankfully, we´d been told this would take over 4 hours but we managed to do it in 2.5. Arrived in Yaphu, we were greated by a lovely crowd of people outside the Khenpalung Health Centre (funded by Nepal in Need) and given garlands of flowers and some pepsi and biscuits which was nice suprise at the end of the long day!
xxx
The first day involved a full day of walking all the way down to the river and then all the way back up the other side via Tumlingtar (where we could have flown to in 45 minutes from Kathmandu if the airport had been open!) After a brief mirinda and daal bhaat takari stop in Tumlingtar, we continued our uphill struggle up to Khandbari, the capital of the Sankwasaba district. We spent most of the day trying to juggle our walking poles whilst greating all the children with the traditional Namaste (palms together!)Now we felt like proper hardcore trekkers, but we were put to shame by the entire Nepalese community who overtook us every step of the way, wearing flip flops and carrying huge bags of rice, while we were sweaty blobs pulling ourselves along with our fingertips, despite our snazzy poles, boots and miniscule (even non existent) backpacks. It was embarassing.
Day 2
After a night in a hotel, during which our main evening activity was watching the lizards crawl around the ceiling, praying they wouldn´t fall in our mouths as we slept. The second day of walking involved a very very long uphill climb in the blazing sun. (although, yet again we were overtaken by 4 year old school children in flip flops carrying their bags on their heads). We stopped for lunch in a small shop at the edge of Khandbari and took full advantage of ´having a long rest´ by laying on one of the beds. Vikki fell asleep and soon the whole nepalese family had gathered around to take a look. Arriving at the top of the hill on the way to Angala we were allowed another lovely long rest. We weren´t exactly looking at our most attractive at this point but a group of nepalese women thought it would be a great time to take photos and videos of us on their phones and then show them to us. Confirming our fears about how disgusting we looked. (Thankfully even Petemba, Dipendra, the health centre doctor and our porter were also looking fairly hot and tired which was slightly comforting! We then had a short 25 minute trot down the mountain to Angala where we were greated with hot Nepalese tea, put up our leaky tent and got a good nights sleep.
Day 3
The day we had been dreading. We had been promised that it would be a difficult day, so you can imagine that we were really excited...
It probably would´ve been fine (or at least easier) had it not been absolutely boiling. We started with a long climb down, then crossed a rather dubious bridge before climbing all the way back up again. Thankfully, we´d been told this would take over 4 hours but we managed to do it in 2.5. Arrived in Yaphu, we were greated by a lovely crowd of people outside the Khenpalung Health Centre (funded by Nepal in Need) and given garlands of flowers and some pepsi and biscuits which was nice suprise at the end of the long day!
xxx
The Bus Journey
The long journey up to Yaphu began at the completely incomprehensible Kathmandu Bus Terminal. There are no numbers on the buses, or signs to tell you where the several thousand buses will be heading that day. People seemingly pile onto these buses and off they go to some unknown destination. If we had gone alone, we´d probably still we wandering around now or having found ourselves on the 5 day non'stop express bus to Tibet. Thankfully, we had our Sherpa guide Petemba with us. Keep close behind we wove our way through the crowds to our ´VIP' seats he had booked for us on our night bus to Dharan. VIP is one way to describe them. Cramped and with nothing stopping you flying through the windscreen is another. But they were still miles better then the other seats! When the bus finally left it´s bay, it took us another 2 hours just to leave Kathmandu as we seemed to have to stop at every junction to allow small children to flog us the same crisps and water they´d tried to flog us half an hour previously.
This was not our first experience on Nepalese roads, so we sort of knew what to expect. Road rules in Nepal are loosly followed at best. Our bus driver seemed to think that it was quite alright to overtake 10 lorries at once on a blind bend with a cliff beneath us as long as he beeped his horn very loudly first. Apparently the nepalese also drive on the left hand side of the road. Pretty sure our driver spent most of the journey not on this side. But we arrived safely (if not a little shaken) in Dharan the next morning after numerous lengthy stops to repair the bus, eat or just have a chat. We were then quickly pushed onto a local bus, now we thought that this journey would be a nice, quick scenic rumble up the hill. 10 hours later. We realised we were a little off the mark. The road was bumpy, muddy, slippery, wet and steep. What a lovely combination. We spent most of the journey ´'enjoying' the various horns the driver generated on his ´´digital horn generator´´. They were all appalling.
We eventually arrived in the clouds (and rain) in Chainpur where we took a room in a small hotel and went to bed at 7.30pm in preparation for the trek!
xx
This was not our first experience on Nepalese roads, so we sort of knew what to expect. Road rules in Nepal are loosly followed at best. Our bus driver seemed to think that it was quite alright to overtake 10 lorries at once on a blind bend with a cliff beneath us as long as he beeped his horn very loudly first. Apparently the nepalese also drive on the left hand side of the road. Pretty sure our driver spent most of the journey not on this side. But we arrived safely (if not a little shaken) in Dharan the next morning after numerous lengthy stops to repair the bus, eat or just have a chat. We were then quickly pushed onto a local bus, now we thought that this journey would be a nice, quick scenic rumble up the hill. 10 hours later. We realised we were a little off the mark. The road was bumpy, muddy, slippery, wet and steep. What a lovely combination. We spent most of the journey ´'enjoying' the various horns the driver generated on his ´´digital horn generator´´. They were all appalling.
We eventually arrived in the clouds (and rain) in Chainpur where we took a room in a small hotel and went to bed at 7.30pm in preparation for the trek!
xx
Wednesday 25 August 2010
Final day in Kathmandu
Namaste!!
Today we went down for breakfastand after yesterdays MASSIVE breakfast (2 slices of toast, a croissant, an apple and a spanish omlette...each) we asked if we could just have a single slice of toast each which was greated by laughter. And then even more laughter as he went into the kitchen to recount our request to his family. Of course, we got out one slice of toast each but they were concernedwe weren't eating enough so then brought out cake, bananas and apples too. We then met Patemba, our sherpa guide to discuss our plans. We'd be meeting at the Asmita tomorrow and because Tumlingtar airport is closed, we'd be going by bus. FOR 42 HOURS. (rather then a 45 minutes flight to Tumlingtar). We nearly cried. But it's all ok.We went and bought 1300 rs worth of food (nothing healthy whatsoever!) and then went shopping to drown our sorrows (we're now the proud owners of walking poles, adaptors, stationary and matcing maxi skirts) We went out to Thamel House (a gourmet restaurant by Nepalese standards) looking really cool in our matching skirts and for 750 rupees for the 2 of us (about 3pounds each) we enjoyed a delicious meal accompanied bysome Nepalese dancing and music.
However the highlight of our day. SUN. Yes blue sky and sun! We went a whole morning rain free, then there was a outburst of rain at midday, and then it happened! It was amazing (we have pictures to prove!)
Whilst we're on the subject of photos, we would really like to upload and share some photos BUT about every minute we get virus warnings on these computers so we'll have to wait till we return!
This will be our last post till we disappear off the radar till about the14th of September! Bye!!!!
lots of love, Millie xxxxxxxx
sun
Today we went down for breakfastand after yesterdays MASSIVE breakfast (2 slices of toast, a croissant, an apple and a spanish omlette...each) we asked if we could just have a single slice of toast each which was greated by laughter. And then even more laughter as he went into the kitchen to recount our request to his family. Of course, we got out one slice of toast each but they were concernedwe weren't eating enough so then brought out cake, bananas and apples too. We then met Patemba, our sherpa guide to discuss our plans. We'd be meeting at the Asmita tomorrow and because Tumlingtar airport is closed, we'd be going by bus. FOR 42 HOURS. (rather then a 45 minutes flight to Tumlingtar). We nearly cried. But it's all ok.We went and bought 1300 rs worth of food (nothing healthy whatsoever!) and then went shopping to drown our sorrows (we're now the proud owners of walking poles, adaptors, stationary and matcing maxi skirts) We went out to Thamel House (a gourmet restaurant by Nepalese standards) looking really cool in our matching skirts and for 750 rupees for the 2 of us (about 3pounds each) we enjoyed a delicious meal accompanied bysome Nepalese dancing and music.
However the highlight of our day. SUN. Yes blue sky and sun! We went a whole morning rain free, then there was a outburst of rain at midday, and then it happened! It was amazing (we have pictures to prove!)
Whilst we're on the subject of photos, we would really like to upload and share some photos BUT about every minute we get virus warnings on these computers so we'll have to wait till we return!
This will be our last post till we disappear off the radar till about the14th of September! Bye!!!!
lots of love, Millie xxxxxxxx
sun
Tuesday 24 August 2010
Day 1.
NAMASTE!
It's stopped raining...so heavily! Umbrella are still needed but we're not as risk of drowning if we step in a puddle anymore!
After our MASSIVE dinner and breakfast (even Sanchia couldn't have finished it up) we decided it would be a good idea to walk to Durba square. About 5 minutes later we'd already been greeted by about a million nepelese people trying to convince us to get in their rickshaw, buy some weird musical instrument, take photos of them or try to impress us with their wonderful (if not slightly out of date) knowledge of the UK ('Your queen she is Elizabeth, your Prime Minister Gordon Brown) and then tried to make us buy them milk!
About an hour later we finally arrived in Durba Square. We initially turned down the offer of a guide thinking we could manage. About 10 metres later we decided that we actually had no idea what we were looking at and so maybe a guide would be a good idea. Durba square is full of old temples such as the Alcohol God every year they put a pipe in his mouth and strong men wrestle to put their mouths under the pipe to drink some beer. There's also a small fish in the beer which if swallowed, will give that man a lucky life. Ew.
Our guide was especially keen to show us the Karmasutra temple which featured lots of lovely ornate carvings of...well... "you see this women, with 2 friends, the're fisting, you know...and here...is horse karmasutra"..um yes. (pictures to come later!)
We then went and saw a painting workshop where they paint with gold dust! We also saw the temple of the Living Goddess (she's selected when she's 3 and has to fulfill about a million criteria. She's then not allowed to leave her house except when she's carried around 13 times a year and she's not allowed to touch the ground outside until she leaves when she's a young teenager!)
We're now sitting in the internet cafe whilst Vikki reads every single story about the nepalese plane crash and is slightly freaking out! (We're probably going by bus anyway!)
We're now heading back to the hotel where we are due to meet Patemba, our Sherpa in the next 24 hours!
If anyone want to contact us by text, our number is 9779849660422
Right, better go drown in the rain again!
Lots of Love, Millie xxx
(p.s. Well Done Georgina on her results!)
It's stopped raining...so heavily! Umbrella are still needed but we're not as risk of drowning if we step in a puddle anymore!
After our MASSIVE dinner and breakfast (even Sanchia couldn't have finished it up) we decided it would be a good idea to walk to Durba square. About 5 minutes later we'd already been greeted by about a million nepelese people trying to convince us to get in their rickshaw, buy some weird musical instrument, take photos of them or try to impress us with their wonderful (if not slightly out of date) knowledge of the UK ('Your queen she is Elizabeth, your Prime Minister Gordon Brown) and then tried to make us buy them milk!
About an hour later we finally arrived in Durba Square. We initially turned down the offer of a guide thinking we could manage. About 10 metres later we decided that we actually had no idea what we were looking at and so maybe a guide would be a good idea. Durba square is full of old temples such as the Alcohol God every year they put a pipe in his mouth and strong men wrestle to put their mouths under the pipe to drink some beer. There's also a small fish in the beer which if swallowed, will give that man a lucky life. Ew.
Our guide was especially keen to show us the Karmasutra temple which featured lots of lovely ornate carvings of...well... "you see this women, with 2 friends, the're fisting, you know...and here...is horse karmasutra"..um yes. (pictures to come later!)
We then went and saw a painting workshop where they paint with gold dust! We also saw the temple of the Living Goddess (she's selected when she's 3 and has to fulfill about a million criteria. She's then not allowed to leave her house except when she's carried around 13 times a year and she's not allowed to touch the ground outside until she leaves when she's a young teenager!)
We're now sitting in the internet cafe whilst Vikki reads every single story about the nepalese plane crash and is slightly freaking out! (We're probably going by bus anyway!)
We're now heading back to the hotel where we are due to meet Patemba, our Sherpa in the next 24 hours!
If anyone want to contact us by text, our number is 9779849660422
Right, better go drown in the rain again!
Lots of Love, Millie xxx
(p.s. Well Done Georgina on her results!)
Monday 23 August 2010
Well HELLO THERE Kathmandu!
We are officially in Nepal.
Ohmydays.
After sleeping for about 3 minutes in total having hijacked the sofas in costa coffee in abu dabhi airport for about 8 hours we finally boarded our plane to Nepal. Basically, we've been awake for about 30 hours with intermitent power naps and 2 meals at weird times. So forgive us if this reads funny.
One observation was the weird smokey steam stuff they pumped into our plane at Abu Dhabi. I was seriously concerned. DO THEY NOT REALISE THE CABIN IS FULL OF SMOKE?? But I think it was just stuff to cool the plane down. Abu Dhabi is literally in the middle of the desert and it was 31 degrees at midnight. So very hot.
Anyway, first impressions of Kathmandu. As soon as we got off the plane it was HOT and HUMID. like REALLY hot and REALLY humid. Obviously no airconditioning in the airport so we melted for a good hour while queing up for a visa. Millie then managed to lose hers while trying to buy a sim card. but she found it. So don't panic, Ruth and Kevin. We also both have our passports. Just so you know.
We got an extremely battered taxi which had net curtains as seat covers which took us to the AsmitaGuesthouse. Obviously, our in-car salesman who sat in thefront passenger seat alongside the driver was having none of this, and spent the entire journey trying to persuade us to: Stay in "his" hotel, book plane tickets, book chitwan, have a guide round kathmandu, etcccc. But as headstrong youngwomen we managed to say NO and to getaway without any 40% discounts to dodgey safariparks.Thank you NHS. Again the driving in Nepal is compltely mad. They drive on the same side "apparently" but I'm pretty sure wejust spent the entire hour weaving in and out of near death experiences on either side of the road.
Our guesthouse is really,really lovely, and we acquainted ourselves well by spilling a bottleof nepalese fanta over theguestbook in the first five minutes.
Now we're just passing the time till supper in an internet cafe with a REALLYDODGEYSPACEBAR. But for 60p for an hour we can't complain.
Hope everything is OK back home. We heard it was very rainy last night. Don't start. Monsoon season. It has rained solidly since we arrived and is SO HUMID.
By the way, a weird virus popped up on our screen, so if weird stuff starts appearing on our facebook and this blog, just ignore it!
Lots of Love,
Vikki
xxxxx
Ohmydays.
After sleeping for about 3 minutes in total having hijacked the sofas in costa coffee in abu dabhi airport for about 8 hours we finally boarded our plane to Nepal. Basically, we've been awake for about 30 hours with intermitent power naps and 2 meals at weird times. So forgive us if this reads funny.
One observation was the weird smokey steam stuff they pumped into our plane at Abu Dhabi. I was seriously concerned. DO THEY NOT REALISE THE CABIN IS FULL OF SMOKE?? But I think it was just stuff to cool the plane down. Abu Dhabi is literally in the middle of the desert and it was 31 degrees at midnight. So very hot.
Anyway, first impressions of Kathmandu. As soon as we got off the plane it was HOT and HUMID. like REALLY hot and REALLY humid. Obviously no airconditioning in the airport so we melted for a good hour while queing up for a visa. Millie then managed to lose hers while trying to buy a sim card. but she found it. So don't panic, Ruth and Kevin. We also both have our passports. Just so you know.
We got an extremely battered taxi which had net curtains as seat covers which took us to the AsmitaGuesthouse. Obviously, our in-car salesman who sat in thefront passenger seat alongside the driver was having none of this, and spent the entire journey trying to persuade us to: Stay in "his" hotel, book plane tickets, book chitwan, have a guide round kathmandu, etcccc. But as headstrong youngwomen we managed to say NO and to getaway without any 40% discounts to dodgey safariparks.Thank you NHS. Again the driving in Nepal is compltely mad. They drive on the same side "apparently" but I'm pretty sure wejust spent the entire hour weaving in and out of near death experiences on either side of the road.
Our guesthouse is really,really lovely, and we acquainted ourselves well by spilling a bottleof nepalese fanta over theguestbook in the first five minutes.
Now we're just passing the time till supper in an internet cafe with a REALLYDODGEYSPACEBAR. But for 60p for an hour we can't complain.
Hope everything is OK back home. We heard it was very rainy last night. Don't start. Monsoon season. It has rained solidly since we arrived and is SO HUMID.
By the way, a weird virus popped up on our screen, so if weird stuff starts appearing on our facebook and this blog, just ignore it!
Lots of Love,
Vikki
xxxxx
Sunday 22 August 2010
Hello from Abu Dhabi!
Hello!
Just landed at Abu Dhabi airport (which is amazing by the way!) it's all very shiny and new! Flight was fine! Spent most of the 6 hours watching trashy rom-com films and reading the free magazines! It's 2am here and our flight to Kathmandu doesn't leave for another 8 hours. Should probably try and sleep a little in that time! Managed to get both the typewriters we're taking out for the charity through although the heavier one had to go into hold (&will probably be returned to us in a thousand pieces!)
Apparently it's 31 degrees celcius here! Looks very sandy outside (unsuprisingly!)
Hopefully we'll be able to find an internet cafe tomorrow when we arrive in Kathmandu!
Millie xx
(if you want to contact us, you can leave a message/comment below!)
Just landed at Abu Dhabi airport (which is amazing by the way!) it's all very shiny and new! Flight was fine! Spent most of the 6 hours watching trashy rom-com films and reading the free magazines! It's 2am here and our flight to Kathmandu doesn't leave for another 8 hours. Should probably try and sleep a little in that time! Managed to get both the typewriters we're taking out for the charity through although the heavier one had to go into hold (&will probably be returned to us in a thousand pieces!)
Apparently it's 31 degrees celcius here! Looks very sandy outside (unsuprisingly!)
Hopefully we'll be able to find an internet cafe tomorrow when we arrive in Kathmandu!
Millie xx
(if you want to contact us, you can leave a message/comment below!)
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