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
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