Everest

We flew into Lukla, a mountain village 4 days walking from any road. The plane sat about 15 and the girls picked the seats in the first row. They wanted a roller coaster ride and got one as the plane flew into a valley, took a right down another smaller valley and then shot down into a runway that finished at a mountain wall. A quick thrill before the long walk.

We had a quick breakfast and began the 2 day walk to Namchee Bazaar, the biggest village in the area and a crossroad between the Everest region and Tibet. The bazaar lies on top of a ridge that separates two valleys and the switch backs  are loaded with yaks carrying loads, humans carrying loads, and us, carrying nothing and dying.

Namchee was clouded in and it wasn't until the next morning that we noticed that we were among some very large mountain peaks covered in snow. Nicole and Hannah were bundled up in their sleeping bags, cold, cold, cold. They wouldn't even open the window to see the mountains they were so frozen.

From Namchee we spent a day reaching another higher ridge, closer to Everest. Again the clouds were low and the rain poured down in the afternoon. Tengpoche Monastery is one of the highest in the world at 3800 meters. The lodges were few and scattered around the monastery. Our guide Naryan thought the sky would clear in the night. Ava and I woke up at midnight to get a full moon view of the surrounding mountains and Everest.

The next morning was again cloudy, but they quickly broke to reveal Everest, the nearby peak of Lohtse and the dramatic close up of Aba Dablam, which soars like a fairy tale peak that would house a castle. The morning was filled with sounds of the monks being called to prayer with conch shells and knocking sticks. 

Chitwan

Back to Pokhara and a drive down to Chitwan National Park leaves us sweating from the pace of the road and the weather. It's hot and humid and the river is no relief. The elephants are enchanting - gentle, big and very quiet walkers. We took an afternoon elephant ride through the forest to see a rhinoceros. Two big animals walking around in the forest. Tiger prints are found in the mud close to camp and the birds are loudly getting ready for bed. 

The night is just a sweat box and there's only electricity between 4 and 9, meaning there's not even a fan to help cool us off - just heavy, wet, hot air to keep us tossing and turning.

The next day cools off a bit for an elephant bath. The kids jump in to get "showered" by an elephant trunk and rolled off like a bronco. So far a highlight of the trip. 

Annapurna 2

Woke up at 4:30 am to take a day hike up to Poon Hill at 3800 meters. The morning is cold as we slowly get out of bed and put on the gloves and down jackets. Nicole looks sickly as she anticipates the cold lurking outside. With head lamps on we venture up with dark skies and stars. 

The hour hike gives us beautiful views of white peaked mountains including the 4th tallest at over 8,000 meters. The viewing area has hot chocolate and Ava is in heaven. 

After breakfast we begin a long day of Rhododendrun Forests, misty mountains, monkeys and finally rain. A down pour delays us for a half hour in the afternoon before we begin a descent into a leach filled forest. Hannah gets her neck sucked on while every couple of minutes leach checks are required. We reach our destination at night with our head lamps on, walking in the rain. The rain turns poop tainted steps into a slippery highway. We're a mess when we enter the lodge. 

Annapurna

Namaste,

Once out of Katmandu Valley the roads thin but not the cars and trucks - they all just fit into a smaller place. Large and slow, the cargo trucks carry everything from fresh produce, rocks, wet sand - why wet?, and food cartons. We settle in for the 5 hour car ride to Pokhara. Trucks pass other large trucks and the mini vans whiz along side us as we all pass everyone else. It's every vehicle for them self as assistants on buses wave their hands frantically to get other vehicles to move out of the way. Hours of hectic passing gets us to Pokhara where clouds loom low, keeping the mountain peaks covered. We cruise the town, buying ponchos and gloves for the upcoming trek through the Annapurna's.

The road  winds through "hill country", switching back and forth along the deep valleys and balancing along the ridges. The views are beautiful and the mountains haven't even come into view yet. We stop at the beginning of the trail and begin the trek along the valley floor. The village is the last stopping point for the road and locals use it as a marketplace to supply all the goods that will go up the trail to outlaying villages. The trail we're on is now the highway where everyone and everything passes. 

The "hills" and "hill people" are the farmers for the region with their produce moving up through the mountains by human and animal transport. The "mountain people" buy the rice, corn and millet at ever increasing rates the higher the elevation. The rice fields are a month away from harvest and the seeds are beginning to bend the plants low.

The kids are enjoying the views above and below. The granit path is filled with whites, golds and greens. The girls begin picking up loose stones that catch their eye. Hannah begins filling her empty Pringles container with the rocks. She'll be carrying them a long way.

Trekking and

Kkrazy...Kathmandu

Bangkok pix

Bangkok and Katmandu

We took a taxi down town once, got stuck in traffic for a half hour and vowed not to do it again. Instead we just take the "water taxi" down the river to get close to where we want to go. It's just a bus/ferry that carries locals across\down the river. When we hit our stop it's a quick tuk-tuk ride (motorcycle with cab) to our destination, which was a temple or market. Big buddhas, gold buddhas, green buddhas and elaborate temples of flaring roofs and gold walls filled one day for 3 of us as we were exhausted. Nicole had to go on to little India and she quickly abondoned us while taking the water ferry home. "why don't you guys go home and I'll get off here". And away she ran, almost leaving with our room key. Returning two hours later with blisters, a smile and a lot of little treasures she found along the way.

We left Bangkok from the new international airport. So new there wasn't a place to eat, except for small food stands that didn't take credit cards. Dying of thirst, with too large of bills for them to change, we scrounged a US dollor at the bottom of Nicole's bag to by a small water for the four of us. Lucky we were at our gate early as the plane boarded an hour early and closed the gate.

The satisfaction of Bangkok quickly evaporated under the sweltering heat of Katmandu. The road to our hotel was littered with hundreds of people hanging out, walking, yelling, selling, honking car horns. The trash was strewn about with the people, all of it in one big chatic mess of cars, motorcycles and bicycles. The people had changed from asian to predominantly Indian looking. We new we were in a completely different place. It was dirty, smoggy, hot and intimidating.

The streets of Thamel, a neighborhood inside of Katmandu were medievil. Small, narrow with shops and hawkers everywhere walking with us for a block or two at a time trying to sell their woven wallets and small musical fiddles. Streets so small only people should be one them. But not here, there were cars, motorcycles, bicycle cabs, all honking and yelling. If someone walked in the opposite direction as us we made sure that they passed toward the middle of the street. Better they get hit than us. At night kids were sleeping on the streets with their cardboard blanket.

In all the dirt and trash the Nepali women dress impeccably. Wearing Indian looking clothes of bright greens, reds, yellows and baby blue. Their hair is finely combed and put back with faces made up, jewelry on and hopping over and around mud puddles and piles of trash. Even out on the hiking trek, on the muddy trail, these women will look the same, beautiful clothes with the Indian shawl wrapped aroung and a large purse, walking around wet muddied mule dung that has turned into a light colored mud stream.

It was the trek that saved Nepal. Once out in the open country side the smog changed to fresh air and deep, deep valleys. The valleys fall forever as the roads switch back up and along the ridges .

Bangkok

Arrived in Bangkok at 12 am and got in a fight with the taxi dispatcher about wanting a van instead of a small car. "No, you get 2 car". No vans were in sight. Since we were staying at a small hotel that reviews say is hard to find, two cars in a large city wasn't a choice we wanted - so we wandered past the line of taxi drivers until the last one waved us down and told us to wait. It took us a couple of minutes to figure that out in his broken english. Shortly, a van pulled up, loaded our bags and proceeded to get lost in the city trying to find our "botique" hotel.

Waking up the next morning, the small hotel was beautiful. It was as if an artist decorated the hotel with out using any money at all. Old wall paper was stripped unevenly and then parts were painted with a portrait of flowers in a vase or a bird flying. The courtyard was helpfully cool, filled with benches and pillows to lounge, all enveloped with a jungle of plants. Old french music or soft jazz would continuously play and a small pond with fish kept Ava intrigued. She never caught one - used her hand, a cup, anything. An organic garden of lettuce, tomatoes, squash, eggplant and herbs was kept on the top terrace, complete with a scarecrow. The garden was used for breakfast - always a combination of flavors I've rarely had, like a salad with fried garlic, grapefruit slices broken apart into their small little pods and a vinagret dressing - for breakfast!

Outside the hotel the small lane that connected to the bigger lane that finally reached the street were filled with Thais hanging their laundry, fixing their cars, watching their kids. It was all so quiet compared to Manila. No incessant honking or yelling. I figured it was just Sunday, but it was like that the rest of the trip.