Everest base camp trek - the beginning

Forgive the lack of photos - I'll have to use the power of the internet's imagination here... 

After spending a nervous hour and a half waiting for our flight to Lukla at Kathmandu domestic airport - another EBC-bound couple at the airport got delayed a day - we boarded the hang-glider 30-seater prop plane and took an exhilarating flight up to Lukla (2800m). Given that a plane crashed on a similar flight up to Lukla a few weeks ago, we were a little apprehensive about landing (which is probably like this - I can't view the video so fingers crossed it's relevant). We landed successfully and our pilots were congratulated with a round of applause. Our first day of the trek involved picking up a porter at Lukla, which our guide Chandra did for us (he makes everything a LOT less stressful), and taking the 8km downhill trek to Phakding (2600m-ish) past Sherpa villages, buddhist stupas and tibetan prayer flags (except we had more trees than in that photo). The menus at Nepali tea-houses includes momos (tibetan dumplings, mmm), daal bhat (rice, lentil curry and veg), fried spuds, chow mein and sometimes Nepali stabs at Western dishes like pizza or lasagne. Good, hearty, carbo-loading food. Mmm. 

The next day (aka today) we ascended 800m to Namche Bazaar (3440m, 400m below the top of Aoraki/Mt. Cook), across a suspension bridge built by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay (says Chandra). Most of the day was flat, through a green river valley, until we hit a HUGE cliff hill up to Namche. Namche is like a ski resort in the Alps with a German bakery, internet cafes and endless clothes shops - the last taste of civilisation until we descend! Internet is NZ$13/hour, but I suppose they have to carry the internets up/down by hand as trucks can't get up here and the tubes are narrow...



Tomorrow we have an acclimitisation day before heading any higher. I don't feel any symptoms of altitude sickness yet (headaches, 'drunken walk', loss of appetite and gut problems) so fingers crossed this stays away. This might be the last post for a while as we head further into the remote reaches of the Himalayas, so namaste until then!

Taj Mahal, Delhi and Kathmandu

After finally leaving delightful relaxing Udaipur, we caught an overnight train to Agra - home of the Taj Mahal. Nothing can quite prepare you for the sight of this amazing building - it is a magnificent, imposing sight that needs to be seen once in your life. The inside of the mausoleum is rather disappointing given the beauty of the exterior, but it is a tomb not a palace! We spent a peaceful hour sitting under the shade of the main Taj dome, entertaining and being entertained by Indian tourists, and engaging in much mutual people-watching and photography/videography. The rest of Agra is pretty grim, not helped by the fact that the ticket office for the Taj Mahal is about 1km away from the actual Taj, through a gauntlet of rickshaw wallahs, touts, beggars and people trying (well, telling) you to buy stuff from their shop.

The 2-hour train to Delhi ended up taking 6-hours, made slightly worse by our less-than-ideal tickets in a 3-tier sleeper cabin with confusing seat numbers (I saw 3 signs claiming to be seat 67). Delhi, despite warnings from other travellers, turned out to be quite attractive and not anywhere near as chaotic we thought. Connaught place in central New Delhi was reminiscent of Sloane Square. Our final night began watching Ross Taylor hit a brisk 46 for Royal Challengers Bangalore, as we cheered each shot with Indians in a sports bar. Cricket, beer and mexican food - a great way to spend a last night in India!

I am currently in Thamel, the tourist area of Kathmandu in Nepal. As Nick has returned to Abu Dhabi, Ben and I are here preparing for our trek up to Everest base camp beginning tomorrow. We have secured the guiding services of Chandra, a 46-year old enthusiastic Nepali previously used and recommended to us by our friend Chi. The excitement is mounting for this epic trip, and we are looking forward to leaving bustling south Asian cities for the remoteness and cool mountain air of the Himalayas. I will endeavour to post again up the mountain, as I think that Namche Bazaar has internet cafes.

 

(In breaking news there are two Nepalis fighting outside the internet cafe. Why? Who knows...)

Apologies for the lack of photos. I am ready to smash my defective card reader.

Namaste

Monkeys rule. You can watch them for hours.

Well, I finally succumbed to Delhi belly (in, er, Goa) after 36 days. After eating all manner of dodgy  things in Orissa, it was the 'safe' tourist restaurants of Baga that got me in the end. Still, I'm pleased with lasting 36 days :)

Since I last blogged, I have been with Ben and Nick exploring Mumbai, Goa and now Rajasthan. Mumbai provided a nice transition between the Orissa and the adventures that lay ahead.

Mainly it consisted of eating excellent spring rolls and drinking beer in Leopold cafe (of Shantaram fame), wandering around Colaba (downtown), and, what was to become a common theme, being stopped to be photographed with locals. We took a ferry out to Elephanta Island to look at the cave temples, but finding

the monkeys to be far more entertaining. After an entertaining

overnight train down to Goa, we arrived in Arambol beach to find it

a tad, well, dead, and full of floaty-pants (one thing I am mystified

about though - why do all Western tourists here (bar us) deem it necessary to don those stupid hippy floaty-pants? Do they hand them out at Heathrow and JFK?). We taxied off to Baga, which Lonely Planet describes as 'Blackpool in a heatwave' - which I'm sure it is in peak season, but during the monsoon it proved fine, with well-developed tourist infrastructure, free-flowing beer and a laid-back atmosphere. My time here consisted of teaching myself to ride a manual 150cc motorbike and lying in bed sick, although the

other two made better use of the time.

Flying from Goa up to Jaipur (delayed) we are now in the state of Rajasthan, where we have been to Jaipur, Jodhpur and now Udaipur. We struggled to figure out why Jaipur is part of the 'tourist triangle' along with Delhi and Agra (Taj Mahal), as it seemed dirtier, noisier and more polluted than usual, and the palace wasn't as

exciting as the guidebook made it out to be. The Amber fort outside town was rather spectacular in its mountainous, Great-Wall-esque setting, including more entertaining simians. Jodhpur provided an

impressive fort overlooking the blue old city and more opportunities

to be photographed with locals (they love it - is it my 2-month

beard? do we look like cricketers?). The Rajasthan Muslim influence

is noticeable compared to Mumbai and Goa in the mosques, shisha

and Muslim architecture (like the Taj Mahal). Udaipur, where we

currently reside, is a delightful narrow-alleyed lake-side town

reminiscent of Europe. Ben just found a description of Udaipur as

being a cross between Venice and Baghdad (maybe this was written

in the 70s...?). We are spending a few days here recharging before

another overnight train to Agra to see the Taj Mahal and Delhi, which is currently in the middle of a dengue outbreak (gulp...).

Peace out

James

PS. Captions are screwing up the page formatting and I don't have the patience to figure it out (after spending 2 hours uploading photos), so they are (from top-bottom): sign at Mumbai's main train station; Baga beach at sunset; me riding a motorbike at Baga; and the view from the Amber fort in Jaipur (note monkey in foreground).

Trials and tribulations

No, not the awesome LCD soundsystem song. India throws up some challenges from time to time, and you just have to learn to deal with them - at India's pace, Inshallah.

Fishing boats at Puri beach at dawn

I have (hopefully) ironed out my visa situation and should be allowed back in to India after Nepal. I acquired (what I was told was) the right tourist visa, to be told at Mumbai airport on arrival that this was the wrong visa, and I would not be allowed back into India within 2 months of leaving. I was directed to a series of contradictory rules and regulations, but a visit to the ominous-sounding 'Foreigners Registration Office' has cleared that up, Inshallah. For now. I have managed to dodge the outbreak of swine flu in Orissa, only to learn that there is a dengue outbreak in Delhi, kidnappings in Bihar (where I almost ended up volunteering) and oil washing up on Goan beaches. Oh, and the New Zealand embassy emailed me warning against 'extreme danger' of terrorist attacks in Kashmir and Jammu and along the Pakistani border. Fortunately, the areas I'm going to are only at 'some danger' of terrorism. Phew. On the 'silver lining' front, I have learned that excessive monsoon rain has swelled the Sun Koshi river in Nepal - and I intend to raft this river in about 6 weeks, ha ha.

The local boys I played cricket with.

So anyway, my time at Kalinga Eye Hospital came to an end, and I had a few days to explore Orissa. I had an entertaining first Indian train ride to the beach town of Puri - where I was befriended by some young Indian men who talked to me about cricket for the whole ride (this is becoming a common theme). Puri isn't the nicest beach in the world, and apparently has a persistent paedophile problem if the signs in my hotel were to be believed, but a visit to the sea is a great way to refresh the salt water running through the veins of every New Zealander. I also played my first and second game of cricket with the locals. The first game I got roped into a Twenty20 game on the beach (and somehow played for both teams...). I had a good couple of knocks including a much-applauded straight six over the bowler's head - try setting a field to that! My second game was against some 17 year olds, who found my extra pace and bounce a bit tricky...

Monkey and baby

I also headed out to the Konark Sun Temple, which is covered in Kama Sutra-inspired carvings, although the highlight of Puri was undoubtably the excellent Chinese restaurant. After a few days I ventured to Bhubaneswar, the capital of Orissa. After 90 minutes trying to find the bus out to the Nandankanan Zoological Park (ask 5 people for 6 different sets of directions) I made it to the park, and was rewarded with seeing white tigers and some entertaining simians.

White tiger

I'm in Mumbai now with Nick awaiting the arrival of Ben, so that the next leg of the adventure can begin!


Namaste