7 Days in Tibet

I've wrapped up another leg of travels having done 6 weeks around Nepal, and am now on to the 2nd last leg before home: Tibet. This will be a significantly shorter trip as it is very difficult to get into the country muchless travel around it for any amount of time. I'm leaving Crapmandu bound for Lhasa via bus, taking the Friendship Highway that links the two countries over five days and several 5000m passes.
 
Customs into Tibet is a hell of a process, and this is even after the 3 weeks I spent waiting as my passport swirled around Nepali and Chinese hands trying to secure a visa.
First of all I forgot that I had overstayed my visa by a little...like 13days...in Crapmandu you can just go to the Nepali consulate and pay a daily rate, which is about $3US per day. At the border however, the customs officers sieze a very lucrative business opportunity. Basically they charge whatever the hell they want. This was a dumb mistake on my part as I knew I was going to be overstaying my 30day visa when I got it upon arrival, but I cheaped out and didn't want to pay for the longer one. I then shelved the issue in the archives of my brain which naturally solved the problem for long enough to forget about it.
There is an incredably stark difference between Nepal and Tibet (China).  As soon as you cross the boarder the quality of life appears to jump significantly, the road immediately became far better, largely made of concrete slabs with steel guard rails along the verticle drops and road signs. The small towns clinging to the mountain sides consisted of 4-5 story buildings, with sidewalks, street lights, and infrastructure normally associated with developed living.  
Chinese customs is more what you would expect from a border crossing, and a commy one at that. Passports were checked by army personel in the middle of the very unfriendly, concrete Bridge of Friendship (absolutely no pictures aloud) which uncerimoniously connects the two countries. We then enter a well lit plain white room with flashing electric signs, and established lines and order. After putting our bags through an xray machine that a serious looking officer wasn't paying attention to, they then go through a manual check to confiscate anything considered anti-China or pro-Tibet at which point (to my astonishment) they zip and buckle everything back up to the way they found it.  Next along the line are the typically unfriendly, unsmiling but pristinely dressed customs officers ordering people to stay behind the yellow line as they check your face, scan your passport, stamp your visa, stamp your other visa, and check your face again before returning your documents and waving you through to the baggage xray machine...again, just incase you picked up a gun or snapped a picture of the Dali Lamma since entering the white room.    
Nepali customs in contrast, is a little rundown room with counter, where people elbow their way to the front of the line on a first come first serve basis. A few 'officers' in there street clothes and no government IDs stamp passports and accept bribes...namely my bribe.
Because I had overstayed my visa I was going to have to pay for the extra days and just hope they went easy.  Our guide acted as middle man telling me they wanted US$100, I said that was rediculous and he should be ashamed to call himself buddist while he ripped off a poor tourist like that (maybe not quite like that, but I was thinking it). The guide ran off and came back saying they wanted US$70, still double the going rate. I only had Chinese money at that point so I did the conversion which came to ¥468 and would have left me with ¥32 for the rest of the trip. I told him that I'd pay ¥400 (US$59).  When he countered with ¥450 I gave our guide the ¥400 and told him to wave it in the officers face and tell him not to spend it all in one place. Over the weeks of haggling in turkey, but more so in Nepal I have found the single most effective bargining tool is the 'show or go'. If you take out the amount you want to pay and put it in front of them, their eyes immediately roll over to dollar signs and they just can't refuse. And if they are stubborn then you sigh and say 'dammit! I really wanted that too' and start walking away, they will cave 99% of the time. They just love your money too much. So sure enough, after the money wave I was relieved to be given my passport back rather than a ticket back to Crapmandu!
I assumed that i was paying for a visa extension that would bring me cleanly and legitimately up to the present day of October 9th.  Upon closer inspection however, this was not the case. What I had paid for was for them to honour my visa and wind back the date stamped for departure, so according to my passport I departed Nepal ontime on September 26th, 13 days previous.   So why you ask is corruption so widespread and difficult to eradicate? Because it works too damn well; I get what I want and they get what they want minus all the time, effort and paper work. Corruption 1, government 0.

Decpite the relatively large size of Tibet, the population is quite small. Aside from the unbelievably harsh conditions, this is in large part due to the high number of monks. There are somewhere around 200 rules that monks must abide by at all times in order to truely be a monk in the traditional sense of the faith.  This however is very difficult and the majority do not follow all these rules. There are however, four core rules that essentially form the basis of a monk's faith: do not steal, do not take life, do not tell lies, do not steal, and do not engage in sexual misconducts.  This last rule has a great influence on the population, by taking tens of thousands of eligable bachlours out of the gene pool.  So, dudes if your into the hard working leathery faced types then Tibet is calling.  
The second rule: not to take life, means  any life whatsoever. That includes plants and micro organisms as well as invisible creatures that they believe live everywhere around us.  Therefore they must walk a certain way in order to reduce body movement which kills these creatures. This rule seems to be all but impossible to live by when you think of all the living things that surround us and end up under our feet accidentally. But after visiting Tibet, it became clear that it isn't so difficult. Nothing grows here at all, we may as well be on the moon.

High point of a 5000m pass, there is a constant bitter cold wind blowing through...

...and this monk lives here collecting donations and selling prayer flags

The moon?

The Tibetan plateau sits around 4000m on average and in a rain shadow of the Himalayas so gets very little precipitation throughout the year then ontop of that it is blasted by very cold tempurtures, high winds, and intense sun unobstructed by the thinner atmosphere. Growing anything under these conditions is next to impossible, so accidentally killing things is not such a large concern when there isnt anything around to kill.  The thought of living here is beyond me and the fact that these people have done so for hundreds of years is unbelievable. But you must look at it from their eyes; eyes that have seen nothing else and know nothing else. When you are born into this life and spend it's entirety here, this stark landscape is home, your herd -be it cows, sheep, yaks, or goats- is your survival and the difficult semi nomadic lifestyle is your way of life.  The bleak expanse of nothingness that these people endure gives what they need for survival, and that's about it.  But it is a life nonetheless, and one they have adapted to and live quite well.

Potala Palace

Lhasa is actually a surprisingly nice and lush (relativley speaking) city. It's very clean, and well organized with things like street lights...and rules, unlike Nepal and a lot of the small Tibetan towns we past through.  The other thing Lhasa has is the Jokhang Temple, the most holy place in Tibetean buddism. A sacred buddist statue brought as dowry by the bride of the king responsible for bringing buddism to Tibet is housed here and is the holiest object in Tibet. It draws people from all over the country for prayer and donation.  Buddists can be found outside the monestary giving prostration which is a four step prayer. Palms are pressed together and placed on the head to cleanse the mind of any bad thoughts, on the mouth to cleanse any bad speach, and on the chest to cleanse the body of any bad acts, they then sprawl out into their stomachs and place their forehead on the ground, and repeat thousands upon thousands of times. Some people spend months in front of the monestary doing this up to 100,000 times.

Prostrators in front of Jokhang Temple

Shes a hardcore

In addition, every morning and evening, thousands of people walk a clockwise circle around the monestary murmering prayers and twirling prayerwheels.  Some of the more hardcore will inchworm their way around the monastary through prostration, hurling themselves on the ground, taking a few steps in prayer, then hurling themselves on the ground again. This monastary may be the holiest place but the centre piece of Lhasa, and all of Tibet for that matter is the Potala Palace. It is a truely spectacular sight perched on a section of rock jutting out of the flat valley floor. Potala is huge, we spent an hour there and only saw a fraction of it. Every room is incredably intricately carved and coloured with small stupas, hundreds of thousands of statues and the tomb stupas of a number of past lamas. The biggest of these tombs is 15m high and covered in over 3000kg of gold and hundreds of precious stones, gems, and diamonds. The scale of it all was amazing and incredably confusing. The complexity goes far beyond anything I will ever understand and unfortunately our guide spoke a version of Chinglish that I have never heard before so I barely understood a thing she was saying. I wasn't too worried though because walking through the rooms was basically an all inclusive picture book complete with pop-ups into the buddist culture and religion, I think I'm a visual learner anyway.
Tibet is an amazing country (don't tell the Chinese I said that) and the culture is even more so. The unforgiving landscape and weather have shaped the people and the culture into an amazing blend of unique customs and values that separate them drastically from their Nepalese and Chinese neighbours. But above all else, they have developed a resilience necessary to survive year after year.

Tibet was quick but incredably beautiful in it's own stark way and very interesting. But that's now done, the intense culture thing is done for now. On to Singapore, and Southeast Asia, I need to relax for a bit, so bring on the beach parties, cheap beer, and deepfried insects! If you don't hear from me for a while it probably means I'm still on the beach...

Take care everyone and chat soon!               

The Top of the Bean Stalk

'The fat man in a room of beautiful women'

Day 1
Kathmandu 1400m - Lukla 2840m - Phakding 2610m
Arriving back in Crapmandu again, we hoped that the following morning would prove to be better luck than our first attempt.
We got to the airport and went through the same hurry up and wait scenario as before except this time the weather was clear and all flights were a go!! We boarded our 18 seater plane and were on our way in notime. The flight was much like a seaplane flight between Vancouver and Victoria: clausterphobic, noisy and bumpy, but what a flight! We were litterally flying through the mountains, not over them.  Tiny towns and terraced mountains passed under us no more than a few hundred metres below, which is close as hell considering what I'm used to seeing out a plane window, thousands of metres below.
Lukla is a small town clinging to the side of a mountain at 2840meters so there really isn't much margin for error when you come in for landing. The airstrip is sloped about 15 degrees up so as to stop the plane before smashing into the wall at the top of the runway. The pilot did an expert job putting down on the flat part at the bottom of the runway, but it was still no secret that we had touched down. A sharp right hand turn and we were safely in Lukla ready to get going!

This being the first day in a few that was clear, there were about 5 more planes within 20 minutes that took advantage: landing, emptying, filling, and taking off before the weather closed in again.
Day one was a pretty easy day, we left Lukla and about 2 hours of easy downhill walking later we arrived in Phakding, 200 meters lower...which is 200 meters more were gonna have to do tomorrow, dunno who thought that one through. The landscape is beautiful, and actually much like home. Steep valley walls, covered in various species of evergreen trees with a rushing glacial fed river somewhere far below.  Day one didn't give us any mountain views and by the time dinner was served it was pouring with rain. I was preparing myself for a wet trek the next day, but one of the Nepali guides assured me that it was a good thing, rain at night means sun in the morning. And sure enough, he was right.

DAY 2
Phakding 2610m - Namche Bazar 3440m

Day two started off similar to day one, flat and easy, and very slow pace. We started getting a little frustrated because we were going so slow, but eventually we got to the bottom of the hill/mountain that Namche Bazar was perched on, and the trail took a very abrupt, near vertical angle. By the time we reached the town, we were tired and happy to be done for the day. Jon and Anita had a nap while I - not tired enough for a nap - went for a walk around the town. A thick fog had rolled in from the lower valley muffling all the sounds around me creating a very eerie yet incredably peaceful feeling. There was barely a sound except for the occasional voice somewhere in the abyss or a bird flying overhead. Dinner was a healthy portion of Dal Bhat, then my adopted trekking bedtime of about 8:30 arrived so it was off to bed fully clothed, touque included.

Thick fog in Namche Bazar

Namche Bazar from above

Day 3
Acclimatization day: Namche Bazar 3440m - Everest View Hotel 3860m - Namche Bazar 3440m
We stayed an extra day in Namche in order to acclimatize because it was the first place that was at an altitude high enough to produce any effects of accute mountain sickness, or AMS for those of us who are avid high altitude trekkers...cough cough, moving on.
Anita decided to relax for the day so Jon and I set off with our guide Shiva to visit the fancy shmancy Everest View Hotel located pricariously on the top of the hill above Namche. The fog had cleared over night so we set off in short sleeves and drenched in sun. The Everest View Hotel is a fancy $200 a night hotel (a hell of a lot considering I was paying 100 rupees or $1.43 a night) built and run by a Japanese company. When it first opened a large group of wealthy Japanese got helicoptered directly to the hotel and within a number of hours three quarters of them had to be airlifted back to Crapmandu with AMS. Teach them lazy buggers a lesson!!

Everest View Hotel...Everest being the smallest looking peak right above Jon's head

Jon and I had an exceedingly overpriced pot of tea on the deck of the hotel but with Everest and surrounding mountains as part of the backdrop it was more than worth it. We went back via Kumjung which is where Sir Edmund Hillary sponsored and set up a large secondary school. Kids come from the many villages in the area every day, some kids walking as far as  two hours to get there. The kids coming from Namche have to walk up a seemingly vertical hill that left Jon and I gasping for breath and took us a little over an hour, where as they bound up it effortlessly then down the other side into Kumjung, litterally uphill bothways, so stop complaining because you have it good!!

Day 4
Namche Bazar 3440m - Pangboche 3930m

After a bowl of porridge that happily reminded me of my granny's (but only reminded; even tho half of hers had generally been sitting in a jar in the fridge from the morning before, nothing can really compare) we set off on a relatively flat path winding along the edge of a near vertical valley wall. This is where rule 11c of Himalayan trekking became very prevelent for the first time: always stand to the high side of the yak train.  Yaks are an incredably dosile, slow moving, but powerful and stubborn creature.  When you come across a yak train they have the right of way, end of story. They're generally so laden with gear and supplies they have their tongues sticking out panting and will take the easiest route whether your standing in the way or not. They just wont stop walking. Without knowing how fat they are with all the gear strapped to their backs, they will sweep you off into the abyss without batting an eye.  Apparently every year people - guides, porters, and tourists alike - are killed or badly injured as a result of yak induced falls.
The trail kept winding it's way along the valley with the peak of Everest sticking out above it's lower neighbours off in the distance. Everest has been described as a fat man in a room of beautiful women, and to be honest that is bang on. Compared to most of it's neighbours, it just isn't that impressive. Abu Dablam, Lhotse, Nuptse, and Pumori are far more appealing to the eye and from a mountaineering standpoint are far more technical and difficult climbs. Everest is just a plump Jabba the Hutt overlooking his beautiful kingdom.  You can't however, overlook the fact that if you were to fly over it in a commercial airline you would be able to grab a snowball from the summit, or at least scratch the paint.
We arrived in Tengboche early afternoon after a hell of a climb, but with Pangboche only about 2 hours further we felt good and decided to keep going.  We were keen on finishing the trek early if possible so we could get some money back but our guide Shiva, was obviously reluctant and made several attempts to keep us in Tengboche for the night and on schedule.  But the perks of being the client is that we do what we want, so, on to Pangboche!

Day 5
Pangboche 3930m - Dingboche 4410
Day five was uneventful, and boring to write about. There were lots of mountains, big ones. One exciting thing however, I now like peanut butter! It was out of necessity because snacks that provided good energy and lasting energy are few and far between in Nepal and buying food gets incredably expensive the higher you get. I brought a bunch of cracker type things and a tub of peanut butter and after 5 days of using the crackers as a spoon, I like peanut butter... Now we'll just have to see if another six to eight days straight will reverse that...

Day 6
Dengboche 4410m - Lobuche 4950m

Today marked the day when we fully left the security and relative warmth of the treeline in our dust, and it also marked the beginning of a field trip into grade 12 geography; some of us got more excited about rocks and geologic formations than others...
We spent the morning walking along the lateral moraine of a glacier that has since melted away, slowly climbing the gentle slope of the valley (U-shaped valley of course) skirting around glacial eratics small, large, and utterly massive (semingly out of place rocks left by glaciers on otherwise unrocky terrain). The vegitation was reduced to low, dense shrubs and grass, all perfectly manicured by a combination of harsh weather conditions and hungry yaks. The sun was warm but there was a chilly wind blowing through the valley, perfect weather for hiking, not hot to a point where I'm sweating heavily and not cold to a point where I need to bundle while walking. Unless we stop for a longer rest I was more than happy in my toque and longsleeve shirt.
As far as the altitude goes my energy, lungs, and legs were all feeling fine, I had a bit if a headache but it wasn't anything more than an annoying inconvenience. Anita however was a little worse off, she had a splitting headache and was feeling slightly nauseated so we took the day slow and steady careful not to overdo it.
The surrounding mountains were becoming more pleantiful and it seemed as though with every ten or fifteen vertical meters gained another snow capped, 8000m+ peak appeared on the horizon.  It was quite a humbling experience for me knowing that we were walking at 4000m (essentially as high as the Rockies) yet we were merely halfway to the top of most of the surrounding peaks. The scale and harsh conditions of the Himalayas is beyond anything you can really comprehend on it's own, then add a population of people who live in the area year round and have done so for hundreds of years, and it will really put our silver platter, culture of excess into perspective. Every scrap of everything serves a purpose from wood shavings, to bits of string and right down to one of the most important commodities: yak shit. Living in an environment where wood essentially doesn't exist, fuel for the house stove (doubles as the central heating unit) comes from the ass of a yak. Every flat surface facing the the sun is covered in brown paddys that have been collected from the fields and paths, balled up and then stuck to the stone with a 'thwack!' - much like a pie to the face - where they dry and are then collected and stored for the colder winter months.
If everyone is feeling well enough in the morning we'll be making our summit push! And by 'summit' I mean base camp and by 'push' I mean a relatively liesurely walk up the Khumbu glacier.

Day 7
Lobuche 4910 - Kalla Patar 5590 - Gorek Shep 5140
Today was our first of two big days and the day that we're finally gonna reach our goal! If all goes to plan we will get up to Gorek Shep - a little five building hamlet nestled into an eddy of the Khumbu glacier - stop for lunch, drop our bags and head to basecamp.
Unfortunately it turned into a tough day, a very tough day. Again, for me the altitude didn't seem to affect my lungs, my legs, or my energy as much as I thought it might, but my head began to throb to a point that I couldn't move fast even if I wanted to. Previously, a single 50mg ibuprofen would send the headache running within 20 minutes or so. Today however, was a different story. The little man inside my head had been
playfully jabbing the backs of my eyeballs and temples, but today he got progressively more violent as the day went on and by the time we got to Gorek Shep he had my brain by the balls and wasn't letting go. Anita was all but done, a strong garlic soup and she was off to bed to try and quell the symptoms. There was no way Anita was going to make it up to Kalla Patar which was 600 vertical meters higher and up very steep terrain, so we switched the plans and Jon and I started up for Kalla Patar that afternoon and left basecamp (a relatively flat walk and only 300 meters higher) for the following morning so as to give Anita a chance.  After about 10 minutes, Rocky Balboa, the Italian Stalion himself began boxing my eyeballs in a methodical throbbing pain that I have never felt before. I haven't experienced migraines before (touch wood) but this could not have been any different. Jon and I were both feeling the effects, and all we wanted was to get to the top, snap some pics then get down. Jon and I are similar in the way we hike, we start going and only really have one gear, a gear that we like to stay in until the job is done. We ended up leaving Shiva behind because the first 10 or so steps after a stop became excruciating, so we just kept a steady pace to the top. It was worth every step. And oddly enough, after reaching the top I felt fine. I don't know if it was the fact that I was sitting with a lower heart rate or what but the short of the long was that Rocky had finished his workout so I wasn't about to ask questions.

Top of Kalla Patar, Everest to the left of the pole

The mountains fanned out in every direction, with Pumori directly above us, Everest and Lhotse to the left, Abu Dablam off in the distance in front and the rest of the Himalayan range draped across the horizon to the right. The last of the glaciers that shaped the surrounding mountains were sitting far below in the valleys, feeding the lakes and rivers that flowed into India. It was a spectacular sight and one that I won't forget.  We took a bunch of pictures as several stray clouds blew in and out, but there's a point where you have to put your camera away and just soak up your surroundings. Pictures may last forever, but they will never do it justice; you need those mental snapshots imprinted in your brain to really create a lasting impression.  For me the scenery is only half of it, the other half is the accomplishment. Seven days after leaving Crapmandu I was standing at the top of a ridge at 5600meters with no where higher to climb. Despite the fact that we were effectively dwarfed by the mountains around us, we were still sitting at the top of something, and we had still pushed ourselves and gotten there under our own power.  
After a two hour battle to get to the top, we found ourselves back in Gorek Shep after only 40 minutes, and as I sat down my headache returned, and with a vengince.

Day 8
Gorek Shep 5140m - Kalla Patar 5590m - Basecamp 5364m - Pheriche 4240m

Everest and Lhotse

Lhotse on the left and Abu Dablam in the distance

Today was by far the best day of the trek, but it was also the worst. I bit off a little more than I should have chewed. A popular way of doing Kalla Patar is to be at the top for sunrise, which means leaving Gorek Shep at 4:00am.  After talking to two German fellows that I had met several days before, my fear of missing out took control of the situation and I was on my up for a second time, in the middle of the night, having not slept because of the headache, and cold. It was amazing though, and if anyone finds themselves trekking to Kalla Patar I would highly suggest doing it this way. We were walking by headlight but the moon and stars were so clear and bright that I turned my light off after about 15 mintues. The stars were incredable, it looked as though they had been smeared on they were so thick. It was difficult to distinguish the few constellations that I know because they were hiding among thousands of tiny stars that I didn't know existed.  I tried to take some long exposure pictures but my camera can only do up to 15 seconds and that just wasn't quite long enough. And it was about -15 so it didn't help when my tripod snapped while I tried to adjust it.

Abu Dablam

Those same mountains were just as breautiful as the day before, but in a different way, with all the east faces glowing in the morning sun, and as though the tide had rolled in, there was a thick blanket of fog coating the valley below and stretching to where it dissapeared over the edge of the earth.  I stayed up there for a little under an hour, and then I had seen enough to satisfy my frozen limbs and figured I should get down and get some food in me before heading to basecamp. I warmed up considerably on the way down and was feeling happy and energized, but that didn't last long. Same as yesterday, as soon as I reached the cabin and sat down Rocky was back trying to beat his way out of my head and he didn't stop for the rest if the day.  That coupled with weiry legs and a stomach doing backflips from the previous nights egg fried noodles, I had a pretty rough day and began lagging behind.
We arrived at basecamp after trekking about two hours on the Khumbu glacier, listening to it creak and groan as the morning sun heated up. To add insult to injury, my camera died just before arriving so I have no photos of basecamp...I was there tho, I swear!  There were three expeditions on the mountain at that point, one that was currently at their high camp on Everest and planning on summiting early the following morning, and two that were high on neighbouring Lhotse and were planning on summiting in the next few days. It was pretty cool to actually see all the gear, support crew and effort it takes just to allow someone to stand ontop of a mountain. I was curious to see how I would feel about the whole high altitude mountaineering thing once I finished this trek because all the induvidual aspects: the physical and mental challenge of it all, the sense of accoplishment, the wide range of skills needed, all the sweet gear...among many others, all really appeal to me, but as a package, no thanks.  To be honest I just don't have the urge or dream to willingly subject myself to the conditions of climbing to those heights, take away the altitude and I'm in.  I figure there are pleanty of other life stimulating options to choose from.
The rest of the day consisted of decending as fast as we could to try and aleviate the miserable state we were in. I spent the rest of the day staring at a spot on the ground just infront of my feet so as to move my aching head and eyes as little as possible which seemed to get worse before it got better. Several ibuprofen and eventually a tylonal 3 did absolutely nothing. It wasn't until I got to the top of a ridge and saw a tea house nestled into the rocks several hundred meters below that I told myself 'im going to go down there get a big pot of tea, relax, get my heart rate down and when I get up I'm going to feel fine.' The others arrived soon after me and when we had all rested enough and had our tea we set out again. I wouldn't have called myself fixed by any means, but my head did feel a hell of a lot better than before. I just hoped for a good sleep at lower altitude that night.          

Day 9/10
Pheriche 4240m - Namche Bazar 3440m
Namche Bazar 3440m - Lukla 2840m
The last two days were more of the same however we were all feeling a lot better as far as altitude induced symptoms. Anita was litterally skipping down the trail she was so happy to be feeling better and getting off the mountain. My head had cleared but I was still feeling the effects of the egg fried noodles that hadn't agreed with me so I wasn't quite in the same mood, but nonetheless happy to be able to see straight again and focus!  We arrived in Lukla in the early afternoon of day 10, got our flight booked for the following morning and then I sighed a huge personal sigh of accomplishment, and of relief that we had all made it in one piece, but also that it was done, having worn the same clothes and not showered in almost two weeks, I can't try and pretend I wasn't looking forward to a warm shower and a new, clean set of clothes.
I highly highly suggest anyone who is remotely interested in something like this to stop thinking about it and book your flight. As commercialized as the whole thing is, every month let alone year you wait, the less authentic it will be.
I really think that given some 10 years or so from now and if - a very big if - they can figure out their political issues (not an easy task) Nepal is going to blow up. Look at new Zealand, they market themselves as the outdoor, adrenaline recreation and sport capital; trekking, rafting, bungy jumping, skydiving, paragliding etc etc. But before you take a second job and motgage your house in order to finance a trip down under, have a look at Nepal.  It has everything that new Zealand has but at a fraction of the cost. Obviously they are vastly different places and have very unique characteristics, but if Nepal can figure itself out it will be a tourism force to be rekoned with.  So get there now before all that!!

An old monk sits on a windy corner of the path collecting donations by day and sleeps in a cave just up the hill at night.  

Nepal is done, but I'll be back. Now onto Tibet.                                               

Lions and Tigers and Bears oh....YES!

I returned to Kathmandu (reluctantly) to solidify all the details for my trek to everest basecamp and to meet my trekking partners Jon and Anita who were flying in from Japan. Young couple from Toronto who Erdman introduced me to at english camp back in June, Jon and Anita are on a year long trip around the world which started with english camp in Italy. I
mentioned my plans to Jon and he was sold, so after some serious convincing with Anita, here they are!
My plan was originally to find someone in the guest house to trek with or do it on my own, but having two friends along who I know and get on well with will make for a far better experience. Two weeks is a long time to spend with someone that you wrongly think you'll get along with.
On the morning of our flight to Lukla, it was the typical hurry up and wait scenario. We got to the airport and entered the disorganized zoo of budging lines and shouldering our way through crowds to get to the gate as soon as possible. And it was lucky we hustled because we only had 6 hours of waiting...and then all the flights were cancelled.
Weather is a big issue when flying into Lukla because it is a tiny airport nesstled in the mountains at 2805 meters that you have to see to land on. There's no radar or positioning system to guide the plane in when it's cloudy; it's either there and you land or it's somewhere and you don't. In our case it was somewhere so we didn't.
To make matters worse, Anita picked up a bug somewhere along the line so was really in no shape to be beginning a two week trek. Turns out the weather was a blessing in disguise. We swaped our plans a little and instead of trying again the next morning we jumped on a bus down to Chitwan National Park, which we were planning on doing after the trek, but instead, giving Anita some time to relax a bit and kick her bug.
Jon and I got dropped off about halfway there and went the rest of the way by raft. It was a great way to see the area for sure but unfortunately it was pretty tame. There's just too much water from the monsoon to have any decent rapids. Jon and I seemed to be the only ones who had any paddling expereience of any kind so we basically did everyones share. At one point I looked back at the others and watched them all put the corner of the paddle in the water (at different times) let the current pull it back then take it out. And repeat. Oh well, it was a hell of a lot better than the bumpy bus ride!
I wasnt planning on going to Chitwan because i figured i had done the jungle thing and wanted to save some money. But I figured why not, and since I basically saw nothing in Bardia, maybe this time I can cash in the karma dollars. And did i ever!
We had a huge day planned starting with a river float in a little dugout canoe. Within minutes there was a crocodile chilling on the bank and loads of colourful birds. Next was a jungle walk for about two hours through some seriously muddy terrain. But thanks to the contingent of giggling and yapping Chinese with us who couldn't for the life of them be quiet, there really wasn't any chance of seeing anything. And one of them was basically chain smoking, flicking his butts into the jungle which was seriously pissing me off. I just don't see how people can come to a pristeen protected area and start throughing garbage around like it's just going to disappear.  I wanted to smack him.
After lunch we were picked up by our elephants. Ours was a female but I think Cletus was a suitable name because she had a tupee of orange hair a bit of a droopy eye and seemed to have a piece of grass or branch permanently sticking out of her mouth.

Me and Cletus

I wasnt expecting to see a whole lot, since elephants are so big i figured they just kinda barged their way through the jungle. Not so much. Cletus trucked us through the jungle with barely a sound, and apparently to other animals, people on an elephant is no different than a plain old elephant, so they don't care. We trudged by a wild bore looking for grubs in the dirt, families of dear who barely batted an eye at us. (except for one who was blocking the path which Cletus took exception to, so she unexpectedly charged it down trumpting wildly. The dear moved.) Soon after we came into a field and stumbled upon a big momma rhino and her little 2year old...baby? I dunno if there's a term for baby rhino, cub sure doesn't fit; it was cute for sure, but cuddly never came to mind. Unless your REALLY into fine leathers...

We basically surrounded them with three elephants but they just went on with their lunch like we weren't there. Jon asked the driver if they cared about elephants and he said a simple 'no' with a shrug, but when he asked if they would care if we were on foot, he got quite serious and said 'ohh no no, vaaalyy dangerous.'
They are an amazing animal, it's hard to believe something so prehistoric looking is still kickin' around.  Their numbers are slowly getting better since hunting was banned and poaching has been reduced but they can only grow so far because their habitat is quickly becoming contaminated with polutants, and even quicker shrinking.  Same old unfortunate story really.
In the evening we went to a cultural show (no booze this time unfortunately) that demonstrates a number of significant cultural dances and songs. I think it was the best cultural show I've ever seen because they got straight to the point; the dances were upbeat and exciting, they were flinging fire around, and we were in and out in less than an hour.  I somehow ended up on stage dancing at the end (trying to at least). I need to start sitting in more obscure places I think. My Nepalese dancing skills are better than my Turkish I think, but there is still no need to go into any detail about them. At all.
The whole time we were at the park, I had been going on and on to our guide about how I really wanted to see a tiger but had had no such luck in either park.  Next morning I was woken up early by our guide because apparently a tiger was in the town just down the street. I was up and on my way in no time and sure enough hiding in the bushes of the Royal Park Hotel was a huge Bengal tiger. And lucky for us he decided to set up shop right under a balcony so we had an almost perfect view from directly above. The only unfortunate part was there was some plants blocking his face so best I got was half. But I'm not complaining, I bagged me a tiger!!

Bengal Tiger 

Apparently it had just been in a territorial 'dispute' with another tiger and was trying to lay low and nurse it's wounds, but now had hundreds of people staring down at it. I felt bad for it, but not before I went ahead and joined the crowd.
A typical 8 hour bus journey that should have taken 5 and we were back in Crapmandu yet again, and ready to make our second attempt for Lukla the following morning.
Chitwan as a whole: great success!!

Lions and Tigers and Bears oh....no

There are two main wildlife viewing parks in Nepal, Chitwan National Park and Bardia National Park. Chitwan is located basically between Kathmandu and Pokhara so naturally is the most touristy and busiest simply because of the ease of access. Bardia is about 400km northwest-ish and far more off the beaten track than Chitwan so less crowded and more natural, something that appealed to me a lot more. The issue was getting there...it was going to be about 20hours of busing with a hell of a lot of changes along the way. I wasn't too keen on that part so my other option was to rent a motorbike, far more appealing to say the least!!

Day 1
The Weather section of Murphy's law, subsection 17d, clearly states that on any given day should you desire to partake in an outdoor activity, or activity requiring or prefering clear dry weather; desired weather will persist upto but NOT including the scheduled day of said activity.
And so, it was a typical Nepalese monsoon morning (I thought it was supposed to be over at this point) that I suited up with all my wet weather gear on and drove off into the great wet yonder on my rented 150cc Bajaj Pulsar. I was soaked through within an hour.  The rain persisted for a good 5 hours until I got near the flatlands in the Himalayan foothills. But i got over that quickly and enjoyed the steep canyons, terraced rice paddys, rushing rivers and tiny hamlets that I was winding my way past.  I stopped in a little hilltop town called Tansen for the night. A beautiful little place surrounded by amazing scenery and cheerful people eager to know where your from and what you think of their country so far. Surprisingly, I met a Canadian girl originally from Nelson, and her Swedish boyfriend in the guest house I was at. They had been there for a few days so showed me the way to some fantastic Dal Bhat, made by a little sub-five foot granny with help from the rest of the family. Dal Bhat is the typical Nepalese meal consisting of a lentil soup (Dal) and rice (Bhat) as well as some cooked veggies and whatever else happens to be lying around. Mix it all together, and start shovelling with your hand (right hand).  This is what Nepalese eat everyday for every meal, but its very good, so  into it.v With Dal Bhat you never leave hungry, and in this case granny made very sure of that.  Everytime we accepted her offer for just a little more she would bustle into the back and come out smiling with another full serving. It doesn't help that it expands in your stomach; it was an early night after that...

View of Annapurna peaks from Tansen

Day 2
I had a long drive ahead of me so I was up early and on the road by 8:30, in the sunshine I might add. One hour, and 5 major mudslides later I reached Butwal, and the official beginning of the flatlands. There's really nothing to say about Butwal, it's hot, it's dusty, and it's full of trucks and buses taking a break before tempting fate on their way into the mountains.  From this point on, the road was flat and straight which was fantastic because I was finally able to get above 30km/h. The landscape changed significantly, into a more grassland plain, with heards of water buffalo and goats grazing in fields rather than single animals standing in the blind part of a blind corner like in the mountains, and butterflies everywhere. Beautiful big butterflies fluttering around the road just high enough to explode in a lovely poof of colour as I ran head on into them. I did my best to dodge them but the eratic fluttering made that tough at 80km/h. The last thing I would see is a glorious explosion of yellow, purple, orange or black dust as he exploded off my helmet or shoulder.  I must have taken out at least 50 on my way up and another 50 on the way back. I felt bad, and found myself appologizing as I watched the next one flutter into the line of fire.  It's a decent way to tie-dye your shirt though!

This was all that was left of this poor fellow, dunno how he got inside my helmet though...

The 'road'

Arriving at Bardia I was 'recruited' by a guy working for one of the lodges who led the way down the 13km path, slightly resembling a road, only to find that the river had seriously risen and was now a good 100m wide and a few feet deep, and rushing. According to buddy, you're not supposed to cut straight across the river just kinda go with it on an angle...ooook, makes sense I guess. I dropped my bag, took off my boots, reminded myself the bike was a rental and plunged into the water. Several close calls but I managed to keep the bike upright and moving forward and made it to the other side unscathed. Like I've said, the best way to learn is to jump in with both feet!
Major river crossing: check
Turns out I was one of only 5 people at the park, but that was great, more tigers for me.

Day 3  
Up early again, which seems to be a common trend in Nepal...in bed by 9:00, up by 6:00, 6:30. This morning though we were leaving at 6:30 for an all day jungle walk (which was way out of the budget, but I didn't come all this way not to go for a tromp through the jungle). Apparently tigers and rhinos like reds, blues, and whites so they weren't too impressed with my light blue shirt, and asked me to change it. I mentioned that my backpack was bright red too but apparntly  that was ok because tigers attack from behind...I'm still at a loss as to the logic there, if anyone can enlighten me I'm all ears.

Unfortunately this is a pretty hard time to see animals because most of the land is flooded so it's difficult to walk in many areas and the animals don't have to come to the river for water, they can find it anywhere. Also, the grass is about 10feet tall so for all I know there could have been a family of tigers right beside me.
I clearly am not as karma positive as I thought because we really didn't see much, a couple of dear, some birds and some monkeys. I was a little dissapointed to be honest, I was really looking forward to seeing a tiger and I had pretty high hopes. Saw loads of tracks and paw prints though, so they are out there somewhere. Unfortunately that's the way it goes, but the walk was great, animals or not. 12 hours later we arrived back to the lodge for a Dal Bhat feast, then I past out.

Day 4
Woke up late (7:30) with a relaxing day ahead. I had some loose plans to explore the surrounding villages and visit the elephant breeding centre, that was about it.  The town was a pretty standard rural Nepalese town; rice paddies, each family's water buffalo tied up at the front door, and tractors fighting their way through huge muddy ruts hauling the days load into the market.
The best way to eat, aside from Dalbatt, is street meat. And by street meat I mean veggie samosas and fried bread, soooo good and soooo cheap; generally 5 rupees per item (about 7cents). Now, for those of you who remember and miss festival bread from Victoria's Jamacian Jerk House as much as I do, you will be very happy to hear - or maybe I'm happier to tell you - that I have rediscovered it.  And for just 5 rupees and a trip to Bardia National Park you can have some too!  I was so stoked I bought a bag the next day for the road.

The elephant breeding centre was pretty average and a little sad as well. Elephants are such amazing animals and to see them chained up kinda pulls at the ol' heart strings a little. I've decided I wouldn't mind having a trunk though. They're so functional! You can sniff stuff, drink through it, pick stuff up, pull trees out of the ground with it, itch yourself, hit people...seriously, what can't you do with a trunk?? It's hard to believe that something can become so massive and you really can't appreciate the size until you stand next to one. I think I would place elephants up their with unicorns as quite a majestic creature.

Day 5 and 6
Bad day.
Another fairly long day ahead today but the sun was out and I had good tunes blasting all the way. On my way back now but heading to Lumbini, the birth place of the lord Buddha back in 623BC. Probably one of the most spiritual places on earth, countries from all over the buddist world as well as others have built temples in his honour. Unfortunately, like most things old, beautiful, and significant in Nepal, there is very little funding so the grounds surrounding all the temples are a pretty dismal sight. They are slowly building it up as donations trickle in but it is a slow process so by the time a section is completed, the beginning is starting to fall apart.

The actual town of lumbini is awful. Dirty, tiny, and surrounded on all sides by dusty savannah. The accommodation is horrible, hands down the worst I've ever stayed and it's hot and infested with mosquitos. It was one of those places where the only place you want to be is in another town. Didn't want to be in the room, didn't want to be outside, and it was too late to head in to see the temples. I spent a sleepless itchy night with the mosquitoes, and at about 4am while lying there hating life I vowed to never go back if I could help it...it's amazing how when a few things are really bad EVERYTHING becomes really bad. I saw the temples and the exact rock that Mr. Buddha landed on after making his escape from the woom which was pretty cool, and then hightailed it out. I had most of the day so I made my way back up to Tansen slowly, doing some exploring and sampling the samosas along the way.

Day 7
With only the four hour drive back to Pokhara, I had a relaxing morning with a bakery breakfast on a ridge above the town.  Mornings are generally when the weather is the best and this morning i had a spectacular view of the Annapurna range to the north.

I took my time getting back, soaking up everything that was drenched in rain, cloud and mud back on day one.
I arrived back in Pokhara at around 3 o'clock, filthy and tired but so stoked with how well the trip went. And it just so happened that I stumbled into the same restaraunt at the same time as the three Brits i had met the week before.  They had just returned from their eight day trek to Annapurna Base Camp and looked equally as run down (actually I think a little worse) than me.  The four of us were a sight to behold thats for sure!
It has now been solidified that the first thing I do when I get home...after getting out of the inevitable debt, and I guess I should move out if moms house...but after that, the first thing I'm doing is buying a motorbike.
But until then, trekking will have to be the preferred mode of transport, next stop basecamp!

Take care everyone and chat soon!