After a few days in Bangkok catching up with friends, massages and shopping we've headed south to the islands for some long-looked-for sessions on the beach reading, eating spring rolls and drinking G&T's.
It's been fun and very relaxing so far as we've taken in Ray Lay Beach and Ko Lanta, and though it's been overcast its been warm and mostly calm. We head to Phi Phi this afternoon where we're hoping to see the sun and continue to implement our relaxation plan.
26 October 2007
17 October 2007
The Great Escape
After a couple of quiet days in Pokhara - highlighted by the, err, 'quirky' International Mountain Museum - we arrived back in Kathmandu on the 13th October, with not much left to do before our flight on the 22nd.
A few trips to Thai Airways later we'd concluded that there was no way our flight could be moved forward, everything flight between Kathmandu and Bangkok was booked up until Christmas. On the 16th we decided to role the dice and try to get on a flight by stand-by. We and 20 other people waited for 4 hours only to watch one person get on the flight. A group of 5 people had been turning up at the airport for the last 4 days, sneaking one person at a time onto a flight.
The next day we were down at the Thai office to check if our waiting list flight had come through for that day. The office computers were down, we waited until 11.30 but with no information. The only way to find out was to go to the airport, if our flight had moved we'd lose our booking on the 22nd. A rapid walk back to the hostel for our bags, frantic arrangements, and then taxi ride (fingers-crossed to avoid traffic jams) got us to the airport at 1pm, the flight due to leave at 1.50pm.
We hadn't made the flight via the waiting list and there were 40 people ahead of us on the waiting list, but we thought we'd stick it out for an hour and started chatting with a couple we'd met the day before. The attendant called all business class tickets to the counter, whilst another attendant quietly came round and asked Claire, I and the other couple to approach the counter - he'd recognised us from the day before. Giddy with excitement we tried not to get too far ahead of ourselves. When the bags disappeared out the back, and the boarding pass was in my hand we proceeded through customs and security with gigantic smiles.
A few trips to Thai Airways later we'd concluded that there was no way our flight could be moved forward, everything flight between Kathmandu and Bangkok was booked up until Christmas. On the 16th we decided to role the dice and try to get on a flight by stand-by. We and 20 other people waited for 4 hours only to watch one person get on the flight. A group of 5 people had been turning up at the airport for the last 4 days, sneaking one person at a time onto a flight.
The next day we were down at the Thai office to check if our waiting list flight had come through for that day. The office computers were down, we waited until 11.30 but with no information. The only way to find out was to go to the airport, if our flight had moved we'd lose our booking on the 22nd. A rapid walk back to the hostel for our bags, frantic arrangements, and then taxi ride (fingers-crossed to avoid traffic jams) got us to the airport at 1pm, the flight due to leave at 1.50pm.
We hadn't made the flight via the waiting list and there were 40 people ahead of us on the waiting list, but we thought we'd stick it out for an hour and started chatting with a couple we'd met the day before. The attendant called all business class tickets to the counter, whilst another attendant quietly came round and asked Claire, I and the other couple to approach the counter - he'd recognised us from the day before. Giddy with excitement we tried not to get too far ahead of ourselves. When the bags disappeared out the back, and the boarding pass was in my hand we proceeded through customs and security with gigantic smiles.
09 October 2007
The Jomson Trail
Claire & I have just arrived back in Pokhara from a 9 day trip walking in the Annapurna ranges - a trip commonly called the "Jomsom Trail". After 9 days I can now eat two large plates of curry, rice and daal for lunch, am at my lowest weight since I was 18 and have concluded that a beard is an irritating adornment, even if Claire likes it - plus I might be mistaken for a French terrorist if I keep looking like this (so Claire thinks): 
We walked from Pokhara - Tikedungha - Ghorepani - Tatopani - Ghasa - Mahrpa - KagBeni - Mukthinath - Jomsom and flew back to Pokhara. We generally left our guesthouse by 7.30 and arrived between 1-4pm depending on the distance to be covered. On a map here: http://www.alpaca-voyages.com/nep-map-kaligandai-jomsom-trek.gif
To tell the tale...
Pokhara-Ghorepani (2 days)
The walk was through a lush, tropical region still at a relatively low level - up to about 2,600m at Ghorepani. From time to time we had a view of a snow capped peak but for the most part saw steep hills of forest and rice paddies.
Poon Hill (dawn, day 3)
Awaking 1 hour before dawn we were quickly on our way up nearby Poon Hill on a perfectly clear morning, our walk lit by a half-moon and countless stars. From the crest of Poon Hill we looked upon 16 peaks in the Annapurna and Dhaulagiri ranges, all snow capped and crystal clear that morning. The mountains changed from dim-pale, to golden and then startling white as the moon light gave way to dawn and then dawn to day.
Ghorepani-Kagbeni (4 days)
Starting from Ghorepani the first half-day walk was what I expected each day to be- walking along mountain ridges with constant views of snow capped peaks. We undertook a full-day descent to Tatopani from Ghorepani which hurt the knees, a soreness that was thankfully relieved by the natural hot springs at Tatopani.
From Tatopani the walk changed significantly as we walked along a dry river bed - in an immensely wide valley - for three days. The landscape changed from tropical, to alpine, then to an arid bareness, the hills devoid of trees and a dusty wind blowing.
Along the way we passed through many small towns and were passed in turn by many sheep flocks heading towards Pokhara for the upcoming festival - a big family bash in which each family gathers, slaughters a sheep at home and eats well for a week. The mountain towns are also supplied by foot and hoof and we were also constantly overtaken by people carrying immense loads and donkey trains plodding along.
Kagbeni-Mukthinath
Climbing half our day's 1,110m ascent in the first hour we soon left behind the dry river bed of our last 3 days' walk. We walked near the ridge of an arid hill, to our left the valley fell steeply away to a river below before rising steeply to the opposing hill's peak. In front of us Annapurna's icy high pass, at 5000m's, was flanked on both sides by mountains reaching 7,000m's above sea level. The mountains slouched like Elizabethan lords, clouds forming feathers in their caps. A band of light clouds of dazzling silver formed their belt and the same brightness illuminated their boots, the river below.
After several hours walk we turned into Mukthinath Valley. Jarakoth town halfway up the valley was brown and white walls. The buckwheat crop, just ready for harvesting, was burnished pink. The trees had either turned yellow or were still green, the colours requiring no more sophisticated description or simile to capture their colour. At this closer distance the mountains were no longer feudal lords but rough diamonds forced from the earth and uncut by the hands of man.
I have only seem David to rival the valley's beauty, an unlikely comparison but one that came to mind without prompting. I will carry the memory without being able to communicate it because of the laws of light and photography and because Virginia Woolf wrote correctly that attempting to truly describe natures' colour stays the pen because of the impossibility of the task.
We walked without talking and hardly encountering others (finally free from the frequent tourists, guides, porters, carriers, policemen, soldiers, workmen, shepherds and sheep flocks, donkey drivers and pack-trains, and the occasional jeep, motorbike or helicopter). At that height there was no running river, mammal, bird or hidden insect providing background noise. When we walked I heard our footsteps and my breathing, when we stopped I heard my heart and our breathing and finally silence, something rare in my life.
We walked from Pokhara - Tikedungha - Ghorepani - Tatopani - Ghasa - Mahrpa - KagBeni - Mukthinath - Jomsom and flew back to Pokhara. We generally left our guesthouse by 7.30 and arrived between 1-4pm depending on the distance to be covered. On a map here: http://www.alpaca-voyages.com/nep-map-kaligandai-jomsom-trek.gif
To tell the tale...
Pokhara-Ghorepani (2 days)
The walk was through a lush, tropical region still at a relatively low level - up to about 2,600m at Ghorepani. From time to time we had a view of a snow capped peak but for the most part saw steep hills of forest and rice paddies.
Poon Hill (dawn, day 3)
Awaking 1 hour before dawn we were quickly on our way up nearby Poon Hill on a perfectly clear morning, our walk lit by a half-moon and countless stars. From the crest of Poon Hill we looked upon 16 peaks in the Annapurna and Dhaulagiri ranges, all snow capped and crystal clear that morning. The mountains changed from dim-pale, to golden and then startling white as the moon light gave way to dawn and then dawn to day.
Ghorepani-Kagbeni (4 days)
Starting from Ghorepani the first half-day walk was what I expected each day to be- walking along mountain ridges with constant views of snow capped peaks. We undertook a full-day descent to Tatopani from Ghorepani which hurt the knees, a soreness that was thankfully relieved by the natural hot springs at Tatopani.
From Tatopani the walk changed significantly as we walked along a dry river bed - in an immensely wide valley - for three days. The landscape changed from tropical, to alpine, then to an arid bareness, the hills devoid of trees and a dusty wind blowing.
Along the way we passed through many small towns and were passed in turn by many sheep flocks heading towards Pokhara for the upcoming festival - a big family bash in which each family gathers, slaughters a sheep at home and eats well for a week. The mountain towns are also supplied by foot and hoof and we were also constantly overtaken by people carrying immense loads and donkey trains plodding along.
Kagbeni-Mukthinath
Climbing half our day's 1,110m ascent in the first hour we soon left behind the dry river bed of our last 3 days' walk. We walked near the ridge of an arid hill, to our left the valley fell steeply away to a river below before rising steeply to the opposing hill's peak. In front of us Annapurna's icy high pass, at 5000m's, was flanked on both sides by mountains reaching 7,000m's above sea level. The mountains slouched like Elizabethan lords, clouds forming feathers in their caps. A band of light clouds of dazzling silver formed their belt and the same brightness illuminated their boots, the river below.
After several hours walk we turned into Mukthinath Valley. Jarakoth town halfway up the valley was brown and white walls. The buckwheat crop, just ready for harvesting, was burnished pink. The trees had either turned yellow or were still green, the colours requiring no more sophisticated description or simile to capture their colour. At this closer distance the mountains were no longer feudal lords but rough diamonds forced from the earth and uncut by the hands of man.
I have only seem David to rival the valley's beauty, an unlikely comparison but one that came to mind without prompting. I will carry the memory without being able to communicate it because of the laws of light and photography and because Virginia Woolf wrote correctly that attempting to truly describe natures' colour stays the pen because of the impossibility of the task.
We walked without talking and hardly encountering others (finally free from the frequent tourists, guides, porters, carriers, policemen, soldiers, workmen, shepherds and sheep flocks, donkey drivers and pack-trains, and the occasional jeep, motorbike or helicopter). At that height there was no running river, mammal, bird or hidden insect providing background noise. When we walked I heard our footsteps and my breathing, when we stopped I heard my heart and our breathing and finally silence, something rare in my life.
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