Tubby

2011-01-10T20:54:00.001-10:00

Today Hannah commented on a chest x-ray. 'That man has to go to the doctors 'cause he's lost his bones'

2010-12-22T01:19:00.000-10:00

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

The Beanstalk

2010-12-17T19:44:00.003-10:00

Once upon a time there was a beanstalk. And the horses and the unicorns and the ponies and the leaves climbed up. But the beanstalk fell over and then they pushed it up again. And then a naughty Trevor the tree monster came. And then he said 'naughty girl!' and then he ran out again. And then he went to the water to search for something and then he burnt his bottom! Then he had to go back to the river again so he could clean his bottom again. And then Hannah came round and Hannah put him in the fire and he burnt his bottom again and then Hannah put him in the water to make his bottom better again.

Hannah Tubby, 2.5

Japan with a baby

2009-07-01T12:00:00.010-10:00

Day 1 | Flight

'Hanna' means flower in Japanese. I know this because a Japanese woman in the Jetstar goldcoast lounge told us. She had a daughter called Hanna as well. Her daughter had a 'Dora the Explorer' bag. God, I hope this blog gets more interesting. 3 hours sleep last night. Knackered.

It may be Jetstar policy for passengers to remain belted in at all times but it seems to be Hannah's requirement to sit on the parent who she is not buckled to. This made our 10 hour flight fun.
Hannah wasn't happy to be buckled in on the plane and she made this perfectly clear. We got some mouth from the woman sitting behind me. Conversation went something like this;

"Can't you shut her up?"
"I'm afraid they don't come with on/off switches"
"Can't you make her pass out?"
"Do you want me to bash her over the head? Idiot."

Then she went to sleep.

Day 2 | 1st night in Tokyo

We had a bit of a hairy journey to the hostel last night - we knew where we wanted to go, but there are very few stop names on the subway map in English. 9.30pm lost and very tired on the Japanese subway with a grumpy baby is not fun. Luckily we found an English speaker who put us right. Finally we checked in and put Hannah to bed. Both busting for the toilet but both failed to locate the flush mechanism on the strange electronic toilets here. In the end we decide to hold it in to save potential embarrassment and go to sleep...

Today was spent getting out shit together (no pun intended) and escaping the pull of Tokyo. We took the shinkansen (bullet train) 'super express' to Kyoto which was great experience in itself. Bang on time, very frequent, very fast and incredibly clean. This is how cross country transport should work. This journey is an overnight bus ride. Under 3 hours on the shinkansen! You pay for it though.

Day 3 | Kyoto

Staying at K's hostel again. We headed to the Arashiyama/Sagano area/monkey park for some excitement. Hannah had great fun on the long, dangerous slide in the childrens play area. So did the monkeys. We stumbled upon a nice temple on our walk back to the station (not hard in Kyoto)
We hit rush hour on the train back home. The Japanese really know how to pack 'em in. Hannah was alseap in her backpack on the floor of the train when the train stopped and hundreds of people pushed their way onto the train It took all my strength to prevent her from being crunched.
Fantastic pork ramen for dinner at a place open 22 hours a day. The 'waiter' was wearing overalls and white rubber boots for some reason. Each choice as they only served one dish. Noodles, 700Yen.
There is some kind of 'bamboo xmas' celebration going on here in Kyoto. Everywhere we go there are bamboo sticks decorated with thin strips of paper.

Day 4 | Kyoto/Hiroshima

This morning we decided to do our mandatory bit of wandering around Kyoto temples. We took a bus to Kinkaku-ji - the famous 'golden temple' - one of Japan's best known sights, and a pretty nice temple as temples go. If you are into temples that is. Far too many people to be classed as enjoyable in my book Here is a photo of the golden temple in Amritsar. It was far more pretty.

Cool Golden Temple

In the afternoon we took the shinkansen to Hiroshima. People keep giving us stuff. They are just too nice. It's the travelling with a baby that does it. We got 2 keyring/mobile bling/soft toy things on the train and then at the station we asked some random bloke directions - he insisted on taking us to the station exit to point the way out and then proceeded to give us a box of sweet potato cakes!
A school girl at the station gave Hannah a carebear and our waitress tonight gave us a small plastic figure of a Japanese football player. If we carry on at this rate we will go over out luggage allowance!

Tonight's meal was fantastic (1800 Yen total) 'Okonomi-yaki', Hiroshima style - a local dish apparently, made with egg noodles, chinese chives, bacon and egg fried with the magic Japanese Worcestershire-type sauce. A winner. Tonight gets the prize for the most dangerous meal we have yet eaten with a 1 year old. Foot high tables with scalding hot plates (teppan) as tops. Lots of them. They all have deep wells below where you put your feet. If I wanted to create a baby trap to capture and maim, I couldn't think of a better setup.
I did my responsible father bit and refrained from ordering alcohol with our meal.

We got away injury free. Tubbys - 1, Japan - 0.

Hannah attempts to reach the hotplate

Back at the hostal we discovered the bamboo xmas trees with the paper strips are for the tanabata 'star festival' on July 7th

Waving at randoms, the A-dome

Day 06

In the morning we took a local bus to the main attraction here - A museum built around the remains of a building that survived the atomic bomb in 1945 - the 'A' dome. We met a guy who had had first hand experience of the radiation - in a wheelchair with no limbs.

We had heard that we could camp on a small island close to Hiroshima. This would give us an opportunity to use the camping equipment we have been lugging around with us so we decided to give it a try. A train/ferry combo later (all free with our JR rail pass) we were at the campsite - a huge place clearly designed for the occasional school camp trip. We were the only ones there. We discovered a fantastic toilet block complete with baby changing facilities and coat racks. Seems a little out of place...

I had been assured that we would be able to get fuel for our MSR stove at the site, and sure enough we were able to get some kerosine from the nice lady at the desk. It was only alter we discovered that this was the type of kerosene that didn't actuallt burn! Dinner was cold noodles, bread and bananas we had luckily brought along with us.

Day 07 Miyajima

The Japanese stick vending machines everywhere. This campsite has one so we were able to have a chilled drink in the morning after a night of not much sleep (and a nice cold beer last night).

As we are camping a busride from anywhere we decided to take the local 'nature' walk to the other side of the island, described by the only other guy here in the campsite as 'hardo'. He was correct. 40 minutes uphill in tropical heat with a baby on your back is not an easy thing.
The island has many tame deer wandering about, sniffing for food. Hannah loves them. She screams 'DEER!' each time we see one (which is quite a lot)
We arrived back at the campsite around 7pm and went straight to bed, knackered and very hot.

Knackering walk

We left Miyajima as early as possible and got on the bullet train headed for Nara - we need to start making tracks back to Tokyo as our 7 day JR rail passes expire tomorrow and due to the horrendous price of shinkansen travel we need to be close to Tokyo for our volcano climb and flights home.

Hannah got given some more tat on the train by various admirers. We had a photo frenzy at the Miyajima ferry terminal when a group of around 12 women all wanted to have their photo taken holding her. For the train ride Kerry bought Hannah what she thought was a healthy (although rather strange) white bread yoghurt sandwich - this turned out to be a super sweet jam and cream sandwich - basically baby drugs which had her bouncing off the walls for most of the 3 hour journey.

We reached Nara around 3pm and decided upon a hostel favoured by our guide book - the Nara Youth Hostel which turned out to be a strange military tyle establishment with a 10.30 pm cur-few, set meal times (although there are signs in the kitchen saying it is forbidden to cook here), communal showers etc.. pretty nasty but it will do.. Dinner was a selection of microwavable dishes from the local supermarket
Campsite costs were YEN300 each - less than a tenth of the cost of a double room

Laughing

2008-05-18T11:43:00.002-10:00

2007-07-19T00:45:00.000-10:00

It's a baby Rodney!

I had a life changing experience a week or so ago. I accompanied Kerry to the Manly radiology unit to have a large growth in her abdomen checked out. Imagine our surprise when we discovered a small person in there. Ultrasound machines are fantastic contraptions. Our first go on one of these allowed us to see out first offspring in it's full glory, wriggling and turning around inside it's Mummy like a goodun. We could see it's heart beating away at 136bpm and even the stomach and kidneys (we were looking to see it there was any liquid in the stomach - this is a good sign, apparently). Default position for a baby Tubby when killing time seems to be lying on it's back, knees in the air, feet crossed with arms waving about all over the place.

we left, clutching out baby photos (which really didn't do the experience justice, BTW...)

Release date, early January.

Salvador, Santiago and the end.

2007-05-20T03:29:00.000-10:00

A bunch of Berimbaus

After a few days in Rio, we decided head north to Salvador for a bit of African culture. We were originally going to take a 28 hour bus ride, but incredibly it turned out to be cheaper to fly (with Gol, the new low-cost Braillian carrier), although it was a bit of a challenge to getting the tickets booked - another crappy website that doesn't take international credit cards, and fails to tell you this until the very the of the booking process. moan, moan..

Salvador is a city great for church buffs - it has 136 of them apparently. We decided to stay in Barra (pronounced 'Baha'), a little down the coast from the city but with nice beaches and great surf. The area is famous for it's lighthouse, which marks the spot where the Portuguese first landed in 1580. Its claim-to-fame is that it's first lighthouse built in the Americas. Salvador itself is home to Capoeira, a kind of dancy/fighty type thing created by the African slaves in the 16th Century.

The lighthouse

For our first few nights we stayed at the 'Albergue do Porto' (their best room at 50 bucks/night). We soon realised we were paying well over the odds (we had gone for the LP recommendation) and moved to a fantastic apartment on the sea front for the same price. We spent 7 nights there in total, exploring the city a little (although trying to minimise our trips on the public lift that links the lower and upper halves of the city - it's almost a free-fall drop.) Salvador centre is packed full of 'ribbon kids' - swarms of young blokes trying to tie coloured ribbons (or 'gifts') around the arms of tourists. Nice place but that was a bit of a pain in the arse.

The food in Salvador (and Brazil in general, come to that) was great. We found a pay by weight place - great food with large plates of exotic fruit - I covered mine in what looked like a fantastic raspberry sauce. Turned out to be Tomato Ketchup, which didn't add much to the dish. This set Kerry off as it reminded her of a time in New Zealand walking the Tongariro circuit when all we had to eat after a hard days walking was pasta and ketchup - we had bought a huge carton of it thinking in was pasta sauce.

Buildings, Salvador

After a week or so we flew back to Rio and then back to Santiago for our last few days in South America before our final flights back to Sydney. We took a bus to Valparaiso, a famous port town only 2 hours away for a couple of days of culture.

In Valparaiso we managed to land ourselves some free Spanish lessons taught by a kind of Chilean Borat character (who was also our hostel owner). Among other things we learnt that in South America, when a man changes the colour of his eyes with contact lenses, he is gay. The hand-on teaching method meant that we spent a lot of time wandering around the town and local supermarket learning the Spanish for various fruit items, sanitary pads etc..

Back in Santiago we took a day trip to the San Francisco glacier and 'El Morado', beautiful mountain scenery only an hour away from one of the largest cities on the continent. Halfway up we found a natural spring with naturally carbonated water spewing from it. Fantastic. We had lunch in an ice cave at the base of the glacier before heading back to the city.

The next day we flew back to Sydney. This was the final flight of our trip and the start of our new lives as residents in Australia. Next on the agenda is a job and a place to live!

(No photos accompanying the end part of this post. Yahoo has managed to screw up my account, removing all my access/ability to upload photos to Flickr. Grrrr...)

Lots of fun in Rio

2007-05-15T04:15:00.001-10:00

Rio de Janeiro, from the sugarloaf. Big Jesus visible on the right

God created Rio on the 7th day, and to be fair, he did a bloody good job.

Neither of us speak any Portuguese, so we are having to get by with the limited Spanish we have picked up, throwing in lots of "Obrigados". I was initially confused by all the shouts of "Oi", but it turns out this is just the sound of people saying hello to one another...

We discovered that Kerry has been blessed with a pattern of freckles on her right thigh in the shape of the southern cross..

Staying in the Botafogo district at a El Misti, until we were kicked out and moved 2 doors down to the Alpha hostel (old rule applied again - much nicer, cheaper place NOT in the guide book). Backpacker accommodation in Rio is relatively expensive (remember, this IS South America). A double room, with shared bathroom is around 20 quid, although some places we tried wanted 50! Botafogo is a nice place, with good views of the sugerloaf across the bay. We took the cable car up to the top for our first taste of what makes Rio so special - the spectacular setting. The mountains and sea remind us a little of Cape Town, although on a much grander scale.

A day on Ipanema beach

We enjoyed some of the beach life Rio has to offer, especially the famous beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema a little further around the coast - areas with some highest population densities in the world. Ipanema is famous for being home to the yearly carnival. All the prices go up by about 500%! So far, I have to award a pretty low score on the tits and bums front. It is winter here, but it is still a good 30 degrees here in the sun. Not a patch on the scenery when we visited the beach town of Florianopolis a few years ago. Kerry is pretty happy with the Brazilian men however (she is at pains to point out).

Sunday seems to be the day to go to the beach if you are a local here. The main road is closed to traffic, and there are people everywhere. Everybody and their dog (complete with knitted doggy boots - very hip in Rio at the moment) descends upon Copacabana beach. It is true what they say about the Brazilians - what they have they like to flaunt, but it is what they haven't got that they flaunt the most - meaning a lot of the old fat ones come to the beach in g-strings and tiny pink speedos. It is great to see such self confidence, but you have to be careful where you rest your eyes.

The sugerloaf

We scouted out the best way to ascent the Corcovada ("hunch back peak"), home to the 38m high status of Christ the Redeemer (or "The Big J") - this turned out to be with our hostels pet taxi driver. Even the public train would have cost us more. We were there on a Saturday morning, and a catholic church service was in full swing at the very top; Even with the swarming Japanese tourists and the fact that we didnt understand a word of it, the service and music, at 710m and overlooking all or the city was very moving. These were certainly many teary faces in the crowd. The statue was completed in 1931 and is pretty special. Its certainly the best art-deco Jesus I have ever seen.

On our last day we saw "Homem Aranha 3" at the local cinema - Peter Parker doing his best Brian Molko impression to much laughter from the audience.

Argentina and the Iguazu Falls

2007-04-26T12:21:00.000-10:00

The Iguazu falls - a lot of water

After leaving Mum and Peter, and after a night in Puerto Varas furiously downloading new music, Kerry and I headed back to Pucon for more volcano admiring. We had vague plans to climb volcan Llaima, alitle north of here, but after checking around we were put off by both the bad weather and the huge price tag to get a guide motivated to come with us (US250 each).

We spent an afternoon sliding amongst the trees on a local canopy slide trip, which was good fun. We met a guy who might be able to hook us up with a guide for the Llaima climb when we come back to Chile in a month or so....

Canopy sliding in Pucon

We tried a new hostel - while we were there an Australian couple in the room next door were robbed while they were eating dinner. Some bloke scaled the wall in the rain. We were lucky.

From Pucon we took an overnight bus back to Santiago and the next day we collected our Australian visas from the Santiago embassy (yeah, we are now residents!) and then flight to Buenos Aires, where we visited the tourist sites - the Recoletta, theLa Boca district and we managed to catch the a film, Sunshine, another winner from Danny Boyle.

La Boca district, Buenos Aires

Diego is obviously a bit desperate these days, La Boca

When we had had enough of BA, we booked ourselves onto our first long bus ride up to the Iguazu Falls, right on the border of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. This was another experience we enjoyed so much the first time we were here, and had decided to come back for another visit (not the bus ride, the falls). We stayed at the Hostel Park, close to the bus station and enjoyed the swimming pool there for a couple of days. Then we took a bus across the border into Brazil, checked out their side of the falls and then headed off to Rio de Janeiro on an overnight bus.

The Devils Throat on the Brazilian side of the Falls

Our 22 hour bus ride from Foz du Iguazu to Rio de Janeiro was not very comfortable (no full cama option available this time). Plenty of food and toilet stops though - buffet food sold by the kilo and breaded chicken lollypops, which were surpisingly tasty).

Volcanoes and the Chilean Lake District

2007-04-21T16:27:00.000-10:00

From Puerto Natales we took a bus across the border to El Calafate, Argentina the gateway to the Parque Nacional Los Glaciers. When we were here 3 years ago, accommodation was like gold dust, but this visit we were able to find somewhere pretty quickly (low season). We spent our first night camping but got little sleep - some locals decided to erect a large frame tent at 2am...

The Perito Moreno glacier

We took trips to see a few of the glaciers this town is famous for. The Upsala (the largest in the region at 60km long), a tounge of ice flowing down from the southern icecap was the most impressive. We also visited the Perito Moreno, one of the few glaciers in the world that is still advancing. The ice forces itself up against a small island, splitting the lake in half and creating huge water pressures. In 2004 (a few months after we were here last time) the pressure forced through the ice wall resulting in a huge (very cold) explosion.

We also found a fantastic "Tenedor Libre" buffet restaurant - all you can eat for about a fiver. Bargain! A lot of time was spent in cafes indulging in "submarinos" - hot milk with melted chocolate.

After a few days we took a 4 hour bus ride to El Chalten at the northern end of the park, and right at the foot of the Fitz Roy massif. The town is expanding rapidly - new buildings are being erected everywhere and they are even putting in a paved road! We had arrived out of season and consequenty the weather wasnt all that great. We found a nice room and hung around town (and the local micro brewery) for a few days before plucking up the courage to head into the mountains and camp for one night at the base of the Laguna Torre and the glacier there. It rained a lot.

The hike to Laguna Torre

A few days later we met my mum and Eustache at Puerto Montt airport. They had just finished walking the Inca Trail in Peru and had flown south, into Chile to meet us. We hired a car and drove north to Pucon in the lake district, a beautiful region full of huge lakes and snow capped volcanos - not actually visible at the moment however, just lots and lots of grey cloud and rain....

We spent a few days exploring the area and doing a few local walks, waiting for the weather to change. A 6 hour stroll through Parque Nacional Huerquehue (through both rain and snow) still turned out to be very enjoyable, apart from the wet boots. After an hour or so of driving around searching for the start of the trek (and being ridiculed by the locals - idiot tourists walking in the rain) we trekked upto a plateau surrounded by 3 large lakes and many monkey puzzle trees. Graham, Peters GPS was very helpful with the route finding.

Mum and Eustash

The weather reports were spot on the for Friday, our 2nd to last day. We rose early and joined a group of 14 others (and the agency Politur) for an ascent of Volcan Villarrica, one of Chiles most active volcanos at 2847 metres high. We had not been able to even see the volcano before this morning due to cloud, but now we had a completely clear sky and it dominated the skyline. Whilst is had been raining in Pucon for the previous few days it had been snowing on the volcano and consequently we quickly found ourselves trudging through ankle to knee deep snow....

An hour later and about halfway up our guides gently broke it to the group that the icy conditions on the upper slopes were dangerous and it was unsafe to continue the climb. As luck would have it, I had previously mentioned to "Guido" (as in the starwars character) our Swiss guide that Kerry and I had summited Volcan Cotopaxi in Ecuador a few years ago. A good move on my part, as after the disappointment of being told we had to descend, he came over to us and told us that as we were the only ones confident with the use of crampons he had decided to continue up the mountain with just us! Proof that name dropping does sometimes work. On the way up we had a camera disaster - the zoom ring somehow managed to detatch itself from the body and the lens itself developed a nasty rattle. The zoom still works in a kind of trombone pulling and pushing type fashion. The main thing is it still seems to take photos...

After an hour and a half, and an exhausting zig-zag up ice and deep snow we were staring down into the volcanoes crater trying to avoid being poisoned by the large amounts of chlorine (our knowlegable guide insisted that it was chlorine, not sulphur) eminating from it. The views from the top were great, especially looking south with no less than 4 other snow capped volcanoes in view. There was a suprising amount of volcanic activity going on at the top, with deep rumbles and the occasional splatter of lava firing into the air. The last proper eruption of Volcan Villarrica occurred in the 1970s, when the escaping lava destroyed Conaripe an entire town to the south. Since then there have been one or two close calls, but nothing as severe. Volcanologists currently consider Chile to be in the pretty high risk category for another huge earthquake soonish (9 on the Richter scale). They now have a sophisticated early warning system in Pucon.

After a circuit of the crater we donned the protective over-trousers we had been issued and launched ourselves down the side of the volcano, sliding on our arses as fast as possible whereever there was suitable snow. Kerry managed to leave her ice axe at the top of a particularly steep bit, which I managed to scale and retrieve (the hardest part of the whole climb!) Sliding in this way can get pretty painful though, and I learnt the hard way that it is really not sensible to have you glasses in the old trouser pocket. I managed to bend them back into shape ok though.

The next day we headed south in the car. stopping off for a couple of hours at some themal baths in Conaripe. The drive was verz scenic - we could see the Volcanos Villarrica, Lanin (Argentina) and Choshuenco. In the evening we checked into a hostal in Puerta Varas and watched the sun set on Volcan Osorno.

Eustash, mum, Volcan Osorno and Kerry

The last light on Volcan Osorno

Back in Patagonia

2007-04-03T13:19:00.000-10:00

Sunset from Lake Pehoe

From Punta Arenas we bussed it to Puerto Natales, the gateway to the Torres del Paine National Park. We spent a day stocking up with food for 6 (or so) days trekking, as well as getting our dirty clothes washed. As my LAN airline loyalty points (which I collected last time I was in South America) expire at the end of the month I spent some time cashing them in for a flight from Lima to Santiago in June. I hope I got the date right... Kerry has no points. I am thinking of sending Kerry on the bus (a 60 hour ride). Lets see if she behaves herself...

We had a 2 hour bus ride into the park. Almost had a disaster before we had even started walking - I left my down jacket in the hostal and had to get the bus to stop and wait for us while we ran back to get it. Not fun. Once we had arrived, it was a 2 hour walk from the Administration centre to the "Las Carettas" campsite, and we certainly felt the weight of our packs and 6 days of food on our backs. We have decided to explore the lesser visited parts of the park on this visit - we were here 3 years ago we saw much of it whilst walking around "El Circuito", a 9 day circuit. Anyway, here is the rest of our trip, blow by blow;

Day 2

After a night of little sleep we set off for "Campimento Italiana", and 5 hours later we had arrived. This turned out to be our longest walking day. From our last visit here I remember this campsite as being one of the nastiest in the park and we were not dissapointed. It is located right in the center of the "W" trail, and gets lots of traffic.

Day 3

Rain all day today so we bundled down for a lazy day in the tent. Through shear bordom we invented the games "Hang Monkey" (remarkably similar to hangman) and "slap Benny" where I basically get slapped around the face a lot (whilst singing "Patacake Patacake bakers man"). Then there was "Bouncy Fly", which involves flicking flies through the tent fabric, getting then to bounce off the flysheet and back again, the winner being the one who gets the most repititions. Its amazing the fun you can have in a tent. Our "luxury" item, the MP4 player I bought in Hong Kong, loaded with the complete second series of Extras lasted precisely 2 episodes before the battery died, much to our disapointment. Stupid chinese crap.

Hours of fun in the tent

Day 4

Still raining, but bored of Camping Italiano we packed up and hiked the 2 hours back to the edge of Lake Pehoe and the paid campsite there (3500 pesos each). Due to a spectacular language disaster our lunchtime cheese and ham sandwiches turned into full blown cheese burger meals that pretty much put us to sleep for the rest of the afternoon.

A bunch of dead trees

Day 5

Fantastic orange sunrise at 7am this morning. The rain has at last abaited. We spent the day walking up the side of Lago Grey to the campsite at the base of the grey glacier. I spoke to soon about the rain as by the time we got there we were soaked. We were kept awake for most of the night by some idiot pissed up Canadians puking on each other in their tent.

Day 6

Luck was with us today - we got great views of the glacier bathed in glorious sunlight. We didn't have any gin or tonic and so had the next best thing - coffee made with ancient ice. We had planned to take a boat to the bottom of the lake but were put off by the US$70 price tag, and so decided to walk back down to Pehoe, which turned out to be a really nice (dry) evening walk. Cena was taken in the lodge - chicken, rice and salad.

Kerry and Glacier Grey

Day 7

We had a chance to lay in this morning as we had decided to hang around for the only ferry to take us across Lake Pehoe. In the high season there are 3 boats each day on this route, and until yesterday there were 2. On the other side we hiked up a hill in an incredibly strong wind to view the largest waterfall in the park - The "Salto Grande", and then back down and around the lake to camping Pehoe. The walk would have taken a good 2 hours had we not managed to hitch a lift. This campsite is the best so far. Being new, it has been really nicely laid out with great views of the Paine massive across the lake. We spent the last of our cash on wine, helping us celebrate my bro's birthday, which is today.

Day 8

After the 2 hour walk back to the ferry port (in very windy conditions - the wind here has the amazing ability to be blowing in your face no matter which direction you walk) we made the coach connection to take us out of the park and back to Puerto Natales.

The towers of paine

We are back in the town now. We headed straight for a good old traditional Chilean lamb asado when we got back. I have great memories of one of these at one of the lodges when we were here last. It's low season now and there are very few tourists around. We at last found the only place that sells the "Torres del Paine" clothing brand, and got chatting to the owner who is desperatly trying to crack the market. It's good stuff but due to the lack of infrastructure here it's all being made in China at the moment. Last night we witnessed an incredible pink sunset. Unfortunatly we couldn't get the best view due to being in an internet cafe writing this up. Blogging isn't all fun.

The Falkland Islands

2007-03-25T07:00:00.000-10:00

After a single night at a hostal in Santiago we flew to Stanley, the main settlement on the Falkland Islands off the bottom of the South American coast. Our flight consisted of 3 legs - we landed at both Puerto Montt and Punta Arenas for passenger exchange. At Punta Arenas we had to leave the plane for passport control out of Chile. Alcohol and food were served on each flight though, so it didn’t bother us too much.

6 hours later we landed at Mount Pleasant airport, Stanley where we met up with Patrick Watts, a friend we had made during our last visit here 3 years ago. We have come at a busy time. This year is the 25th anniversary of the Falklands war, or the ´conflict´ as they call it here. Patrick was the Stanley radio broadcaster at the time, transmitting to the settlement during the Argentine occupation (with a gun to his head for some of it, apparently). There have been many journalists here throughout this season and Patrick has been kept busy touring them around. On out flight there were journalists from the New York Times and also Al Jazeera. Indeed, it (and him) seem to have been getting good media coverage in the UK.

The Kings patrol the beach

We had no plans regarding what to do when we arrived at Kays B&B in Stanley. She made us feel at home while we were putting our tent up in the garden (in amongst her legendary gnomes, which are now part of the Stanley tour bus circuit - possibly the most snapped gnomes in the world) with tea and cakes. Stanley is a great place. The Islands have a population of only around 2900, with two thirds of that living in Stanley (that is if you don’t count the 1500 or so military stationed here). Everybody seems to know everybody else (as well as all their business - I doubt secrets are possible here...)

We decided that our first excursion would be to Volunteer Point, a place we fell in love with last time we were here. The next day we got Patrick to drive us out there, into the "camp" as it is called here - a bit of a mission in its self due to the lack of road and the many bogs that it is necessary to avoid. A land rover is an essential piece of kit out here. Volunteers now had a warden stationed onsite, and for the last 3 seasons it had been Rod and his wife, Phil. We got to know Rod pretty well. Due to the fact that the high winds threatened to rip our tent to shreds he allowed us to sleep in the portacabin, situated right next to the large colony of King penguins that are here all year round. He even cooked us a meal for dinner.

On our second night Rod insisted on cooking for us again, although he didn’t eat any himself (he has an aversion to onions - why he decided to include them I do not know). Again he plied me with beer and allowed us to sleep in the cabin. What a great bloke! We went out berry picking with him for an hour or so in the evening - Diddle Dee berries and unique to this part of the world and apparently make great jam. Rod also introduced us to Tea berries, which taste fantastic. They featured heavily in the many tea and cake sessions we shared with him.

We had planned to walk back to Johnson’s Harbour the next day to meet up with Patrick for a lift back to Stanley but as it turned our, Rod was heading that way and offered us a lift all the way back to Kay’s which worked out great.

The next day we took a FIGAS flight to Saunders Island (something Kay had been kind enough to book us onto the day before), another of our favorite haunts here. We flew in a tiny 6 seater plane, which was good fun. Saunders is the only Island with owners that "entertain" campers. There are other islands that would be great to visit but they are generally full board and we are talking big bucks.

When we arrived we met the landowner’s wife, Susan who drove us out to "the neck", a thin strip of land seperating 2 parts of the island. The attraction is that it is completely covered in penguins. On the 4X4 journey out there we watched the warm air puffs from the whales crusing around the island. We spent 2 nights camping at the "Swiss Hotel" at the neck, surrounded by wildlife. On our last day we hiked over to the end of the island to see the elephant seals (as well as a pod of dolphins playing in the surf). These are massive. The males can weigh upto 2000kg!

We also scaled some cliffs to find a colony of black browed albatross. Finally to finish off our time here we made a final visit to the rock-hopper colony. As well as a few comedy moments like this one we managed to get really close to a particularly feisty chap who, for a leaving present came right upto us and promptly shat all over our camera and jackets, leaving us smelling of penguin and fish.

The next morning "Little David" himself (the owner of the island) picked us up and drove us the hour back to the settlement and our flight back to Stanley. On the radio on the way one of the main stories was about a Stanley man who had been banned from his local pub for farting - its all go on the Falklands.

We spent our last afternoon and evening round at Rods watching penguins on the telly. As well as plenty more cake and chocolates he gave us a big pot of freshly made Diddle-dee jelly to take away with us. Looking forward to cracking that open in the near future.

We flew back to Stanley via Carcass Island, Port Howard, Darwin and MPA. What with the wind we were feeling pretty green by the time we arrived back at Kays. We settled down to read the latest copy of the The Penguin news.

We spent our last afternoon and evening on the Islands round at Rods watching penguins on the telly. As well as plenty more cake and chocolates he gave us a big pot of freshly made Diddle-dee jelly to take away with us. Looking forward to cracking that open in the near future.

Patrick, Kerry and Kay (Gnomes not included)

(A load of photos of the penguins on the neck were published in this months BBC wildlife magazine)

Animal Magic

2007-03-12T22:14:00.000-10:00

The next day we spent driving across country towards the Kruger National Park in the north east of the country and by the evening we had managed to reach the outskirts of the park. We were tempted to head through Swazliand to get there, but thought better of the idea after 8 hours driving.... We had a very hot, uncomfortable night in the campsite of the the ´Numbi´ hotel in Hazyview just outside the park gates; Uncomfortable due to the temperature but also the fact that my thermarest seems to have sprung a leak resulting in me having to sleep on the mud. To top that off, one of our tentpoles split during the night. Bugger.

We had a great time in the park. Kruger simply blows the smaller game parks we have visited here out of the water in the shear number of animals it contains. By the end of our first day driving around we had seen impala, zebra, giraffe, blue wildebeast, kudu as well as 4 the magic ´big 5´ - a bunch of elephants, some white rhino, buffalos and a leopard - that was fantastic... we were driving along the parks southern-most road, crossing a concrete bridge over a dried uip river bed. There was a few elephant up the river and we were joking about getting out and hiking up to them to take a look. At that point I happened to look down through the window and there he was, staring up at me about 3 metres away. Suffice to say my arm was quickly retracted and window was up in record speed.

That night we stayed at the Crocodile Bridge camp. We were a little worried about the accommodation on offer (we hadn´t booked anything) but it was fine - we were put up in a very civilised fixed tent with a fridge, fan and more importantly, proper beds. Fantastic. It did cost us 260 Rand, though.

By 8am the next day we spotted the missing Big 1 and had spied all the other 4 again - a leopard finishing off his morning kill in a tree with a hyena hanging out below finishing off the scraps, as well as 3 lionesses chilling out in the middle of the road. Strange that the majority of our sightings are on the main tarred roads... you would have thought the animals would try to stay away from the cars not be attracted towards them. hmmm.. maybe they are radio controlled...

We met a few people who had been in the park for longer than us and had not seen nearly as much. I guess we have been lucky. One European woman wouldn´t stop saying ´Zis I do not believe!´ when we spoke to her. We had to leave.

Also, pleased to report that at last our Australian police clearance letters have arrived so we were able to get those submitted to the powers that be - now the ball is firmly in their court and we wait...

I was up at 5.30am on our last day in Cape Town for a Shark diving trip I had organised a few days earlier. It didn´t get off to the best of starts as I kept a full bus load of cold, sleepy divers waiting for around 20 minutes whilst I got my stuff together. Well, they were early... After a 2 hour drive to Gansbaai, and then a 20 minute boat trip out to sea I was standing in a cage, freezing my nuts off with a 4 metre great white shark thrashing around about 4 feet away. It was a great experience, although the water was far too cold. It would have been better to have been here a little earlier in the season when the water was a little warmer. ´Dive´is a little misleading.. theye is no diving involved. You simply duck under the water to see the action. Nobody could stay in the cage for very long before their feet froze, but I will never forget those black beady eyes staring at me through the cage bars. To attract the sharks blood is poued into the water and to keep them interested they are baited with a tuna head attatched to a length of rope.

Our shark hung aound doing his thing for around 30 minutes until he made a suprise attack on the bait from below, grabbed it and swam straight down, pulling the rope taught and easily winning the tug-of-war with the 2 boat crew. We stayed on the water for another hour or so, but that was it for shark action for the day. Watching the seals on nearby Dyer Island wasn´t anywhere near as exciting.

On the way back to the Cape Town and our hostal the bus passed through the largest township in the city - a 21 mile wide strip of land covere in woodemn shacks, home to around 1 million blacks. The whole thing looks like a massive fire hazzard, and indeed our driver told us that large chunks of it regularly burn to the ground.

I like Qatar Airlines. After a 9 hour flight from Cape Town to Doha the next day, we were preparing for a night in Doha airport were trying to get used to a hard floor with only a small bag of macadamia nuts and an ipod for use as pillows (we had stupidly checked in everything warm/comfortable that we own). After an hour or so I went in search of some blankets (most other people had just nicked theirs from the plane). Instead of blankets, we were put up in a 3 star hotel for the night! Result! They even brought us a couple of burgers and a bottle of water at 3am as a refreshment.

Under African Skies

2007-03-12T22:13:00.001-10:00

We had bought our tickets to Cape Town back in the UK, separate from out RTW trip. We figured that while we had the time and were in the right part of the world we might as well... So from the very top of Africa we flew down to the bottom, via Doha, Qatar. We checked into the Zebra Crossing Lodge and for 3 days explored in and around the city. We hiked up to the top of table mountain on our first day, explored the cape peninsular and the cape of good hope on our second, thanks to our new hire car, Martin. On the way we stopped off at Boulders Beach which was covered in African penguins. We saw our first bunch of wild baboons strolling down the middle of the road, looking for trouble. We drove back via Chapmans Peak, a really nice drive with great views.

We spent a day in the botanical gardens and on the way back checked out Dolphin bay and the kite surfers in the Bloubergstrand area at sunset. Great views of table mountain and the city from across the water...

Cape Town reminds us of parts of New Zealand. I guess that may be the Dutch influences coming through.

After a few days, when we were sick of sleeping in dorm beds we headed out of the city and straight for Franschhoek in the heart of the South African winelands, where we stocked up for the next few weeks at the Delaire vineyard. It is fantastic to be back in a wine producing country again. After much cheese and wine we headed off again for Cape Agulhas where we had planned to spend the night. It took us a while to find somewhere to camp... hotels seem far a more popular choice around these parts. The next day we checked out the De Hoop Nature Reserve and got our first views of some real life game in the form of a couple of Cape Zebras standing a couple of hundred metres away, and some antelope type things. From there we drove ourselves to Mossel Bay - a place that sounds like it should be nice, but is in fact a bit of a shit hole. We found a campsite next to a car park that seems to be used predominantly as a blacks only drinking and racing arena. The guy that took out money told us to head as far away from the car park fence as possible, as cars have been known to hit it during the evening....

From Mossel Baz we headed to "Plet", Plettenburgh Bay not far away as I had developed a nasty cold and really could be arsed with the old driving thing. We found a nice campsite where we had a barbie (braai) and wine evening. After looking at the map and the time we have left in this country we have decided that we really need to get a move on. We spent the 26th driving east, heading for Coffee Bay (it had been recommended), stopping off at Storms River, part of the Tsitsikamma NP. In the afternoon the weather took a turn for the worse and we were driving through cloud for most of the afternoon. We are no longer on the Garden Route its much more like you would expect an African country to be like. Lots more noise, rubbish and most importantly, black people.

The drive from the N2 highway to Coffee Bay on a dirt road was a nightmare. We were tired and spent the entire journey avoiding potholes, horses, other cars (people don´t seem to like using their headlights here) and most importantly people; there were hundreds of them wandering around on the roads. There are a lot of what they
call "4 way junctions" here, which are basically traffic light junctions without the traffic lights (or "robots"), which can mean they are pretty hard to spot. It´s a first come, first served arrangement - works especially well when it comes to making a right turn and it cuts out all the queueing. When we at last arrived in Coffee Bay we headed for the backpacker place, the Coffee Shack, which turned out to be a great little place right on the beach, where we got a free beer and some African "Gracelands" style acapella singing while we were erecting the tent in the rain. This place is served predominantly by the "BazBus" (the South African equiv. of the "Kiwi Experience") and is packed.

"I want to sing" is the English phrase all the kids here are taught first. A little like the "Namaste pen" kids in Nepal, they use it constantly on the tourists to get money. We got a blast this morning, which was pretty good. There is no coffee in Coffee Bay.

On our last night we headed up a nearby hill to watch the sunset with a bunch of bazbussers from the hostel. A local singing group insisted on doing the old acapella thing for us, but were upstaged by their dog, who spent the entire time sliding down the grassy slope on his balls. He would then come back and repeat the process. This was highly amusing.

We drove to Port St. Johns a few hours further up the coast. There is no coastal road here so it was necessary to head back to the N2 and then back down the next right turn which made the drive silly-long. The main reason for coming here was to visit the "Silaka game reserve" which turned out to be a bit rubbish really. We headed up a very bad rocky unsealed road for ages to find zeberas, but all we came across was a vaguely stripey donkey

Port St. Johns is the South African equivalent of Nimbin, Australia. It seems the main reason for a visit is to buy drugs. At one place we ate (The "Delicious Monster") the first thing our waiter asked was is we smoked canabis. After thet we stopped at a bar for a few drinks and managed to catch an hour or so of "West African Idol"; basically Africans trying to sing "I believe I can fly". It was pretty terrible.

Lots more driving. We came very close to hitting a sheep at 120km/hour passing through another state boundary (Eastern Cape to Kwazulu). We checked out another nature reserve (Oribi Gorge) - again we were greeted with a distinct lack of wildlife. We did see 2 warthogs, but on the big game front I dont think that really counts. The next morning I had to settle for a dip in the swimming pool as they wouldnt let me into the sea due to high winds. After beakfast we headed inland, away from the cooling breeze off the Indian ocean. We are both getting a little sick of camping. Kerry asked is I was "going to stuff her in a tent again"... time to maybe start hitting the hostals again. After a few hours driving we took a detour to a Lion Park advertised off the main road. This turned out to be pretty interesting. We saw 14 lions chilling out under a tree. It was super hot though, especially as it didnt seem wise to open the car windows.

By the evening we had reached the Northern Drakensberg and the Royal Natal National Park where we set up camp for the night (Kerrys idea!). At 8am the next day we were at the park headquarters. I was tempted to pack up the tent and hike to the top of the Amphitheatre for a nights wild camping, but was soon put off that idea by the woman at the counter. She said the local people up there would, and I quote "steal our clothes, hurt or maybe kill us". Nice. We ended up walking up the "Tugela Gorge", a 6 hour walk. It was hot. On the way up we were blessed with a breeze, but coming back down at around 2pm the temperature was over 30 degrees and we felt like shit. The binding of our Rough Guide (borrowed from the CT hostal) melted in the car during the day and all the pages fell out.

We got back to the tent to find it open with all our stuff missing... imagine how glad we were when we discovered it wasnt theft. The tent had in fact "blown away" during the day (wierdly we had experienced no high winds suring our walking). Having our tent blow away is a first for us. A kindly neighbour had rescued the tent and chucked all our stuff inside. In the evening we had fun with friendly baboons trying to nick all our stuff. Barbied trout for dinner.

Walk like an Egyptian

2007-02-17T00:58:00.000-10:00

'Visitors (to Egypt) suffer torture no pen can describe from the hungry appeals for baksheesh that gleam from the Arabs eyes'
Tony Horwitz

From the airport at Sharm we decided to head towards Dahab on the Sinai Peninsula (via a super expensive taxi - 200 pounds!). It's meant to be more chilled and backpacker friendly. We checked into a room at the 'Alaska Camp'. Dahab (meaning 'gold' in Arabic) is nice, although impossible to walk down the sea front without being hassled to spend money. Little did we know at the time, but this was nothing to what we would experience later...

On our second day we took an overnight trip to Mount Sinai (or 'Mt. Moses' as they call it when trying to sell you the trip), at 2285 metres this is supposedly where the big G delivered the 10 commandments to Moses, who apparently spent 14 days on the summit and then descended and smashed up a golden calf.

What Moses would have seen, if he got up in time

We set off in a minibus at 11pm and after the climb watched the sun rise from the summit. We were back in Dahab by noon the next day, completely shattered. At the top there was singing, people wielding bibles and all sorts. As we were huddled in our sleeping bags we watched as a Japanese bloke started laying his hands on some of the women in his party, who immediately burst into tears. We are here in the Egyptian mid-winter and it was pretty cold at the top. We had to avoid the icy rocks on the way back down.

At the bottom (after descending some 3740 rock steps chiseled by some poor monk as a form of repentance) we checked out the Saint Catherine Monastery (the oldest in the world - tick) to see a descendant of the biblical 'burning bush', as well as excited pilgrims frantically trying to touch it and snap bits off to take home. This is a place of pilgrimage for lots of different faiths - their is even a mosque in the monastery grounds, and a Greek orthodox church on the summit.

Back in Dahab we spent 2 days diving off the coast at 3 of the red sea's best sites - 'The Lighthouse', 'The Canyon' and 'Eel Gardens' (amazing to watch synchronised waving of hundreds of garden eels standing vertically from the white sand on the sea floor). Saw loads of fish and an 'Arabian electric torpedo ray' (a first for us). I'm still having trouble with the exchange rate and find it very hard to part with 7 pounds for a cup of turkish coffee. It's very quiet here, partly due to the fact that they keep blowing the place up - a tad worrying but at least it means we get cheap breakfasts (around 1 UK pound). On the 10th we took a ferry (possibly the most expensive ferry in the world) over the Gulf of Suez to Hurghada and then headed to the bus station to find transport to Luxor, in the Nile valley. We waited 4 hours in the cold, only to find the arriving bus from Suez full to capacity. At this point we decided to abort the mission, and took a hotel tout up on his offer of a room for the night. After a fun night with mosquitoes we tried again for a bus and at last arrived in Luxor in time for lunch.

After checking out a few nasty looking backpackers places in Luxor we checked into the 'Princess Hotel' at 35pounds/night. We spent a few days visiting some museums on the East bank of the Nile (at the mummification museum we attended a lecture about the preservation of the Colossi of Memnon, which was pretty interesting. Amazing that they are still making major discoveries and uncovering new relics.

We visited 'Karnak', another ancient temple complex that had been almost completely destroyed over the centuries, but would have been incredible in it's heyday, and the Luxor temple at night - all the cool lighting made it far more interesting.

To get over to the west bank we took (were roped into) an organised tour with our hotel, an experience I would not repeat. Although Kerry enjoyed her time here, I wasn't impressed with the Valley of the Kings - the tombs of these Pharaohs have been reduced to the level of a ride at Alton Towers (except without the adrenalin rush after all the queuing). All the incredible treasures they once contained have been plundered over the centuries and all that remains are hot stone rooms full of hundreds of tourists flashing away with their cameras. Photography in the tombs is banned, and occasionally a cross looking Egyptian would confiscate a camera, which I found highly amusing.

To be honest, I am amazed anything at all has survived. The tomb and temple walls, which were once covered in hieroglyphs are generally unprotected from all the tourists who seem compelled to touch and brush against them. I am looking forward to visiting the Egyptian museum in Cairo where a lot of the 'officially' plundered treasures have ended up.

Big Toes

On the 13th, Kerry bought 'Stanley' her new pet scarab beetle. We went for a drink at the Sheraton Hotel at a beautiful location on the Nile with the Valley of the Kings visible over the river.. We took a felluca ride back, at sunset. On the trip, our skipper 'Captain Alligator' tried to sell us 1) a meal at his friends place 2) some cannabis 3) a trip to 'banana island' 4) train tickets to Aswan 5) a room for the night and 6) a camel ride (twice). Then he had the cheek to ask us for a tip.

We took a 4 hour train ride to Aswan where we checked into the Hathor Hotel (550/night) with breakfast (a few ropey bits of bread and a boiled egg served by a one eyed man in a gold dress). On our first day we watched a 'sound and light' show on the island of Philae (we turned up an hour early, just in time to catch the French show - great). We waited around for an hour and a half and watched the show in English. Our taxi driver seemed to be under the impression that we could grant him a UK visa, something he babbled on about for most of the journey. For the rest of it all he did was try to extract things from us. He was particularly interested in getting our sunglasses for himself. I even found myself haggling over the tip that is had decided he deserved - amazing!

We took a day trip to Abu Simbel to see another hot, stuffy old temple filled with hundreds of Japanese tourists. Sorry, I'm getting cynical. It's just we were up at 3am this morning in order to catch the 3 hour minibus drive there through the desert. I think i'm getting to old for this shi... no, Kerry is right, I must stop that kind of talk. I'm sure the Egyptians are really nice people if you meet them under the right circumstances - like maybe a library. The temples here were build in 1274BC (silly old) by Ramses the 2nd. Until the 1820's they were lost under sand and then in the 60's the powers that be decided to damn the Nile, resulting in the formation of Lake Nasser (largest man-made lake in the world - tick). However, this meant that they had to MOVE the entire temple complex higher to avoid flooding it. This took them 4 years.

Back at the hotel I managed to mash up my toe on the bottom of the lift door. We covered it in iodine but I am a little worried about infection. Stupid Egyptian doors.

Our last few days in Egypt were spent taking an uncomfortable overnight (14 hour) train ride back to Cairo, checking out the Egyptian museum (King Tut's death mask is pretty special, and the ancient Egyptians invented the boomerang, not the Australians..) and the Pyramids at Giza.

Independent travel around mainland Egypt is not easy. Most tourists don't venture outside their cruise ship/hotel grounds by themselves - hardly surprising as the locals just don't leave you alone. We receive constant cries of 'Yes, something?' from all sides, cigarettes rammed in our faces and hassle from touts selling taxi/felluca/chariot rides, tours, food etc every 3 minutes... I'm sick of kebabs. If I hear one more indignant cry of 'Yes, something?' I might punch someone. We now feel we fully understand the phrase 'you cheeky Arab'.....

On our last day in the country we visited the pyramids at Giza before our flight in the afternoon. It was well worth it, although we feel the ancient Egyptians are probably turning in their tombs at the sight of their greatest accomplishment (and the last of the 7 wonders of the world) now being eroded away by the smog and pollution of urban Cairo.

Back in the USSR (UK)

2007-02-05T18:00:00.000-10:00

From Thailand we flew to Hong Kong and checked into a pretty nasty cell in the Mirador mansions on Nathan Road - a place we had been before and knew was at least safe. We spent a few days wandering around the markets picking up various pressies for family back in the UK. Kerry got some new glasses. We decided that it would be nice to be back home for New Year and managed to re-arrange our flight dates. After a single night in Beijing, we now fly back to the UK on the 31st. Our next job was to arrange somewhere to go for new year - not an easy task as on that exact day an earthquake in Taiwan managed to knock out all internet and long distance communications all over Hong Kong. Brilliant.

On the food front, we both confirmed our suspicions that Wonton soup is nasty - something about the texture. We bought a couple of fancy cheap mp4 players with comedy chinese-english instructions. If anyone has any ideas, please let me know.

Christmas in Hong Kong

On the way out of Hong Kong we managed to lose our (now almost dry) oil painting of Everest in the airport lounge, and break our RC flying saucer. Bangkok rubbish.

After a fleeting stop in Beijing - one night in an airport hotel at -3 degrees (and a nasty landing on a snow covered runway), we boarded a BA flight to London. Before the flight we spent a few hours taking advantage of the oneworld lounge, and during it Kerry managed to snap the end of her BA issue headphone jack on in the seat socket. After another bumpy landing we arrived at Heathrow, 8 hours better off. It was raining. We taxied to John and Alex's gaff in Croydon and spent a very pleasant evening with them and M,M&M (Mark, Mads and Melissa) who were over from New Zealand.

From there I went to Sydenham to spend a few days with my brother and his girlfriend in their new house. We painted and moved the shed. We errected a bathroom extractor fan. We dug a vegetable garden. We saw a production of 'Watership Down' at the Lyric theatre (men with pompoms on their heads as rabbits). We sat behind David Suchet, the bloke who plays Poirot, apparently. We explored central London and did some cycling.

Then I took a quick trip to Aylesbury on the train for a night our with some old friends. Beer and Thai food turned out to be a recipe for a great evening.

After all that it was off to Radnage to see Mum and Peter, and to have our slightly late family Christmas get together. Pretty much the whole family came over, which was really nice. It was great to see everyone again, and to offload all the presents we had picked up from various places and had been carting around the world with us.

Once everybody had left, I basically chilled out for a week or so with family. Very relaxing. I cooked some samosas, I chopped logs and said hello to Mum's sheep, geese and 'White Knight', the pet llama.

Mum and Peter go out a lot, and I was albe to join them a few times! We went to the Oxford playhouse to see 'Our countrys good' (about the first fleet of convicts to arrive in Australia) one night, and to Aylesbury to see a slightly nutty band at the limelight (self-described as 'possibly one of the best phono-fiddle bands in Buckinghamshire') - notable highlights were a rock version of 'walking in the air'... followed by a good old English Indian meal at the El Halal with popudums and lime pickle. mmmm.

We had planned to head to Naples for a weekend on the 1st Febuary, but due the fact that we only had a few days to get our arses in gear, money constraints and BA's planned strikes around that time we basically decided that we couldn't be arsed... (Due to Ben's thriftyness we are no longer going to escape to the coast of Italy to enjoy the fine Italian cuisine and indulge in a few glasses of wine whilst watching the sea gently lap against the shore. As a consolation Ben is going to take me into High Wycombe to visit Morrisons followed by lunch at Pizza Express, apparently the next best thing to Naples... - Kerry) Ah shutup woman... - Ben

During our last week we spend a great, very pissed up night in Aylesbury with friends, taking in a curry and a standup comic as well as an evening of theatre and fun at the Wycombe Swan, watching 'Blue Remembered Hills', by Dennis Potter. Tomorrow we fly to Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt to restart our travelling fun.

Sheep and White Knight, at Mum and Peter's place

Sun, sea and ladyboys in Thailand

2006-12-24T01:24:00.000-10:00

Sunset from the beach bar, Thailand

Ah Thailand. The land of great food, smiles, massage, Chang and tiny string bikinis.

From Kathmandu we took a Royal Nepal Airways flight to Bangkok, after a breakfast of day-glow orange cheese rings at the airport. From the flight we got great views over the Bangladesh floodplains.

We were taken out for a meal by Khris and Kapil on our last evening in Kathmandu, after spending a day shopping - a combination of impulse, good pricing and stupidity mean we are now the proud owners of a slightly wet oil painting which is necessary to carry around mounted on it's frame. We gave Khris a photo of Everest we had taken from Gokyo. It will look great on his office wall. He gave us a traditional Nepali photo frame, which unfortunately we found necessary to leave behind - our bags are full to bursting point!

In Bangkok, after a few days wandering around the Khaosan road area we took a bus south, in search of the sea. In Bangkok we met 'Kev', a pissed up Scottish bloke who had recently arrived after spending a few nights in a Dubai prison. He was exhausted after a night with 2 Thai girls and a bottle of Viagra - these are the sorts of interesting characters that you meet on the Khaosan Road.

After a night on a bus we arrived in Krabi. We spent a night here and then bussed further to the island of Kho Lanta (unbeknown to us the ferry would have been a far better option, but we hadn't looked at a map...). We overpaid for our first couple of nights accommodation - scare tactics were employed by the travel agencies in Bangkok, telling us that this was peak season and we wouldn't find anywhere to stay. Of course there was plenty of accommodation available. Over the next week or so we stayed at 2 other places and were able to half our room rate each time, ending up at 500Bhat/night (about 6 quid). The last place, the 'Green Garden Resort' was the best, right on 'Pra-Ae' beach. On Kho Lanta we relaxed. It was great not to have to climb upto 5000 metres to see a great sunset. We could do that while sipping long island ice teas at one of the many beach-front bars. The food here is particularly good - it's easy to get fish - tuna, barracuda etc barbied in front of you on the beach.

Feet...

We spent a day diving at a site called 'Kho Ha' (5 islands), about 2 hours from Kho Lanta with these guys. The day was really good. Moray Eels, Stone fish, Lion fish and even the elusive ghost pipe fish were seen. New Buddy check mantra - 'Bangkok Women Really Are Fellas'.

One day was spent cruising around the island on a motorbike we rented from our guesthouse. On the way back we narrowly avoided being 'coconutted' by a crazy guy harvesting them with a long bamboo stick with a sharp hook at one end. A very dangerous occupation.. Motorbikes and coconuts are apparently the 2 biggest tourist killers here. Tsunami's are probably a close 3rd...

Another day was spent checking out 'Kho Phi Phi'. We took an organised day trip across to the island for 800 Bhat each - sounds a lot but the public ferry costs 350 each way, and we got lunch (more green curry) on the boat. The crossing was a little rough - our boat had a distinct tendency to lean to the right - the skipper had to keep throttling down to prevent capsize! We went snorkeling at Maya 'the beach' beach - that film has it all wrong. An unspoilt island paradise? My arse. What with the hundreds of speed boats, ferries and Thai longboats off the coast we were jostling for a position to even SEE the beach. On Phi Phi we walked up to the viewpoint to see the twin coves - the view reminded us of Palm beach in Sydney. There was still lots of re-development going on after the tsunami damage. Phi Phi seems to be the place to stay if you are Australian, have big muscles and a posing pouch. As we left our posing pouches back home we decided to head out and get back to the more easy going setting of Kho Lanta.

On the way back we stopped next to a small beach covered with tame monkeys - we swam out from the boat to feed them some banana - not very environmentally friendly I know, but good fun none the less. Kerry had the good sense to take some fins from the boat. I didn't and was nearly dead by the time we got back. After that it was back to the guesthouse for another sunset for more beer and green curry (we have both become addicted to the stuff..)

...Another day I read 'Watership down' - Kerry and I recon it won't be long before Pixar or such remake it - I hope that never happens.

We took an overnight train back to Bangkok on the 23rd December - although slightly more expensive it was a far nicer experience than the bus. We were actually able to sleep for a few hours.

Many massages, facials, manicures, green curries and one Christmas later we left Bangkok for our next destination, Hong Kong. We went to the cinema - before the film everyone had to stand to pay their respects to the King, who's image is everywhere in this city. Various images of him in the countryside were scrolled down the screen in little raindrops to what sounded like the 'sound of music'. We also did more shopping - more stuff to add to our ever-expanding luggage collection. Christmas was pretty much the same as every other day here. We couldn't even get any port! (we made do with Amaretto). We have far too much luggage again. I'm pretty sure we are the only backpackers travelling the world with 5(!) down jackets, a wet oil painting and a R/C flying saucer.... Next up.. Hong Kong...

Nepal #2 : Gokyo, Everest and friends

2006-12-09T00:27:00.000-10:00

We have just spent the majority of the last few days sitting on the hard plastic seats of the Kathmandu departure lounge, trying to kill time until the weather improves. Unfortunately it never does. On the 2nd day we managed to get as far as boarding the plane and taxiing out to the runway, before turning around and heading back to the terminal. Today, after another flightless day we headed out to the Bouddhanath stupa for a bit of a change of scenery, and then back again to our 'home from home', the Karma hotel in Thamel. There was a lot of partying going on in the evening as today a peace agreement was signed by both the Maoist leader and the government of this country, hopefully ending the violence here, for a while at least.

23/11/06 Monjo (2860 metres)

We decided last night that if our flight fails us again today, tomorrow we will take the bus to Jiri and walk into the Khumbu. After a 5am start and the usual check in procedure we sat around until 9am when we were rushed out to the plane, loaded our bags into the side compartments and strapped ourselves in, ready to go... still ready to go 10 minutes later as we sat on the tarmac with the engines screaming, a nail biting time, unsure if we would be whisked back to the terminal at any minute. At 10am, however, we were away!

The first part of the 30 minute flight was fantastic - once we were airborne and above the clouds all the windows on the left side of the plane were filled with snow capped peaks. Nearer to Lukla, however the light wispy clouds had turned into big black ones and we were being thrown around in our seats. There were definitely a few people on the plane, myself and Kapil, our guide, included who were silently praying to their respective gods. A few minutes later, after a steep descent, we thudded down on the short runway at Lukla. The memory of the rock face at the end of the runway speeding toward us as the brakes were applied, hard, is one that I think will stay with me for some years. This runway was built by Sir Ed Hillary in 1964, and was originally intended as way of getting supplies into the region. One more plane came in after us, and then that was it for the day.

As I said, we now have a guide travelling with us. The new trekking regulations here state that all trekkers now have to have a government issued 'TRC' permit. In order to get one of these we had to hire a guide/porter from a registered trekking company. As all of these are currently situated in either Kathmandu or Pokhara we had to fly our guide out to Lukla with us - a completely crazy situation. We went back to 'Khris' at Encounters Nepal, the agency that supplied us with Kitap for our Manaslu trip. Kapil, our new 24 year-old guide is very nice. His English is good, and I especially like his single diamond earring. I think he may be a part-time pimp.

After 4 hours walking from Lukla we reached 'Monjo' and checked into the 'Mt Kailash' guesthouse. Mt. Kailash isn't in Nepal at all - I think these people are on crack. This is actually the family home of Kapil's favourite Nepali pop star, Mingma Sherpa.

An hour or so earlier, just outside a place called 'Phakding' we ran into the bleeding Maoists again. Although a peace agreement has now been signed and the Maoist's are now part of the Nepali government, they insisted that we pay their 'tax' of 100RP/day/person. After some heated debate and hand waving we continued after paying them 1000RP each, supposedly for 10 days trekking. Basic theft if you ask me. If our excess wasn't so high I would claim this back on our travel insurance! As before, we were issued with a receipt, only now they now have the cheek to call it a 'permission card'. Wankers.

24/11/06 Kyangjum (3600 metres)

It was nice not to have to get up at 5am this morning, as we have been doing for the last 4 days straight. After breakfast we set off and entered the national park a few minutes later. From this point on it's illegal to burn firewood (for the majority of the year, so we are told). 3 hours later, and a lot of uphill we reached Namche Bazaar, the hub of Sherpa society. We had lunch at the 'Himalaya Lodge', with the huge face of Kongde towering above us. There are some top notch places to stay in Namche. One hotel, high up on the topside can only be reached by chopper and has oxygenated rooms! We decided to continue a little further past the town - as we left Namche we met a couple of kids, one of which kindly gave us some dry noodles from a filthy pocket. His friend/brother 'held us up' with half a plastic gun.

A couple of times during the afternoon we rounded a corner on the trail to find a herd of Yak careering towards us. Yaks have big, sharp, pointy horns and are enormous. They can't use donkeys here as they do in the Annapurna region due to the altitude. You have to keep your wits about you so as not to be gored - death by Yak would not be pretty. Around 2pm we reached the next village on the trail - 'Kyangjuma' (also called 'Sanasa', apparently) where we stopped for the night. Our guesthouse, the 'Good View', as with all the others I have seen so far has a large photo of the Nepali ex-royal family on the wall. I say ex, because they were all gunned down in 2001. The story goes that that oldest son was responsible, but Kapil tells us that many/most Nepali people believe it was the King's brother who ordered the massacre, after which he took the thrown. Either way, the current king isn't very popular around these parts.

We were able to get hold of a big chunk of Yak cheese here, which we ate during the afternoon. We are at 3600 metres now, and it's cold. We spent the evening huddled around the fire, occasionally tossing a fresh, dry piece of poo onto the embers. Amazing how much heat you get off Yak shit.

The husband of our landlady here is a high altitude Sherpa guide and has summitted Everest twice. We were impressed.

Shit on a roof...

25/11/06 Lhafarma (4300 metres)

Didn't sleep too well last night. We both spent half the night trying to convince ourselves that we didn't need the toilet, which was outside in the freezing cold. In the morning we set off around 8am and before long had reached 'Mong-la', with great views of Ama Dablam from the chorten in the village. We are actually at a mini pass here which bisects the Khumbu and Gokyo valleys. Our plan is to trek up to Gokyo and then cross the Cho-la into the Khumbu, 5 days or so from now. A little later in the day we reached 'Dole' (means 'many stones') where we had some lunch - garlic soup, boiled eggs and fried momos. The prices are still pretty reasonable bearing in mind most of the supplies have to be brought up the valley strapped to the back of a porter. 2 boiled eggs will set you back 80RP here. We decided to push on a little further but by the time we reached 'Lhafarma', at 4300 metres Kerry had developed a slight headache so we decided to stop for the night. The helicopter pilots call the Gokyo area 'death valley' as so many people don't acclimatise properly on their way up. We are playing it safe. We checked into the 'View top hill lodge' and 100RP/night where I was able to buy myself a new tube of Vegemite! That will go nicely with the half kilo of Yak cheese we bought earlier today. I never thought I would find Vegemite high up in the Himalaya - we couldn't even find it in Kathmandu.

I've finished my latest book, 'Velocity' by Dean Koontz. In the lodge I managed to swap it for Terry Waite's memoirs, which I am pretty keen to read. In the evening we had great views of Cho Oyo, the world's 6th highest peak, along with Gyachung Kang, Kangtaiga and Thamserku.

On the wall in the dining room here there is a pre-1996 poster for 'Adventure Consultants' - our landlady's husband works as a guide for them. The poster features Rob Hall (one of those who died on Everest during the 1996 disaster), dressed in a day-glow, very 80's down suit. That explains the Vegemite. Adventure Consultants are from New Zealand.

Lhafarma, last sun on Cho Oyu

26/11/06 Gokyo and the Gokyo Ri (5340 metres)

We left around 8am again this morning, stopped for tea in Machero and after 4 hours pretty hard walking we arrived in Gokyo village - a really nice little place located between a large glacial lake and the huge tongue of ice that is the Gokyo glacier. We checked into the 'Gokyo Resort' - a pretty grandiose name for a nice, but pretty standard place. They do have an indoor toilet here, but that doesn't class it as a 'resort', not in my book at least. We rested for a few hours and then set off up the local view point - the Gokyo Ri - a 700 meter high 'hump', by Himalayan standards, across the lake from where we were staying. Hump or no hump, the climb up was really hard. I hadn't been so knackered since Kerry and I climbed Volcan Cotopaxi in Ecuador 4 or so years ago. The sunset views from the top were simply stunning - well worth the pain of the climb. Like the guesthouse owner had told us previously, we saw a myriad of colours, from gold through to purple.. Cho Oyu, Everest, Lhotse and Makalu were all clearly visible. The photos we took really don't do it justice.

Getting back down in the dark was fun. Our head torch batteries died but luckily I had my blue LED lighter handy. Back at the 'resort', the only other guests were 3 researchers looking into the 'dynamics of glacial ice caves and lakes' for National Geographic magazine. The English guy was a glaciologist, the American an ace caver and the other guy, who was ill in bed at the time is the author of the book 'Glaciers and Glaciation', but more importantly the creator of the food fusion known as the 'Julius Cheeser', the only thing on the menu here that is remotely different from the food served at all the other lodges.

27/11/06 5th Lake, Gokyo, 4990 metres

Neither of of got much sleep last night - I think it's the altitude. It's Kerry's birthday today and this morning she woke up with a cold and the beginnings of the 'Khumbu cough' - typical. Today we headed up the valley, towards the Gokyo lakes and the huge ice fin with Cho Oyo on the left, and Gyachung Kang on the right. With the exception of a local Yak shit collector (someone has to collect up all the fuel) we saw no-one all day - one of the advantages of being here at the very end of the trekking season. On the flip side, one of the disadvantages is that the mornings are absolutely freezing until the sun clears the mountains around us.

Kangtega and Thamserku in the background

After about 2 hours we reached the '5th lake', a frozen pool of incredibly blue glacial water. There are a few very tricky to climb viewpoints in this region, described in our guide book. Kapil and I attempted 'knobby view' - described simply as 'the most outrageous trekking viewpoint there is'. We made it up to about 5200 metres where the wind was so strong we had to turn back (when I reached Kerry, exhausted she called us 'woofters'). From the top of the moraine here the views of Cho Oyo and Everest across the Gokyo (Ngozumpa) glacier are great. At one point we could see the 1st, 2nd and 3rd steps on the north face of Everest, the last point where Mallory and Irvine were seen alive, until Mallory was found again in 1999.

The southeast face of Everest from around the 5th lake

The trek back to the resort took about 2 hours. We immediately ordered the 'Julius Cheeser', which was fantastic. It seems we were diddled out of the 2 fried eggs that it's creator told us it came with though - cutbacks I suppose. Kerry is adamant that eggs were never part of the recipe. I hope and pray that the cook/shit collector man remembered to wash his hands before getting stuck in. We have postponed Kerry's birthday celebrations for the moment.

Sunset over the Renjo-La

28/11/06 Climbing the Renjo La (5417 metres)

We slept much better last night - our acclimatisation is coming on nicely. The frequency of Kerry's toilet visits has decreased from 5 times (!) /night to only 2 last night. Pissing a lot at altitude is normal. According to our guide book, the record is by a Canadian guy - 18 leaks a day. After breakfast (porridge and 'hot grapes') we headed off around the lake and immediately started to ascend. 2 hours later we were above the snow line and walking on ice, real alpine territory. At one point we found some Yeti footprints in the snow - apparently the Gokyo valley is full of them, although I think the beasts only tend to come out after dark.

The views of all the peaks in the region from the top were incredible - exceeding even those from the Gokyo-Ri a couple of days ago. From the pass it is possible to descend the other side into the Bhote valley, but after a few photos we turned around ([a] - we want to head east into the Khumbu valley - Everest BC, Kala Patar etc.., and [b] - the Bhote valley is a restricted trekking zone and we don't have the required permits). The descent was a little tricky - lots of ice and snow to negotiate our way around. We got back to base around 2ish and ordered up lunch - steamed Tibetan momos, veg fried rice and apple pies.

In the evening we hiked up to the top of the glacial moraine behind the resort, to watch the sunset. We arrived half an hour early and began to freeze, so had no choice but to run around in circles like idiots to try and stay warm, much to the amusement of the guests in the lodges below.

29/11/06 Thangnak/Thangnag (4700 metres)

It's only a 2 hour walk to 'Thangnak' today, so I decided to hike up to the top of Gokyo-Ri again in the morning - another mega hard slog up to 5400 metres, but well worth it for the daytime views of Everest (Kapil stayed at the resort - he thinks I am mad). I took a bunch of photos to join together into a panoramic when we get to the necessary software. You never know, it might work. While I was climbing, Kerry sat in the sun room and watched me. She is still not 100%. The descent was far easier in daylight. So easy in fact, that I ran down, reaching the bottom in 25 minutes. Check out the photo of the incredibly tame bird that followed me around on the 'summit'.

The 'Gokyo resort' seems by far the nicest lodge here. It was apparently built for the 1991 'Balloon across Everest' expedition (never heard of it). They also have a pet goat here - a gift from some researchers to the hostel owner, who is very partial to a nice piece of goat meat. Unfortunately these lakes are sacred and they cannot kill the beast here. I'm sure one day in the not to distant future it will be taken down to Namche and chopped into bite sized pieces. I doubt the owner will do it though - he has grown so fat on the profits gained from all the free Yak shit here that it's unlikely he will be able to walk out by himself.

Our bill for the last 3 days here came to just under 6000RP (about 45 quid). After lunch we packed up our bags and set off down the valley with 'Gwen', a french girl and her guide (who is good buddies with Kapil). After about 30 minutes we turned left and ascended the moraine to cross the glacier. Hardly any ice was visible on the glacier itself - we were walking over huge amount of very fine dust. In about an hour we arrived at Thangnak - 2 lodges at the base of the Cho-La pass. We plumped for the 'Cho-La pass resort' - again no swimming pool or sauna, but a building made entirely out of plywood and plastic. Of the 15 rooms here, only Gwen's and ours are occupied (in the peak season this lodge gets 30-40 guests/night).

Our 'landlord' here has sumitted Everest twice, once with Annabelle Bond, the fastest British woman to ever climb the 7 summits.

In the evening, huddled around a Yak shit heater we got talking to Gwen - she speaks English with an outrageous French accent. I had to banish thoughts of 'Ello 'Ello from my head. She recommended zee 3 week trek around the base of Mount Blanc, passing through France, Switzerland and Italy.

30/11/06 The Cho-La (5420 metres)

Today was a killer. We left the guesthouse at 6.30am and started ascending. In about 2 hours we reached a false summit at around 5000 metres and descended into a hidden valley only to have to start ascending up the other side. We could see the sun on the mountainside above us, but we were bitterly cold. This area is full of Tibetan snowcocks, strutting around and making a hell of a noise.

At last, around 11.30am we reached the top of the pass and the sun! It was a very difficult climb - lots of snow and ice. Gwen's trekking pole actually snapped in half during the ascent - quality Kathmandu merchandise!

Kerry and I descended the far side of the pass twice. When we reached the flat ground we had some lunch and then decided that the light had improved and so went back up to the top for some photos of the view into the Khumbu valley. Our 3 companions carried on towards our destination for the day - a place called Dzonglha. We arrived a few hours later (it was nice to have some time to ourselves for a change). Dzonglha consists of 2 plywood 'lodges' (sheds). The 'Green valley lodge and restaurant' is a shit hole. Our room is just big enough for the bed, so we'll be sleeping with our bags tonight. There is also a huge gaping hole in the wall - I hope Gwen dosen't snore...

We had a freezing evening in the 'restaraunt' - it was apparently too windy to light the fire.

01/12/06, Lobuche (4930 metres)

We treated ourselves to a lie-in this morning, until around 9am. By this time Gwen and her guide had left. We got a couple of bowls of hot water for washing (50RP each - amazingly a thermos of water, which contains a little less was priced at 300RP...?). We carried on down the valley, along a hillside and then turned left into the Khumbu. Golden eagles were soaring in the thermals above our heads. On rounding the corner we were presented with a fantastic new vista of white peaks - Pumori, Nuptse (looks like a Cornish pasty, according to Kerry) and Lhotse. We followed the beginnings of the Khumbu glacier up the valley until we reached Loboche and checked into the 'Sagarmatha NP Lodge'. In the afternoon Kerry and I climbed the ridge to the west of the village, upto 5200 metres.

In the evening we were able to watch the sun set over Nuptse outside the dining room window, while warming our hands over the Yak shit stove. A little later a family from Singapore came and joined us. They were wearing the thickest down jackets I have ever seen.
For lunch and dinner today I had Tibetan momos and vegetable curry - an incredibly filling meal of curry and big bread roll-type things - 6 of them!

02/12/06, Gorak Shep, Everest BC (5170 metres)

Nice Signage

Everything frose last night. It wasn't nice getting out of our nice warm sleeping bags and packing up our shit at 7am. Our water filter was frozen and I caused a minor flood trying to defrost it over my cup of tea. I received a few frowns from the owner.

After a bowl of porridge we set off and after about an hour we had left all traces of greenery behind us. We are now in the Khumbu valley, the main trekking motorway upto Everest. However it is winter, and incredibly quiet. We passed 2 other groups today (and caught up with Gwen). Kapil tells us that in peak season this route is very busy - at some points you are almost queueing up!

The temperatures at this altitude, especially in winter are extreme. In the sun it's lovely and warm but the wind is icy, and today it was blowing down the valley at a rate of knots. We followed the moraine on the western bank of the glacier for about 2 hours, trying to ensure our faces didn't freeze up in the wind. We reached Gorak Shep at about 10am and checked into the 'Snowland Inn' - amazingly our room cost us only 100RP - we were expecting much higher prices here. I guess it's because it's now the very end of the trekking season.

After some soup we headed off onto the glacier to visit the EBC. The journey was very windy - much of the time we were being sandblasted by small pieces of grit. We had to pass through a few areas prone to landslides, and a long stretch under a nasty collapsing ridge. At one point a bowling ball sized piece of rock dislodged from the top of the ridge and was heading straight for us. We managed to avoid it, but were a little shaken up - Kapil especially. He was suggesting that we turn back, telling us that 'many people die here'. In the end we ran across the dodgy section, no worries mate. Kapil was off like a rabbit - we managed to catch up with him a little later.

The Everest basecamp - nothing but ice.

Initially I had a few reservations about trekking to the basecamp as a) it's now out of season, so there are no expedition tents, and b) you can't actually see Everest from the BC. When we got there however, it was pretty special. The Khumbu glacier, icefall and part of the South Col are visible, as well as the remains of a helicopter which apparently crashed here a few years ago.

When we arrived back at the guesthouse, around 3pm we decided., on a whim to journey up Kala Patar ('black rock' in Hindi), the local viewpoint and one of the few trekkable peaks in this region from which Everest is visible from. We dismissed Kapil - he looked knackered and so started back drinking tea. Thinking back this was a descision we took pretty lightly - our guidebook says visiting the EBC and Kala Patar in a single day is 'beyond most people' - and that's from Gorak Shep! We made it to the top for a(nother) fantastic sunset and came back down by moonlight. On the way up I had 'So far away from me' by Dire Straits going round and round in my head. The trip took it's toll though. We are both seriously cream crackered - I mean completely destroyed. We will sleep well tonight!

Sunset from the top of Kala Patar

Back at the guesthouse (in a kind of trance-like state) we ate and chatted to the glacial lake researchers (who are here checking out more lakes...) One of the researchers told us he had piles and was trying to get hold of some ointment. I thought we were lugging around every piece of medical kit we could possibly need. Obviously not. This odd conversation took place whilst listening to a CD of Nepali hiphop - actually pretty good; I can imagine the music video of a blinged up Nepali crusing around in a lowered rickshaw, Ganesh hanging from the mirror. Night.

03/12/06 Dingboche, 4250 metres

It's true what they say about sleeping above 5000 metres; It's almost impossible. We are both still knackered after an almost sleepless night. After breakfast we took half an hour or so to go and see the memorials to climbers who have died on Everest. They were all mainly from the 1996 disaster.

We heard from Kapil that yesterday Gwen only made it halfway to the EBC. Her guide apparently got bored with the walk and so told her that they were already there! I think Kapil was a little embarassed as he told her what was what and caused some friction between her and her guide.

At about 11am we packed up and headed south, back down the valley (Gorak Shep is the highest accommodation here). It was nice to be heading downhill for a change. More beautiful weather again today. We passed a large number of other trekkers, mainly in large organised walking groups. At lunchtime we passed through Lobuche and stopped for a bite to eat at the 'Yak Lodge' in Thukla - possibly the best, most unhealthy meal so far, consisting of chips and fried eggs. Lovely.

After another hour or so walking along a hillside on the eastern side of the Khumbu valley we reached a chorten above the village of Dingboche. The village is at the beginning of a side valley, which we are planning to walk up tomorrow. Ama Dablam towers above us here. We checked into the 'Peaceful Lodge', and it sure is. There is one other couple here.

There are streams of porters carrying firewood up the valley here. Kapil tells us that the month long period through which it is legal to cut wood each year has just started.

Dinner far surpassed lunch - Yak steak with roast potatoes and veg, washed down with a large glass of Raksi. What with that and the lower altitude here, I'm sure we will be able to get some sleep tonight. mmmm, sweet breathable air.

04/12/06 Chukhung-Ri, 5400 metres

We set off around 8am this morning, straight up the Chukhung valley, following the mainly frozen Imja river. After about 2 hours we reached the village of Chukhung, next to the black hump that is the 'Chukhung-Ri'. I was amused by one of the guesthouses. "Welcome" was written on the door in front of a huge pile of shit. I wasn't suprised when we discovered there was nobody staying there!

While we were drinking tea and eating 2nd breakfast, we contemplated the stupidity of what we had planned - climbing the equivalent of the highest mountain in England at 5000 metres. Our bodies are showing the strain of almost 2 months of trekking; we both have nasty hacking coughs at the moment. Never the less, we made it to the top, the last strenuous climb we will be doing on this trek. The views from the top were as usual, stunning. The 360 degree panorama included Pumori, Lhotse, Makalu and Island Peak, with 3 different glaciers spilling into the valley below us. The photos really don't do it justice.

From Chhukhung Ri to Cho Oyu (left) and Pumori and Nuptse (right)

The descent wasn't too bad, and after a quick cuppa we headed back down the valley and arrived 'home' around 4ish.

Owning a lodge in the Khumbu valley is big business, due to the sheer number of trekkers who pass through each year. Kapil tells us that each season it's possible to extract enough cash from the punters to buy a house in Kathmandu! Obviously land here is in high demand, but the law says that only the Sherpa people can set up lodges. I think Kapil has his eye in the owner's daughter here. Only problem, she is 10.

We decided to splash out (if 2 and a half quid can be classed as such) on Yak steak with roast potatoes for dinner. While we were waiting for our food we both had more raksi. A saucer containing chunks of fried, chillied Yak meat was brought out (the Nepali equivalent of finger food I guess) - it was the best meat I think i've ever tasted. Dinner was fantastic. Late in the evening an English lady arrived and we got talking about the current trekking situation, TANN fees, the maoists etc.. an interesting discussion. We learnt that the Maoist checkpoint at Phakding has been removed. We are glad we aren't going to have to shell out for the rest of our extended 10 day trek. We learnt later that the lady we had been talking to was the Asian base manager for Exodus travel. That explains her vast experience with treks in Nepal, Buthan, Pakistan etc..

05/12/06 Tengboche, 3860 metres

There was sme sort of ceremony taking place this morning in our guesthouse. Lots of drum banging and chanting. We had a 3 hour walk to Tengboche today, but it was hard going as we were both feeling a bit weary. The route was mainty flat (Nepali 'flat', of course). We stopped for lunch at a small village about 20 minutes below Tengboche and consumed a large block of Yak cheese and vegetite. We spent the afternoon reading and watching a video about the history of the Tengboche monestary (riviting) and then took a quick peak inside the monestary itself.

06/12/06 Monjo, 2860 metres

We left Tengboche around 8am and started out on a rough, very dusty downhill path through forest. An hour or so later we started ascending. This part of the route is a bit of a motorway - huge numbers of wood porters and Yak trains kicking up the dust. The Tibetan 'tat' stalls, which have been distinctly lacking on this trek up until now, are back with a vengance. You can buy everything from huge Pat Butcher esque moonstone ear rings, brass tibetan 'paintpots' to a bell for your own yak back at home.

Eventually we reached Namche and after a apot of lunch at our old favourite, the 'Himalayan Lodge' we took a look around the town. The air here is filled with the constant chipping of a thousand hammers against stone, carving new bricks for building - this place is expanding all the time. Namche is the place to buy Tibetan jewellery, or in fact 'Tibetan' anything. We walked around the Tibetan market - huge bundles of down jackets, t-shirts etc.. dumped on the dusty ground after being (apparently) hauled over the pass from the motherland. Amazing the crap they were trying to sell. Before we left Namche we stopped in at the infamous bakery for some apple strudle and *real* coffee, which was great.

We decided to push on to Monjo so as to reach Lukla tomorrow. After half an hour or so we were below 3000 metres again - so nice to be breathing air with more than just a whiff of oxygen in it again.

At lunchtime we got Kapil to phone Khris and get us booked on the first available flight out of Lukla back to Kathmandu, 2 days from now. Typically, as the afternoon progressed the clouds (some of the we have seem on this entire trip) came in - I pray the weather remains good enough for flying!

At around 4pm after a lot of downhill, and then a bit of up (remember, this is Nepal - nothing is ever 'flat') we reached Monjo and for a bit of variety checked into a different guesthouse to the one we were at before - the 'Summit Lodge', as the only guests. In the evening, sitting around the fire we consumed the rest of our Lindt chocolate and brandy. Kapil produced some whiskey as well. At bedtime Kapil could barely stand.

07/12/06 Lukla, 2850 metres

It took about 4 hours to reach Lukla today. Hopefully out last trekking day in Nepal. We passed through lots of small villages on the way - large sections of the path were in the process of being dug up to make way for electricy cables. We checked into the 'Himalayan Lodge' (another one) for lunch and had some 'buff' chili - thin pieces of buffalo meat shallow fried with onion and tomato - really good. In the evening, after sharing a bottle of red wine with Kapil I noticed they had a DVD player and so enquired as to the availability of any English language films. Things were looking hopeful until the romantic comedy 'Rumour has it' was produced. 2 hours I was practically comatose.

During the night we were woken by some very strange gutteral human-like noises - screams and grunts. It sounded like some deranged person running around outside. I was thinking about the film '28 days later' - a red eyed rabit Nepali crazy, slaughtering tourists in Lukla. I sent Kerry out to investigate... it turned out to be a small puppy in the courtyard below us.

We sat in the guesthouse, waiting for our flight for the entire day, trying to prevent the onset of terminal bordom by playing patience and pairs. We were booked on the 3rd 'Agni Air' flight out of Lukla, but seeing as Agni only own one plane we were in for a long wait. The cloud had come in and was getting worse. I finished reading 'Temple' by Mathew Rilley - possibly the sillyest book I have ever read. By about 5pm we were sitting in a huge white cloud and our spirits were low.

We flew the next morning, after a night of further human-like screaching from the puppy in the night.

Back in Kathmandu. Our last trek was great but it's a nice feeling not having another one planned fr a while at least. I'm looking forward to finding a nice beach somewhere to lie on for a few weeks. No more cold mornings, Ri's, extremely weak tea, frozen outside toilets in the middle of the night and no more having 'sunny delight' coloured piss (another delightful side-effect of high altitude).

Kapil, our guide was very good - extremely attentive to our needs and most importantly he didn't try to 'guide' us more than necessary. He came with us on all the side trips, even when we told him it wasn't necessary. He also had to put up with me constantly calling him 'Kalip' and even 'Katip' for the first few days of the trip. Until next time....

Trekking our arses off in Nepal #1

2006-11-13T00:00:00.000-10:00

Day 3 - Arughat to Khursane

Today is officially the first day of our trek around Manaslu, although we have actually been on the move for the last two. We spent a week in Kathmandu just recovering from our time in India. It was festival time when we arrived - all the locals seemed to have large wads of soggy red rice stuck to their foreheads. After a few visits to the local hospital, it turned out I had a urine infection, and the Nepali doctor was able to diagnose my 2 partially healed, fractured ribs from a fall in New Zealand months before (something that my doctor in Sydney failed to do). Today is also my 33rd birthday!

From Kathmandu we travelled by bus to Gorkha, a town full of shops selling supplies, baskets, Britney Spears t-shirts, etc, and from there we took a 2nd bus to Khanchowk over terrain I would have had trouble driving a jeep through. We could have walked the route faster than the 4 hours it took to reach Khanchowk. We slept the night there, camping in a school ground. Yesterday we walked to Arughat, and today we spent the day walking in humid 35 degree heat through lowland Nepal from Arughat to Soti Khola. After 6 hours we set up camp and drank most of my birthday present from Jake and Dana - whiskey and coke!

Day 4 - Khursane to Machha Khola

Jake tries to have a quiet read

More very hot, sweaty trekking today - it's like moving in a sauna. We are rarely by ourselves as the trail passes through countless villages. 'Namaste pen' and 'Namaste sweet' are phrases we have become very familiar with over the last few days, although the people are genuinely friendly and interested in us.

We are traveling with 3 porters, one per couple for our gear and one carrying the food it was necessary to bring with us - he gets the bum deal, as we have food for 4 people for 10 days. The porters like to carry their loads on their heads - using a 'tump' line. One of our porters bought himself a smart shirt today, and another a pair of shoes. It's nice to see our money being spent on useful items. They are also kitted out with new gold watches, bought for less than US$1 each at the Kathmandu bus station. They all have different times - not sure any of them can actually tell the time!

When we got to camp we headed down to the river for a great cold bath.

Day 5 Machha Khola to Jagat

7 hours walking today. We set off at 7.30am and for 2 hours got stuck behind a donkey caravan loaded with rice and flour for the next villages on the trail. For the last few days, our guide, Kitap has been telling us that we will meet the Maoists soon, and will have to 'donate' to their cause. So far, no sign... Before lunch we stopped at some natural hot springs at Tatopani (means 'hot water') - but due to the heat and humidity we were immediately covered in sweat again. We stopped for lunch at a homestead where we enjoyed noodles instead of the usual Daal Bhat - the staple diet of the locals - rice and daal with a few vegetables (if you are lucky). Most of the daal we have been eating so far doesn't actually contain many lentils, so it's basically rice and thin soup for dinner. Gets pretty boring.

Later in the day the scenery reminded us of some of the south island of New Zealand - one section particularly of a camping spot on the Routeburn. The ubiquitous 'Namaste pen' greeting continues. We had soup, beans, mashed potato and salami, followed by custard for dinner.

Kerry developed some nasty blisters today :(

Day 6 - Jagat to Deng

This morning we bought a bunch of 'oranges' from some children on the trail. They turned out to limes but we made good use of them for lemon tea, and to flavour lunchtime's Daal Bhat. We also made up a peanut, lime and chili sauce to go with the rice. I think the locals thought we were insane. We now realise that Daal Bhat is simply used as a fuel here. There is aways multiple servings, so you can eat until you are full.

We crossed a few dangerous, dilapidated bridges today. Bridge quality has decreased over the last few days. At lunchtime we at last met the Maoists. I was very disappointed at the general lack of uniform, guns, shiny shoes or indeed anything to give away their identity. Just a little bloke behind a desk that we had to pay 100RP/person/day to. We were even issued a receipt.

Receipt from the Maoists

Day 7 - Deng to Ghap

I have been feeling pretty bad today - I think it maybe has something to do with the wild cannabis that we harvested, boiled up with (powdered) milk and drank down last night. It seemed like a great idea at the time. I blame Jake. To top that off we were also invited to sample some 'raksi', a homemade spirit the people make from millet. They were brewing it up while we were eating dinner and it seemed rude not to indulge.

We walked for 5 hours today, following the path of the 'Buri Gandaki' river - one of many which flow into the sacred Ganges. Overall we ascended around 500 metres but the actual count was much higher as the track is so undulating. It's hard walking. We passed a number of Tibetan Buddhist Mani walls and ghompas before eventually arriving at Ghap, 2300m.

Day 8 - Ghap to Lho (13/10/06)

It's Friday 13th today. Not a good sign. We are walking 2 'guide book' days in one today - a longish day at around 7 hours walking. The morning was hard going with lots of ups and downs. We felt sorry for 'Nutrient', our porter who gets lumbered with all our food each day (there is a definite pecking order developing amongst the porters). While we were sitting eating lunch (curried tuna with hard boiled eggs), and generally relaxing a local woman came up are started poking Jake - a strict diet of Daal Bhat and body fat do not go together, and I think she thought we were a bit of a novelty.

The local people are now looking very Tibetan, and there is Buddhist evidence on the trail - monastaries, prayer flags, ghompas and mani walls (which we need to remember to keep on on our right hand side, or risk an eternity of bad luck, or something). Tibetan is also spoken here. The new phrases we hear from the children all the time are 'Jitap' and 'Shim Shim'. Chocolate and sweets, I think.

We managed to procure some apples on the trail to Lho so we had stewed apple (with Brandy) to wet our appetites before the evening meal of Daal Bhat (again). On the way up to the camp we passed a woman in a fake Arsenal football club cap - unfortunately the only letters that had fit on the shade were 'ARSE'. It looked terrible! At camp, a jolly pissed bloke (pictured) gave us a large bag of raw mixed beans. Really not sure what we are going to do with them.

Day 9 - Lho to Samagaon

This morning we were treated to our first views of Manaslu (at 8156m, it's the 8th highest mountain in the world). I needed a piss so didn't take advantage of the views for long, leaving Kerry to. She fell over and hurt herself (she is still bleating on about it now). We headed out from Lho and immediately started climbing. 3 hours later we reached the village of Samagaon (3500m) along with loads more 'shim shim' and 'namaste pen' kids. At the campsite Kerry taught some of them the 'heads, shoulders knees and toes' rhyme. They were fascinated. At the shop here we bought a big tub of peanut butter, and a well earned snickers bar. Tomorrow we plan to head upwards to the Manaslu Basecamp. We will try to reach the high camp to check-out the Japanese group who are making a summit bid soon.

Day 10 - Samagaon

We were up early after a freezing night, with a thick frost on the tent. Today was the best day on the trek so far. We walked up to 4200m, overshooting the base camp and ending up at a small ghompa, high up on the hillside. We had lunch there, overlooking the 'Birendra Tal', a large glacial lake and then headed down a steep hill to the Manaslu east-face basecamp, with stunning 360 degree views of snowcapped peaks. For dinner we stuffed ourselves silly on fried potatoes and a huge flask of tea, which we managed to get made for us. In the evening we persuaded Kitap to play cards with us. Easy prey we thought. He kicked our arses.

'Birendra Tal', glacial lake below Manaslu

Day 11 - REST DAY (16/10/06)

Last night we were kept awake for half the night by a grunting Yak a few metres from the tent. It was a little like sharing a dorm room with Rich and Steve after a few beers. Kerry says she is going to construct a cattle grid at the gate today to keep the Yaks out. Chasing it off did give us a chance to see Manaslu, bathed in silver light from the moon though.

After doing some washing, and having a makeshift shower (heating up pans of water on the cooker) we spent today doing absolutely nothing, lounging about reading and eating (lunch was sardines, olives and cashew nuts). At 2pm we adjourned for another flask of tea and more cards.

Day 12 - Samagaon to Samdo

I have inherited the book 'Into thin air' by Jon Krakauer from Jake to inspire me for our next trek in Nepal, to the Everest B.C. I read it a few years ago, but it's good enough for another visit. Three and a half hours walking today mainly flat, to the small village of Samdo at 3860m. It is a day's walk into Tibet from here. We are camping in a Yak field again, and there is nowhere to drink tea :(

Once the sun went down, a strong wind started up and it was bitterly cold. We cooked some spaghetti up for tea, surrounded by a group of local children staring at us as if we were aliens. They were dressed in dirty rags (and as usual, were covered in snot). We had down jackets on and were freezing.

After dinner we brewed up some hot chocolate in the tent and went to sleep.

Day 13 - Samdo to Dharamshala

Didn't get much sleep last night due to all the bell jangling, grass munching and grunting from the Yaks that seem to magically appear around our tent as soon as we close the door. Yaks never seem to sleep!! We were a little concerned that one of them would trample us, but it was just too cold to go outside and scare them away. I plan to keep a pile of stones outside the tent door tomorrow.

At 7am we arose for breakfast in the freezing cold, packed up and walked uphill for 3 hours to Dharamshala (unsure of any connection to the Indian town of the same name), a stone hut in a field full of Yak shit (mercifully no Yaks as this is their summer residence) at 4400m. As we got into camp it started snowing. We broke out our 2 most important items (with the exception of the tent and the sleeping bags) - our Katadyn water filter and MSR stove, both pressies from my friends at the Sanger Institute.

A little later Kitap came rushing over to point out the 'blue sheep' on the hillside - something which we had been looking out for since we started. Turns out they are not blue at all, but boring old ordinary sheep. We weren't impressed.

We cooked up a meal of cheesy spaghetti with capers in a hail storm, and then went to bed early in preparation for an early start tomorrow.

Day 14 - The Larkya La and Bimtang

We woke up twice in the night to hear someone throwing up outside the tent in a snow storm. It turned out to be Dana. In the morning she was still game to pack up camp at 3.30am and head out in the freezing cold. 3 inches of snow had fallen in the night. We walked for 4 hours, pretty much continually upwards to eventually reach the Larkya La around 10.30am. This is the highest point on the Manaslu circuit at 5100m. The scenery on the pass, made even more spectacular by the fresh snow, was great. During the walk up we stopped to apply some Zinc Oxide to our faces; 'New Shoes' our porter was looking expectantly at us, so we handed the tube over. He proceeded to smear it all around his mouth and ended up looking like he had just eaten a huge icecream.

Kerry, at the pass

After reaching the pass, we had a very slow 4 hour descent to our camp, some 1300 metres below, at Bimtang a campsite that reminds us of one in Wales, below Snowdon. The mountains here are on a different scale, however.

Our porters have been getting increasingly helpful over the last few days. Nutrient even brought us tea on the trail today, which was great. He also delivered a jug of water to J&D for their washing up at camp. Our tip giving must be fast approaching!

A snowy morning at camp

The people at Bimtang were really friendly, plying us with glasses of raksi. We couldn't be bothered to cook and so got them to cook us up some Daal Bhat for dinner. This also allowed us access to their fire to warm up a little. Slight variation to dinner this evening was a tiny dish of fried goat meat, apparently from China! By the time we headed out to bed Kitap was waisted on 4 or 5 glasses of raksi. I hope he's good for tomorrow!

Day 15 - Bimtang to Tilje

While we were drifting off to sleep last night there was an almighty racket going on outside the tent - lots of shouting and running about. In our sleepy state we thought there was a party going on. In the morning Kitap told us that some 'fake' Maoists had demanded more money from our party. Kitap had apparently refused and a fist fight had broken out. He seemed to have come out of it pretty badly as he had a split lip and a nasty bruise on the side of his face (not to mention an obvious raksi induced handover). He told us that the cook with another trekking group had grabbed a knife and threatened to start killing! Kitap had apparently diffused the situation. We were disappointed that we had slept through all the action.

It snowed again in the night and we had another chilly morning. After 6 hours walking however, we had descended to 2200 metres, and the temperature had warmed up nicely. We eventually arrived at the camping ground (somebody's garden) at Tilje. I have finished 'Into thin air' and have moved onto 'Annapurna' by Maurice Herzog, an account of the first ascent of Annapurna I by a French team in 1950.

It seems Kitap has some strong views regarding the Maoist movement. He told me that his brother was a Maoist fighter who had recently been killed by the Nepali military.

Day 16 - Tilje to Dharapani

Only a 2 and a half hour walk today, pretty much all downhill to Dharapani, one of the biggest towns on the trek and the intersection of the Manaslu circuit and the Annapurna. Dharapani is reached on the 3rd day of the Annapurna circuit trek, and we now plan to walk anticlockwise around the majority of this (we miss the 3 days from Besi Sahar to Dharapani). We should finish in Pokhara 17 or so days from now.

We arrived around 11.30am and checked into the '3 Sisters' hotel, 140RP/night. It was time to say goodbye to Kitap and the porters, '64', 'Newshoes' and 'Nutrient'. We gave them 1500RP each, and Kitap 3500 along with Jake's stove, sleeping mats and a few other bits and bobs.

Now we are on the Annapurna circuit (which is like a trekkers motorway compared to the last 2 weeks), we can indulge in luxuries like apple pie. This we did, and they were delicious - made to order and deep fried, tasting a little like a large version of a McDonald's apple pie. We also got our clothes washed, after which it immediately started raining. I don't think they will be dry by tomorrow :( We had steamed momos, spring rolls, snickers and raksi (advertised as local wine) for tea.

Day 17 - Dharapani to Chame

Our washing was still soaked in the morning - I mean still dripping wet. We had to stick it all in a bag and carry it with us. Luckily we each had something dry to wear. When the sun hit us an hour or so later we stopped and arranged it all on the rocks by the side of the trail to dry out. Jake's pants received some admiring comments from the trekkers that passed us.

It's hard to get your washing dry on the trail

Unfortunately the sun only lasted a few minutes and we had to pack up everything again. Although not having any porters is very liberating, and allows much more freedom, we now have to carry all our shit, and it's heavy. I reckon I am carrying about 20kg on my back and in a few days time we will need to cross the Thorong La pass at over 5000m. Really not sure how that is going to pan out.

We had 5 hours waking today. Lots of ups. We cooked up lunch by the side of the trail - some soup with 4 packs of noodles and a tin of tomatoes - suprisingly good. At last we reached Chame (pronounced 'Charmay') and stopped at the first guesthouse on the track - the 'Peaceful hotel' with double rooms for 60RP. We immediately ordered food and pretty much kept eating and drinking (tea, momos and chocolate pudding) until 8pm. We stayed well clear of the 'specials', the 'Bore Stick' and 'Fresh Yak Stik' - the mind boggles. All afternoon and evening there was lots of singing and dancing going on both inside and out - it seems we have arrived in the middle of the 4 day Tihar Hindu festival (the 'festival of lights'). Various animals are celebrated and apparently today is the cow's turn. (Another guest told us that earlier on they had a painted one outside the guesthouse). To get into the spirit of things we had some Chang (or 'Chhyang' in the menu) - homemade rice beer. Looks like lemonade, tastes like very young beer - very yeasty. One waisted man came and spouted incredibly bad English at us for over 20 minutes. Absolutely no idea what he was talking about but be seemed very happy. There was a nice view of Manaslu from our window.

Sunset on Manaslu, from Chame

Day 18 - Chame to Pisang (23/10/06)

5 hours walking today, mostly uphill. My right hand hurts from all the spinning of prayer wheels along the track. We stopped and had some hot lemon, and then again for a big lunch of pizza, curry and apple pie. At last we reached the 'Peace Guesthouse' in Pisang (in a snow storm). After checking into the cheapest room in the world (50RP - about 45pence) we sought out the fire in the dining room, along with 25 Israelis, their guitar and much cannabis. Ate another huge dinner. This trek holds the record for the most food eaten by both Kerry and me.

At the last place we stayed, we inquired about hiring a porter for the next leg of this trek. A guy called 'Disco' (who turned out to be the waisted guy from the night before - also the owner of the guesthouse) recommended we inquire with the 'Bossman' here. Once we had found him, we managed to tentatively book ourselves a porter to carry some of our shit over the pass, at 600RP/day.

Day 19 - Pisang to Manang

We now have a porter! After much re-packing of bags, and lots of 'Ooh, that's gong to cost you' type noises from the Bossman we at last got our new friend 'Khansar' (who turns out to be the Bossman's brother) to load 2 of our backpacks onto his horse (who is also strangely called 'Khansar'), and were at last off. It's so nice to be walking with less weight again. The final price we agreed on for the services of Khansar and Khansar was 2250RP/couple for 7 days. After 2 hours of blissful walking we stopped for lunch (tea, macaroni, fried momos and apple pie) and then again a little later for some 'seabuckthorn'' juice - a local speciality made from crushed orange berries mixed with lots and lots of sugar, apparently very high in vitamins.

It's amazing just how food orientated this trek has become; the food on offer seems to be getting better and better as we go on.

After another 2 hours we hit Manang, a place that seems to have been made specifically for hungry trekkers. They have everything you could possibly desire here, well, as long as it's Yak or sugar based that is. Having not eaten meat for 2 weeks the array of Yak steaks, Yak curries, Yak burgers, Yak fajhtas (even Yak strog-noff) is mouthwatering.

On the way we got great views of Annapurna II, Annapurna IV and Pisang Peak. We checked into the 'Yak Hotel', splashing out on an en-suite room for 250RP/night. There is a small cinema in Manang - a tiny mud building with Yak fur seating and a open fire. We watched the film of 'Into thin air' before dinner, which was absolutely terrible - possibly the worst film ever made. Certainly one to avoid at all costs. After that I had garlic Yak steak and chips for dinner, which tasted amazing.

Day 20 - REST DAY

In the morning we used our stove to boil up a few pans of water to wash with (Manang maybe great, but still no hot water at 3500m). We then headed out to explore the town. During the morning we headed up to the top of the north ridge above the town for great views of Gangapurna and it's icefall. We then headed up the other side of the valley and to the glacial lake at the bottom. Jake and Dana, both having been feeling a little off colour since the day of the pass, stayed in bed and ate mini Twixes.

I have reached the part in 'Annapurna' where Maurice Herzog and co. arrive here ('ManangBhot') as the first westerners ever in 1950. 56 years later and Manang now sees hundreds of visitors each week. There is now a post office, electricity and even an internet connection. That's progress for ya. For lunch we had (Yak) cheese sandwiches and in the evening went to back to the cinema and watched 'Touching the void' which was a billion times better than yesterday's offering. I really fancy reading the book again. We have arranged to meet the 2 Khansar's at 7.30am tomorrow, ready for our trek to the next town, Letdar.

Day 21 - Manang to Letdar

Everything went smoothly this morning. After breakfast we met the Khansars and were on the move by 8am. To try and regain some of the weight I have lost I had another Yak steak for lunch, followed by another apple pie - can't get enough of them! Half an hour later we came to 3 hostels close together on the trail. This was Letdar. We had just settled down for a game of cards when Khansar hobbled into view - he had a blister on one foot, which Kerry kindly gave him a plaster for. After a bit of Nepali, we were told by the guesthouse staff that he had decided that he couldn't go on, and was going back to Manang! He even had the balls to ask for another grand to see him through the journey back. Screw that, we thought. We had already paid him 2000RP, just under half of the total we had agreed on to get our bags over the pass to Muktinath.

After a bit of a shout by both me and Jake we managed to get him to return about a quarter of that (all he had left, apparently). Magically another horse and porter appeared and we were able to procure their services for no extra money. Note to self - next time try hard to get an English speaking porter! 20 minutes later Khansar reappeared. We learnt (via our interpreter) that he had had a change of heart and now wanted to come with us over the pass. By this time we didn't know what was going on, and decided to keep our new staff. Khansar exited the scene. We are thinking of getting some t-shirts made up in Kathmandu that say 'The Bossman's brother is a pussy', and wearing them, lots.

Day 22 - Letdar to Thorung Phedi

We started out at 8am with porter #2 (who's name is 'Delay' - not a good sign) and horse ('Kali Dhilwali'). The trek climbed upwards along a hillside for 3 hours. We had a good lunch at the 'Basecamp Hotel' at 4200m, but decided to push on for another hour so as to get the nasty uphill section under our collective belts before the push over the pass tomorrow. An hour later we arrived, completely knackered at the 'Thorung highcamp view hotel'. Kerry immediately scampered off up a nearby ridge to 4900m to take some photos while I checked us in to a mud room (100RP/night). After a huge tea (with an electric heater under the table - bliss) we did our daily workout (filtering 4 litres of water), had a great 6 person game of Egyptian rat screw for over an hour and then hit the sack.

Day 23 - The Thorung La (23/10/06)

We left the hostel at 5.30am this morning, in the freezing dark. 3 hours later we had reached the pass at 5400(ish) metres, cold and thirsty (both our water pipes had frozen). On the top we were met by Delay and our bags. After a few photos a small local man (who had actually ascended to the pass with us) started telling us (in very bad English) that there was too much snow for our horse to descend the pass safely. Bugger, we thought as we realised we would have to carry all our stuff down the other side after all. There didn't seem to be an excessive amount of snow, and I had a feeling we were being scammed (again). When we offered Delay half of the outstanding payment (which seemed reasonable) the situation changed again. Now the horse would descend down the pass, however the small man was now insisting that the 'normal' price for this service was 4000-6000RP, and hinting that we should pay more. It wasn't obvious how our arrangement with our porter was anything to do with him at all. After a bit of a shout and lots of hand waving we continued down from the pass plus porter, horse and bags. 2 hours and about 1200 metres later we arrived in Muktinath. During the descent the horse was slipping a little. We gave her a hobnob halfway down, but she wasn't keen.

Us, at the top

Apparently, Muktinath is an important Hindu pilgrimage site, but we didn't see much evidence of this - especially at the 'Hotel Bob Marley' where we checked in and which, according to a big sign inside is a 'Happy cross the pass place'. Here we had hot showers and played pool in the dark (powercut), both of which were great.

Llamas in Muktinath

Day 24 - Muktinath to Jomsom

After breakfast we left the rasta rock restaurant, fully loaded again (Delay and horse headed back over the pass after leaving yesterday), heading for Jomsom 21km away. We are now following the route of the Jomsom Trek. We took the decision to take the shortcut around the small village of KagBeni (and 'Yak Donalds', which was well advertised on the route today). We pretty much descended all the way and 3 hours later we stopped for lunch in Eklai Bhatti where we sampled the 'KagBeni bread' - tasted just like English muffins. It took an hour and a half to reach Jomsom along a very windy path following the route of the Kali Gandaki river.

When we reached Jomsom we passed 2 guys dragging a very sick looking dog across the path towards the river. It was whimpering and bleeding from it's eyes. When they reached the edge of the path we watched as they killed the dog with stones to the head. One guy told us it was rabid, which worried us a tad as we were too tight to get rabies shots before leaving Australia 5 or so months ago.

We decided to check into 'Xanadu' over the 'Jimi hAndrix', solely because of the attached Nilgiri Steak house. Dinner was great. Yak steak followed by chocolate covered apple pie. Kerry had a mean roast chicken and chips. Our hostel here is right by the airport. Apparently the daily highlight in Jomsom is when the morning flight from Pokhara arrives....

Day 25 - Jomsom to Larjung

Incredibly, Jomsom has an ATM machine, which we made use of first thing today. We then set off on a long day's trekking (Jake and Dana don't have much time before their flight out of Kathmandu) across very dry, desert-like plains with vultures circling us overhead

Poor bastard

We passed through Marpha, a nice small town where my new 'Tibetan' bling got many fine looks from the locals. We are now walking through the Mustang region of Nepal, having left Manang behind. We stopped for lunch in Tukuche at a Dutch bakery (nice change from all the German ones that line the route). We had Nasi Goreng, one of our favourites in Indonesia (I think parts of Indonesia were Dutch at one point...) After lunch we rounded a corner and at last identified Dhaulagiri ahead of us, with Nilgiri on our left. Soon we reached the small village of Larjung; so small in fact, that the Yanks (who were behind us at the time) completely overshot it and walked for half an hour in the wrong direction.

Eventually we all checked into the Larjung Lodge and did the usual stuffing ourselves before bedtime. We met a young Australian guy in the evening who was working as a doctor in some Nepali village - he taught us the very useful Nepali phrase 'POISA CHINA', which mean '(I have) no money'.

At 8167 metres, Dhaulagiri is the 7th highest mountain in the world

Larjung seems to be a kind of donkey holding area. All the animals we have seen are in very bad nick, with nasty saddle sores all over their backs. We saw some men trying to help one very bad example with a pallet knife and what looked like plaster of paris. The poor thing had a stick in it's mouth to bite down on.

Day 26 - Dhaulagiri icefall ('rest day')

As Jake and Dana are running low on time, we decided to walk this side trip on a single, very strenuous day. We left the guesthouse at 6.30am and ascended the 1200m in 3 and a half hours. The views of the Nilgiri peaks, Annapurna I and the Tilicho peak (7134m) to the east were fantastic.

Above us, Himalayan Griffon circled on the warm air rising from the valley floor below. We were exhausted when we reached the icefall viewpoint. There wasn't a great view though. It seemed someone had planted the viewpoint marker on the wrong ridge, as we were still some distance from the glacier. We couldn't be arsed to walk any nearer. J&D arrived a little later and we ate the lunch the nice lady at the guesthouse had prepared for us earlier. We had a minor disaster as I used up our last supplies of Vegimite in my Yak cheese sandwiches. After an hour or so at the top we quickly descended and managed to get lost in thick pine forest near the bottom. After a few swamp escapades we escaped next to a small holy lake, where the locals apparently hold a nine day Yak blood drinking festival at the end of each year. I bet that's a hoot.

Day 27 - Larjung to Kalopani (01/11/06)

I woke up to find that Kerry was missing - I was worried for a few minutes before falling back to sleep.... She arrived back a little later having been out to take some early morning photos of Dhaulagiri. After 2 hours walking, continuing down the Kali Gandaki valley we reached Kalopani, where we said goodbye to Jake and Dana - they are rushing back to Kathmandu for their flight out on the 11th. They are off on an all-inclusive 2 week ClubMed relax-a-thon on Bora-Bora and Tahiti before heading off to New Zealand and Australia. I'm not jealous at all...

Goodbye Jake and Dana....

The owner of our guesthouse here (who is very proud of his photos of his blurred mug shoved in front of Tony Blair and Jack Straw in Brighton) has told us about a side trip which we may walk tomorrow morning. Our new friend also tells of that Kalopani is situated in the deepest gorge in the world - the rational behind this is the fact that we have 8000 metre peaks on both sides, at the meeting point of the eastern and western Himayala ranges.

We spent the afternoon reading, eating and admiring the 360 degree views of the 'Fang' ('Baraha Shikhar') and Annapurna I from our rooftop vantage point.

The 3 peaks, center-right are 'Fang', unnamed and Annapurna I (right to left). Annapurna I is regarded as one of the most deadliest mountains in the world - for every 2 climbers who have reached it's summit, 1 has died.

In the evening we met an English couple - Tristan (a mountaineering instructor from Snowdon who was carrying around about a kilogram of cannabis buds that he had picked,in his bag) and Jes, his girlfriend. We learnt a very fast, hands-on card game called 'slam'. The sunset views from the rooftop were fantastic. Had roast chicken, seabuckthorn juice and chocolate pudding for dinner.

Day 28 - Kalopani to Tatopani (02/01/06)

Porridge for breakfast and then we set off down the Kali Gandaki valley again. 2 hours later we stopped for a snickers bar (at 80RP it cost the same as our double room last night!) and a little later for lunch at the 'Waterfall Inn' at Rupse Chhahara ('beautiful waterfall). Not suprisingly, there was a waterfall here as well. We have passed a huge number of porters and donkey trains today, transporting goods up and down the valley (a large proportion of these goods seem to be cans of Carling black label...) We were hurrying, as it was threatening to rain, but got stuck behind/between donkeys for an hour or so. At last, we reached Tatopani - the 2nd one so far. We were hoping to catch up with J&D here, but it seems they have pushed on. Tatopani literally means 'hot water', named as such as there are thermal hot springs here. We checked into the 'Trekkers Lodge' at the southern end of town and drank beer.

Day 29 - Rest day in Tatopani

We discovered last night that the donkeys (each with a large bell around his or her neck) in their trains pass through Tatopani well into the night, right underneath our window. We woke up to a great view of Nilgiri South.

After breakfast we boiled up some water and washed our dirty clothes. A little later I had a nice soak in the hot springs - a concrete bath by the river filled with steaming hot water. It would have been really nice had it not been for the 7 Nepali toddlers constantly splashing me and attempting to steal my glasses. I gave as good as I got. The fat German couple we were sharing the pool with were far from impressed. A local man was trying to drum up business for his 'Massage, hair cutting and Poter service'. Not needing any ceramics right at that moment, I declined.

Over the last few days we have been hearing more and more from other trekkers that the new regulations recently introduced mean that trekkers now have to employ either a guide, a porter or both. We may well be one of the last independent couples to walk here, which is a real shame :(

For dinner we escaped our hostel (it is frowned upon not to eat at the place you are staying) and dined at the 'Dhaulagiri Lodge' - recommended by our LP. We were not disappointed - the chocolate walnut cake on offer was possibly the best I have ever tasted. After that we stopped at the Bob Marley (every town needs one) for some incredibly strong year old apple cider and some Pink Floyd and Bob Marley videos. Neither of us can remember how Bob Marley died.

Day 30 - Tatopani to Shikha

It was hard getting started this morning - our legs were stiff after our day off. It was a hard slog upwards, in 30 degree heat for most of the morning - a lot like the first few days of the Manaslu trek, only this time we were a little fitter, but a little more loaded. Just outside of Tatopani we passed through an ACAP checkpost and turned off the Beni trail towards Ghorapani. There were men with big guns behind sandbags here - possibly Maoists that amazingly we managed to avoid (we are expecting to have to pay more 'tax' at some point soon....) For lunch we stopped at Shikha, the 'Travellers guesthouse' )cheese omlettes and cornbread with honey). After a few more hours trekking uphill we passed a nice looking guesthouse (Shikha turned out to be well spread out) and decided to call it a day, 20 minutes later the rain and thunder started up, and didn't stop until early evening time. At dinner (in the dark - powercut) we met an American couple who were pretty clued up on the current situation regarding the new trekking regulations. It seems you now need to take a TAAN registered guide or porter for all treks in Nepal, effectively killing independent trekking here (the Americans met the Maoists at Beni today, and were relieved of some money).

We had the owners father ranting to us in broken English for most of the evening, telling us all about the virtues of the 'local wine', or their homemade raksi. He drinks 2 large glasses each night - clearly he had consumed tonights quota already. We joined him in a glass and then hit the sack.

Day 31 - Shikha to Ghorapani (05/11/06)

We reached Ghorapani in about 3 hours, all uphill. Tea was taken on the trail - a couple of boiled eggs. Twice I asked for some pepper, and twice I was brought a paper napkin. You just can't get the service here. In Ghorapani we managed to get the highest room in the tallest guesthouse - the 'Super View', and then basically chilled out all day eating and reading. I finished my latest book, 'The Kite Runner' by Khaled Hussen - I couldn't put it down (well, obviously I could once it was finished). Our entire hostel is made of plywood, and feels like it's going to fall down at any moment. Ghorapani apparently means 'horse water', and it is a major crossroads on the trail.

Day 32 - Ghorapani to Tadapani

Up at 5.30am this morning to trek up to the local viewpoint at 'Poon Hill'. Five minutes in and we got stuck behind a long traffic jam of very slow, pole wielding Europeans plodding up the hill. We just made it in time for the sunrise, but the clouds were low and the views weren't as good as they could have been.

We set off around 10am and in a couple of hours stopped for 2nd breakfast at Deorali - a place with an amazing array of souvenirs and jewelery for sale - all of which we were assured was from Tibet.... even the supposed coral and cowry shells. And there was me thinking Tibet is a land-locked country. We met a Spanish woman and her guide, and walked with them to our final destination of the day, Tadapani. Her guide was great - constantly singing. After lunch (at Banthanti) we crossed a river and then climbed a few hundred metres to Tadapani (means 'far from water'), checking into the 'Grand View' at 80RP/night. Met a nice German couple in the evening and a strange English man with a terrible beard. He turned out to be a folk dancer. Say no more.

Day 33 - Tadapani to Chhomrong

We woke up to our first views of Machhapuchhare, one of the most distinctive peaks in this region. We left at 8am and walked with Suzanna and Bishal, our friend and borrowed guide from yesterday all day. We headed down to the bottom of the valley and then climbed steeply up the other side to Chhomrong, with eagles soaring above our heads. We stopped for a quick breather at the 'Ex-Gurkha Lodge'.

Bishal lead us to the 'Kalopana Guest House' where we ran into 2 Koreans from last night. They are traveling in style with 7 porters (each carrying around 48 kilos) and a guide, and eating one whole chicken each for dinner every day! Suzanna told us that last night they bought 22 bottles of 'Everest' (the local beer - very expensive here), which were shared out around themselves and the kitchen staff. When they had eaten their fill and left, I finished off a fantastic chicken chilli soup that their chef had prepared for them. A moment later, it started raining, hard. We were planning to continue walking to Sinuwa, 40 minutes away, but that will have to wait until tomorrow.

We are having to start budgeting each day now as we are beginning to run out of cash. Consequently I had Daal Bhat for dinner and man, has Daal Bhat gone up in the world since the days of Manaslu. The Daal actually has lentils in the liquid, and the pickle is fantastic. It does cost 4 times as much as we were paying 30 odd days ago though.

We have decided to walk up to the Annapurna Basecamp (the 'ABC') through the Annapurna Sanctuary. We figured we might as well while we're here and all...

Day 34 - Chhomrong to Deurali (start of the Annapurna Sanctuary trek)

We left the guesthouse at 7am, after leaving a bag containing about 15kg of our gear (tent, sleeping mats etc) with them. We'll pick it up in a few days when we come back down the valley. In Chhomrong we stocked up on 'Bonbons'; cheap, fake bourbon biscuits that are actually very good. Stamped onto the front of each biscuit is the word 'Kwality'. Pure class. From the bottom of the valley, at 1900 metres we climbed upwards pretty much all day. It is obvious from this angle why Machhapuchhare has been nicknamed the 'fishtail'.

At Bamboo we stopped for tea and met a kind of Australian David Brent - a really nice guy who was on his 3rd attempt at reaching the ABC - both previous attempts had been thwarted by avalanches. He also told us that a Swiss trekker had been killed on the Thoronga La by an avalanche a week or so ago.

This is by far the busiest path we have walked here so far. There are many big groups of trekkers in brand new gear. Seven and a half hours, and many, many Namaste's later we arrived at Deorali, 3200m in thick cloud. Everything is getting much more pricey the further we get up this valley. We negotiated a room rate of 150RP/night. During dinner we got talking to a Swedish guy who had just finished watching the second series of 'Extras' - we will have to get my good buddy in New Zealand to download it for us. Rich?? Pretty please...

They had a guitar here. My finger nails are still not long enough for fingerpicking....

Day 35 - Deurali to the ABC

Early start this morning. Kerry sped off like she had a fire up her arse. She wanted to get higher to see the mountains before the afternoon cloud came in.. We completed the 2 hour walk to the MBC (Machhapuchhare Basecamp) in 75 minutes. From there we were the first of the day to reach the ABC - a small collection of hostels located right at the foot of the Annapurna South icefall. This is the site of the basecamp used by Chris Bonnington in 1970, the first summit of the mountain up this face. We rewarded ourselves with a chocolate pancake each. They were pretty nasty. The views of Annapurna, Annapurna South and the icy fin of Gandharba Chuli are fantastic from here. The cloud came in pretty quickly after about 11am and it started snowing about midday. As the temperature dropped we retreated to our dining room where we drank hot chocolate with lots of rum. I am a little concerned that the kerosene stove they have burning at full whack under the table is putting us all to sleep. No-one else seems to be too bothered though.

The weather cleared up by about 5pm and we were treated to a fantastic sunset over the fishtail of Machhapuchhre.

We were told that 20 or so days ago an Annapurna South expedition lost their head Sherpa in an avalanche. They turned back.

Day 36 - ABC to Bamboo

We were up for sunrise and then began a long descent (~2000m). We will be arriving back in civilisation in a few days and so have decided to live like kings and spend all our remaining money. We stopped at Deorali for some tea and chip butties. At 3pm we arrived in Bamboo and I had a deep fried snickers bar with custard, and a hot shower. Luxury. I also made a new friend.

Day 37 - Bamboo to Jhinu

As usual we set off after breakfast and a few hours later stopped for some tea in Sinuwa. We passed suprisingly few trekkers today, but of those that we did see, I noticed a few of the guides looking around suspiciously for our 'staff'. The guides on this trail have it easy. They are not required to carry anything apart from their own gear, and no guiding is required - you simply follow the one well worn path. After reaching the bottom of the valley we started out up the extremely long, extremely steep staircase that separates the bottom and top of Chhomrong. 2138 steps (no, we didn't count them) and a good hour later we reached the top, covered in sweat. We pigged out on tea and chocolate cake. Kerry is at pains to point out that we saw a nice bug and a butterfly on the trail today.

At the top of Chhomrong we took a left turn and headed down a very steep path for an hour or so, until we hit Jhinu. Trekkers stop here because of the local hot springs, and we were no exception. After lunch we headed off, in our swimming gear only to find out that the hot water was a 30 minute hike down to the bottom of the valley. It was worth it though. At the hotsprings someone told us that the Democrats had won the US mid-term elections, something which made Brena, an American girl we have been travelling with for the last few days scream for joy. Back at the hostel, the walls are so thin we can hear our neighbour's ipod.

Day 38 - Jhinu to Deorali (12/11/06)

We thought we would meet the Maoists again today. We had been told that they were at Landruk, but when we got there we managed to walk straight through their 'tax checkpoint' without being stopped (the advantages of not having a guide). Ha! Kerry is finding the walking hard going today. We are looking forward to being in Pokhara tomorrow. We stopped in Tolka for lunch (after passing through a small section of 'Namaste pen' and 'Namaste sweet' kid-land), and then a few hours later at Bheri Kharka for some (pretty nasty) tea.

We noticed the owner eating some fresh honeycomb, and he pointed out their beehives. The swarms are kept in short lengths of hollowed out tree trunk - plugged at one end with a tightly fitting branch and sealed with water buffalo shit. They do a 'cutting' every week or so in the summer, and judging by the the owner's father's hands one had just been performed. His fingers were badly swollen from all the stings he had received. I asked why he didn't wear gloves and he told me that the people here believe the stings are 'good medicine'.

The steep climb up to Deorali, carrying a full pack was not easy, and we decided to stop here for the night. It's only a few hours to Pokhara from here, but that can wait until tomorrow. Besides, the rooms are cheaper here.

It's a cut-throat business owning a guesthouse in Deorali. The village consists of 3 of them, packed together. Our landlady is called 'Rhupe Gurung' (the 'gurung' indicates the region she is from). In the evening we had dinner with a very strange man from Holland. He looked as though he was about to hack you to death with a large knife. He seemed to (think he) knew everything about everything - I think he prided himself on being a bit of a super-trekker, but unfortunatly came across as a bit of a cock. He had witnessed the honey harvest only an hour of so before we arrived on the scene.

Once we reached Pokhara the next day, we headed directly to the nearest steak house, closely followed by a shave, a haircut and a back massage (the Indian Masseur wanted 1500RP for 30 minutes work. I have him 400. He seemed happy.) Earlier we had descended from Deorali via Pothana, but then veered off the main trail onto a less used path to the village of Khare, avoiding the Maoist hotspots of Dhampus and Phedi.... and therefore not paying any 'tax'. Oh how we laughed. We checked into the 'Travellers Inn' and set about eating as much as possible. We have both lost a lot of weight. We have literally trekked our arses off.

Our last views of the mountains were from the 'Australia Camp', apparently named because some Australians camped here at one point;

After 3 days in Pokhara we got ourselves on a bus back to Kathmandu. We got seats on the left side, having been told that the scenery would be nice. We need not have bothered, as by the time we had got 3 hours out of Pokhara it was dark. A journey that should have taken 7 hours took us 16!

There had apparently been a fatal hit and run the night before. The victim was still lying in the road and local villagers were refusing to allow him to be moved until they knew who was responsible - thus blocking the only road between the 2 biggest cities in the country. As the day progressed, the police and the local Maoist leaders arrived on the scene, and the situation became political. For us, and hundreds of other tourists, this meant lots of hanging about trying to ascertain what the hell was going on. Eventually, and a lot of reading later, the road re-opened and our buses were able to continue, inching our way along in a huge traffic jam past all the backed up traffic in the opposite direction. A few hours later it seemed we were involved in some kind of bus race - everybody was trying to get back to Kathmandu as quickly as possible, with lots of crazy overtaking. We eventually checked into our hostel in Thamel at 12.30am.

Kathmandu

2006-10-04T06:25:00.000-10:00

The Green Eye of the Little Yellow God, J. Milton Hayes

There's a one-eyed yellow idol to the north of Khatmandu,
There's a little marble cross below the town;
There's a broken-hearted woman tends the grave of Mad Carew,
And the Yellow God forever gazes down.

He was known as "Mad Carew" by the subs at Khatmandu,
He was hotter than they felt inclined to tell;
But for all his foolish pranks, he was worshipped in the ranks,
And the Colonel's daughter smiled on him as well.

He had loved her all along, with a passion of the strong,
The fact that she loved him was plain to all.
She was nearly twenty-one and arrangements had begun
To celebrate her birthday with a ball.

He wrote to ask what present she would like from Mad Carew;
They met next day as he dismissed a squad;
And jestingly she told him then that nothing else would do
But the green eye of the little Yellow God.

On the night before the dance, Mad Carew seemed in a trance,
And they chaffed him as they puffed at their cigars:
But for once he failed to smile, and he sat alone awhile,
Then went out into the night beneath the stars.

He returned before the dawn, with his shirt and tunic torn,
And a gash across his temple dripping red;
He was patched up right away, and he slept through all the day,
And the Colonel's daughter watched beside his bed.

He woke at last and asked if they could send his tunic through;
She brought it, and he thanked her with a nod;
He bade her search the pocket saying "That's from Mad Carew,"
And she found the little green eye of the god.

She upbraided poor Carew in the way that women do,
Though both her eyes were strangely hot and wet;
But she wouldn't take the stone and Mad Carew was left alone
With the jewel that he'd chanced his life to get.

When the ball was at its height, on that still and tropic night,
She thought of him and hurried to his room;
As she crossed the barrack square she could hear the dreamy air
Of a waltz tune softly stealing thro' the gloom.

His door was open wide, with silver moonlight shining through;
The place was wet and slipp'ry where she trod;
An ugly knife lay buried in the heart of Mad Carew,
'Twas the "Vengeance of the Little Yellow God."

There's a one-eyed yellow idol to the north of Khatmandu,
There's a little marble cross below the town;
There's a broken-hearted woman tends the grave of Mad Carew,
And the Yellow God forever gazes down.

A tour of Rajasthan

2006-09-19T05:47:00.000-10:00

In Agra we met up with Jake and Dana - We met Jake 3 years ago in Peru and this seemed like a suitable enough place to catch up again. We hired a car and driver, and started out on a tour of Rajasthan.

We spent 2 nights in Jodhpur, being pretty tired after trapsing around 4 different cities in 5 days (Jaipur, Uadipur, Pushkar and Jodhpur). We wanted to post some shopping back to England - a relativly mundane task you might think.. but not in India. Firstly we had to procure a box to pack the stuff in. The staff at the guest house we were staying at (the 'Shivam paying guest house' - a great place) were only too keen to help, although the process took at least half an hour as they actually went out, bought a case of mineral water and emptied it for us. Next we went to the local sweat shop to get the box stitched up in cotton (seems to be the done thing here). This was basically a shed containing 4 incredibly thin men sweating away on old Singer sewing machines. They were hard at work on a huge batch of crappy CD cases destined for sale in Target, but for 200RP or so one of them took an hour out to sort us out.
Next came the task of locating the correct post office (we were given directions to at least 3 different ones) and deciphering the Hindi signs. We were ushered in behind the counters and past a group of men sorting through and stamping a huge pile of letters on the floor. The postal master was collecting the addresses of 'new friends', so he could 'post them birthday cards', in return for each new friend sending him one on his birthday. He insisted on a photo...
We had lunch with the famous omlette man (see the LP). Competition in the omlette selling business is fierce around the city gate, with others trying for a piece of the originals fame. A masala omlette sandwich set me back 12RP (around 15 pence). We were actually served by the omlette man's son. The man himself was asleep on the floor of the hovel we ate in.

We ended up in Jaisalmer where due to time restrictions with our rented car and driver we were planning to just spend a night and then head back to Agra.. but after a swim in the hotel's pool and a chat to some Australians we decided to dismiss our driver and go on a 3 day Camel 'safari' through the desert...

(Tall humpy men, in the sun)

After that, we took an overnight train back to Jodhpur, and then another to Varanasi. The last leg was 27 hours without AC and was pretty nasty to say the least. We were all completely trashed by the time we checked into our hostal in Varanasi, and Kerry had come out in a nasty rash on her legs. After 4 days of bed we decided to cut our losses and depart India. The few trips we took out of the hostal was just nasty. Varanasi is like condensed India - more dirt, noise, cows, rickshaws and touts than anywhere else. We flew to Kathmandu, Nepal the next day.

Little Lhasa

2006-09-07T20:52:00.000-10:00

When we'd had our fill of Shimla and the monkeys, we bused the 10 hours to Dharamasala (pronounced Daram-shala). Eventful bus ride, with another nutcase driver. Near the end of the journey his tiredness was evident (he had driven for the last 8 hours) - he misjudged the width of the road in the dark, hit something big and shattered the window above Kerry's head. Luckily for her, it stayed in place, but we were rained on by tiny fragments of glass, which were not easy to remove! Oh, and we had a puncture - lucky there were 4 wheels on the rear axle so no serious problems. When the wheel was removed for repair I got a look at the inner one. It was so bare you could make out the steel rings inside the tyre.

From Dharamshala we headed uphill to McLeod Ganj, as this is where all the Tibetan action is. McLeod Ganj is a nice place populated with a friendly mix of Indians, Tibetans, monks, tourists and English teachers. For some reason all of the English teachers seem to be female American teenagers.

We checked in to the 'Pemathang' guest house - the top one in the LP.. turned out to be a little expensive, so we moved to a cheaper place after 3 nights.. We visited the Tsuglagkhan complex - the biggest Buddhist temple here. It was full of monks doing what monks do best - reading and debating religious texts. The debating part includes lots of loud hand slapping and foot stomping (apparently this cleanses the mind). We also visited the Tibet Museum..

It is so sad to see the Tibetans having to practice their peaceful traditional Buddhist lives in a foreign country. One night we watched the majority (the copied DVD gave up after about an hour) of a film about the Tibet situation called 'The cry of the snow lion'. Note to self - check this out at a later date. We learnt about the abduction of the 11th Panchen Lama. In 1995 he was (apparently...) kidnapped by the Chinese government and has not been heard from since.

The history of the Tibet situation, in a nutshell is as follows;

(Start political rant)

In May 1949 the newly established communist government in China decided to invade Tibet (or 'liberate them from Anglo-American Imperialist power' as they put it). The Peoples Liberation Army marched into Lhasa, beginning a very nasty regime which so far has left about 1.2 million Tibetans dead. The 14th Dalai Lama was 15 when this happened.... A few years later he, and the Tibetan government left their country and went into exile - they trekked across the Himalaya into India, and were granted political asylum in McLeod Ganj. Since then, they have been followed by thousands of their countrymen - about 3000 arrive here each year. The Tibetans are now a minority in their own country - the Chinese government have been actively encouraging their people to relocate to the 'Tibetan Autonomous Region' - what remains of Tibet (half of the original Tibetan landmass is now part of China..)

Since 1949, around 90% of Tibet's religious institutions have been destroyed (or de-faced - some were turned into public toilets) by the Chinese.. Most of them during the Chinese 'cultural revolution'. That's the history, but this ethnic cleansing process is still happening today. Nowadays, Tibetans are 2nd class citizens in their oen country; 2nd class to the Chinese. Their chances of good employment are small - they must learn Chinese to have any chance at all (the Tibetan language is slowely being wiped out). Carrying a photo of their spiritual and political leader, the Dalai Lama is illegal in Lhasa!

Of course, this situation is predominantly political. Tibet is high land situated at the heard of Asia - the 'roof of the world'. Whoever controls Tibet has a strong foothold in Asia. Since escaping Tibet, the Dalai Lama has been trying for a peaceful resolution for the liberation of Tibet. In 1989 he received the Nobel Peace Prize for his work (any celebrations in Tibet were banned - many more Tibetans were killed)..

Anyway, I'll shutup now.. I just can't believe that the rest of the world hasn't stepped in to help resolve this horrible situation. Of course, again it's political. China is a major world player, with huge economic and political influence. In the 1960's the CIA was aiding Tibet by training Tibetan soldiers in warfare - they were secretly flying them to and from America for training. This aid dried up when China blackmailed the USA over various trade deals, leaving the Tibetans sitting ducks.

(Stop political rant)

Funky Monks

In McLeod Ganj we did a 2 day Indian cookery course. It was great. Can't wait to get home and try out my new skills.... While we were there, is rained almost continually.

Buddhist slug

Amritsar

2006-09-04T20:29:00.000-10:00

This is the Sikh golden temple in Amritsar, a beautiful and very spiritual place. It's the home of their holy book, protected by 4 priests who spend the day playing music and singing. The sound is broadcast arcoss the temple complex. At night, the book is moved to another building and one night we joined the procession following the book to it's night time home. It is carried in a huge gold cushioned casket (ooooh, Kerry even knows the technical term - palanquin), being constantly fanned by a priest for the 30 minute journey. Lots of pushing and jostling to get as close as possible to the book. The temple looked completely different in the daytime...

One night there was a big fireworks display at the temple - and these were big dangerous homemade fireworks, showering the assembled audience with sparks and burning stuff. Apparently the occasion was the 300th anniversary of the holy book being at the temple. Not sure if that's true or not, but the turnout was pretty poor. It was raining. Faith, it's a funny old thing.

Before leaving Amritsar we visited Jallianwala Bagh, a small memorial park to commemorate all those that were killed when a British soldier, Dyer and his men opened fire on a peaceful demonstration in 1919. 2000 were killed. I think I remember this from the film Ghandi. I was ashamed to be English, and we snuck out.

We took a 6 hour bus ride to Chandigarh, India's only planned city - lots of rickshaws as everything is very spread out with lots of roundabouts. A bit like an Indian Milton Keynes. A Lot fewer turbans and lots more Reebok tshirts. The best thing here was the 'Fantasy rock garden'. Some bloke had spent his life creating this garden containing waterfeatures, Tim Burton-like trees and thousands of human and animal figures, all made from rock. One group of locals took a strong interest in us and dragged us around for half an hour. We got the impression they were a religious group so we turned down their offer of going back 'home' with them in their jeep. They were in a rush because one of them was a teacher with a pending lesson. He gave us a 10RP note on which he had written his telephone number, as a leaving present.

Our next destination was Shimla. At 2200m we escaped the lowland heat and humidity, and even got to see a few snow capped Himalayan peaks in the distance. The town, really just a developed hill station was the summer home of the British Raj and the rest of the British government before India/Pakistan independance in 1947. It has a very English feel - many Tudor style buildings and a great place to get a real English breakfast. One of the downsides is the number of monkeys roaming the streets. We have both narrowly avoided being attacked by 2 of these little bastards - you can see their eyes light up before they are about to pounce. We have taken to carrying one of our trekking poles as a monkey deterent.

In Shimla we spent a fair amount of time at the Indian Coffee House. Can't sniff at a good cup of coffee for 10pence served by white suited waiters in red and green cummerbunds.

On our last evening I sold our monkey bashing stick to a random man who seemed to really want it. Kerry was not happy. We had to get another stick in order to get her back to the hotel.

I have begun to involuntary use the Indian sideways head wiggle. No idea what it means though. Sometimes it means yes, and sometimes it means no, I think. I'm really not sure. It feels good though. If David Gray can do it, then so can we.

Border Fun

2006-08-29T19:52:00.000-10:00

From Lahore (we stayed at the Grace Hotel) we took a taxi through Charring Cross square (?) to the Wagah/Attari Indian border and cleared Indian immigration. The border area was awash with colour - 100's of men in orange and red robes with boxes of fruit and sacks of potatoes on their heads. We had our passports checked 4 times on both sides of the border - lots of military insignia, shiny shoes and big moustaches. We were even offered a cup of Chai on the Indian side; a nice gesture (although the goods never actually arrived...) The Pakistani's even had one of those wind up phones you see in Pink Panther films. I was congratulated on my profession ('computer programmer') a number of times (it's all very proper and formal here).

On the Indian side the moustaches seemed even bigger. And there were lots of turbans. We met 3 English blokes in 'Original Lahore' shirts - apparently this is a great Pakistani restaurant in East London, Commercial Road (must check it out). They had been charged to have their bags inspected on the Pakistani side. Ha! The porters in this side wear green robes. They were queuing up for sacks of potatoes from a number of big trucks, which they then ran down the 100m stretch of border and gave to their Pakistani counterparts on the other side. Once we had officially entered Punjab, India we left our bags with a nice Indian man and headed back to the border for the 'closing of the border' ceremony. I was amazed just how popular this event is - 100's of locals from both sides were seated (separately) on stadium style seating. We were directed to the VIP area thankyou very much. Lots of amazingly tall men in uniform and amusing head gear were prancing around getting the crowd excited. It's incredible how popular Ringo Star is in this part of the world. We had at least 30 minutes of everybody chanting his name. Kerry thinks the lyrics were 'Hindu-stan', but I played along by shouting the names of the other Beatles - might as well get into the thing. From the Pakistani side we were treated to some very loud, cheesy 'Pakistan is great' pop music which sounded like a local 'Venga Boys'. For about 20 minutes we had lots of whistle blowing, shouting and lots and lots of foot stamping. Once things had calmed down we collected our bags from the nice man (and paid him a little Baksheesh'), then took a taxi the 30km into Amritsar, looking for a beer. In Pakistan the 30km distance to the border cost us about 8 quid. In India the same distance cost 4. We didn't find any beer. Typical.

Lost on a glacier in Pakistan

2006-08-19T23:29:00.000-10:00

Northern Pakistan is beautiful. Amazing mountain scenery, honest, friendly people and lots and lots of ice. We spent 18 days wandering up the biggest slab of ice outside of the polar regions and then got lost in a white-out on the top, surrounded by crevasses. More on that later.

Camping on Snow Lake. The Ogre (Biantha Brakk) is the highest peak on the left

From Delhi, we took a Pakistan International Airways flight to Lahore, and just managed to catch our connecting flight to Islamabad. Our contact from 'Vertical Explorers', Syed met us at the airport and we checked into a hotel in Rawalpindi, Islamabad's older twin city. For 3 days, Syed went out of his way to help us and show us the sights. We visited the Shah Faisal mosque where we were photographed with various local people a total of 10 times. We had never been so popular. Men here like to hold hands. Especially, it seems when being photographed. Men and women however, never hold hands. Public displays of affection is not the done thing. The food has been good. We have eaten all sorts of curry - Qorma, Jalfrazwee, Masala etc. There is less Dahl that I had expected. I have eaten mutton testes and even pushed myself to try the plate of mashed brains Syed was munching away on (the texture is not the best, to say the least). We have done some shopping and Kerry has got into the local fashion, sporting a brand new Shalmwar Kameez. One day Syed caught me photographing one of the brightly painted Bedford trucks that are used to transport goods up and down the Karakoram Highway (the old Silk route between Pakistan and China) - that was it. He took us to a place where there were loads of these trucks and we were shown around each, the proud owner looking on. It was a crazy day. We have photos of just about every part of these trucks. Us on the truck, us in the truck, us and the owner in the truck etc. We attracted a crowd of about 20 onlookers, who thought we were out of our trees.
Karakoram (or 'Khara-kherem' in Mongolian) means 'black barrier'. The great wall of China is called 'Tsagaan-Kherem', or 'white barrier'.

From Islamabad, we were trying to get to Skardu, the capital of the Baltistan region in Northern Pakistan. Baltistan means 'land of the Balti people' in Balti. This flight is weather dependent, and it was necessary for us to stay in Islamabad an extra day - the rains had started. Our hotel room that night was cold - 17 degrees according to the A/C. Each time we tried turning it down one of the hotel staff appeared outside the window to inspect the pipes. He then knocks on the door, comes in and turns it up again (the second time under the premise of checking the TV). He told me, in broken English that he is from Kashmir and had lost 2 of his brothers, 2 nephews and his mother in the recent earthquakes there. He was interested in knowing if the news of the devestation had reached us in England. That day, on a visit to the main bazaar with Syed, we drank some Lassi at a street stall. This was when Kerry drank EVIL LASSI. CURSE YOU EVIL LASSI.

The flight to Skardu the next morning was one of the most scenic I have ever been on. The plane came in low, soaring snow covered peaks on both sides.. The landing would not have been nice in low cloud. At the airport we met our mountain guide, Aliakbar - "Ali" (one of the other trekking agencies here was run by Simon Yates, of 'Touching the Void' fame) and were taken to our hotel.

The next day we took a white knuckle jeep ride to Askole village, following the Braldu river up the Shigar valley. This river comes directly from the glaciers and the volume of water it contains can swell by a factor of 12 or so. Our jeep had to stop and backtrack frequently due to landslides and river crossings. After a few hours, we came round one corner to find a newly created river had taken out a good 10 metre stretch of road altogether. It took 2 hours for us (our guide and porters) to dislodge enough rocks upstream to form a makeshift bridge, allowing the jeep to get across.. Kerry and I were all ready to wade across ourselves, but were picked up and carried across as if we were part of the luggage. At Thongol village we left the jeeps altogether and walked the last 2 hour stretch to Askole, due to another landslide.

No road

DAY 1 (Askole to Namla)
Askole village is not a very nice place. The single toilet available to us was disgusting. In the morning we were glad to leave and start our trek proper, towards the start of the Biafo glacier. After a few hours walking on pebbly moraine we passed the turn off to the Baltoro glacier. Most trekers in Pakistan follow this route as it leads to K2, Broad Peak and Gasherbrum (means 'beautiful' in Urdu, apparently) II, III and IV. The Base Camp of K2 (the 2nd highest mountain in the world) is Pakistan's biggest tourist pull. Our guide, Ali has summited Broad Peak (8047m) a few times and says (at least, as far as we can make out) that it is not a technical climb, and we should come back to Pakistan next year to summit it...

After another hour or so we got our first views of the Biafo ('rooster') glacier and in another 2 we were walking on the ice. This glacier, along with the Hispar to the west form the largest continous stretch of ice in the Karakoram - 114km. The two are connected by the pass at 5151m, the Hispar La. This was our goal.

By this time Kerry was feeling unwell and was sick. We started out on the glacier, having to cross it a few times to avoid crevasses. The terrain was very unstable, on ice, scree and piles of large boulders (Talus). As we were walking Ali and the porters occasionally burst into song. Their singing is great, and reminds me of the Muezzin call to prayer we heard everywhere in Indonesia. Ali asked us if we 'spoke in song' - I was tempted to recite something by the Beatles, or even the Cure, but I'm sorry to say I declined - somehow it didn't seem appropriate! Ali is from Baltistan, and is Balti-pa, a culture originally from Tibet.

We eventually reached an oasis of green, a place called 'Namla' where we set up camp, started Kerry on a course of antibiotics and fell asleep.

DAY 2 - Namla to Mango
Kerry is still bad this morning (CURSE YOU EVIL LASSI), as we set off across the glacier once more. The going for the first few hours was very difficult, walking on unstable boulders and ice. After another hour or so we reached medial moraine (flatter stuff). The weather changes all the time here. We started out in hot sunshine, but around midday a strong wind started up and the heavens opened. We got soaked (no waterproofs handy!). At last we reached 'Mango', cold and wet. As if on cue, the sun came out and we dried off nicely. I think Kerry's antibiotics are beginning to work - she seems at last to be able to hold down food - famous last words! The rainwater streaming off the mountains onto the glacier below is causing many small waterfalls all around us. We set up camp for the night and dried out all our stuff (passports, flight tickets etc..)

Namla camp

DAY 3 - Mango I
We were up 3 times in the night, and Kerry is still very bad. We decided to stay put today to allow her to rest. Although we were up for sunrise this morning. It wasn't great as I was holding Kerry up over a rock. We had to negociate our porters, who had assembled in a line to pray. In the morning (proper) I walked up to the nearby glacier. The view down was spectacular.

Mango camp

DAY 4 - Mango to Baintha I
Up another 3 times last night. At 4am, holding Kerry over a rock (CURSE YOU EVIL LASSI), spurting liquid from both ends (Kerry, not the rock...) I began to think we would have to turn back. It would still be at least 3 more days before she could see a doctor, but it might be our best option. 2 hours later, after breakfast and some consultation with Ali, we decided to carry on and set off for the next camp. Kerry is being amazingly strong. She feels sick all the time and is having real trouble holding anything down. I'm not sure I would be doing so well if our roles were reversed.

We are having trouble making ourselves understood to our guide, Ali. His conversation opener is usually 'Stomach good?', to which we reply
'No, but she is taking Antibiotics'.
'You have medicine?' says Ali.
'Yes, Antibiotics' we say.
He generally then goes back to 'Stomach good?'. I have started telling him my hovercraft is full of eels. He just smiles, and nods.

Ayway, we set off (in the rain) across very unstable, black rubble covered ice until we hit a huge band of white ice after about an hour. As usual, our porters raced ahead of us - I really don't know how they do it - they carry upto 25kg each (in makeshift packs) and wear crappy plastic tennis shoes.
We hiked up this white motorway for about 3 hours, and then started to cross to the glaciers far side - a task which took about an hour. Each time we thought we had crossed the final medial moraine (as in, 'you're a right medial moraine') band, we discovered another white motorway on the other side. We had lunch on the glacier itself - biscuits, rock hard dried apricots (a Hunza valley speciality) - really tasty, and green tea. We have got to know 2 of our porters a little. Abudullaman, who we gave a few plasters to for a nasty cut on his hand, and 'Special porter' (Ali's nickname, not ours) who walks with us everyday, helping us with routefinding.

Finally we reached our camp in an ablation valley (side bit) on the opposite side of the ice. The camp is called 'Baintha', and is really nice and green. I'm so glad we made it today. At last I think Kerry is recovering. The glacier flows on, but Kerry's flow is receding (I should be a poet). It's still raining. We had a minor tip-giving ceremony as 5 of our porters are leaving us tomorrow - heading back to Askole (in a single day!). It's very hard to know what to give them (bearing in mind we now seem to have 12 porters, it could be an expensive business). We gave them 200RP each (about 2 quid). They seemed happy enough. I first went out holding a 10RP note and told them to share it amongst themselves. This was met with stoney silence. BAD JOKE.

Abdullaman, 'wet eyes', un-named porter 1, Kerry, 'Laughing boy' and un-named porter 2 - Guess which one I married...

DAY 5 (09/08/06)

The Latok Base Camp.

Today was designated a rest day, and it was a welcome break for Kerry. I took a side trip with Ali to the Base Camp of the Latok peaks, some of the most technical in the world to summit. We set off up an east/west tributary glacier (the Bantha Lukpar), past the huge granite spear of the Orges Thumb - so far unclimbed. At the end of this valley are Latok I, II, III and IV. I met 2 Spanish blokes who had been camping there for the last month. They has summited Latok III 2 weeks ago (via the south east ridge) and were well chuffed. They are the 3rd recorded party to climb this peak. The other group there consisted of 3 Americans. I had a good chat with one of them, a larger than life guy called Steve Swanson. They are planning to attempt Latok III's west face (the one facing the camp). This face is so far unclimbed. They had a telescope, and were spending their time mapping out the face to find a route up. The summit is just under 7000m Latok I is very technical, and it's western face has only been climbed once - by a Japanese group on an expedition style assault (I gather some of them died in the attempt). 'Latok' is a Balti word, which I think means something like 'big pass'.

The Ogre's thumb

DAY 6 - Baintha I to Marpogoro

One of our porters, 'Lowe Alpine' is starting to piss me off. He seems to think that it's his job to take down our tent in the mornings. This morning he had the pegs out before i'd even emptied it. I've tried to tell him that a man likes to erect his own tent, but he keeps trying. If this carries on I'll have to have further words. Up at 5.30am this morning for breakfast, and then set off up the valley for a half hour or so before crossing the moraine onto the glacier. We had good weather today, and easy walking on the upper section of the Biafo. Great views of the glacier behind us as we walked, and even took a few photos of the remaining porters. After about 4 hours we crossed back to the left side of the glacier and found the camp, Marpogoro ('red' in Balti) under a big red rock. It has been nice having Kerry back in the land of the living.

DAY 7 - Marpogoro to Snow Lake

I think I'm getting too old for this. Today was extremely tiring, but we eventually made it to the Snow Lake, a 9km bowl of ice and snow. For the final hike up the very top part of the glacier our party were roped together (although only Kerry and I had actual harnesses. The others just tied the rope around their waists). Ali's 3 hour estimate turned out to be 4 and a half hours, hiking through deep snow and having to backtrack frequently to avoid the crevasses. Our roped procession started with a prayer to Allah, and was lead by Shereef, who seems pertty experienced in dealing with crevasses. He is hiking through deep snow with plastic tennis shoes and no socks. I really don't know how they do it. When we arrived at the camp, Kerry donated a pair of her socks!

The scenery up here is something else. There is no sound, except the occasional rock fall. When we arrived we pitched the tent on the snow (no sign of 'Lowe Alpine' today) and made damn sure our therm-a-rests were fully inflated. I think we could be in for a cold night. It's incredibly isolated up here. Apart from at the Latok BC, we haven't seen another person for 7 days.

DAY 8 (12/08/06) - Snow Lake to Khani-Basa

We got up for breakfast at 4am today, ready to tackle the Hispar la pass before the sun started to melt the snow and expose the crevasses; we needn't have worried as we didn't see much of the sun all day. It rained constantly all night, and the rain turned to snow once we had started the long slog up the pass. On the top we experienced total white-out conditions. We were roped together with Shereef at the front and Ali at the back, occasionally shouting directions (On, on, on cried the leaders at the back). Well, we got hopelessly lost. We could see nothing except our tracks and even those disappeared pretty quickly in the falling snow. I thought we had become pretty good at crevasse jumping, but when they are snow covered the problem gets much worse. The way our situation was handled by our group was not good. Once we were lost, Ali sent out a scout party, lead by Shereef and "Special Porter" to try and get some bearings (they took our only rope). After 30 minutes or so, muttering 'big problem', Ali wandered off on his own, leaving me, Kerry and 3 porters in the snow freezing our arses off. We played a few games in the snow to keep ourselves amused - hangman etc... When at last Ali and the others returned I was about to ask which porter we should eat first, but their smiling faces told us they had found the pass. Off we trapsed once more, walking through knee deep snow. The crevasses on the far side of the pass were even more dangerous. Just after I had taken this photo (which turned out to be one of the many dead ends due to the huge crevasses - we had to backtrack for half an hour;

we almost lost 'Special porter'. One minute he was there, the next he had been swallowed by a crevasse. Thank god/Allah/whoever that the plastic barrel he had strapped to his back acted like a cork, stopping him from falling all the way through the ice so we were able to drag him out. The same happened again a little later to another porter. Again we managed to haul him out. At last (after a few more misadventures and lots of shouting) we located the pass and descended the Hispar glacier. By this time we had been walking for about 11 and a half hours and our legs were like jelly. (later, looking at our itinerary we found we had walked 2 'strenuous' days in one!). Ali told us the camp was only an hour or so away - great we thought, although a little dubious of his timings from previous experience. We reached the camp just as the sun was setting, at 6pm and pretty much fell asleep on the spot. The last section had taken 4 hours.

Today was not a great day. Ali should not have left us alone and lost in the snow. We had all the provisions, but the plastic barrels holding them are kept padlocked - and guess who has the keys? Shereef. I have no idea behind the reasoning for these locks. I had decided that if no-one had returned by dark we would setup camp and use the ice axes to smash our way through the plastic. That would have been fun!

DAY 9 - Well needed rest day
We both woke up in agony this morning, having both managed to severely burn our lips and the underside of our noses yesterday on the ice. Our lips have swelled up and it is very painful. Apparently I look like Mick Jagger. I'm getting a little sick of dishing out the contents of our first-aid kit to the porters. 'One porter headache', and 'One porter bad stomach, you have medicine?' complaints are getting common. The latest was 'One porter bad skin' (pointing to eye), so we handed over our pump-action Nivea sun cream. We just caught Ali going from porter to porter squirting sun cream directly into their eyes! Another episode in the amazing adventures of 'Idiot guide'. Kerry almost threw up. We now have 3 porters rolling around in agony! I thought everybody knew that getting headaches when excercising can be prevented by drinking ample water. Apparently the porters don't. I have yet to see any of them drink any water at all!

Hisper Pass from Khani Basa Camp

We had the best lunch so far today. A gourmet meal of sausages and chips, fresh chapatti and fried tuna with lots of garlic, rounded off with tinned cherries - prepared by Ali. Cook has been out of the picture today ('stomach problems' - we gave him a course of antibiotics which I've no doubt he's stuck up his arse or similar). We have been filtering our drinking water for the last few days thanks to our Katadyn filter (thanks Sanger Centre). All that is available is glacial water and it is very hard to get all the silt out of it. I\m having to clean the filter element every half litre. I reckon the green tea we are frequently being served is about a 5th mud!

DAY 10
We both work up in pain again this morning. Kerry's face, especially her upper lip has swelled to extreme proportions. She looks like a cross between Bjork and a cabbage patch kid.

Pretty standard day of walking today. We had to cross another tributary glacier, passing Kanjut Sar (at 7760m it is the 29th highest mountain in the world). At 12.15 we stopped for lunch and discovered that Kerry's left hand has swelled up badly. We submerged it in cold water for a bit to hopefully allow the swelling to go down. Ali's words of wisdom on the matter were 'Upside good, downside cold - it's ok'. I have absolutely no idea what to make of that. Maybe he had Kerry's hand confused with cheese on toast (when the bread is only toasted on one side), or maybe a disk in his record collection...

Next we had to negociate another river crossing. Shereef insisted on carring us both across on his back. He then went back for Ali! Shereef is like superman, except without the red pants on the outside of his trousers. From our lunch stop, Ali's estimation of 'another 20 minutes' turned out to be an hour. We setup camp in the rain. Also, forgot to mention that we have discovered who is responsible for the morning singing we wake upto each day. It is 'Special porter', and he has a great voice - kind of Tom Jones does Islamic singing. I am still trying to work out how our party knows which way to face with praying. Yesterday evening they were all facing the setting sun - was that a coincidence? Kerry says they face Mecca - it's in Saudi Arabia but how would they know where that is in relation to here? It's not like we have anything as sensible as a compass (or god forbid, a GPS) for this dangerous, high altitude trek!!

DAY 11 - Jutmal to Pumari
The glacier we are following down the valley, the Hispar is much more crevassed than the previous one. Because of this we are having hard walking days crossing difficult moraine and traversing hillsides. We stopped for tea around 11am today on a meadow where we were ushered uner a plastic sheet whilst Shereef prepared tea and biscuits in the rain. There was a grave at this site - Ali told us that a porter had died last season of 'head problems' - I assume he means AMS. The guy was 22 years old. As well as lots of blue and pink geraniums there was also wild rhubarb growing everywhere. We picked some and when we reached camp we showed cook and Ali how to prepare and stew it - in preparation for Rhubarb and custard tonight. They were a little concerned/amused when I tipped the entire contents of the sugar bowl into the pan. While is was cooking we watched Ali hook a big booger from his nose and flick it onto Shereef's leg (he was aiming for the door). He was very embarrassed. It took him a couple of attempts to remove it from Shereef's leg and get it out the door, while we pretended not to have noticed and to keep straight faces. Comedy moment.

DAY 12 - Pumari to Bitanmal
It rained all last night. Today was a pretty uneventful day traversing hillsides for 6 hours. 2 river crossings - both times Shereef insisted on carrying us. One dodgy rockslide which took half an hour to negotiate. More plasters dispensed from the 'group' first-aid kit. Everything is very green here.

DAY 13 - Bitanmal to Ghurbun
The last glacier crossing of our trek proved to be the worst. In Kerry's words, 'We crossed a bugger of a glacier in hot weather - gameover'. We saw some donkeys, a horse and some cows fighting. Most of our vaseline has been used up on Ali's lips. This afternoon we saw him using his own chapstick! Cheeky bugger. We arrived at a nice flat green campsite about 2 hours from Hispar village, the highest dwellings in the Nagar valley. 2 blokes approached and they argued for about 40 minutes with Ali whether we should pay a fee. We fell asleep. We have nearly finished our Mango pickle. I'm getting worried about what i'm going to eat with my rice. We got away with not paying. Imagine rolling up at a campsite in England and deciding not to pay. We both stink of hamster poo. Shereef has gone ahead to the village. Apparently he is looking for another wife - Pakistani men are allowed to have upto 4.

DAY 14 - Ghurbun to Hispar Village

Only 2 hours walking today before we reached Hispar village, situated right on the edge of the glacier. By the time we had crossed the dangerous bridge and scaled the steep slope upto the village we had picked up about 10 onlookers, all wondering what the strange foreigners might do. After lots of handshaking (done very gently here, almost a hand touch - very different from the strong western handshake) we met Syed at the top, which was a nice suprise. In the afternoon we were taken on a 'cultural tour' of the village by one of the elders. This started out with us all squatting around and eating a large pile of raw broad beans and turnips - some kind of warm up? Then we were walked around the wheat fields. Kerry was sent off to speak to the women (who were cutting large fields of long grass with tiny scythes), whilst us men stood around looking manly and discussing my possible marriage to one of the local girls. We heard lots of laughing, but when Kerry returned she said they just wanted all her jewellery (including her wedding ring!) Then somebody suggested that we go and play volleyball, which we did. The visitors won 12-10 (we kind of gave up after that point). Volleyball at 3200m is pretty tiring. We have heard many heated discussions between Ali and some of the villagers - I think they are after more money! For the last few minutes we have been kept amused by 2 small children eating cow parsley. Kerry is sure it's poisonous. I'm waiting for them to double over. Shereef has promised some fresh apricots tomorrow. Can't wait!

It looks as though we have been very lucky to have been over the pass. Syed has been telling us that the weather has been very bad for the time of year and that 3 other groups, who set out from Askole after us had to turn back. 70 people have died in flooding in Islamabad, and our flight to Skardu was the last for 2 weeks. The Isralies have finally called a cease-fire.
After dinner a load of villagers joined our party for an 'evening of song and dance' - it was like a good night in the Hare Krishna tent at Glastonbury - amazing how much fun you can have with a plastic fuel container, a stick and a few voices..

Kerry, doing her thing

DAY 15
After a breakfast of fresh eggs, we set off in a jeep for Karimabad. After an hour or so we stopped and a few of our party dissapeared by a nearby hillside to 'find someone' - we expected them to come back with Worzel Gummage, but instead they reappeared with Shereef cluching a large bad of apricots, which we enjoyed for the next few hours. The small shelled almonds we have been eating most lunchtimes are not almonds at all, but apricot kernels. The apricots here are great. The Hunza valley has 54 varieties!

Mmmm, fresh apricots

We stayed 2 nights in Hunza/Karimabad. The Hunza valley was described as 'the ultimate manifestation of mountain grandeur' by Eric Shipton, the first European to 'discover' this region. It's a great place and well geared up for tourists; only 2 hours on the KKH to the Chinese border. On our last evening I went with Syed and Shereef to the 'Eagles Nest' for the sunset - this 'small walk' turned out to be a 3 hour hike up a cliff. The views from the top were great though. We could see back down the valley to the Hispar La (the pass we had crossed). Near the top we came across an apricot tree bursting with fruit. I feasted.

Back down the Hunza valley is the Hispar pass

Fairy Meadows and Nanga Parbat
The next morning we left for Fairly Meadows, or Raikot Sarai, a beautiful high altitude meadow with swiss style cabins very near Nanga Parbat, the worlds 9th highest mountain and Pakistan's 2nd highest peak. For much of the 6 hour journey we had the edge of the Karakoram behind us, the Hindu Kush to out right and the beginnings of the Himalaya in front.

What is says

After 6 hours we changed vehicles to a jeep and started a long dangerous climb upwards. At 2000m we passed a jeep coming back down, containing about 10 locals and a very worried looking woman shaking her head at us. She told us that due to landslides we had a 7 hour walk in front of us. Sure enough, a few minutes later we had to abandon the jeep as a large part of the track had been washed away. Syed, never one to be disheartened told us with his usual happy smile that 'it would not take us 7 hours'. We did it in 6, and arrived at Fairy Meadows just after sunset, at 3300m with fantastic views of Nanga Parbat on the way up.

The last light catches the summit of Nanga Parbat, the western-most peak of the Himalaya

The next day, 22nd August
Kerry is sick again. At breakfast I heard a tiny murmur of 'I think i'm going to pass out', and sure enough, she did. Before I knew it we had a small crowd of concerned locals around us, 2 of whom had already whipped off Kerry's sandles and were rubbing her feet. A boiled egg was brought out and she was spoon-fed salted egg and honey. One guy brought over two huge slices of honeydew melon, and a few minutes later he returned with another 2 and some great homemade bread/cake things. I had a fantastic breakfast but Kerry couldn't eat too much.
Over the next couple of days Kerry recovered and we hiked up to the Nanga Parbat Base Camp, and then BC1. We managed to get a lunch that didn't consist of rice and dahl - we had chip/chapatti butties and soup. The North face of NP, the one facing us is rarely climbed these days as it is too dangerous. It's known as the 'Killer Mountain' locally and has taken many lives.

Chilas, 25th August
I'm writing this from the Stifling heat of Chilas. I'm sitting on the step outside our room waiting for the temperature to drop below 36 degrees, amusing myself by trying to understand what the Spanish group on the lawn are talking about. I'm not doing very well. Kerry is asleep in the room. We have A/C, but there has been a power cut for the last 3 hours. I'm trying to abstain from reading any more of the book I pinched from our Hunza hotel ('Complicity' by Iain Banks) as I think we have a 12+ hour bus ride back to Islamabad tomorrow and i'll need something to keep me amused. Syed has just phoned and told me he misses me (he had to leave us a few days ago to meet up with another group). I think that's nice. I think Shereef is out in the village, probably looking for a wife.

26th August
Shereef left us this morning to go back to his family. He wouldn't except our tip, which I had to stuff into his top pocket and tell him it was for cigarettes. He gave me his address. Must remember to send him some photos. Syed has booked us some tickets on a NATCO VIP bus, seats 11 and 12, leaving at 1pm.

1pm. no bus.

2pm. no bus.

3pm. Back to the hotel. We are hot. Staff try phoning all the contact numbers I have

3.40pm. Hotel man tells me NATCO are cheats. At last NATCO bus pulls up outside. We get on. I climb up onto the roof with our bag. I nearly fall off and kill myself. When I try to get off I find I am now the bag man, and have to help everybody else with their suitcases. Seats 11 and 12 are taken. The driver shouts at the Chinese looking people in our seats, and eventually resorts to physically pulling them up and sending them to the back of the bus. They simply come back. Driver brings on burly man from outside, to the amusement of all the other passengers. We end up in different seats. A/C vents are set to blow cold coldish air 3 inches above our heads. This bus is shit. The only indication of it being 'VIP' are the VIP letters tipexed on the armrest of the front seat. We bought lots of exotic sweets for the journey, most of which turned out to be horrible (especially the Fanta flavoured bettel nuts. 1 hour into the journey we need our passports for a police checkpoint. They are at the bottom of our bag, on the roof. Almost all the other passengers are Chineese looking. I hope we are not going to China! This bus wins a prize for the worst sound system ever. I can't even make out any individual sounds. Just an incredible concophony of white noise (with the occasional cat-like wail) 3 inches from my ear. Imagine a drum and bass remix of an Elvis song, played incredibly loudly on a phone, in a metal bucket, 10 miles away. Our driver seems to delight in taking corners at full speed, sounding the horn at the very last second to give any oncoming vehicle a small chance to get out of our way. I spent much of the journey praying that a) our tyres were good (although given the state of all the others I have seen in Pakistan, I doubt it), b) that we would be lucky on the corners, and c) that we didn't come across any fresh rockfalls. Whilst it was light we passed through many areas where huge rockfalls had cut off all but just enough room to squeeze past, with a 500m plunge into the river on the other side. We stopped for a cup of Chai and got chatting to the driver. He couldn't believe that we have been married for 4 years and no kids. Any self respecting Pakistani would have had at least 12 by now.

The first thing we did in Islamabad was to track down a ATM which took visa (very few seem to). We then indulged in pizza and zinger burgers (copyright is slack here). The next day we took a 6 hour bus ride to Lahore (at 175RP-about 1.50 pounds each, possibly the cheapest bus ride ever- definately breaks my 1 pound per hour rule....

One day in Delhi

2006-07-30T06:03:00.000-10:00

After a day in Hong Kong (where we managed to find some CCD cleaning swabs for our camera, an LP India and a Business-class flight upgrade), and 10 minutes downing champagne in the Cathay Pacific Lounge we arrived in Delhi at 3am - having nothing booked we were a little concerned how things might pan out. We ended up at a hotel chosen by our taxi driver - one that he obviously made commission on bringing tourists to. 'Is it central?' 'Oh yes Sir, close to centre yes'.. It turned out to be nowhere near the centre of Delhi, at least. In the morning we moved to a hotel in the 'Main bazaar' for our first day in India. 'Expect the unexpected in India' was the mantra we had learnt from our new guidebook, and it's certainly paying off and keeping us on our toes. Walking through Main bazaar reminds me a little of walking down 'Poppies Lane' in Kuta, Bali, but with far more dirt, poverty and general craziness. There are cows, dogs, piles of cow shit, rubble and fast moving traffic to contend with as well as the sellers, beggars, hotel touts, rickshaws etc..

As we only had one full day in India before flying onto Pakistan, we hired a car and driver for a tour around the main sights of Delhi. At India Gate we seemed to be the only tourists, and were descended upon. Kerry was attacked by some crazy women with henna while I seemed to be constantly shaking peoples hands. We even got our photos takens with a nice Indian family.

Our final destination was the Lotus Temple, which looks amazingly like the Sydney Opera House, but kind of rearranged;

During the drive home, stopped at some traffic lights we took pity on a small boy knocking on the window, and gave him some money. He immediately ran away only to be replaced instantly by another sad little face. I could see others converging on our car from all sides as the lights changed and we pulled away. There is a LOT of poverty here.

We have just finished dinner on the hostel rooftop. We ate while our waiter amused himself by throwing bits of raw carrot at people walking in the street below. Apparently it's Indian independence Day in about 2 weeks, so it's starting to get busy here. Tomorrow we fly to Islamabad, Pakistan (via Lahore).

I Love Wine

2006-07-25T21:58:00.000-10:00

Wine isn't big in Asian countries. We haven't managed to get hold of any yet at any rate. Even beer has been relatively expensive so far (a bottle usually costs more than a meal) - and it's going to get worse, in Pakistan (being heavily Muslim and all that..). I'm beginning to look forward to re-entering South America...

Volcano Frenzy

2006-07-23T22:40:00.000-10:00

'You hat Bromo?' is a phrase that we have heard lots these last few days. The hat sellers are everywhere - from the top of the volcanos to the outside of the windows of the hostels (giving a free hat-puppet show during dinner). Telling them you actually already have a hat, or even wearing said hat does nothing to put them off...

This is the view that greated us from the viewpoint at Gunung Penamjakan, in the Bromo-Tengger National Park. The volcano at the back is Gunung Semeru, the highest point in Java (3676m). It erupts every 20 minutes and looked pretty fierce when we were there. We are saving it for next time - due to money and time constraints... not to mention it's activity. Would you want to climb this?

The colours changed dramatically throughout the sunrise;

On our last morning in Solo, our new friend Yant took us to see some Batik being made;

A wax pattern is put onto the cloth, before it is dyed. The wax is then removed with hot water, leaving a negative pattern. This process is repeated. It was interesting to see just how much work goes into this (sadly dieing out) artform.

We then took a 9 hour bus ride to Cemero Lawang, to visit the volcanos, above. We heard on the bus that there had been another series of earthquakes/tsunamis off the south coast - 400+ people have died. Merapi's activity has also increased. We are now well away from the affected area(s), so no need to worry about us! It was nice to listen to some music on the bus. I have lots that I downloaded before coming away. Neil Young's new one is interesting. Songs such as 'Lets impeach the president for lieing'. Nice.

In Java, the equivalent of having your windscreen sponged down whilst waiting at the lights seems to be blokes with small guitars singing you a tune. Unfortunately, due to the noise, heat and pollution everybody has their windows shut. So you end up with a few seconds of guitar mime. Most people seem to donate, none the less. I guess it's easy to do. No talent (or soap) required.

We stayed at Yoshi's, a little further from Bromo than we had hoped - the closer accomodation was apparently full. After a 4am start the next morning, we shared a rented jeep with our travelling companions from Solo - one French and one Italian couple (incredibly, I heard no football banter). The jeep took us across the 'Sea of Sand' to Gunung Penanjakan just in time for sunrise. The photos of Bromo (the low, smoking one, front left), below give some sense of scale to the panorama. It took us a good half an hour to walk around the crater (2439m). Bromo is possibly the easiest volcano in the world to scale;

The sea of sand is actually the remains of a giant volcano cone (Gunung Tengger). The existing ones have sprung up out of it over the years.

We spent 3 more nights in Cemoro Lawang, at the Cafe Lava (a very nice, friendly and clean place). We especially enjoyed the breakfasts, after our early starts and walks to various viewpoints.

(The town of Cemoro Lawang, on the crater's edge)

Sulphur gives you some crazy-arse dreams. In Kerry's she was taking photos of a blue ducky alien thing (her words) which turned out to be me as a male gymnast. I was teaching a skipping class, and Kerry (as a female gymnast) was the best in the class - except for the people in wheelchairs, who were also skipping.

Volcano number 3 was Ijen (meaning 'lone'). They mine sulphur here.

They have managed to embed a series of pipes into the heart of the volcano, chanelling the liquid sulphur into the cool air where it solidifies and is broken up and collected. For transporting 1kg of sulphur out of the crater and down the flank of the volcano, a worker is paid about 400Rp - about 2 pence. They manage about 40kg per trip. Averaging 3 trips a day...

There is a huge acidic lake in the crater. I don't think there is much life in it;

Kerry has given me a list of tasks to choose one from. (1) Sleeping in the cockroach filled Gomantong cave to guard the swiftlet nests, (2) being a porter in Kinabalu, or (3) carrying sulphur out of a volcano for a living. I am undecided.

Solo and Merapi

2006-07-17T03:51:00.000-10:00

In order to be sure we didn't miss ANOTHER Air Asia flight (at 6.30am), we decided to spend our last night in Malaysia in KL airport. Specifically, 6 seats in one of the depature lounges. Amazingly there is actually a website dedicated to this passtime..
It turned out not to be that bad. Air-con, cable TV (with no off switch), nice bathrooms. Better than a few hostals we have stayed in so far.

The coffee here in Java is rubbish... It's also really hard to get anything resembling one. The usual seems to be out of a sachet of a freeze dried coffee and milk mix, usually served in a small polystrene cup. Amazing really when you consider how much real coffee Java actually grows. I guess they just export it all. I haven't seen a coffee machine here yet..

Once we got our bearings, the city we are in, Solo is pretty nice. Someone recomended we go and see some traditional dance/singing combo thing called 'Wayang Orang' on our first night. Turned out to be a bit of a laugh. It was a kind of indonesian pantomine. We still had no idea what was going on, though;

(The Smurfs meet KISS)

This morning we climbed Merapi, the most active volcano in Indonesia, and the one that caused a bit of mayhem recently
We climbed from a village to the north of the volcano called Selo, starting out at 1am. After 2 hours sitting freezing our arses off, while our guide fell asleep under a nice warm blanket he had brought with him, we sat up, freezing our arses off. We caught the sunrise though;

(Sunrise over.. er.. land)

(Pink skies over the nearby Mount Marbaboo)

In total if took about 4 hours to reach the summit. Coming down into the heat was a killer though. The walk seemed to last for ages.

(Kerry, at the summit)

After the descent we spent some time exploring a couple of temple complexes called Borobudur and Prambanan.
Although both fantastic sites in their own rights, the experience was spoilt for me by the endless string of sellers following us around and trying to flog us various tat. At both sites we were decended upon by people wielding t-shirts, hats, postcards, statues ('Hey mister, you need a statue'), model planes (and handgliders), minature guitars and other obscure things. At Prambanan one of the towers had been damaged by the recent earthquake here, so we could only view it from afar. We also saw various other piles of rock, but we were so tired from no sleep the night before nothing was really registering. On the drive back to Solo we went through an area that had been badly hit by the earthquake. Whole buildings demolished, walls and ceilings down etc. Everyone was still smiling though, while they got on with the re-building of their homes. Indonesians seem to be amazingly resilient people.

(The stupas on Borobudur)

(Prambanan, sunset)

Sepilok and the Kinabatangan

2006-07-12T01:38:00.000-10:00

We took a bus to Sepilok, close to the east coast of Sabah and famous for the Orang Utan Sanctuary there. We found a great place to stay, the Sepilok B&B - a very chilled out place and well recommended. We headed out to see the Orang Utans that afternoon. The deal was that there was one platform that the public could visit to see 'wild' apes come for food. They arrive by swinging down a series of thick ropes, strung up so that the surrounding vegetation dosen't get mashed. They certainly knew how to make the most of the bananas that were available. After the feeding one juvenile hung about the feeding platforms for ages, amusing itself by regurgitating banana paste into it's hand, and then licking it all off again. This routine was repeated for about 25 minutes, whilst the ape constantly farted like a trooper. It was amazing to see just how much gas could be produced from a bunch of bananas! On our return the next day, I was relieved to see that there were no bananas on the menu. It was a sugar cane day today. We were however, treated to a live hard-core sex show by the long tailed Macaques. There will soon be a few tourists smuggling monkey porn out of Malaysia.

(The Orange carpet-faced man)

The Kinabatangan.

We headed out into the jungle for a few nights in a lodge on the banks of the Kinabatangan river. We were met by the lodge staff at a coffee house around 10am and then drove for an hour and a half through what was once virgin rainforest, but is now palm oil plantation. I was amazed just how big the palm oil industry is in Sabah. The plantations are everywhere. It's terrible to see just how widespread the deforestation is here. Sabah's first and second major exports for tropical hardwoods and palm oil respectively. All that is left of the jungle along the river is a thin strip sandwiched between the water and the plantations behind. The areas is great for viewing wildlife, but that's mainly because the animals have no where else to go!

Before heading to the lodge we took an unplanned trip out to the Gomantong Cave - famous for it's sustainable collection of edible swiftlet nests, which are harvested (by VERY brave, or desperate people climbing 85 metres up on thin rope ladders) and sold for big bucks to the chinese community, destined for 'birds nest soup'. The cave itself is huge. The floor was completely covered in 'Guano' - a collective term for the material that is formed whern you mix the shit and bodies of thousands of dead cockroaches, dung beetles, bats and swiftlets. Suffice to say it wasn't nice stuff, and didn't smell too good. Apparently you used to have to wade through this stuff to access the cave, but luckily for us a boardwalk had been installed.
As I mentioned before, there were roaches in this cave. LOTS of roaches. I thought Kerry was going to bottle it at any moment as we strolled through (being very careful not to touch anything...). She didn't however, and we made it out without incident.

After that side trip, we were driven to the lodge where we stayed 2 nights and were taken on various boat trips on the river and nature walks in the jungle. Highlights were the examples of the Proboscis Monkeyin the trees (a very cool sight), various scorpions and a spitting cobra (which our guide was very impressed with). Kerry and I have decided that we are not jungle people. It's just too hot and sweaty for fun. Admittedly the river trips were better than the previous ones we took a few years back in the Peruvian jungle (where it was hard to work out whether the tiny orange thing up in the trees was really a Spider monkey, or in fact a bit of bark). We saw crocodiles, hornbills and various monkeys, but the best nature photo I took was this one....

On one of our jungle treks, I got 'leeched'.... I didn't realise until the little bastard dropped off my upper thigh. I thought a coin has fallen through the lining of my pocket, but it turned out to be a fat content leech, who had been gorging himself on my blood. If he had had one, he would have been laughing on the other side of his slimy little face as I crushed him under my boot, creating a minor blood-bath on the ground. Amazingly he survived that, but we finished him off with a lit cigarette. Ha!

Mount Kinabalu

2006-07-07T01:59:00.000-10:00

We took 2 buses to the entrance of Kinabalu National Park, and were relieved to find the temperature here was much more temperate than KK (1450m). We found some cheap accommodation outside the park entrance; very basic - cold water, no basin, shower only worked 3 foot off the ground - you get the picture. There was some type of animal inside the cavity wall of our room, trying to knaw its way to freedom which kept us awake for the majority of the first night. We moved to the next door room for the second. The owner kept a great garden - loads of exotic plants and flowers. We found this moth outside in the garden. No idea what species it is though;

We were here to climb Mount Kinabalu (the highest peak in South East Asia, 4095m, something we had booked to do from KK). The evening before our climb we were given a slightly patronising pre-climb presentation - take a warm jumper for the summit, take waterproofs just in case etc.. To the local people, the mountain is sacred. In out talk this 'spirit' was likened to 'Casper the friendly ghost'...

The climb up was hard - hot and climbing steeply from about 1800m to the Base Camp at 3248m. We stayed in the 'Waras' hut. During the climb, we were passed many times by porters carrying silly weights on their backs, just strapped on across their foreheads and backs. We also passed a BLIND woman who had amazingly made it up to the summit (with help). She didn't manage the whole way back down, however (she was waiting for a porter with a stretcher when we passed her). We also saw some Pitcher plants;

On the second day we started the climb at about 2.30am. After a hard climb we summited the mountain about an hour before sunrise. It was bloody freezing so we sat around in a crevice for a while until the sun started to come up...

(The twisty bit, near the summit)

The walk back down was knackering! From 4095m back down to about 1800m. Great fun though. We headed to the hot springs at Poring afterwards for a well deserved soak in the hot tubs there. As luck would have it, a local cafe owner in the village was cashing in big time with the tourists as a bunch of Rafflesia flowers had started to appear on his land. These are pretty rare (although they are Sabah's national flower), so we went and had a look...

(That's the largest flower in the world, not a word of a lie, mate)

Diving around Sipidan

2006-07-01T16:45:00.000-10:00

(Sunday 2nd July)
We have just finished a 3 day diving trip, staying on a resort on Mabul Island, about 15 minutes by boat from Sipidan, (another) 'One of the best dive sites in the world'. We went with Borneo Divers an operator recommended by the Trekkers Lodge, the hostel we were staying at. Sipidan is famous for the sheer quantity of Graceful Beak Face Men (Green Sea Turtles) that come to breed and lay eggs around it's reefs and beaches. The resort is pretty special. Not really the sort of place you find many backpackers as it's pretty expensive. It is nice though. Fantastic food (with a comedy camp head chef) and great service. Dinner was served complete with cheesy Elvis covers performed on a Yamaha organ, in bad English.

We did 6 dives in all (2 on the first day, then 4 on the second). Although the visibility wasn't great (due to the heavy rain just before we arrived) we saw plenty wildlife. The highlight was definitely the turtles though, and we saw plenty (sitting, swimming, dancing around each other, yawning, feeding etc..). As this blog is also going to function as my dive log, here are the details;

1) Mabul Island, 'Ray Point'
Green turtles
Cuttlefish
Crocodile Fish
Stonefish

2) Mabul Island, 'Old House Reef'
Parrotfish
Moray Eel

3) Sipidan Island, 'Mid Reef'
Turtles
White tipped reef shark
Grey reef shark
Naepolean Wrasse

4) Sipidan Island, 'Barracuda Point'
School of Big-eye Trevally (jacks)
Huge school of Barracuda

5) Mabul Island, 'Paradise II'
various nudibranchs

6) Mabul Island, 'Paradise II, and Paradise I' (sunset dive)
Turtles
Lionfish
Various Clownfish

The resort had setup a huge screen for the World Cup, and on our last night we watched England get knocked out of the world cup by Portugal - an extremely nailbiting match. Bang goes my TAB sports bet :(

Kuala Lumpar

2006-06-28T12:42:00.000-10:00

KL is lots more like what I was expecting from a large Asian city than Singapore - It's dirty and chaotic with lots going on to keep us on our toes. Kerry felt at home because we found a 'Marks and Spencers' and a 'Debenhams'. Her new sandles have taken the skin off the backs of her feet. We are looking around for a 3rd pair to complete the hatrick.

After an unsuccessful attempt to go up to he Pertronas Towers bridge yesterday morning (we queued for 20 minutes before bailing out as we needed to get to the airport for a flight at 11.10am. Kerry is at pains to point out that I, not her got the wrong flight time in my head...) We took the airport train. 'No Worries', we were thinking as we took it in turns to freshen up in the train's bathroom (which was far nicer than the one at the place we had stayed the night before - 'Le Village'). We arrived at the airport at 10.30 ready to check in, only to be told that they had built a separate terminal for us 'Air Asia' cattle class passengers - 12km away. We were to go down to the ground floor and take a bus. 'Will we make it?' we asked, 'Of Course!' was the reply. So we rushed, heavily loaded down to said level, located the correct bay and jumped onto the awaiting bus, engine idling. Once we were on and seated, the driver promptly left the bus to relieve himself. 10 minutes later ('we can still make it!' I was thinking to myself) he came back, got himslf a drink and setttled down for a bit of a rest in the passenger terminal....

...Suffice to say, we missed our flight. Luckily there was another later that afternoon. It cost twice as much as we had originally paid, but what can you do?

On a lighter note, Kota Kinabalu seems to be pretty nice. Still very hot, but a lot more chilled out than KL...

We are still discovering that there it is too hot to rush in Asia. Mental note to leave plenty of time for the next flight...

Something more familiar

2006-06-26T23:20:00.000-10:00

Crap, that was gutting; watching Australia conceding a penalty to get knocked out of the world cup in the last few seconds of extra time.

Half way through the game Kerry and I were relaxing in the Singapore CBD with only $14 left in the wallet - there is a distinct lack of ATM machines in the funky river area of Singapore, and the Tiger beer we were drinking was going down far better than expected.... We has just been told that the MRT ('Mass Rapid Transport' - the tube) had closed for the night, leaving us with a bit of a poser as to how to get back to the backpackers we were staying at. I was, and still am trying to get back into a 'not to worry, these things always sort themselves out'-type mindset, and funnily enough, just as I was thinking that to myself a (toothless) bicycle rickshaw driver approached us. After a few minutes of negociation we managed to secure a ride with $4 left (possibly for a very small beer later in the evening..). We told our man that our destination was 'Bugis' MRT station. He immediately nodded, we got on the bike and were well pleased with ourselves. After a bit of fiddling behind the bike by 1tooth, we realised we were sitting on a huge speaker-on-wheels.... The next 10 minutes were great fun - being cycled around Singapore with a VERY cheesy euro-pop version of the song 'Tequila' blaring out of the bike. This version was actually called 'Chiwawa', complete with 1tooth 'barking' and shouting 'I the dog' at the top of his voice for the entire journey, scaring the pedestrians and racing the traffic.

We ended up at the 'Boat Quay' - great views of the Singapore river, but nowhere near the 'Bugis' MRT station. I really can't see how he got confused over that. 'Bugis' and 'BoatQuay'?? I supose I may have been a little drink but I think Kerry was drinking Lemonade at the point... Anyway, this 'misunderstanding' left us with $4 bucks left and no telly to watch the rest of the game on! Shiiit. A few minutes later we located a taxi and got back to Bugis for $3! (where we found a coffee shop with a massive telly).

The moral of this story is that in Singapore, taxis are fantastic - cheap, clean and safe. But no where near as fun as a light-less bicycle rickshaw.

We had 1 full day to explore Singapore. In that time we managed to run around Little India, the CBD and the Bugis area. We also bought Kerry a new pair of sandals (the Birkenstocks she has bought in Sydney had taken the top layer of skin off her feet!). The MRT is great, the people are generally very helpful and friendly, and the tourist areas are new, shiny and space-age.

Today we take a bus across the Malaysian border to KL.....

(see the SingTel mothership on the right of the picture)

Flickr

2006-06-19T20:05:00.000-10:00

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Sydney

2006-05-03T17:15:00.000-10:00

Some memories of Sydney from the past couple of years...

New Zealand, April 2006

2006-05-03T16:50:00.001-10:00

The bands first album cover...

A few images from our 2 week trip bumming about the south island of New Zealand, taking in both the Milford and the Kelper Tracks.

These were taken 2 years before, on the Milford Trak. There was distinctly less rain that time...

New Zealand Photo Slideshow

2006-05-03T16:44:00.000-10:00

Flash Slideshow

Cotopaxi

2006-05-03T16:23:00.000-10:00

South America

2005-11-08T20:17:00.000-10:00

Not a bad campsite...

The Atacama Desert, Chile

2005-09-20T14:53:00.000-10:00

2005-09-20T14:26:00.000-10:00

2005
Joe Simpson - Storms of Scilence
May - Blacktown (Shane Weaver)
June - The Taking (Dean Koontz)
June - Pompeii (Robert Harris)
June - Smoking Poppy (Graham Joyce) 5/5
July - The curious Incident (Mark Haddon)
July - The 25th Hour (David Benioff)
Aug - Vector (Robin Cook)
Aug - Chromosome 6 (Robin Cook)
Sept - Dark Sister (Graham Joyce)
Sept - Indigo (Graham Joyce)
Oct - The Time Travellers Wife (Audrey Niffenegger) 5/5
Nov - Seizure (Robin Cook)

Bourne Itentity
When the wind Blows (James Patterson)
Feb - Past Mortom (Ben Elton)
The Lake (Richard Laymon)