Paragliding in Pokhara

Well I finally tried something that I’ve always wanted to do last weekend in Pokhara… I took a hot chick for a ride on a motorbike for a few hours. With that done, I left Di in Pokhara and headed up the mountain to catch a paragliding flight.

Although the photo above makes it look like I’m awesome and doing by myself, I can assure you I had a very experienced Russian pilot, Iliad, doing the flying bit for me. Still, had I seen this news article before I went, I may have had second thoughts.

It was a little daunting looking out from the take off zone, with around 30 paragliders already in the air jostling for space in the nearest thermal. Lucky Iliad had his little squeezy horn handy to warn others of our presence. Also useful when we flew into clouds and couldn’t see a thing. That was a little worrying.

Overall, it was awesome, and a sport I would definitely consider taking up (on cloudless days when there aren’t so many others flying in the same bit of sky).

Of course I logged GPS for the trip...



And last but not leaset... the video:

I'm still addicted to GPS

As an old, brilliant professor at USQ once said, "GPS is the closest thing we have to magic".

A few fun times in the last few days - first, a 50km ride from Dhulikhel to Kathmandu "via the back door", a dirt road from Panauti, over Lankuri Bhanjyang pass and downhill to the valley below. See link below for the trip, including a few photos embedded in it.

Dhulikhel to Kathmandu - via the back door

Then there was our Saturday morning mountain flight with Di's Dad. A beautiful day and beautiful, surreal views. These mountains are just gorgeous. Peering over them into the high altitude rolling plains of Tibet made us REALLY want to get over there. So we're thinking about Christmas in Lhasa... anyone want to join us?

Mountain Flight from Kathmandu

It’s Christmas in Kathmandu

Well it feels like it…

Tihar is one of the biggest festivals, and I think feels the most like Christmas.  It’s Sunday in Thamel and most shops and restaurants are closed.  The ones that are open don’t have much available.  There are lights everywhere at night, strewn over houses and hanging from eaves.  Fireworks going off in the evenings and groups of children walking around singing songs to try to get a donation from shop keepers and hoteliers.  Then there was a bit of the ‘Australia Day’ feel today as dozens of revellers on the back of 4WD utes sped recklessly through the narrow Thamel streets, yelling and banging cymbals, followed by motorbikes weaving dangerously all over the place. 

Craziness… and fun to be a part of!

Expat Monkey

I just had to write to say it’s another beautiful day in Dhulikhel… mountains stretching off into the haze in both directions.  Love it.  We walked up the hill for breakfast at Hotel Panorama with Di’s Dad.  Good chiya, great pakora, interesting ‘french’ toast.

We had dinner at our friend Prem’s guesthouse last night (Tashidale Lodge – ‘Especially for Backpackers’) and had dinner with a couple of interesting people.  Keith, from the USA, is travelling randomly and photographing and writing about his experiences here (www.expatmonkey.com) and an Aussie architect travelling just as randomly.  I love how that always happens.

’Tihar’ or ‘Deepawali’ this weekend – ‘The Festival of Lights’.  Another excuse for a festival holiday in Nepal!

Langtanging

An earthquake, plenty of smelly toilets, thousands of metres of altitude, some phenomenal scenery and some really fun people - 4 Norwegians, a Canadian, a Dutch/American and 5 Aussies, all living and working in Nepal - a memorable 11 days! WARNING: words such as awesome, spectacular, incredible and other insufficient adjectives may be overused in the following text.

The spectacular 100km, 10 hour bus ride from Kathmandu to Syrabru Besi was all it was cracked up to be – and more. It was a dusty work out, and I may have the endless hours of continuous and extreme bumpiness to thank for my lack of back problems during the rest of the trek. Probably the most exciting moment for me was when Andy and I, with a bunch of locals, attempted to assist a van that had lost it’s brakes roll down the road without rolling off the cliff. It turns out the van DID have brakes. Sometimes I think that even if we knew the language, communication wouldn’t always be much clearer. Anyway – an interesting way to spend my birthday.

First night’s accommodation in Syabru was pretty ordinary – but a good warm up to typical trekking accommodation. i.e. not that great. Di and I were glad we bought some lightweight satin sheets in Thamel before we left to cover the mattresses! Now I’m sounding soft, I know.

Day 1 started us off up the Langtang valley – initially narrow and rainforesty, with a glacial white water torrent running down the middle and the mountains steep and disappearing above. We had our first taste of the annoying tendency of trails to go up, leading you to think you are gaining altitude, only to head back down again.

The next 2 days saw us continuing up the valley. The further we went, the higher we got and the valley opened out onto beautiful vistas. The buffalo cheese factory at Langtang was a particular treat. Grilled cheese and tomato on bread was a wonderful break from trekking food – normally dhal baat or some bland noodles.

As we forged our way up the valley, the other thing that changed was the price of stuff. A Snickers, the basis of the internationally recognised trekking pricing index, while around 60 rupees at the beginning of the trek, climbed to around 180 rupees by Kyanjin Gompa, 3 days up the valley. Andy and I discussed porter wages and worked out that the price increase was definitely not proportional to what the porters are paid to carry the chocolate. When it’s 2 or 3 days walk to a cheaper shop, these places can charge what they want I guess!

4am on Day 4 saw us rising at 4am to catch the sunrise from Kyanjin Ri – a mountain a few hundred metres above the village of Kyanjin Gompa. Climbing that mountain in the pre-dawn, almost freezing, 4000m plus altitude air was one of the hardest parts of the trek for me. I resorted to the 10 steps and then rest option, and Jai and Andy joined me. We were trekking with some FIT girls though – they powered on up ahead of us… impressive. The views from the top were surreal, as light gradually increased, clouds came and went, as did glaciers, ice falls (what’s the difference!?) and jagged snowy peaks. It’s amazing when a part of the sky you thought was just that – sky – turns out to be the side of a Himalaya who’s peak you never get to see.

A side note – I need to state that the relationship one develops with one’s down jacket is more intimate and special in many ways than the relationship one has with one’s significant other.

Early morning on Day 5, I woke to find the building rocking and shaking. “Earthquake!” was the first thought that entered my head, followed by “or maybe it’s someone running to the toilet in this rickety old building” after which, I fell back asleep and didn’t remember it again until someone asked at breakfast whether I had felt the quake. Funny thing was, it could have been ‘the big one’ in Kathmandu and we would have had no way of knowing. Not funny at all I guess. It turns out it was a 4.9 somewhere nearby.

Day 5 was also time for the gang to part ways. Those who couldn’t afford the time for the longer trek carried on down the valley, while Svien, Freya, Kieh, Diana and I tackled the valley wall. After descending around 1000m, we had to climb around 1400m to Sing Gompa at about 3900m. It was tough and we went to bed early that night.

Day 6 was the final climb to the holy lakes of Gosaikund. There was some tough sections here too – especially for Diana, who was suffering from various trekking afflictions (general sickness) by this point. It was really starting to feel like high altitude by this point. We snuck the occasional phenomenal views of Himalayas, but the clouds were never far away. We also said goodbye to Kieh along the way, who decided to hang out in Laurebina Yak, with the promise of panoramic views in the morning, and the possibility that she could go home a different way and make it back to Kathmandu for a party on Friday night. So then there were 4.

Gosaikund was magical. It’s a major pilgrimage site at particular times of the year, but only one Sadhu, living in a hole, remained at this point. We arrived early enough to walk around the main lake and really take in the amazing scenery there.

Our guide, Sonam, said we couldn’t stay at the lodge we chose, because the ‘cook was drunk’ – we could see him, motionless under a doona on the bench. We finally worked out that we could stay, but would have to eat Dhaal Bhat. It was only after the meal that Sonam proudly told us that actually, he cooked the meal that night. It was the best Dhaal Bhat of the trek in our opinion.

Day 7, clear and beautiful, and we climbed out of Gosaikund through the highest pass of the Trek – Laurebina Pass at 4610m. Then it was a steep, cloudy descent (with more than enough ascents as well), across a mountainside whose steepness was only revealed the next morning when the clouds had cleared. There was also snow on the pass we had walked through the day before. Just missed it! (Photo below shows the new snow and the ridge we traversed)

The next few days involved more descending (again, with plenty of ascents) down ridge after ridge back towards the Kathmandu Valley. On Day 9, when we reached a village where a bus could be caught, we lost Svien, whose feet were looking scary and red. But by this point, we also had a new gang – two French Canadian guys trekking together and two French girls trekking together. We all ended up in the same lodges – great to have a bit of a gang again.

A highlight I must say was walking back into mobile coverage just in time on Mabel’s 2nd birthday to give her a call before she went to bed in Brisbane.

On Day 10, that first view of the Kathmandu Valley was something. It was beautiful, as it was the end of the walk, but the smog and buildings/traffic also contrasted painfully with the beauty we had just come through. I was feeling great by this point. It may just have been the lower altitudes, but my pack felt good on my back, my legs felt strong and my mind was used to the daily hours of trail. Pity we had to stop!

More photos here…

Langtanging

End of the first stretch

I’ve been thinking about what an interesting ‘book end’ Nepal has been for me. 10 years ago Di and I came over here – we had been married less than a year, I had just finished my Masters (sort of) and I had never been out of Australia. We spent the year overseas – most of it in the USA, with travel in Nepal/ Hong Kong, USA, Canada, Turkey and a lot of Western Europe.

After returning home we settled in Brisbane, I got a real job (debatable?), and we spent the next 9 years there – with various travels in between, for fun and work. I spent an unforgettable 8 1/2 years with my last employer, learning a lot about technology development, international business, the transit industry, managing teams, software development and a bunch of other things. Di and I have grown to love Brisbane – especially our friends there, and ended up going halves in a house with two of them. That in itself is quite a new phase in our life!

Now we find ourselves in Nepal again. I’m ready for a change of direction in my career (an interesting combination of factors influencing that one). We’ve been married 10 years. 5 months away from home to step back and take a look at life seems like a good idea. I’m also enjoying the chance to get some hands on experience with ‘international development’ – including all of the cultural, technical and professional challenges that includes – and there are many!

(The above was taken on the day when all ‘Machines’ were blessed for the coming year.)

Anyway where am I heading with all this? Who knows!? I’ve been cruising the jobs sites a bit looking at what I think I will be doing when I get home. Ideally it will be something in the area of either International Development or Renewable Energies – or possibly even both. I’m so busy here that I’m not taking a huge amount of time to reflect on what the future holds. I think that might come in the weeks after we get home when I’m unemployed and longing for the mountains of Nepal and Di is back at work bringing home the bacon (what’s the vegetarian equivalent of bacon?). As I said before we came here, I’ve scheduled in my early-mid-life crisis for late January 2011. Don’t worry – that will probably involve lots of Mountain Biking and sitting at Coffee Shops rather than buying a Lamborghini.

Anyway – we’re off to Langtang for 10 days of trekking. Bye all!

Video Update

Here's a little video that Di put together. It will be linked from the EWB website soon, but I thought I would give all of my dedicated blog-readers a sneak peak!

Where do we live?

From 2010 Nepal Highlights album

We walked to Nagarkot on the weekend - and back again. It was certainly a good leg stretcher for our upcoming 10 days of trekking in the Langtang region and some good hang out time with a few of the people we work with, and also Scotto - fellow EWB volunteer - who came along. 20km each day, with the first day involving about 1200m of ascending and 900m of descending. I'm not sure we always went on the 'intended' route. All I can say is that we were lucky to have some Nepalese speakers with us to ask the way!

Nagarkot is a tourist town, existing purely because of the amazing views. We weren't banking on the clouds clearing for us, but on Sunday morning we were treated to amazing views of the Himalayas stretching from Langtang to Everest. Fantastic and surreal.

From one of the steepest climbs I was able to snap a few shots back towards where we live - so put together the little presentation below.

Of course I took the GPS with - you can see where we walked on day 1 here and day 2 here. We also updated out 'Nepal Highlights' album with a bunch of pics from the trip.

I'm still cursing a pearler of a blister on one of my feet, as is Di, but apart from that, and a few slightly worrying lower back spasms, I thought we handled the 40km of walking pretty well. We've ensured that we continued our morning walks up the 'thousand (713) steps' this week to make sure we didn't slack off.

Finally!

I finally went for an afternoon mountain bike ride the other day. A nice little 45 minute loop door to door and it was glorious! Out the door, along a relatively flat dirt road, up a steep rough road to the Kali temple (where we walk to in the mornings - up 713 steps, or 'the thousand steps' as it's optimistically known here), down the other side, where the road becomes just a walking track and I descended a few hundred metres in altitude past houses, farms with people working in the fields and ladies carrying huge loads on their backs, everyone giving me a happy 'Namaste' as I rode past. After reaching the bottom, the road back was relatively new and cut into the side of the hill - quite spectacular and thankfully it meant I didn't have to ride back over the top. I can handle doing that loop a few times every week!!

Afternoon Ride Bhatti Dandar at EveryTrail

Our Highlights Photo Album

Here's a bit of a photo highlights album that we'll be updating as we go. Enjoy!!

Photosynth Experimenting

Microsoft Photosynth is indeed pretty powerful. I've played with it a bit before - at such famous international destinations as Brooklyn Bridge, Times Square and Gibbon St.

Below is a few photos stitched together from our ride last week. It turned out pretty well... I'm going to do a few more of these I think!

Evening Walk

We went for our first walk down the road the opposite direction to Dhulikhel the other day - into Bhatti Danda, the local area. We met a few nice people along the way...

Prem Lama (photo below, with some random local kids and Di), who runs the local guesthouse and does trek guiding. (Please - if anyone needs his details, let us know!) His guesthouse 'Himalayan Tasidhale' is very new and well done, and even has the promise of hot water - something we've only rearely come across in Kathmandu so far, and don't have where we live!

A few of the local kids displaying their gymnastics...

The local community school.

Cycling in the Valley

There was a public holiday in Nepal on Tuesday, so the guys at KAPEG suggested it wasn’t worth heading up to Dhulikhel until Wednesday morning. That allowed us some unexpected tourism time on Monday and Tuesday after a relatively quiet weekend hanging around Thamel. Led by Kalu (and his mate Paul), a former AYAD volunteer who one of the other EWBers happened to meet at the airport on the way in, Madeline, Di and I took off. Getting out of Kathmandu on a bicycle is seriously crazy. As Jai, who joined us later in the day, put it, “That was one of the most intense mountain biking experiences of my life”. If it wasn’t for the life-threatening nature of it, it might be fun. Although Paul thought it was precisely because of that life threatening nature that it WAS fun. At the end of the day, there IS method in the madness of driving / riding in the city, and you can do it in a relatively safe manner, and the general traffic speed is much lower than that of a typical Australian city, so don’t worry too much Mum.

Once off the main roads, the riding becomes beautiful – nice country roads with lots of small villages and rice paddies filling every other available inch of space. A few of the villages obviously had a thriving weaving industry as we could hear the clack-clack of the machines as we rode by. After Kalu dropped his original plan of reaching the original destination due to an inconvenient mountain, we decided instead to head to a Danish-initiated organic farm. This was the best decision that could have been made as it was a piece of serenity that couldn’t have contrasted more from the wet, muddy, exhausted group of cyclists that stumbled in.

They served an amazing lunch of pasta and salad that we could eat knowing it was safely prepared, along with the best chiya (tea) we’ve had so far in Nepal. We ended up lazing around all afternoon, then realising we didn’t really feel like continuing riding in the rain that was setting in, stayed there the night. Such a relaxing escape from the world… just what we needed before embarking on the challenges of my EWB placement.

The next day (Tuesday) we managed to pull ourselves away from the organic farm, after being joined briefly by a few other friends who took the easy ‘car’ option from Kathmandu. It had rained all night, but as we departed for the ancient town of Bhaktapur to check out its famed Durbar Square, it slowed enough that we weren’t absolutely soaked. It did pretty much set in for the rest of the day after we reached the town, so sitting at a café and observing the square from a café was the best option. We followed that up by a nice walk around and a long lunch (long as in, we had to wait for an hour or two for our food). It was fantastic just strolling around the streets where people were generally just hanging out on their day off – although there was work going on here and there, such as at the chook-slaughtering house. Interesting.

The ride back to Kathmandu took longer than we realised it would and it was getting dark as we finally pulled into Thamel after a long muddy sojourn around the airport. Being the intrepid travellers that we are (and inspired by Jai’s enthusiasm) we showered and headed straight for Boudanath – Kathmandu’s biggest Buddhist Stupa where the full moon is a special occasion. We were a little late for most of the festivities but still saw some dancing and plenty of candles in the serene atmosphere. Dinner again with the gang in a Tibetan restaurant followed by a walk around the stupa with no one else around capped off an amazing couple of days!

This was right next to the runway at Kathmandu Airport. Not fun.

Almost home.

Announcing... Our First Himalaya!

So today it happened... the clouds finally cleared long enough for us to catch our first glimpse of the Himalayas. It happened a few hours after we finally made it up to where we'll be living near Dhulikhel. The view from here is astounding - and will be even MORE astounding once the clouds clear properly. The mountains are 100km away and more, but we are still looking up at them.

Of course, the even more amazing thing that happened today was that Norah Lily was born to Ben and Sarah back home in Brizzy... we are so happy for them and sad to be so far away! See you in 5 months Norah!

First few days in Kathmandu

Landing in Kathmandu...

Mostly our days at the moment consist of sitting in cafes / restaurants in Thamel, Kathmandu. I’m sure a lot of you know it – it’s the backpacker area and the easiest place to find WiFi and a decent feed. I’ve been going through EWB policies / procedures / expectations with the other volunteers and meeting people.

Ride around Kathmandu – We also had a great intro to cycling in this crazy city when Jai (EWB field officer AKA ‘our fearless leader’ here in-country) hired mountain bikes and took us for a ride. The ultimate goal was the Australian Embassy, but we took the ‘scenic’ route along the river – and the poor areas along it. Amazing to see people spending their lives pulling gravel out of the bottom of such a dirty river. I also picked up some rendering tips (see below) - puts our Ross St efforts in perspective!

A short stop at the Australian Embassy for some of the group to vote, and to meet the first secretary. Fresh from a Baghdad posting, he was not keen to let us to far through the front door!

We also visited a few interesting NGO/projects during the day. KEEP Nepal (Kathmandu Environment Education Project), NEWAH (Nepal Water for Health) and another organisation who’s acronym eludes me at the moment. There’s a lot of good stuff happening here – a lot of huge challenges too. One of the guys that presented to us spoke about their work to stop practice such as the sacrificing of a nine year old girl that occurred recently due to a bad season in that particular area.

I've posted a few more photos up here on PicasaWeb (or see below).

Nepal