The Hills Are Alive

The Nepali Himalaya is a truely magical place, a short trip from Pokara took us once again into the heart and soul of the Nepali hill communities. It's truely amazing how the country folk live in tiny villages nestled into the side of gigantic mountains with no road and often steep climbs of between 1000 and 3000 vertical metres to the nearest road. The only possibility of farming the inhospitable landscape is to cut horizontal concetinas into the side of the mountains where simple vegtables and barley are planted and harvested.

Walking through the Himalaya is like being transported into a fairy tale land where mist hangs low over magical mountin views and dreamlike bamboo flute music drifts across the mountain air from nearby villages.

In sharp contrast it's difficult to see the big picture of the terrible goverment structure they have in place. There are constant problems often resulting in numerous killings between opposing political parties, all made far worse by the king who is trying to wrest power for himself. It's a constant struggle for the Nepali people who are amonst the poorest in the world and are just desperate for a strong uncorrupt democracy that seems impossible to come by. Hopefully one day, after the king has departed maybe, the country will finally be united and peace will return.

Rapid Riding

After lazing around Pokhara for a few days and feeding ourselves up on the fantastic restaruants we decided to spice things up with a bit of white water rafting. What better way is there to appreciate the Nepali countryside than hurtling down the local rivers at break neck speed? (at least it seems that fast when you're hanging on for dear life).

The 3 day, 2 night trip started out with around 20 people from various places all over the world sat around chatting on the banks of the river about how much we did'nt know about white water rafting. The safety breifing basically consisted of showing us the life jackets and teaching us some basic commands (such as go forward!), which turned out to be a tad difficult to understand with a heavy Nepali accent in one ear and water in the other.

After passing the initial rapids, which just happened to the the biggest and fastest of the whole trip, everything else was a breeze. Camping out on remote beaches to the distant sound of wooden flute music drifing in from nearby villages was awesome.

The Annapurna Circuit Trek

Ah Nepal.... the country of the mighty Himalaya. After quickly discovering that there ar'nt a great amout of places to visit that are accessable by road we decided to get off the beaten track and into the majestic mountains..... by foot.


The Annapurna circuit trek is a 16 - 20 day hike through some of the highest peaks in the world incorporating a 5400m high peak called the Thorong La. Coming from India with just shorts, t-shirts, flip flops we've been frantically running around the masses of trekking shops in Kathmandu and Pokara (the only 2 main towns in Nepal) trying to transform ourselves into alpine mountaineers.

With the bare minimum of gear (around 12 kilos between us) we took a local bus to a remote town at the end of the road and prepared to set off for one of the best and most remote parts of the world to go trekking.

The trail climbs steadily through local villages along a rocky path shared by man and beast. Constant donkey caravans guide the way and superhuman porters who carry up to 80 kilos uphill for around 70km resting on a strap that ties around the forehead are dotted along the path.

After 5 days of climbing we arrived in the snow to the slightly larger village of Manang where it's advised to rest for 2 days to acclimatise to the altitude. Unfortunatly, it was'nt the altitude that was the problem. After 3 days and half a metre of snow we began to realise why there wer'nt a great amount of people on the trek..... we were unable to go on as the pass was totally blocked by snow.

Turning back was a pretty hard decision, but to wait out the snow melt would have meant sitting around for perhaps a week in the middle of nowhere. With a quick decent of 3 days, walking for 9 or 10 hours each day we are finally back in civilization with many blisters and sore muscles....... Still, one hell of an achievement for both of us and one of the best things i've ever done in my life.

The Road To Kathmandu

Phew! It's been a while but every time i've tryed to post a new blog the dodgy Indian power supply has thwarted me. We have finally made it to Nepal after a mammouth journey from the south of Inida which took more than 80 hours in total on train and bus.

The Indian rail system is pretty efficient (maybe becuase it was built by the British?), and the overnight trains are pretty comfortable in AC (air conditioned) class. With calls of 'chai', 'chaiaaaa', 'coldrink' and even 'chocolate' every 5 mintues we did'nt go hungry or thirsty.

Arring in Mumbai (old Bombay, see top left) was like being transported into the future a few years with it's western shops, cafe's and colonial architecture. A quick stop of only 2 nights was more than enough to take in a Bollywood flick (Euklavia!!!!) and recover from the long journey.

Another 30 hour overnight train, this time in a compartment with 4 other (mostly annoying) Inidan people. It can be difficult to sleep with plastic bags rustling, people snoring, farting, snorting and hacking!

Varanasi is reputed to be the oldest city in the world and it's certainly an incredible place. The Ganges river flows around a bend which provides the setting for the old city which is lined from one end to the other with bathing ghats. The city is a crazy mixture of sadus (holy men), suicidal buffalo, cycle rickshaws and tourists. Hindu's from all over India flock to Varanasi to worship, bathe in the holy (and extremely polluted) Ganges and strangely enough..... die. Bodies are publicly cremated on a 24 hour basis all year round on the banks of the Ganges and the ashes are washed away downstream. Hindus that if you die in Varanasi you will achieve 'moksha' (the end of the cycle of reincarnation), and to be cremated on the ghats is very auspicious.

Yet another mammouth bus journey of more than 20 hours took us north over the border to Kathmandu. In the week since we've been here we've already been effected by 2 strikes and have been pelted with water balloons containing dye as part of the 'Holi' festival. We love it.