Hampi

Hampi, traditionally known as Vijayanagar (“the city of victory”), was once a thriving Hindu empire.  The ruins of the empire are spread over 26 square kilometres; there are Hindu temples dotted everywhere in the area.  The royal palace, extravagant like most of it’s kind, also contains the elephant stables–massive rock holdings for the empire’s elephants.  The landscape is stunning.  Round boulders look as though they’ve been plopped randomly from above, then congregate to form huge hills of boulders all around Hampi.  The river that runs through the city winds along bringing life to banana plants, coconut trees and other crops that cover the valley.  Not exactly historic, but the presence of boulders is explained in the Ramayana (one of the most important Hindu texts).  The settlement used to be ruled by the monkey kings (Hanuman is head of the army and the star of the Ramayana) and it is said that to show their strength the monkeys flung the rocks down.  The empire only lasted from early 1340 until 1565.  During that time, it enjoyed a strong monopoly of the trade of Arabian horses and Indian spices coming to and from the west coast.  One Portuguese traveller wrote in 1520 that the city was full of silk, precious gems, beautiful bejewelled courtesans, ornate palaces and many festivals.  The reign of the empire ended with a battle against the Muslim sultanates, and the city was raided and destroyed.

It is interesting to look at the ruins and imagine that only 500 years before they were occupied with a flourishing empire.  Due to the pillaging and destruction from the Muslim take over, the temples and palaces look far older than 500 years.  The main street leading to the largest temple, still used today, was once full of temples and buildings.  Hampi’s residents have moved their shops and homes into the remaining walls of this beautiful empire, selling tourist junk and using pillared walkways as pissing and shitting areas.  It is sad that even a UNESCO site in India is far from being kept even hygienic.

Across the river from the main temple was Viru, where there were lots of much cheaper accommodation (to stay in the main area was more than triple what it should be because of the Hampi Festival).  There was a boat that ran people back and forth for 30 INR (0.60 US), but it added up when your daily budget is only about 400 INR ($8 US).  All of the local walked across the river at a point just down stream.  There were people passing here all day, and yet the walk along the river bed was used as a toilet by locals.  There were piles of human feces every step of the path to the river, including on top of rocks in the river.  I understand that people need to use a toilet and sometimes latrines can be costly in terms of the labour to build…but I have been to many poorer regions of the world and never seen people shit in main pathways like they do here.  In Africa, if you didn’t have a latrine you would find a place in the bush.  Where we were walking just beside was tons of bushes and trees that were never used as a walkway, or a toilet.  Not only is it disgusting to walk around, but it’s no wonder that cholera and other diseases passed through feces can spread so quickly when hundreds of people shit along the river they then use to wash their laundry, clean themselves, and cook their meals.  This is something we have seen everywhere we’ve been in India.  You can be walking down the street and all of sudden come across the local toilet, a random street or corner or beach covered in human feces.

Although we came for the festival, we spent much of our time in the hills behind Viru hiking and rock climbing.  The views from up there were stunning and it was great to have some peace to walk around the area.  We spent one day trying to go to the festival and ended up leaving early.  The men in India unfortunately ruin most events though.  I wish I were generalizing, and that it were only a handful of the men that try endlessly to ruin your trip; but I’d estimate that it’s around 85% of men (maybe only 50% in Kerala and Goa) that will continuously bother you.  It is illegal to take unwanted photos with a camera phone, and at this festival, I was being photographed by every single male there.  At one point there was a crowd of men around us taking photos.  Finally, the only thing we could do is that Sam would take the phones from them (they stand right in front of you with this sleazy grin on their face to take it).  But we couldn’t look at a single monument without being surrounded by disgusting phone perverts.  As a woman, you are constantly stared at in India–and not in wonderment or interest–it is just looking you up and down over and over, no matter what you are wearing.  When you stare back or tell them to stop, you get no where.  Sam can generally have an effect when he kindly asks them to beat it…it is completely tiring though.  So for this festival in Hampi, we were just exhausted after an couple hours of intense camera phones and disgusting stares (the police are one of the worst for staring and you can’t really tell them off).  It is a serious problem for tourists in India, nearly everyone you speak to brings it up.  I’m just glad I’ve got Sam here with me to help me out; otherwise I think I would have gotten so fed up with India I may have just left to explore somewhere else and missed out on all that the country has to offer.  Hampi was one of our favourite spots in the country, especially on the other side of the river where you could hang out for weeks just climbing and hiking, but I think if we go back we will make sure it is nowhere near festival time.

The Keralan Coast

We spent a week in Kannur just hanging out and visiting some of the nearby beaches.  Although Kannur wasn’t really in the guide book, nor were any of the beaches, we had read a bit about the beaches in the Kerala Tourism booklets and wanted to see some things away from the tourist scene.

We had originally planned on visiting a list of beaches lining the coast and making our way up to Kasargode that way, but ran into some difficulties on our first stop.  Our first beach was Kappad, near Kozhikode.  After the long bus from Kochi to Kozhikode, we caught a smaller bus to Kappad beach.  It was 8 pm by the time we had finished driving up the length of the beach to find only one hotel.  The “resort” wanted ten times what we were prepared to pay for a scummy hotel room and a bathing pool.  The staff informed us that rickshaws weren’t running anymore (it was too late) and the next bus didn’t come until 11 pm.  We could either go back to Kozhikode (20 km) or go to Quinoy (10 km) that would definitely have a hotel room for us.  The receptionist called some friends and found one with a rickshaw to take us to Quinoy.  After driving around for hours, we had found only one hotel with accommodation and it was double our usual price.  It was a much nicer place than we usually stay, but it was in the middle of nowhere.  We finally agreed and checked in around midnight.  It was a long day with not a whole lot to show for it…so we decided we needed to find a larger town to base ourselves in and then go to the beaches.  Kannur was surrounded by great sounding beaches and with nothing in the tourist book, we hoped for some cheap accommodation and meals.

Kannur was cheap; we could order 2 (sometimes 3) huge meals with tea and bottled water for less than $2 us.  Buses were readily available to transport  us up and down to the beaches and the main bus station was the cleanest and most modern station we had seen in India.  There were tons of places to eat and they were always full of locals; although, it was interesting that our dinner would take about  5 times longer than anyone else.  As we would eat casually, the table would be cleaned and new people come, eat and be replaced again.  People don’t see going out for food as a social thing, it is purely just to eat and be done with it.  They would consume the same amount as us in a fraction of the time…just stuff their faces, gulp their tea down and walk out.  We did find the most delicious masala dosas in all of India there–the dosa is a huge thin pancake made of rice.  A plain dosa comes rolled up (crispier than a crepe) and served with a spicy coconut chutney and some lentil curry sauce.  The masala dosa is folded up with usually a potato curry inside.  But these ones had beets, onions, potato, and carrot cooked together in a medium spicy sauce and put inside the dosa.  They were delicious; some days we had them for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  Not only that, but you could have two huge ones for 30 INR (0.60 US).

We went to a few beaches around Kunnar including Payamballum Beach–just outside of town, Dharmabad Island–not far from town on the bus, and Meenkunnu Beach–a bus and a decent walk out of town.  Meenkunnu was by far the most beautiful and secluded.  There were hardly ever any people in site and the beach stretched on and on.  Everything I had read assured me that there were no such thing as a secluded beaches in India; that every inch of land is always occupied by too many people…well, we found some.  We went back to Meenkunnu for a second time because we liked it so much there–of course the second time we came more prepared for Sam–with lots of snacks.  We’ve been eating lots of papaya since we arrived in the south–not only is it only about 40 cents for a large one, but its always juicy and more filling then other fruits.  Meenkunnu was a great find though.  But the beaches weren’t the only thing that made us stay a week…the delicious and cheap food, the lack of tourists (and therefore lack of touts and hagglers), and tailor and fabric shops all made our stay interesting.  It’s hard sometimes to veer off the track so deep created by these rough guides and lonely planet, but when you do, you discover a whole other side to a country.

The Tea Hills of Munnar

The tea hills of Munnar far exceeded our expectations.  The tea plantations were rows and rows of stunning neon green shrubs lining the countryside.  Munnar used to be a hill station for the British under the Raj to get away from the heat in the summer months in the South.  It is quite a bit cooler in Munnar, but I don’t think it went below 15 the whole time we were there–and stayed around 20 in the day.

Our first day in Munnar was spent just hanging out and walking around.  The night before our search for accommodation had failed miserably; we finally settled in a hotel with a tv for half the asking price.  It was still a bit out of our budget.  Although, the abundance of food stalls and cheap restaurants helped to regulate that increase.  The town itself was nothing to write home about; pretty busy, overcrowded epicentre bustling with people and too many rickshaws.  However, outside of the dirty town, you could see the countryside that surrounded you.   Huge hills covered in tea and trees with rivers and waterfalls pushing their way down the mountains.  Kerala is such a beautiful province.  It also has the most organized tourist department of any of the states–staff may not be always the top of the line, but there are always maps and guides for free.  It makes travel there much more enjoyable.

The second day we were up at 6:00 to take a motorbike we had rented to Top Station.  I had read that you needed to be there before 9:00, or the fog blocked your view.  Although it was only something like 40 km away, the road just wound back and forth and we had been told it takes 2 hours to get there.  It took us under an hour and a half with lots of stops to warm ourselves up–our hands and feet were freezing.  Near the top of the road we entered the province of Tamil Nadu, strongly evidenced by the complete stop to the beautifully paved, marked and lined road.  Kerala’s road up had been perfect–no potholes, and lined with little white markers; Tamil Nadu boasted a rocky dirt road with chunks of pavement from a road years before.  Kerala is a communist state and it shows when you look at the public goods for people in Kerala versus other states.  Kerala also is known for the having the highest literacy rates and school attendance for male and female in the county.  The UN indicators consistently rate Kerala’s standard of living higher than most developing countries–even though the per capita income is below the national average of India.  It is interesting that the two largest differences between Kerala and the rest of India are the communist influence and the matriarchal past–giving women a much higher position in society than other states.  So, communists and high powered women…the answer to a better life?

We walked around Top Station, which is nothing more than the end of the road and inside the TATA tea area, for quite a while–the views were gorgeous.  And by the time we left at 9:30 or so, the fog had moved in, so I’m glad we pushed our rental man to get up so early–and we did have to push hard.  Most of the rental offices aren’t willing to get up before 10 am…it is ridiculous how lazy so many people are here–anything that requires them to move or call someone and they would rather lose the business than get off their ass.

On the way down, we stopped at a number of tea fields.  There were people everywhere picking the tea leaves, which we learned later, get picked every 7 to 12 days.  The countryside was completely covered in tea, so I can see how it provides so much work for the local people here.  We stopped at two dams with big lakes that were beautiful.  Everything seemed so clean and crisp; even the colours were so bright and vibrant–it was beautiful.

We went to the tea museum after that and watched an educational video about the beginning of the tea business in India.  Then we watched the whole process of how tea is made.  It was really interesting.  I didn’t realize that all teas (white, green, orange pekoe, earl grey etc) came from the same tea plant.  The flavoured teas are all just regular tea with flavour added; orange pekoe just has larger leaves left in it and so is stronger in flavour; and green and white tea undergo a different process without the oxidation.  White tea takes much more time and man power to create, so the higher price is in fact a reflection of the process.  After the museum, we explored other parts of the countryside some more.  We saw a waterfall and just drove around until 5 pm when we were set to return it.  Munnar was a gorgeous place to visit–especially on the bike.  Although there wasn’t really much to do or see other than the scenic tea plantations, a few days in the hills were perfect.

Backwaters of Kochi

We arrived in Fort Kochi, just outside Kochi or Cochin city to find a pleasant town with public parks dotting the area and tree lined side streets. It was a welcome change from some other cities in India. When we started looking around for a place to stay, we found that nearly all the accommodation was in the form of home stays and guesthouses, and was more than twice the price of anywhere else we’d been. After becoming increasingly frustrated by the costs of dirty and run down rooms, we bumped into a girl on the street who recommended we check at her guesthouse because she had gotten him down to a reasonable rate.

We ended up checking in at the hotel she recommended and went to find the Bevco (government beer and liquor store) to relax after our long day of trains, buses, and arguments over prices. We sat on the rooftop of our hotel listening to our ipod (that speaker may have been the best investment for this trip) and watching the mosquitoes gather in swarms above each others heads–literally. Although the chairs were covered in bird shit and other unidentified goo, we cleaned it all up and had a nice late afternoon drinking our beer out of our make shift ice bucket. We went in search of cheap food later in the night, and found that we had waited a bit too long and most things were closed. We did finally find one restaurant where we were the only patrons. We met up with our friend, Kirsten, back at the hotel and decided to go down to the beach and hang out for a bit. On the way, our rickshaw driver reluctantly taught Sam how to drive a rickshaw. He sat in the front seat with him, and wouldn’t let him change gears, but it was hilarious for us.

The next day, we were invited to a guesthouse on Vypeen Island that Kirsten’s friend owned for a discounted rate. We went along, not knowing really what to expect. We walked on the ferry and within 10 minutes we were on the other side in Vypeen. We had heard that there had been some sort of bus accident and travel would be difficult today, so we weren’t too surprised when it was difficult to find a rickshaw. We were picked up soon enough, and on our way to the guesthouse.

We learned that the bus accident had caused the death of a 10 or so year old boy. The bus driver was brutally beaten by the crowds of locals, and at least 8 or so buses that we saw had been smashed. The windows had all been broken and one bus (assumedly the bus involved in the accident) had hundreds of gunshots through the front and side of it. A police vehicle had been smashed and flipped over as well. The bus driver was still alive and in hospital, but looking at the damage these people had done to the buses, I doubt that he is in good condition. The bus drivers had parked there buses along the road and were on strike for an unannounced period of time, for good reason.

After being on numerous buses in India, I can see how angry a parent would be if one of them caused the death of their child. They constantly race one another trying to get to the stop first, as the more people that get on their bus, the more money they make in the day. Therefore, as a driver, if you are stuck behind another bus, it means you aren’t going to be making much money because all the people will get on that first bus. We were on a bus the other day that was stuck behind a bus that looked the exact same as ours. Our driver kept honking and waving his arms frantically while screaming what I assume were Malayalan cursing. Finally he decided to overtake the other bus and got right beside it to yell at the other driver…the bars around my window were scraping against the side of the other bus. When we pulled ahead of the bus, our driver sat there for a minute or so, just to piss the other driver off. It was the most bizarre thing, but no one else seemed phased…we were told it’s not so uncommon. So because these drivers are all competing for that extra few rupees, they make the roads extremely unsafe, and a boy (apparently one of many in the last while) has lost his life.

The guesthouse was in the middle of nowhere, with only a small shop selling bread, tomatoes, and plantain chips within walking distance. Our room was great though, and the whole place was so relaxing. We were right on the backwaters, with a big lake like body of water in front of the house. Our first night we cooked up fish in banana leaves and some prawns and had some beer. It was great to be able to cook our own meals again. The next day we made our way to Chenai Beach. It was nice, but not worth the trek involved to see it if you were coming from Kochi, as we had originally planned to do. It was a good distance even from the guesthouse. After a day in the sun and playing in the water, we bought a few groceries and headed back to the house. We made ourselves a nice pasta dinner, had a few drinks and relaxed. It was a great way to see the backwaters and relax after a few days of heavy travel. And it was a great way to prepare ourselves for the long bus rides to follow the next day to Munnar.

Beaches and Boating

Kovalam was a wonderful place to relax and get used to the change in itinerary from fully booked all day every day to absolutely no plans.  Well, I suppose absolutely no plans is a little extreme for someone who loves planning like I do…but no set plans and nothing to do for a least a few days.  We found a great, slightly dingy place right on the beach for only 400 INR per night (around $8 us).  It was quite larger than most rooms we’d seen.  Not only was it equipped with a table and chairs, but it had a nice balcony as well.  We ended up staying there for eight days and had little to complain about.  New Years Eve was spent splurging on fresh fish, prawns, and calamari.  We snuck our own beer into the restaurant, which sounds tacky, but really isn’t too bad considering none of the restaurants have liquor licenses anyway.  And we filled ourselves most days with big fresh fruit salads we made from produce from the local market just behind the beach.  Life in the south is much more laid back and healthy compared to that of the north.  We are now eating fresh fruits and vegetables and can get some activities in by walking and swimming.

We took one day out of our Kovalam rest to go to the very southern tip of India–Kanyakumari.  There is a large rock island just off the coast with a huge monument dedicated to a Hindu guru or similar that may or may not have spent 2 or 3 days meditating on the rock some 1000 or so years ago.  In other words, it seemed pretty random to us…but there were many Hindu pilgrims there to see the site.  The sites (there are two rock islands there with monuments), were interesting, but did little for the senses other than overwhelm.  The coast, however, was stunning.  The water was a turquoise blue and looked extremely inviting.  We went down to sunset beach to watch the sunset over Kanyakumari; we had read that you had to see the sunset and the sunrise in Kanyakumari.  Near sunset beach, there was nothing but a dirt parking lot.  We decided to walk down to the beach to wait for the sunset, until half way down we realized that the entire beach had been designated as the local toilet.  There was human feces everywhere, littering the entire beach and rocks leading to the water.  It was one of the most foul things I’ve seen in India–especially in comparison to how beautiful that area could be.  We headed up to the road, once again cursing the disgusting habits of people here.  We went looking for a restaurant and found nothing.  No one would serve food until 7 pm, and we wanted to get back to Kovalam as soon as possible.  We finally found a restaurant and ate before heading to the bus station.  Unfortunately there were no buses to our city of Trivandrum.  So we boarded a bus to a mid way town, then boarded another bus to Trivandrum.  The buses to Kovalam had stopped running by the time we reached Trivandrum, and rickshaws wanted an outrageous amount–as always.  We finally found one willing to take us for less and got ourselves back to our beach heaven.

After Kovalam, we went north to a beach area called Varkala.  Renowned as the backpackers haven in South India and said to be much cheaper and not as touristy, we were excited to reach the cliff-side beach town.   Unfortunately, Varkala tuned out to be more expensive than Kovalam in nearly every sense.  Hotels were more expensive (but we finally found one the same price–although it wasn’t nearly as nice), food was all more expensive and there were no local shops to purchase anything from, and the rickshaws were outrageous.  They wanted nearly 5 times more than any other rickshaw in India.  On top of that, rickshaw drivers and restaurant owners were indifferent to your business.  While everywhere else in India, you can simply barder your way from an extreme tourist priced rickshaw to a nearly local price, here, the driver would tell you to walk there if you don’t want to pay his price.  And being stuck in the middle of nowhere, we did.  We also had a run in with a motorbike rental.  In fact, Sam was very close to being in a fist fight–initiated by the renter–because we had “wasted his time” by wanting to check out the bike before agreeing to anything.  As it turned out, there was no brake light, signal lights, or horn (a necessity in India) and the bike was far from cheap.  So, we decided not to rent it–well, the man just lost it.  Yelling at us for wasting his time–even though he made us wait for him for over 25 minutes just to see the bike, when he promised no more than 10 minutes.  He started yelling about how awful it was that we had come to India and now we were wasting Indian’s time…well….we were trying to give you business sir, but your bike is broken…ugh.  It can be tirelessly frustrating sometimes with people here; however, we’ve never had people as rude as those in Varkala.  Every business had zero time for you unless you were going to buy something and at full price, otherwise you could leave.  On top of that, Varkala had just as much, if not more touristy shops and stalls littering the walkway.  There was tons of cheap Nepal attire, as that’s what’s cool with hippies.  Aside from all this negative feedback, the beach was gorgeous.  There were lots of tourists there–all white (as opposed to Kovalam where many Indians vacation as well).  But it was much quieter than Kovalam, I found, being right beside the ocean with only a couple groups of Indian men leering over you in a day.  We thoroughly enjoyed our time in the sun.

From Varkala, we took the train to Kollam early in the morning so we could catch the backwater cruise from Kollam to Allepey (or Allapuzha).  The cruise was on a wood boat around 30 feet long and looked like an old fishing boat.  We boarded at 10:00 am and arrived in Allepey at 6:00 pm.  It was a long time to be stuck on an overcrowded and warm boat, but it was definitely the most relaxing transportation we’ve experienced in India thus far.  The backwaters were beautiful…it was neat to cruise through villages and see people washing and fishing and what not in the backwaters.  Although it was beautiful and relaxing, we chose to stay just the one night in Allepey.  There wasn’t much to do there other than more cruises in the backwaters, so we thought we’d keep going, considering backwaters are possibilities in almost every Keralan coastal town.

Training our way to the South

Our train ride from Varanasi to Thrivandrum had a few more hurdles than expected.  We had booked our trains a month before with the now not so lovely seeming woman in Delhi.  However, on our train from Varanasi to Mumbai, I realized that the connection train to Thrivandrum was made for November and not December.  By the time we finished our 35 hour train ride and arrived in Mumbai on Christmas morning at 3:30 am, the last thing we wanted to do was argue with rude and pushy train staff.  We opted instead to have brunch at an expensive hotel before starting the hell.

We had brunch at the Marriot Hotel, and ate until we could hardly walk.  It was a delicious way to pick up our Christmas cheer and attempt to give us some energy for the day that followed.  We caught a taxi into town and left our bags at the Marriot.  In town the driver offered a cheap return to the beach area where the Marriot is located, called Juhu Beach.  We agreed and went into the office the concierge at the Marriot had advised.

Inside the Churchgate Terminal, I met a disinterested and indifferent woman who shrugged her way through our conversation.  She told me we would have to try to get one of the Tiktal tickets the next morning at 6 am.  The Tiktal tickets are saved for emergencies and sold two days before the departure to lines of frantic people pushing their way to get the last tickets.  She informed us that the waiting lists for all the trains heading south was over 280 and we would have to purchase a new ticket.  We could attempt to claim our other ticket for half the amount, but that the Indian Rail almost never grants refunds.

We then went to the Mumbai Central Station.  We decided to walk into the only office resembling a managerial position and explain our situation.  The man in the office said he would find someone else for us to talk to about our problem.  This usually leads to hours of endless waiting with no results; however, this time we got lucky.  A plump and serious looking woman pushed her way into the office and asked us what had happened.  She immediately sympathized with us and set out to do what she could.  When she came back and apologized that she would not be able to refund our money or exchange our ticket, we weren’t surprised.  She asked us then what we would do…and we told her try to get to the south, any way we could.  (the 15 hour bus to Goa about half way down was looking better and better).  She smiled and said she could get us on the train for the morning with no problem.  We would have to buy a new ticket on the waiting list, but we could be on the train the next day if she put us on the VIP Emergency list.

We went back to Juhu with our poor taxi man who had no idea of the 4 hours of chauffeuring he had signed himself up for.  Unable to find a hotel at a reasonable price, being Christmas, we went into an internet cafe and started scouting the deals.  We found one a block away on expedia for a decent amount out of our usual price range and booked it.  It was on the beach, so we bought some beer and champagne and spent Christmas watching the sun set over the Arabian Ocean.  Then we went to a dingy restaurant serving dirty, but delicious local street food and ordered ourselves some Christmas dinner.  We took it to go to enjoy our expensive room, so they packed up our curries for us in mini black plastic bags…yum yum.

The next morning we caught our second 30 plus hour train to Trivandrum, Kerala.  It was all that much sweeter when we arrived at the beach of Kovalam.  After our journey, nearly anything would seem like a peaceful paradise, so it was a bonus when we were met with a clean, cute beach town on a mostly white sandy beach.

Varanasi and the Ganges

Varanasi has surprised us both with it’s beauty and peace. We are staying directly on the Ganges River, the most sacred place in India, and surrounded by people constantly washing, bathing, and performing rituals in the Mother Ganga. The river is by no means ‘clean’ (neither of us are planning on drinking it or dunking in), but it’s much cleaner than every other river we’ve seen as of now. The city itself is quite small–almost everything happens riverside on the ghats that line the river for miles. Every ghat has a different purpose and reasoning behind it’s sacredness; some are for washing and bathing, while others are for cremation. At both night and morning, rituals called aarti are performed at the larger ghats. A lot of questions about Hinduism in general has arisen from our visit here, so I have included a brief summary of what I’ve found/learned–although it has made Hinduism that much more fuzzy and unclear.

Hinduism is one of the most complex religious, and due to the vedic roots, is actually the oldest living religion. It is the third largest religion with one billion followers; 905 million of which are in India. Possibly the most complicated aspect of the religion is that it began not as a religion in itself, but as a definition for the people of India who were neither Buddhists or Jain. Hinduism does not have a “unified system of belief encoded in declaration of faith or a creed”, but is rather an umbrella term comprising the plurality of religious phenomena originating and based on the Vedic traditions. The characteristic of comprehensive tolerance to differences in belief, and Hinduism’s dogmatic openness, makes it difficult to define as a religion according to traditional Western conceptions. Although Hinduism is a clear practical concept to the majority of its adherents, many express a problem arriving at a definition of the term, mainly because of the wide range of traditions and ideas incorporated within it or covered by it. While sometimes referred to as a religion, Hinduism is more often defined as a religious tradition. It is therefore described as both the oldest of the world’s religions, and the most diverse. Prominent themes in Hindu beliefs include (but are not restricted to), Dharma (ethics/duties), Samsāra (The continuing cycle of birth, life, death and rebirth), Karma (action and subsequent reaction), Moksha (liberation from samsara), and the various Yogas (paths or practices). Classical Hindu thought accepts the following objectives of human life, known as the puruṣārthas: dharma “righteousness, ethikos;” artha “livelihood, wealth;” kāma “sensual pleasure;” mokṣa “liberation, freedom (from samsara)”.

A definition of Hinduism, given by the first Vice President of India, who was also a prominent theologian, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, states that Hinduism is not “just a faith”, but in itself is related to the union of reason and intuition. Radhakrishnan explicitly states that Hinduism cannot be defined, but is only to be experienced. Similarly some academics suggest that Hinduism can be seen as a category with “fuzzy edges”, rather than as a well-defined and rigid entity. Some forms of religious expression are central to Hinduism, while others are not as central but still remain within the category.

Hinduism has no central doctrinal authority and many practising Hindus do not claim to belong to any particular denomination. However, academics categorize contemporary Hinduism into four major denominations: Vaishnavism, Shaivism, Shaktism and Smartism. The denominations differ primarily in the god worshipped as the Supreme One and in the traditions that accompany worship of that god. Vaishnavas worship Vishnu as the supreme God; Shaivites worship Shiva as the supreme; Shaktas worship Shakti (power) personified through a female divinity or Mother Goddess, Devi; while Smartas believe in the essential oneness of five (panchadeva) or six (Shanmata, as Tamil Hindus add Skanda) deities as personifications of the Supreme.

The Western conception of what Hinduism is has been defined by the Smarta view; many Hindus, who may not understand or follow Advaita philosophy, in contemporary Hinduism, invariably follow the Shanmata belief worshiping many forms of God. Hinduism seems to be a fairly open religion, leaving room for the individual to interpret the texts however he or she pleases. It is one of the most unorganized organized religions. You can see that every step of the way in Varanasi. Even within the same group of women, a different ritual or prayer or tantra is done or said after bathing in the river in the morning. Some men had metal jugs in the river while they bathe, turning around in circles and singing, while others had flowers and dunked a number of times.

We both enjoyed our time in Varanasi immensely. I think we could have easily spent a week just watching people conduct their daily rituals. It was beautiful to see so many people so devote d to their religion. Although after reading so much about Hinduism I’m not sure even they know exactly what it is that they are devoted to, other than the rituals and icons and ideas present within the religion or tradition. Nevertheless, it was by far the most interesting people watching I’ve ever experienced.

Delhi

Our first night back in Delhi we decided to look around at other accommodation options.  We looked at a number of disgusting dives; most hadn’t been cleaned.  They were filthy and pungent smelling with bathroom floors which once white tiles had now been stained black due to neglect.  The beds were in shambles and the mattress covers had holes throughout.  The covers were dusty and looked like they hadn’t been touched in ages.  In other words, we opted out.  We decided that any hotel that didn’t have a lobby shouldn’t be considered.  Although the touts drive everyone nuts, they can sometimes lead you to a good find, and help secure a cheap rate as they are desperate for their cut.

We found ourselves a clean and comfortable room with a flatscreen tv and satellite for less than we had been paying for our previous hotel in Delhi.  That being said…the room was barely large enough for our bed and the two backpacks…and the shower was above the toilet …and there was no a/c…and the fan was supercharged with a v12 engine which made it slightly overwhelming…and the pillows had hairs on them…and there was a whole in the wall of the bathroom that led to the outside…but it was a great find nonetheless.

Our first full day in Delhi we spent in Old Delhi, and visited the Red Fort, Rama Musjid Mosque and some other sites.  Once again we were shocked by the price to visit the monuments…it was 500 INR each to go into the Red Fort, which is about $10 USD.  A year ago it was less than 200 INR.  Oh well, it was spectacular inside.  The architecture was beautiful and there were gardens throughout the fort where people could sit and relax.  I think we would have paid it just to be in a clean garden like that for the afternoon.  It was so nice to be in a place without honking rickshaws, people pushing every direction, and garbage on every surface.  Old Delhi is described as dirty and busy, but we both thought it was fine in terms of that.  It was definitely an interesting place to walk around with lots of options for street food , which always makes things more fun.

We went to the McDonald’s there…after finishing our trek, Sam only wanted a Big Mac.  Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on your stance, there is no McDonald’s in all of Nepal.  So, when we saw one in Delhi, Sam went for his Big Mac.  Of course, they don’t serve beef in McDonald’s in India as the cow is sacred, so it was a chicken based sandwich, called the Maharaja King.  Haha.  They wouldn’t let us take pictures inside the restaurant for some reason…I tried about a dozen times and then finally took one outside.  Although they didn’t like that much either…the pictures thing is just so obscure in India.  A few days later, we wanted to go into the public park in the center of Delhi.  To enter you go through and x ray machine, then get patted down, then have your bag searched.  (for what, I’m not sure).  But they wouldn’t even let us in because I had a camera on me; I would have to go back to the hotel, drop off the camera and come back if I wanted to go into Delhi’s dirty park in the middle of a roundabout.  Oh well.

The next day we took the train to Agra where the Taj Mahal is located.  First we went over to the Agra Fort.  It took us ages to find the entrance, and we finally decided to visit the mosque at the back first.  There was no one inside the mosque and it looked as though it hadn’t been touched in years.  Pretty strange that in such a hot tourist destination the government wouldn’t spend some money fixing it up a bit.  The entrance to the mosque was through some dirty side streets and not marked.  It was massive inside.  We then went over to the Agra Fort which was slightly larger…the outer walls were just huge and inside the Fort was like a small colony.  From the backside you could look over the Yamuna River and see the Taj Mahal.  The King that built the Taj for his wife was then replaced by his son due to his excessive spending on the Taj.  The son put his father in the Fort so he could see the Taj for his ending days.  According to one tout–hard to say what to believe and we haven’t had much google time–the King was planning on building a black Taj Mahal on the other side of the river for himself, but the son replaced him before he could do that and squander more of the kingdom’s money.  Then we went back to the Taj and it was phenomenal.

We were a little disappointed that there wasn’t any water in the pools in front of the Taj, but apparently you only get to see that in the morning.  There is no rentry to the Taj, so we wanted to see everything else first and spend the rest of our day at the Taj.  The gates leading into the Taj were spectacular…I had never even seen pictures of that before.  The Taj itself was larger than I could have imagined…we went inside to see the tombs of both the King who built the Taj and the wife or whom it was built.  It was quite dark inside, but standing beside it you could really grasp how huge it was.   We spent the rest of our evening just sitting and watching as the sun set changing the colours from a bright white to a softer purple.



Nepal

We spent three days in Kathmandu this time before fleeing to the villages.  We spent a whole day shopping for Christmas presents–you think Christmas shopping in a mall is exhausting, try the tourist markets of Kathmandu.  We had to barter and argue over everything including the wrapping paper.  We bought a big, fake North Face bag to send it all home in as well; unfortunately the shipping is costing a lot more than the actual cost of the items.  Ah well, at least our wrapping job is top notch–wrapping with duct tape during a power outage with head lamps is a lot easier than it sounds (especially when you have a few Everest Beers).

We went to the Monkey Temple the second day.  It was only an hour or so walk from Thamel (where we have been staying).  There were quite a few stairs up to the top of the hill where the temple was and tons of monkeys running up and down the handrails all the way up.  There were tons of monkeys running around the temples at the top and lots of people walking around the temple, clockwise of course.  All Buddhist temples  are walked around clockwise and prayer wheels rotated clockwise.  The temple was made up of a number of small shrines around the main center piece of prayer wheels and a large tower.  It provided a great view of all of Kathmandu, although the layer of smog above hindered the view somewhat.

The next day we went to Pashupatinath, a sacred site on the Bagmati River.  We saw the largest Hindu temple (Pashupatinath Temple) dedicated to Lord Shiva (Pashupati), but being non-muslims, we weren’t allowed to go inside.  We walked around for a bit and went on the hill above to catch a glimpse of a massive gold cow in the center of the courtyard inside the temple.  Behind the temple was the river and all the ghats.  The ghats are areas where people can wash themselves, their clothes, or in this case, hold cremations.  While we were there two cremations were happening.  There were lots of locals standing above watching the cremations, as if for daily entertainment.  We decided not to pay the government fee to enter the area, as neither of us really had any interest in getting any closer than we already were to a cremation.  We did walk up the river a bit to watch from further away.  There was a dam only 500 meters up river from the cremations, and it was filthy.  There was so much garbage in the river, I doubt the dam was really necessary.  This is such a sacred place for so many people here and yet they throw their water bottles, plastic bags, candy wrappers, chip bags, and chew sachets into it without a second thought.  I am sure that Varanasi, the holiest site in India at the River Ganges in India will be much the same, but it is disgusting.

We decided to head out of Kathmandu after our visit to the temple and found a tourist office to book a bus to Chitwan National Park.  I think after walking around the city all day and seeing all the dirtiness and listening to people hork up their lungs alongside us constantly put us off Kathmandu a bit, and we decided to go somewhere a bit more peaceful.

The bus to Chitwan left at around 7:00 am.  We loaded up on some snacks from the street and had a feast of bananas, oranges and homemade sweets.  It was a great breakfast and much cheaper than our previous breakfasts.  The ride was fairly long, but manageable.  When we arrived, the touts swarmed.  They were yelling, literally, all kinds of prices and trying to get us in their jeeps.  All of a sudden you would have 6 around you in a circle all yelling at you, making it impossible to hear any of them and causing you to be so overwhelmed you push them all away.  We finally hopped in a jeep that was just about full and went to the center of town.  He tried to charge us double because we didn’t want to see his hotel, but we refused.  We went in and out of a number of places.  Many refused to offer a reasonable rate, which is bazaar because they had no one else staying in any room.  You would think they would lower their unfixed rate.  But alas, such is the stupidity of businesses in Nepal.  It has been getting to us lately, how absolutely absurd some people are with business practices.  We did find a clean, decent room with a hot shower at the price we wanted.

The next day we went on a jeep safari through the jungle.  The jeep broke down after only half an hour or so and we had to walk to a big platform about 20 feet up to wait for a replacement vehicle for an hour; however, things markedly improved after that.  We drove on small dirt roads and over tiny plank bridges.  It was difficult to imagine we would see much due to the sound of the jeep, the restriction of its path and the view the trees blocked.  As we were driving by the river, we heard a tiger roar, and it ran into the bus.  It was loud enough to hear clearly over the engine.  When we stopped we saw three rhinos grazing in the river.  We were able to get out and watch them, although there was a baby, so the guide made sure no one went too close to upset the mother.  There were also tons of crocodiles along the river.  We went to the crocodile breeding center in the park and saw some massive ones there.  We also saw the Bengal tiger that was in captivity.  It`s mother had started killing humans and after killing 4 people, the park had to capture her, and ended up killing her.  She had two cubs, so they took them in.  The cubs would not only not be able to survive in the wild after being raised in captivity, but also had grown accustomed to human meat and so would kill villagers again.  That last point I’m not too sure I’m convinced of, but that was the story from the guide.  Anyway, one of the cubs is still alive, and we got to see her.  She did not seem very happy in there, and I think was hoping we were bringing her food.  When she realized we were empty handed, she didn’t seem to appreciate us hanging around.  She was beautiful…her eyes were so intense and her coat was so smooth.  It was a magnificent animal.

The next day, we went on an elephant ride in the morning.  The mahmouts are the men that train the elephants and ride them.  They purchase the elephant when they are young and therefore are always the same ones to ride them.  Some of them were nicer to their elephants than others.  Ours didn’t hit his much, only when she started to get excited or would stop, and he used a wooden stick.  Other’s had metal sticks with a hook on it and would beat their elephant constantly on the head with it.  The elephant ride was a great way to see the jungle.  Even though we couldn’t go as far, we saw much more wildlife because the animals don’t run away when they hear the elephant coming.  We saw a family of wild boars sleeping, tons of spotted dear in large packs with massive antlers, and we saw a rhino mother and baby.  The rhinos we were maybe 15 feet from and the mother didn’t look concerned at all.  The ride was supposed to be an hour and a half, but it lasted for about two and a half.  By the time we arrived back at the town, neither of us could walk properly.  We intended on going to bathe with the elephants at the river right after, but made a quick stop at the cyber cafe to fix a minor mistake.

We had purchased a wireless password for 24 hours to give us 60 minutes of internet usage.  We had used 15 minutes so far, but the password expired about 4 hours early.  The card said from the first usage, not when you purchase it, so we went in to get our 45 minutes back.  It was obvious that it was their fault, but they refused to give us anything.  And continued to read aloud what is written on the card.  The power was out at the time we bought the card, and my battery was dead, so we couldn’t have started our internet time then.  There was a whole stack of cards there, and he has already paid for the wireless bill for the month.  (By the way, the monthly bill is paid for after 3 hours of internet is bought).  But instead, the boss began yelling at us, effectively scaring away two customers and in the end losing our business.  Customer service here is non existent.  Even the fake smiles you get from the servers at restaurants are not to be seen here.  The servers you get used to, but the businesses are just shocking sometimes.  Some people are the complete opposite though, doing everything in their power to make you happy–to get that extra few rupees.  Although equally annoying as they follow you around or yell out behind you, they are much more successful.

The elephant bath was so much fun.  We were both laughing hysterically the whole time we were in the water.  The elephants love bath time, and they walk into the water with you on their backs.  The mahmout then will tell them by moving his feet on its back, when to shake, to try to throw you off, or when to go under water, or, at the start, when to fill up his trunk and blow the water all over you.  I fell off a lot, and getting back on was much more difficult than you would expect, with the current going.  The elephants just love being in the water, and our mahmout was great with his elephant.  Apparently when there aren’t people around he lets her just play in the water as long as she likes, and lets her run around and play.  She would go all the way underwater and just float there, with her feet popping out a bit.  It was hilarious.  Then we would climb back on and hold on while she wiggled her back.  We even jumped off her head.

We walked to the elephant breeding center after cleaning up.  We had to take a long canoe across the river with tons of other people to get there.  The canoe was so full, there was maybe an inch of boat on either side above the water.  I held my camera above my head.  When we got there, the elephants with mahmouts on their backs, had just started a friendly match of soccer.  It was pretty funny to watch, except for when they hit them.  I really can’t stand watching that.  We went into the center and saw a lot of the larger elephants–all chained up–alongside their babies.  Apparently giving birth in captivity has an extremely low rate of success for some reason.  Almost a third of all pregnancies ended in still birth at this center.  There were little two male elephants running around free.  The guide beside us informed his paying customers that they were male and female and this was their time to mate.  But as they were play fighting we saw both were males.  Most guides just make stuff up here and in India…makes it much easier to say no to them though.

The next morning we left for Pokhara.  We had booked a seat on the tourist bus, but the first bus was full when we got there.  Then the first bus came back even though it was full and the man informed us that a second bus wasn’t coming.  He asked us if we would get on the roof to go to the bus stand so we could get on another bus.  We agreed, thinking it could be fun for a few minutes.  And it was, but we went a lot further than any of us expected.  We were up there for probably half an hour to 45 minutes.  Driving in and out of bus stations and looking for any other buses going to Pokhara.  We finally stopped and the bus tout riding on the tourist bus gave us an ultimatum–either stay on the roof for the next 4 to 5 hours or get in the chicken bus parked beside.  Granted, there were no chickens on the bus, but there were bags and bags of rice everywhere inside, and no room for anything on the roof, because the entire roof of the bus was packed with pots and pans.  We argued with the tourist tout to get some of our ticket money back; unfortunately we got nowhere.  So, after Sam had a chance to shove the guy a bit and just about punch him out, we climbed onto our chicken bus.  We had a bench seat, but it had come detached from the seat back; so most of the way we sat on a metal bar.  Our bags were piled high beside us.  People would climb in and out attempting to jump over our bags, or just blatantly stepping on  them.

Pokhara was great though.  We spent the first day walking around the city a bit, before deciding to rent a motorcycle.  Sam let me drive.  (ha).  We thought you could drive around the lake, so we started around.  The road quickly disappeared and was replaced with dirt, rocks, and river beds.  It was a bumpy ride, but we had a lot of fun.  Sam was working on his local impersonation skills–waggling his head all the way and honking constantly.  Turned out that the road didn’t go all the way around; we hit the end of the road at a river bed and went back.  We were worried about gas, having only about 2 litres in the tank and the fuel gauge pointing well below empty.  We stopped for directions about half a dozen times before we finally found the gas pump.  As we drove in the man at the pump closed the door on the pump, looking as though he wasn’t going to serve us.  Another employee offered us fuel at more than twice the price.  Finally, we were offered about 2.5 litres of fuel at the regular price.  There is a huge fuel shortage in Nepal (hence the constant power cuts, and the reluctance to sell us fuel).  We were off again, this time to the other side of the lake and up a mountain road.  We returned the bike to it’s owner at the end of the day with sore legs and tried to walk off the day.

The second day we read for a bit and then decided to rent a wooden boat for the afternoon and do a little ‘fishing’.  So we bought some beer and some snacks and paddled out to drift in the lake.  No fishing rods are required for this type of fishing.

The bus ride from Pokhara to Kathmandu was much more pleasant than the bus ride to Chitwan.  We had our own seats and neither of the backs were detached from the seat.  Seemed like luxury fter what we’d seen.  The ride was supposed to take about 4 to 6 hours; however, it ended up taking ten hours.  There was a bit of traffic coming into Kathmandu on the two lane (ish) road.  So cars would try to pass buses, even though we were in gridlock and would get stuck on the wrongside of the road until the buses cleared enough for the car to get back onto the right side of the road.  At one point we were stopped for quite a while because one bus had been stuck on the wrong side of the road.  There was a car that was facing it and stuck because of the moronic driver of the bus; one of the passengers got out of the car and smacked the windshield of the bus, apparently cracking the windshield.  The bus driver was trying to blame the man in the car and have him taken away by the police; a massive crowd gathered and we watched everyone in the village come by to give their expert opinions.  It was just ridiculous–everyone could have kept driving if they took their argument slightly off the road, but  alas, it’s just not what’s done here.

We had one night in Kathmandu–we once again returned to the same hotel after receiving shock every time we paid that someone in the hotel had agreed to such a low price.  The next morning we grabbed some food, sold Sam’s horrific novel, and headed for the airport.

Trekking in the Himalayas!

Our 12 day trek in the Himalayas was phenomenal.  We saw wonderful views of Everest and the surrounding mountains and had 12 days in the peace of the mountains.  Although the trek was far from easy, especially those days where the oxygen levels grew thin, we still had a lot of fun.  We kept warm most nights but huddling around the yak dung fires and playing cards until bed time (around 8 pm up there) and most days were warm enough for a t shirt.  Our highest altitude was 5554 meters high, at the top of Kala Pattar.  It was a fantastic experience and a great way to spend two weeks.  We will have photos posted soon on http://jenmcq.smugmug.com (hopefully before Christmas). Below are the entries from each day of trekking.

November 24^th: Kathmandu

We looked around for other hotels, but didn’t find much.  We were supposed to be upgraded, but that didn’t happen either.  So we finally decided to pack up and leave.  We had found some flights for $96 USD each way to Lukla and back.  But the annoying and unhelpful man from the airport and Pilgrim’s Guest House offered us tickets to Lukla for $90 each way, so we went with him to book it.  After they were booked and on their way to be dropped off at the office, he informed us that there was a 10% service charge.  In other words, each ticket would be $99 USD.  We got up to leave, but he stopped us quickly, as he would have to pay 33% of the cost to cancel now, so he gave them to us for $95 each. He then sent a man from the Diplomat Hotel to show us their rooms for 300 Rupees (just over $4 USD) on the other side of Thamel.  The room was fine, a bit shady feeling, but a ok.  We stayed and went for a walk to pick up the rest of the things for the hike to base camp.  We bought a small pack so we could leave our big bags and not need a porter.  Sam got some warmer clothes.  But after hours of haggling and shopping, we needed a break.  I jumped at the opportunity for some pad thai and Sam had a pizza, knowing we’d be without that kind of luxury for a while.  We were told not to eat any meat on the trek as it’s never fresh—comes from porters all the way up.

The power went out right before we went to use internet and while we were trying to pack.  So, we went out for a tea and a walk.  By the time we came back, everything was closing (10 pm), so no internet.  We finished packing and tried to sleep before our 4:50 wake up for our flight to Lukla.

November 25^th: Lukla to Monjo (Day One)

We flew from Kathmandu to Lukla in a little 16 seat, twin prop plane.  We were right at the front, so we saw the pilots doing all the flight stuff.  The GPS looked like one of the cheap ones you can buy for your car at home, and at one point the pilot opened his window—you could feel the pressure in the cabin change immediately.  We landed on one of the highest inclined airstrips—it’s either 12 or 22 %…  It was wild though, not much room for error on that strip.

After some breakfast, we climbed to Phadking for lunch.  The books suggest you stop there for the night, but it was still early, so we went on to Monjo.  We stayed at a clean, cute guesthouse.  Monjo is at 9371 Feet (2840 meters).  It was cold at night, but not too bad.  Definitely slept well though–almost 12 hours of sleep that night.

The hike was pretty and quite easy.  We went through small villages and had to stand on the side every few minutes to make way for a group of yaks carrying everything from blankets to water to backpacks to rice.  We zig zagged over the river and crossed beautiful suspension bridges with prayer flags flying off the sides.  It was that much nicer after the hectic cities of Mumbai, Delhi and Kathmandu.

November 26^th: Monjo to Namche (Day Two)

Today we had a “short” hike from Monjo to Namche Bazaar.  The climb went from 9,317 to 11,286 feet or from 2840 to 3440 meters.  The climb was very steep the whole time.  We did get a nice river walk at the beginning though.  But once the climb started, it just kept going.  We got here finally and were very happy we kept going to Monjo the day before.  This climb is supposed to be the hardest on the trek, so, it was nice to have time to do it slowly.  Also, the clouds roll in eacj afternoon, so we wouldn’t have been able to see the first views of Everest that we were able to see today.

Namche is full of lodges and hiking stores.  Everything is quite a bit more expensive than Kathmandu.  Internet is 10 rupees per minute while in Kathmandu it was 20 rupees per hour.  We spent the rest of our day trying to plan our trek so we can acclimatize enough, but not take too long in the highest altitudes.  I think we will have a few long days ahead of us, but it will be worth it.

The food has been much better than expected, but it’s all very expensive, so we spent a lot of today budgeting as well.  Thankfully there is a western union in Namche that offers a fairly competitive exchange rate.

It’s pretty unreal how much there is here, considering we are in the middle of the Himalayan Mountains.

November 27^th: Namche Acclimatization

We slept in a bit today and had a nice big breakfast.  We then got ready for a hike around Namche of about 350 meters; apparently it helps a bit with acclimatization.  We took some smaller, less travelled paths.  We passed tons of prayer wheels and ‘mani’ walls—which I will have to google later, but they are small rock plaques with writings on them dedicated to the dead.  Sort of like hundreds of gravestones.

The hike was hard, we were both out of breath after only a few stairs.  But we got used to it by the end and are feeling much better now.  We saw the airstrip above Namche at probably 3700 meters.  It must be one of the highest in the world.  After a bit of rest, we continued on to the guest house at the top of the hill for some views of Everest.  We sat and enjoyed the sun while taking in the views.  It’s surprising  how warm it is here still.  At 3700 meters in almost December it’s over 15 degrees Celsius in the sun.  We were wearing t shirts and had our pants rolled up.

We started our descent to Namche and followed the ridge down.  It was beautiful, with Everest behind us and the river and valley with mountains we had already climbed through in front of us.  There was no one else around us, except a few yaks that mistook us for shepherds and followed us for a while.  They were pretty close to us.  They look like bulls, so it’s a little scary, but most of them are fairly passive.

We came back and had a snack and a nap then some dinner.  We are trying to hydrate as much as possible now for what will be a long 8 or so days!

November 28^th: Namche to Tengboche

We thought today was going to be a light, easy walk of around 4 hours.  Unfortunately, we hadn’t looked at the map properly…although only a total increase of 400 meters, we were going to have to do 600 in the last stretch from going down just before into a river valley.

The trail climbed up and down for the start until descending all the way down to the river.  We had some vegetable soup and bread before starting the climb.  It took us almost 2 hours of uphill to finally reach the village of Tengboche.

The village is very small - there are maybe 4 guesthouses and a bakery.  The largest monastery in Nepal is inTengboche, although it doesn’t really look that big.  We can see Everest through the window at our lodge though, so that’s a bonus.

It was still super warm today.  We were both hot all day until about 3 pm when it starts to cool off.  The food is getting pretty boring, and we still have 9 days left.  Hopefully we can find something better in Pheriche.

November 29^th: Tengboche to Pheriche

Today we took our time walking to Pheriche.  The altitude is starting to really affect both of us, it is getting hard to climb stairs and hiking is getting tougher.  Luckily, neither of us are showing signs of altitude sickness.  Just less oxygen up here at 4270 meters.

It was a nice hike though, not too hard and we stopped for a nice big lunch.  Pheriche is definitely more built up than Tengboche, although there isn’t much here either.  It is a small assortment of guesthouses in the middle of the Himalayas on the side of the river.  There are maybe 14 building here.  However, our guesthouse does have an indoor toilet and hot shower (unlike the last place).  It has been 5 long and dusty days since our last shower, so we threw down some cash for one today.

When the shower was ready, after about 20 minutes, the man called us and we got into the shower room.  When we turned it on a fair amount (at home we say a trickle, but here, it was pretty good looking flow) came out, but it was scorching hot.  The man knocked on the door to ask about the temperature a few seconds later.  He quickly ran back up hearing it needed to be cooler.  He ran outside and up the ladder to the bucket sitting on the roof of the building just above our shower room.  The bucket contained the source of water for our shower, and he began pouring cold water into it until we told him it was good.

We got to have pizza tonight for dinner and Sam broke our vegetarian fast by having some yak meat in his spaghetti.  He was scared he would get sick from it though, so he made me split it with him so we would both get sick together.  Ha ha. I think tomorrow we’ll end up going for a small day hike around here and just trying to get used to the altitude.

November 30^th: Pheriche

Last night was cold.  We could see our breath.  Sleeping was pretty tough, maybe because of the altitude, or the food, but we tossed and turned all night.

We stayed in bed late today and got up for a big breakfast.  It was nice to have a day off for once, but I think we’d both rather be getting closer to Kala Pattar and being done.  There really isn’t much to do here, and I finished my book this morning!  There are no book stores till we come back down to Namche.  We walked around for a bit and then hiked up the ridge behind Pheriche and sat at the top for  a while.

On the way back to our lodge, we decided to play a game of snooker at the highest snooker bar in the world.  I was pretty brutal and some Nepalis came in to watch the whole game.  It was pretty funny–when Sam would move balls out of the way for me so I had a better chance of getting one in and stuff.

We saw the Everest Memorial—seemed like most of them were Sherpas, which is pretty sad.  But there were a lot of names on there.  Tomorrow we are going up 700 meters.  It sounds like a very tough day, but hopefully we will be ok with the altitude.  So far we are doing pretty well I think.  I’m sure we will get there.

December 1^st: Pheriche to Labouche

Today we climbed 700 meters from Pheriche through Dugla and to Labouche.  The hike itself only took us 4 hours or so, with a break at Dugla, but it was pretty hard at the start and most of the uphills.  We met a guy named Cal at Dugla and he’s been walking with us for a bit now.

During our hike we passed over the river.  It was gorgeous, the river was light blue with snow and ice all along the edges.  We found a nice place in Labouche overlooking Everest.  Still 200 NPR a night up here — $3 USD.  Sam and I went for a walk and found the local dump where the yaks were grazing and the remains of a helicopter or plane had been disposed.

December 2^nd: Labouche to Gorak Shep

The walk from Labouche to Gorak Shep was deceiving.  On the map it showed a 200 meter increase and what looked like a flat walk other than that.  Instead, it was uphill and downhill the whole way.  It took us a lot longer than we expected and we were both out of breath for the majority of the walk.  We found a lodge at Gorak Shep and had lunch.  We planned to go to Base Camp in the afternoon, but it was also a ‘200 meter’ increase and the terrain looked the same as what we had just done.  Sam was feeling really out of breath and tired, so a 6 hour trek after lunch seemed like a long way to go.

Instead, we foolishly thought Kala Pathar was a better option since it was only supposed to take a couple hours and was right beside Gorak Shep.  Kala Pathar is around 5500 to 5600 meters high (400 meters higher than Gorak Shep), but we had enough time to go very slowly.  It took us quite a while to get up there (2 hours at least), but it was painful.  Sam was feeling really nauseas and I felt like crap, but we wanted to get to the top, so we kept climbing.  We had to stop every 20 feet or so to catch our breath, but we made it to the top.  It was a stunning view of the Himalayas and Everest.  There were some gorgeous lakes and glaciers behind Kala Pattar that were beautiful as well.

Sam still wasn’t feeling any better after sitting down at the top and ended up vomiting after a couple minutes.  We still got a photograph together before running down the mountain.  Sam was feeling a lot better on the way down; he practically ran down the mountain.  I was still feeling mediocre—my head was still pounding.  We had a nap after getting down and he started feeling a lot worse.  Cal gave me some diamox for him, but he ended up puking again after taking it.  He is having some crackers and sprite now, so hopefully that will settle his stomach enough to get some diamox down and feel a bit better by the morning.

December 3^rd: Gorak Shep to Pheriche

I got up this morning and went for a walk along the trail to Base Camp.  Sam was still not feeling too great and after puking twice the day/night before, he shouldn’t push it.  He was really feeling the altitude.

I had some breakfast when I got back and went to get Sam up.  We packed up and went down stairs to get him some food, but everything made him feel ill.  He decided on a can of fruit cocktail.  But when it came, it smelled like tuna.  Pretty disgusting really.  So, he had a couple of crackers and we started our descent.

As soon as we started climbing out of Gorak Shep, I realized how sick I felt as well.  It took a lot not to vomit up my breakfast and my head was pounding.  We made it down to Pheriche, about 900 meters less than Gorak Shep.  Sam and I hadn’t had anything to eat yet or drank much water as it made us feel sick as well.  Sam was feeling really shitty from the altitude sickness plus not eating all day and being dehydrated.  We forced some spaghetti and water into him and he looks to be a bit better.  This lodge is really nice—hopefully we’ll have a good sleep and be in top form for tomorrow.

December 4^th:

Today was a 7 and a half hour day.  It was a long one.  The Everest Marathon was on today and ran from Gorak Shep to Namche.  At 7:30 am (an hour after the start time), they were already passing by Pheriche.  We followed them down to Namche although there was a lot of uphill.  Today is the first day we could breathe properly again while trekking.  We were at a pretty good pace—we passed a number of sherpas and Sam had a head to head with a 12 year old boy.  The boy refused to let us pass him, but we finally got by him, and then Sam beat him up the hill.  He was pretty proud.

We stopped for lunch at Phunki Tenga again and there was no one there.  Many of the menu items were now unavailable as it’s ‘off season’– after only 10 days.  We had some spaghetti and a boiled vegetable sandwich.  Yum.

All day helicopters have been flying over us.  It turns out the Prime Ministerof Nepal was announcing a new Bill committing Nepal to a reduction in Global Warming and better environmental practices and the press conference was on top of Kala Pathar.  When we arrived In Namche, I had a hot shower.  it was unreal.  I washed my body about 7 times.  Then we shared a “yak sizzler” and an apple pie for dinner.  The hotel manager called down to Lukla for us and booked our tickets for the 6^th to fly back to Kathmandu.  Now, just 6 hours of hiking left to get to Lukla.

December 5^th: Namche to Lukla

We woke up today fairly late after another good sleep—around 12 hours again.  And yet Sam still has trouble getting out of bed in the morning…

The hike was supposed to take us 6 hours, so we figured we could do it in 4 to 5 hours and take the morning to relax.  We had a slow breakfast and then tried to sell some of my hiking gear.  We were declined by most of the shops, but told to check out the Tibetan market.  We went down and there was immediate interest.  All of them were trying on my jacket, offering various prices and check out all the pockets and zippers.  In the end, we sold it for 950 NPR (under $15 USD, but enough to pay for lunch and juices all the way to Lukla).

The walk to Lukla was gorgeous—I’d say this walk and the one to Labouche were the priettiest with the river and mountain views.  Of course Kala Pattar tops it all.  It took us 3 and a half hours to get to Padking and another 2 and a half to get to Lukla.  It was 6 hours total and the sun had started to set when we got in, thankfully we already had accommodation and flights for the following day.

Our hotel was nice—only two other people were staying there.  The staff was hilarious.  The youngest kid was sweeping and mopping the floors while dancing and singing along to blasting music of “Macarena”.  We had a few beers to celebrate our trek and told him to turn it up.

December 6^th: Lukla to Kathmandu

Our flight this morning was supposed to be at 7:00 AM, BUT DUE TO FOG OVER Kathmandu, it was delayed.  Also, there was a country wide strike on, so there were no taxis at the airport in Kathmandu.  A few days ago, some police had a dispute with some Maoists and ended up killing 4 or so (depending on who you ask).  So, the Maoists were holding a country wide strike to protest police brutality.

When we finally did take off at around 10:30 or so, it was great.  The flight was loaded quickly—under 5 minutes to disembark and board—of course no cleaning took place all the seats had spilled rice under them.  When we got to Kathmandu, there were people everywhere, trying to figure out what to do.  A rickshaw to town was 1500 NPR when a taxi is usually less than 200 NPR.  We walked over to the international terminal where we had heard there were busses waiting.  The Tourist Only busses were waiting there for times like this.  It was only 100 NPR each and it dropped us off right in Thamel.  The only cars on the road were police, ambulance and the tourist bus.  It was a very strange sight—highways with people strolling down.  It must happen quite frequently though, because the guide books warn tourists about it.

Finding anywhere to eat was really difficult.  There was a small Korean restaurant that was open off one street that seemed to take us ages to find.  While we were eating, people were throwing rocks at the gate and yelling things (most likely threats).  When we left, the man had to sneak us out.  It was really strange to see it all shut down like that: no obnoxious singing that sounds like karaoke from the bars, no flashing strings of coloured lights and no bikes or cars honking as they zoom past—it was nice.