Trekking in the Himalayas

I can honestly say that the last 5 days have been the most demanding, challenging but incredible days I can remember. My legs feel like 20 bricks and I can barely walk as they ache so much from all the ascending and descending of those great mountains, but it was worth every inch of pain to do it. There were a couple of points where I felt I wanted to give up, and in any other scenario, walking 7 hours in one day would seem ludicrous, but this is what most come to Nepal for. The Nepalese are amazing, and after the hard arduous travelling in India, its more breezy, though I wouldn't say the trek itself was a breeze. The first two days were mostly ascending, and we went up to 3100 metres, (which isn't the highest you can go, but was enough climbing for me!) and walked through sunshine, rain and snow. We met a few other trekkers (though the path was not too busy as was not the 'main' route) and made some friends along the way...

Along rocky paths we passed through local villages, water buffalo, donkeys, and the most incredible scenery of snow capped mountains, forests that you expected to find fairies in, streams in the valleys, rhododendrons, orange trees, waterfalls, and sweet little tea houses and guest houses run by the locals. I have been completely enchanted by Nepal, and would say if there was anywhere you should see in this lifetime, its here... Check out the pics for a LARGE taste (got a bit carried away and put loads on this post as I found it hard leaving pics out!)...

Well, last post here in Asia, heading to the West in a couple of days and some unexpected ventures are on the horizon! Also have 3 weddings to look forward to, so hope the plans are going smoothly guys(Romy, Stina and Leslie) -look forward to seeing you soon for your special days!

Nepal

Okay, hopefully didn't give to bad an impression of Nepal with my actual journey here, cos its absolutely stunning. After recovering from the hell journey and doing a bit of gift shopping in Kathmandu (as I am on the last part of my adventure here), we arrived in Pokora, which is an absolutely beautiful and chilled place, next to a lake. Now, I kinda thought Nepal and the himalayas would be similar to India, but it is different. Still stunning though, and the people here are so sweet, and very gentle in their way. I am doing my first trek tommorow-yipee! Will just be a 5 day one as time is running out, but will hopefully get a taste of what it is all about. Will update post trek....

Silly Post

Occasionally you see shops or signs that you can't resist being pictured next to...

Being the western traveller in India, one (especially being of fair complexion such as myself) can get a little tired of the intense stares one gets (especially when on train platforms having had only 2 hours sleep). As you can see, I discovered a solution.

The worst trip ever

Well, I have currently finished the last leg of my journey out of India, and am finally in Nepal. We said goodbye to Mum and Olivier In Chennai on the 3rd March. I think Olivier looked happier than he had in a long time (India is a bit of a challenge for a 17 year old).

We stayed a night and then began our trip (to be with one stopover) to the Border of Nepal. If you have a map of India handy, you will see that this is a heck of a long trip...

First we took a 27 hour overnight train to Calcutta. Now I expected this to be a lot worse due to media and other preconceptions I had picked up along the way, but I actually loved Calcutta. It was real, alive and vibrant with people, real people of all castes and religions buzzing alongside each other. The place was crazy and I loved it. I could have stayed here longer but we were only stopping a few hours which gave me a chance to change a few things, like my flight back to UK and my flight back to India. Then we got another overnight train to Bihar, the state which has the Yoga University I really had to see as I heard and discovered good things about it along my way and through my yoga experiences here in India. I really wanted to laugh but knew I shouldn't when we got into our carriage to discover we would be sleeping alongside 4 nuns. I felt like I was in a sitcom that was titled, "Sleeping with Nuns on a Night train in India". After I got over my silliness, we chatted and they were so sweet , and invited us to come help with their project to help children.

Anyway, we got to the school in one piece, stayed overnight to get a feel for the place, it was really nice. I had thought to myself that the worst of the journey was over until we left, in reality, the worst of our journey was to come...

First we got a jeep from the yoga school to the train station, then a local train one hour away, we got on where we could as it was packed, so having a ticket didn't help much. We met an indian local who told us that at keil, the station we were to get off was not very nice. We were therefore prepared! In the state of Bihar(where we were travelling), stares were worse, as no tourists bother with it. It is also known to be the poorer states of India. Anyway, we got off and had 8 hours to wait at this ramshackal station in the middle of nowhere, though we were lucky enough to find a cafe where we played cards for a while to kill the time away. We then had to wait on the platform, by which time I was ready to sleep though had two hours to go. When you are tired. being stared at constantly by guys who would actually stop where they were and look, really began to get to me, so I covered up and pretended to be a muslim wife. IT WORKED!

Anyway at around midnight, when the train finally arrived, we couldn't work out our seats as there was no print off or carriage numbers, so we ended up upgrading to a higher class to get two seats. Only problem was they put us next to the door that goes to the toilet bit of the train and every other minute it noisily sung open and later kids were running up and down the carriage. At around 9am, we got to this place in India, near the border of Nepal, having had no sleep. When we got out of the station, the mode of transport was a horse and carriage. I joke not. So we got a horse and carriage to the border of Nepal, and I thought it was quite a way to leave India! After this, we got our entry visa's, and they warned us that transport to Kathmandu (where we wanted to go in Nepal) was difficult as for the first 20 km perimeter there were transport strikes. This was a local thing to do with transport by the way and not anything to do with the other trouble in Nepal, and they told us that we would be fine, as it was nothing to do with tourists, only locals, that it would merely be an 'inconvenience'.
Anyway, we left with Visa's and entered Nepal, where we had noticed a truck that had had all his tyres destroyed by demonstrators. After walking through the border of Nepal for about 10 minutes (on this straight stretch of road), we came across the UN, all in their nice bright UN outfits. I felt like I was on the 9 0 clock news (the only place I have seen them before!). They asked us how the other side of the border was, we said fine (there were 3 of us westerners walking together at this point), and then they told us about the transport strike again, and said we should be fine, but just to keep away from crowds. Hmm, suddenly I wasn't feeling so good about my arrival in Nepal, but we were already here-what to do?. We got a cycle rickshaw to the bus station, but of course there were no buses to Shiram (which is where we needed to go to get a coach to Kathmandu), 20 km away. So what were our options? I couldn't believe it either-we only had a cycle rickshaw, so thats what we did (the prospect of a two hour journey on a cycle rickshaw whilst there was a local transport dispute didn't really do it for us, but we had no choice). On the cycle rickshaw, about 5 mins later as we pass through the bus station, we had to go through a group of demonstrators. They had sticks. They came towards us with the sticks shouting. I was absolutely petrified and time seemed to stop, as they came with their sticks towards the rickshaw tyres, towards us. When they came close enough however, the majority seemed to back off as they saw we were westerners. We got through. I was so relieved but have to say its one of the scariest things I had experienced on this trip. The rest of the journey was tense, as we were travelling within the 20km perimeter, and every so often we had to cycle around these road blocks that had been made, but finally, we got there.

Shiram was this dusty not very pleasant town. We assumed we could get a bus soon ( we got there around 1pm) and were pretty exasperated to find that we had to wait till 5pm(bear in mind we still haven't slept for a night), and when 5 did arrive, it became 6 then 7. We also thought it couldn't take that long as it was only 180km away, though we were told it would be about 6 hours. In reality, it took 12 hours and we got to Kathmandu at 6am, and on the trip we kept stopping for what seemed like every hour for and hour. I felt like Michael Douglas in that film where he loses it and wants to shoot everybody.

Anyway, next time I'm flying. Don't ever go by road to Nepal from India.

























''']

We Are Family!

Well its been quite a busy two weeks covering a fair bit of India for my Mum and bro to get a good taste of it but we did! They arrived in Chennai (on the East Coast) at about half one in the morning where I anxiously waited in the Hotel room my mum had reserved from France. I was a little worried as it was what should have been a higher class hotel to my usual budget range and was a bit shoddy for what my Mum was paying, so after an enthusiastic welcome of my family, we changed to another hotel I had been staying at previously and was priced the same but you actually got what you paid for! We had a bit of a french family reunion (a bustling Indian city is not the usual place to have reunions I know) and my fab uncle joined us, my mums brother (who I affectionately know as Cri Cri), who as usual had us in fits of laughter. We (and a couple of my Uncle's friends) had a day trip to Mamalaparam (by the sea-see pic of Cri Cri, Mum, Olivier and I sitting on a wall)) and the Crocodile Nature reserve. At one point we couldn't see mum and I checked to see if any of the crocs looked like they were feasting on a nice french meal, but it turned out she was okay.

After this we(me, Mum, Olivier and Edwin(alias silly name Gertie)) headed on an overnight train to Allepey, Kerela, where we spent the night in a lux haven away from the bustle with hammock, wicker chairs and a long game of Monopoly till we couldn't keep our eyes open anymore, and discovered that my brother liked Biryiani. The next morning we took an autorickshaw to the backwaters trip to Kollam by boat. It took 8 hours but felt like 2, as it was such a beautiful journey. Basically the backwaters are like rivers but behind the sea, hence their name. We saw Igrits, Eagles, a couple of Kingfishers (which were too fast for me to picture) and colourful jelly fish. We also passed green green banks of palm trees, local village woman washing their clothes, and fisherman. It was so relaxing chugging along these still waters... ( playing board games and sleeping with a hat on your head was easy).

When we arrived in Kollam, we shared a taxi with an interesting guy from Norway who was a first mate on a huge boat searcing for Oil. You meet some interesting people! We headed to Varkala, a recommended beach in Kerela, and were bleary eyed when we finally got there and ended up staying in a lush shiny clean bamboo hut resort. We then bumped into Andrew (a guy Edwin and I knew as had met at Tushita, the Buddhist retreat back in November) and met for sunset drinks... We chilled here for 3 days and Olivier enjoyed catching the waves with a boogie board and eating more biryianis. I didn't ever want to leave...

We then went on to the Cape Kanukamari 'point' which is at the tip of India, where the Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal meet. The place itself was not so incredible after being on such a lux beach, and we had Cockroaches in our Hotel...mmm... However we did see a cloudy sunset and Mum and I got up early to see the sunrise over the different seas.. Next we headed to a place near Madurai to hook up again with my uncle in a home he and his late wife had set up for gypsy children and elderly abandoned ladies. It was such an experience, the Children were so gorgeous, and a family ran it, who had known Christian since the 60's, when he first came to India, see pic of Indian couple with kids behind them... Coming to this place taught me more about my Uncle and what great stuff he had done here.

Then back on the road to Pondicherry, which you will have read about in my last blog, but it was really nice to share it with my family this time... My Mum ordered something on the Menu in a restaurant there and said to me "Ju, do you think this will be enough or should I order another dish?" I didn't know what it was she had ordered either, so I said, "Maybe wait and see until it arrives and then decide". She appreciated the advice and this will make sense with the downloaded the picture when I get a chance. Watch this space...!