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Personal Blog of Steve Baumber
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We made it. We are back in India. It only took two cabs, two jeeps and a plane. We would have thrown a train in for effect but it was too slow.
Once, when I was in Malaysia, I went to the Cameron Highlands and sipped tea at the BOH tea estate. I thought I had found my Mecca. Oh how wrong I was, because now I'm in Darjeeling. Those who know, and know what a necessity a lovely cuppa is for me, can appreciate that I have made a necessary pilgrimage to the Mecca of tea. The Shangri-La of Tea-dome, the Nirvana of Tea-ness.
Darjeeling. What image does it evoke in your mind? Close your eyes, say it to yourself and what do you see? Was it tea fields, perhaps a cafe with a sunny balcony overlooking said greenery with a steaming brew of India's finest blend in your hand? Ya, that's what I thought too. Luckily, it's kind of true. You have to fill in the picture a little more. First of all, it's pretty chilly here - we spent a moment last night seeing how big of a breath cloud we could make in our hotel room. Luckily we still have our toques and sleeping bags from treking! Secondly, Darjeeling is a city clinging to the sides of steep slopes, and so the streets are windy lanes and everything is up or down, with nary a flat field to be seen. Lastly, Darjeeling is a city. With a large Tibetan/Nepali population it's definitely reminiscent of the smaller cities in Nepal, with traffic, garbage, stray dogs and poverty amidst the gift shops.
Still, there is a unique Indian dynamic here, and for a change we are not the core tourist market. Indians love to travel, and Darjeeling is a favorite honeymoon spot, so we are still a visible face in the crowd, but as far as tourism goes the westeners are out numbered! It's also not the chaos we have been promised (by anyone with enough breath to tell you) that awaits us further south in the "real" India.
Still, for now, we're in India at last. And the tea is lovely.
posted by Steve @
6:12 AM
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11.29.2005  |
We're back in Kathmandu! I'm trying a new way of posting pictures, but it still needs some work as they're now huge.
The rafting trip down the Kali Gandaki was amazing - the rapids were excellent, our guide was fun and a competent captain, and the water was not too chilly. It wasn't possible to take pictures as we plunged through the white water, and this picture is from near the end of the trip as the river backs up against the hydroelectric dam where the trip ends. As with all dams, it's a mixed blessing for Nepal, as our guide told us how the river used to wind it's way 100m below where we were currently floating.
Being blessed with the incredible poise and balance I honed kayaking the Hood River two summers ago under Dean's careful tutelage, I managed to fall out of the raft twice. The second time I ended up underneath the boat, which wasn't as scary as it sounds as I instantly knew which way was up (notice my calm after-rafting demeanor). Rosemary was solid through it all. The river is quite deep, carving its way between two mountains, Daulghiri and Annapurna, making the gorge the deepest in the world. However, being on the river doesn't boast any mountain views or steep gorge-like conditions, but away from roads and cities it's a peaceful setting as the river winds it's way south towards India. We rafted for three days, eating and camping along the river. Our second night was on a small sandy beach next to the river that boasted a lovely community of small scorpions, one of which crawled out from under my sleeping mat as I crawled into the tent we had set up. We kept our sleeping bags tied up around our ears that night.
We are now taking advantage of seeing some of the sights around Kathmandu, such as the local Durbar Square (pictured). Durbar means "Royal", and there are actually several "Durbar" squares around the Kathmandu valley. They are areas built up next to an old royal palace, and are filled with temples and shrines celebrating various Hindu deities or Buddhism. They offer some of the most lasting examples of ancient architecture that survives in the cities, and the temples still recieve much use and upkeep. Today we caught a local bus to Patan, just south of Kathmandu city, and the square there was even more impressive in terms of its architecture and feel. And had less garbage, but more touts willing to guide us around.
We have booked a flight to the edge of Nepal, electing to avoid another lengthy bus trip. It gives us a better chance to cross into India during the daytime, and then head to Darjeeling. And yes Pete, avoiding the bus is whoosing out. So sue me. We're flying Buddha air.
However, I'm getting a bit ahead of myself, as we still have a couple of more days to shop and see at least one more Nepalese stupa here in Kathmandu.
posted by Steve @
3:01 AM
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11.23.2005 |
A little bird mentioned that I failed to indicate what the last photo was "of", so there was Rosemary at roughly 4,800m doing the steep otherside of the Thorong-La pass. Very slippery in sections and lots of snow to navigate. Mostly packed down, but every now and then we would sink up to our knees or have our feet go out from under us. Wee - hooo! At one point a group of French trekkers scooted past on their butts, sliding down sections of the slope on their snowpants and packs. Ah those crazy French, they're such a riot...
We have been in a holding pattern in Pokhara for the past few days. Our anticipated rafting trip down a section of the Kali Gandaki was postponed as a cold took over Rosemary's body and would not let go, and we did not have a ticket for it to come along on the trip. So we decided to get rid of it with copious amounts of bedrest, pastries and vegetarian Indian food at the Punjabi restaurant down the road. It seems to be working, so tomorrow we are scheduled to head out and brave some nifty Class II to Class IV rapids (Sharky will know what we're talking about). Stay tuned sports fans!
posted by Steve @
12:46 AM
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11.17.2005 |
Got the lost blog back. I went to the same computer (a hike through Pokhara) where I blogged on Thursday and dug around in the inards of it's cache and there it was. Ah, 20 rupees of internet time never gave so much satisfaction.
posted by Steve @
12:02 AM
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11.12.2005 |
This is the image in question that caused the trouble as it uploaded to the website after all, but the link (and the blog) were lost. I have thought of a new approach to doing this which will hopefully keep Blogger out of it (all say yay!). I realize now that if you get yesterday's message asking to help me retrieve the blog, most likely your internet cache will have replaced the previous blog with the blank one and no amount of backing up will do. Ah well, such is the ephemral nature of my writing, as I cast it about on the cyber winds...
posted by Steve @
11:05 PM
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11.11.2005 |
Everything I blogged yesterday just got blanked out because I tried to upload a picture to that blog. I hope anyone connected with making posting photos to Blogger.com a royal pain has a bad day. If anyone has yesterday's Blog in their internet cache, please email me the text and I can repost it, but otherwise it was a limited edition for those eager beavers that caught it - it was a good one about our trek. I have no copy of what I wrote unfortunately, so in brief we're safe, had fun, saw lots of stuff and it snowed. Yeesh.
posted by Steve @
3:00 AM
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It would be difficult, nay unfair, to fully relate the last 25 days spent in Nepal as we trekked along the Annapurna Circuit. Walking from tropical river valleys, into the foothills of the Himalyas, past the feet of mountains stretching 5,000 to 8,000m into the sky, and then over the Throng-La pass only to drop into a portion of the barren Tibetan plateau, and then back into the tropical valleys leading back to Pokhara, well, how does one do it in an edible chunk for those of you at work who really don’t want to be reading my prattle for the next two hours?
Highlights, I suppose. I must restrict myself to the highlights. But it’s all a highlight! The trek that we were told so much about by those who went before us turned out to be anything that we expected. Two storms vented their spleen on the area while we were on the trail, causing trail washouts, frigid conditions, avalanches, rock slides, and a lot of doubt as to whether we would complete the trek we set out to do. We sat huddled around a stove at a guesthouse in Chame as three expeditions piled into the village unable to complete their ascent of a local peak. In fact, as we sadly learned during the evening, it was two expeditions and four surviving porters of a third expedition from France who had been swept to their deaths by an avalanche ? 7 French climbers and 11 Nepali porters were killed. Despite rumours of more deaths (of trekkers), and rampant speculation on whether winter was here to stay in the Himalayas, of whether the Throng-La pass (buried under 4 feet of snow) would be reopened, we chose to slowly continue when many others, more pressed by a tight holiday schedule, were turning back.
We struggled through deep snow, packed and icy trails that turned to slush as the sun rose, and refroze as it set, and the slow tiring grind of high elevation, to eventually arrive at Throng Phedi High Camp on my birthday (Oct. 29). What better way to spend my 35th than looking out at some of the highest mountains in the world and breathing in the crisp thin air at 4,900m. We persevered over the pass, sliding and grinding our way 1,600m down the other side in knee deep snow, but it was worth it. We have the pictures to prove it! We arrived in Ghorepani 22 days after starting, where we were met that evening by the infamous Maoists who extort payment from the tourists to fund their cause of intimidation and violence on the Nepali government and the local people.
We increased our adventure by striking off down a sketchy side trail, away from the clearly defined trekking route, to find Nangi village, to which we had donated two old laptop computers for their school. A friend of a friend in Vancouver (hi Rob) approached us to deliver one laptop to the village, and I added my own old laptop into the mix (for good karma), and we passed them on to the village champion, Mahabir, in Kathmandu. This saved us having to lug the things over the steep Nepali countryside, but we were invited to visit the village to say hello when we had completed our trek, and hence the side trip. We found the village after a long day of hiking and few wrong turns, and met many wonderful people at the village. After two days, the teachers from the school were heading to a teacher's conference in Pokhara, so we left as a group out of the area to the closest town with a road, Beni, where we all had a hilarious taxi ride back to Pokhara (imagine 6 adults plus driver in a circa 1970 mint green Toyota Corolla and you get the picture). Thank Buddha we stopped for tea or my legs would have been lost from lack of circulation. At least one of my butt cheeks was perched on the seat.
Now back in “civilization” in Pokhara, we are slowly shaking off the dust and peacefulness of the trekking lifestyle and trying to get back into the traveling lifestyle of dealing with traffic, touts, hotels, taxis, buses, tourists, ay yi yi. One more fresh orange juice and I should be okay to plan the next adventure with Rosemary - apparently there is some good river rafting to be had in the Kali Gandaki valley…
posted by Steve @
1:16 AM
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11.10.2005 |
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