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Well well, don't know where to begin...it's been ages since the last entry here....so much has happened....guesss i'll try to fill in the gaps from then til now:
From Dharmasala Em&i took a bus ride to Rishikesh to do some white water rafting and maybe some yoga; we did the rafting which was great fun on some class 3 rapids but who the hell wants to do yoga in 45+ heat in a congested&smelly town???
After a couple of days we left Rishikesh and headed for Delhi to await Em's sister Nikki's arrival from Ireland. Can't say we found much to do in Delhi -saw the Red Fort and it's exactly (and only) that...a big, red fort- but fortunately the time did pass and before we knew it we were greeting Nikki at Indhira Gandhi airport (which by the way is the only airport in the world that i know of which you have to pay to get into the arrivals area!) and were speeding back to our hotel so she could freshen up from her flight before jumping on a 12 hour train to Gorakhpur then a 2 hour car ride to the India/Nepal border followed by a
6 hour twisting stomach churning ride through the mountains to our ultimate destination: Pokhara, Nepal....full credit to Nikki for being such a trooper -few people would willingly arrive from 10+hours of international air travel and embark on such a journey with such enthusiasm and good cheer!
Due to both the recent political climate and the beginning of the monsoon season Nepal is all but devoid of tourists...which was nice for us as it meant incredibly cheap hotel rooms but the years of turmoil have taken their toll on the locals and hopefully soon tourism will start to thrive once again...and certainly deservedly so; Nepal is stunningly beautiful, untouched, peaceful and warm with loads to do and see....go there!!
After a couple of days of recouperation at the lovely Sacred Valley Inn (shameless but worthwhile advertising here) Nikki&Emma&i, aka. Team Tayto, along with our deceptively-small-framed-yet-strong-as-a-pack-mule wonderful guide Yuba (herein referred to as Yoda or Yoga interchangeably...poor guy, we kept on renaming him as we saw fit/funny -bless him!) to trek 8-10 days from the trail head at 900m all the way up to the Annapurna Base Camp at 4100m and back again. This trek is known as the Annapurna
Sanctuary trek: it follows the Modi Khola river up&down&around foothills, through local tribal villages and guesthouses, jungles, terraced farmland, past innumerable tributaries and contributing waterfalls from up on high, ever upwards to where its source...the natural amphitheatre of towering stone&snow the Annapurna Massif consisting of half a dozen 6000m+ peaks including the tenth highest peak on the planet, Annapurna I (8091m), and the classic 'perfect peak' of Macchupuchare (6993m).
The trek consisted of being woken up at 7am by Yoda, packing bags, having eggs&Gurung bread (fried pita-like bread) and heading out by 8am (though we were always 15minutes late and it took us 5days to realize that this was because Nepalese time is 15 minutes ahead of Indian time, honestly) for 5-7hours trekking with us constantly grilling and testing Yoda's knowledge of the terrain by tirelessly asking if it was gonna get either eaiser or harder, was the toughest day ahead or behind us, was the trail gonna be more uphill or downhill (the debate around which is worse still ongoing) and if there was a better way, etc..... and finishing up at a guesthouse at around 4pm, settling in, eating dinner (choice of either noodle soup, dal bhat,
or tomato pasta) having an Everest beer, playing Rummy, and in bed between 8-9pm.
Unfortunately, due to the time of year we only got a few completely clear glimpses of the Sanctuary but my birthday wish came true and the morning after turning 30 we had 2 hours of glorious sun&blue sky for our walk from the basecamp of Macchupuchare to the basecamp of Annapurna I. As they say a picture is worth a thousand words i'll let photos tell how beautiful and awe-inducing the experience of being surrounded by such ancient stone masses as the Himalayas was...however it must be said that somehow when looking at them you can actually feel the weight of the earth -their gravity is tangible; you appreciate that your time upon this planet is insignificant compared to the eons observed by these granite giants. I highly recommend anyone facing a age-barrier crossing birthday&wrangling with existential contemplations to do such a trek -it's a great way to put things in perspective...turning 30 seems trivial, think of how the mountains feel turning 60,000,000 odd years old!!
After the climax of reaching the base camp and seeing the mountains up close and personal we were
in no hurry to stick around (especially as hot showers and comfy beds awaited back in Pokhara!). Emma picked up a stomach bug also and so we picked up the pace and what was to be a 8-10day trek ended on the 7th day. Back in Pokhara days were spent shopping, having lunch by the picturesque Phewa Lake, renting motorbikes and driving around the area and then getting a suspiciously punctured gas tank and dealing/arguing with the police as to our liability for said damage (Nepalese tourist police are an utter joke....), and ultimately spending our last few days in luxury at the Pokhara Shangri La Village Resort&Spa swimming in the infinity pool, getting massages, drinking red wine and dining well.
With 48hours til Nikki's flight back to Ireland we had to get from Pokhara and retrace our journey back to Delhi via Agra to see the Taj Mahal. We spent 6hours of driving to the border, crossed into India, organised a ride to the nearest train station from there (2hours), got aboard a fully booked train bound for Agra with no pre-booked ticket (successfully achieved after much yelling and some cursing at the train conductor and the girls
using their Irish charms in the end), had b'fast at a 4star hotel before heading out to see the magnificent Taj Mahal in the rain -which didn't fail to impress- and getting aboard yet another booked train
sans ticket to arrive in Delhi for a night's kip in a kitsch hotel before saying a tearfull goodbye to Miss Nikki and ourselves then bidding
adieu to the Indian subcontinent later that same night.
So now that our time in India has come to an end how do we feel about the place?? Well that's a tough one to answer....was it what we expected? did we like it? would we go back?....I guess the best answer would be to say that, candidly, no we didn't like India much...it was smelly&dirty, human life was all too cheap, women were treated like second class citizens (and this treatment extended to foreign women also), the former glory of the British Empire seemed exactly that -
former....it wasn't nearly as beautiful or moving&inspiring as we'd expected and we wouldn't be in any rush to go back....but having said that the experience has given us wonderous memories of great times together that we'll cherish and laugh about
for many, many years to come; our worldview has been altered and informed from our travels in India and as such we've grown -nothing could be more valued and treasured.
Bye Bye India, Hello Southeast Asia!!!
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