Blogs from Nepal, Asia - page 433

Ha ha! Just kidding. Although it did feel as though I was at some sort of fat camp for 3 weeks :) Most people I talked to felt the same way because of all the trekking and the lack of weight-gaining food available. Yay! I just got back (safely thankfully!) from Everest Base Camp and two small mountains (hills really in this area) called Kala Patthar (18,200ft) and Gokyo Ri(17,585ft). It was stunning, absolutely amazing to be surrounded by the world's tallest mountains! There are no words to describe what it was like to be sitting across from Lhotse and Everest, exciting, humbling, a little oxygen deprived.... It is definitely a most wonderful experience to have walked up Kala Patthar and to Base Camp. Gokyo was also just as incredible, may be even more so. One ... read more

AH! The woes of modern life. I just had 3 paragraphs typed out when the computer had some sort of internal error.... anyhow, it was about my trip to Tibet. There are no words to capture what this experience was like. I spent the last week going from Kathmandu to Lhasa, which is about 900km/600mi with about 40 other travelers from all over the world. It took 5 days to cover this distance on what is known as the Friendship Highway. The name sounds great (something the Chinese probably thought up of...), but the road itself was inexistant! Only about 100km of the actual highway was paved, the rest was a very primative road covered with rocks and potholes. The last portion was the most life-harrowing experience I've had in a while. We dropped about 1000m ... read more

At last we arrived in a place that makes sense, Nepal is everything we wished India was like (although we are reserving judgement on the south of India). The place has less people, less noise, less dirt and a much more relaxed atmosphere and is much more organised in terms of infrastructure. We have spent the last few days in Pokhara which is prettier and calmer that Kathmandu, we are within a few minutes walk of the beautiful lake and can just see the mountains from the hotel if the sky is clear. We hve just come back from a wee baby 2 day trek up to Ghandruk. Now if you go and look on a map you will think that it is not very far, but when you look at the elevation map we still ... read more

Et oui... J'ai pris mon ticket de bus, et je pars demain apres-midi, a 15h30. Arrivee 35 heures plus tard (dans le meilleur des cas) a Delhi, a minuit et demi. On verra ce que ca donne pour l'hotel... J'ai telephone hier soir a Goa : Monty, Danish et Roof ont pris le combine a tour de role pour me dire que je leur manquais et qu'il fallait que je "rentre" vite... La spirale du "jaldi jaldi" serait-elle de nouveau a l'horizon ??? Fido n'etait pas la : il etait alle acheter un truc au marche. C'est terrible : J'ai fini mes sous !!! Les Nepalais, je veux dire ;o) Il me reste plus que 1500 Roupies, qui seront finis d'ici demain. Faut que j'achete des cartouches de cigarettes aujourd'hui, 2 me couteront 600 Rp. Plus ... read more

Tashi Delek... Pour ceux qui suivent mes aventures depuis 2002, "Tashi Delek", ca veut dire la meme chose que "Namaste" en hindi, mais c'est en tibetain... Bref, le vif du sujet, comme je vous l'annonce precedemment, c'est le PILLOW... En anglais, "pillow" signifie "coussin", ou "oreiller", mais en nepalais... pas du tout. Different places, different meanings... J'aurai pas ete contre un bon oreiller lorsque je me suis effondre apres ce trek, mais c'est autre chose que Mission Control avait prevu pour moi... Sacre Coquinne... Le pillow, ca commence vers mi-aout, il me semble, juste apres le trek, mais cela n'a aucune importance. Nous avions fini notre longue marche dans les Himalaya, et avons pris un bus de Beni pour faire les derniers kilometres qui nous rameneraient vers quelque chose qui puisse decemment etre appele une "ville", ... read more