China to Nepal

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Well, Hi there, I have been receiving emails regarding the absense of Blogs and just looked back and noticed that I havent written since China in Sept so here goes.
As that is 1000s of kilometers ago Ill keep this brief as possible.(U can laugh at that at the end)... Carol and I had a months break after Uzbekistan and she flew to India and I travelled back to China, spent 4 days in Kashgar visiting the weekend markets then trained to Turpan and Lanshou with Finnish friends. At Xinning I managed to buy a train ticket on the new Lhasa line from a tout therefore not needing to purchase a Tibet permit. The train ride was 24 hours of wonder. First the fact it was mostly built on top of perma frost, secondly it is the highest train ride in the world, goes up to over 4000 metres in places, third it was only middle of September and we had a day of snow while inside the carriage it was a warm as toast and forthly the Chinese tourists I was sharing the carriage were super friendly and shared their food with me and played cards and lots of sing songs etc. One chap spoke realy good English so I had a personal tour guide gratis all the way. Lhasa had spread big time since my last visit in 1998 but still held the same magic as before. I spent 8 days there arranging a shared jeep with 4 others to the Nepal border again to avoid the expensive permits the Chinese insist on.

The trip down to Kathmandu with Ian, Sara, Jean Guy and Tony was fun and we were lucky with weather. All stayed in Freak Street, an area outside the tourist section which was new to me but was I glad that Sara introduced me to a quieter more authentic side to the city. I spent a week there waiting for my friend Sarah from Auckland and Carol to meet up with me again. Carols Mum from Canada also joined us and after watching the All Blacks being defeated by the French we set off on the Monday by bus to the beginning of the Annapurna circuit, a 230klm walk over the Throng Pass at 5420mts. Unfortunatly, progress in the form of a new road being built is fast approaching this part of the world and although at the moment on the Manang side of the walk the road only takes off one days walk, we discovered on the other side of the pass the road is almost completed the whole way from Beni to Muktinath. So anyone out there thinking of doing this world famous trek and wants undiscovered terrain had better do so in the next year or so or else trek the Everest trek where a road is years away if ever. But that aside, I have to say that the trek was just as beautiful and as much fun as 9 years ago and made that way by the company of Sarah, Carol, Janette (Carols Mum) Mel, a 32yr old Kiwi met on the way, and last but not least, Claude a funny French Canadian who advertised at Kathmandu Guest house for company on the trek and who we immeditely felt sorry for, if only because he was deperate enough to want to trek with a group of crazy females.

The first 2 days were as difficult as I had remembered and had warned the others but once we hardened up our muscles and started to enjoy the beautiful vistas every day got easier. Unfortunatly, Janettes training walks around Calgary had not been enough to harden her up and after 10 days walking to Manang she decided not to temp fate on the push up to the pass, and at 3500mts she and Carol flew by chopper to wait for us at the end of the trek. The rest of us including Mel who joined us at Manang and Micheal, alias McGiver, (he had all the gadgets) pushed on over the 5430mt Throng Pass after being snowed in another day in Manang. We were happy to have another day here is aclimatise to the altitude and before this snow day there was no snow on the pass and it wouldnt have been as beautiful. The walk down the other side was a steep 5 hour slog to the next town and another 6 days to the end. Two of the highlights on the way out of the park were a bathe at the hot spring in Tatapani under the full moon and an early morning sunrise walk up to Poon Hill at 3300mt, viewing all the snow capped mountains we had spent 20 days walking around....a fantastic way of ending the trek.

At Pokhara, the lake at the bottom of the valley reached by a 2hour bus ride on the roof of the ancient bus, we spent 3 days lazing in the sun, doing 2 weeks of filthy laundry and enjoy happy hour cocktails every night. A 5 hour bus ride then took Sarah, Carol , Janette and me to Royal Chitwan Nat Park to view tigers, which didnt happen, but also spent and hour bathing with elephants which is extremely hard to do without either getting crushed or falling into the river. Thanks to an old rodeo crazy boyfiend I remembered how to hold on, so thanks Chris....I got wet but not crushed. Other highlights of the park were elephant rides to view rhinos, a 3 hour canoe and walk thru tiger infested jungle, ha ha....and an ox-cart ride at sunrise thru a local village. So althou no tigers were spotted it was still well worth the $65US for 3 days 2 nights experience. We were dropped back in Kathmandu last Thursday and spent most of the past week walking between the bedroom and toilet with severe Bombay Belly, (most likely caused by river water or too many cocktails).....

Well, we are all packed to move on on Tuesday, Mel and Carol are joining Sarah and me onto India for 2 weeks before travelling down into Bangladesh. Janette has flown back to Canada to healthy food and her own bathroom, lucky her, Claude and McGiver are both walking the Everest trek and the rest of us are enjoying Dewalli, a Hindu New Year celebration lasting 4 long days of fire crackers and drums and music....thank god for ear plugs. So till Bangladesh, Happy new year and love from Kay xxxxx ps thanks for all the wonderful messages......

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Comments

[jess]

hi gorgous
Dear Kay, Great blog so much cool stuff you have done. Did you get my private letter I wrote to you on your blog? I sent it but it asked for some private confirmation I didnt understand, please let me know as I will rewrite if not Hope your well and recovered from delhi belly Lots of love Jess xx