5400m, rock falls, a ginger man and more indian husbands!

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So hello from Borneo!!! Yes I’ve left Nepal and have made it technically to the top of Indonesia. The contrast between here and Nepal and India is crazy. The buildings look like they may just last out the day without falling down and may stretch into the next decade, crossing the roads not a life and death dilemma, no one spits and so far no one has asked me to marry them!! I feel like i’m back in Europe!!! Saying that i had a great time in Nepal. I met a great bunch of people and had an amazing few weeks.
After I left Kathmandu I headed into the hills. The girl I was supposed to go trekking with got sick so whilst she got better I headed off on a shorter acclimatisation trek with another of our friends. 2 days in and he got sick too (what is it about Nepal or me?) but one day of nurse marion and her magical supply of medicines and he was better and we could continue. The views were lovely, we stayed in tiny villages, sat round fires with the locals and for the first time since arriving in Nepal I got to glimpse some snow capped peaks of the Himalayas.
It was a great warm up to remind my body what activity was before returning to pick up Julia (who was better) we set off to walk the Annapurna circuit. This is supposed to be one of the top 5 treks in the world and heads right through the Himalayas. It is supposed to be a 3 week trek but with only 2 weeks to spare and with a road now built through half of it we decided to shorten it. Every Nepalese person we spoke to told us this was not the season to walk in and we must be ‘strong’ – 2 girls, no porter and no guide? My response was generally ‘yes either that or stupid!’ So we set off always accepting that if it got too tough we could get a yak along the way.
It was a gorgeous walk only slightly reduced by the fact that they are now building a road through the other half of the trek. Every now and then the beauty and peace of the mountains was shattered by some explosion as they sort to use dynamite to help the road building. Its a shame really. Yes it will help the locals and stop all the crazy porters with whole shops or cages of chickens on their backs hauling them up the mountains, but it will also turn this amazing trek into a 3 day hike. In a few years time you will be able to get a bus all the way to Manang, spend a few days there to acclimitise and then hike over the pass within 3 days before catching a bus back from the other side. I just don’t think i will quite be the same any longer.
Luckily for us they are still building the road on the first half of the trek so apart from the occasional explosions and rock falls you are at least not walking in dust thrown up by the passing jeeps. We were however stopped by some guards at one point as they were about to blow up some more rock. Apparently there was a risk of rock fall so they wanted us to wait with them. Making us sit under a very large rock (yes I know safety first – if there is anything thats going to be moved by an explosion it was likely to be the rock!!) we sat there for about 45 minutes awaiting the apparent steam rollering. The best thing was perched ontop of a steep climb we could see other trekkers coming up after us. These the guards seemed unworried about – the rocks would just fall straight onto them!
Eventually natural distruction complete we were allowed on our way in one piece. As we climbed higher the views got better and better and the air thinner and thinner. There is nothing like walking at altitude to give you empathy with an asthmatic 80 year old! We took our time though all too aware of the effects of altitude, maybe reinforced to us by seeing one of our fellow trekkers being airlifted off the mountainside with altitude sickness. The rest of us managed fine though. The weather was stunning, the snow capped peaks all out and with not even a headache we managed to skip (well at the pace of a snail) over the pass. At 5400m this is 100m higher than everest base camp and we had made it with no porter or guide (thank you!) In 10 days we had walked about 120km and climbed 4500m but it was worth every step. Sadly we had a 1500m drop the other side of the peak and after 10 hours of walking by the time we made it down we could hardly move but the beer we drank that night didn’t half taste good!
Having met the road we had a very enjoyable 14 hour bus journey back to Pokara which featured a lot of dust, several cases of whiplash and an empty tank of petrol along the way all for good measure. In Pokara we rejoiced at being clean for the first time in 13 days and went paragliding off the hills. As we ran literally off the cliff side there really is nothing more reassuring than hearing the tandem pilot behind me say “its alright me duck – nothing to worry about” – I came all the way to Nepal and was launched off a hillside by a ginger haired yorkshireman!!!
By the time we came out the hills I had little time to get back to Kathmandu for my flight to Borneo. If there is one thing it is impossible to do in Nepal its make plans. The country is in the process of trying to decide its constitution (something which they have in fact been trying to do for several years!) and because of various oppositional parties there are regular strikes meaning everything shuts down. The interesting thing is that no one (not even the locals) seem to know when these will be. Ask “is there a strike tomorrow?” and you will generally be met with ‘maybe’. In the course of 2 days we were told there definitely was going to be strike, there definitely wasn’t going to be one, what strike and that the military would be taking over the country on Sunday and there were likely to be riots!!! No one generally has a clue!! In the end i flew back to Kathmandu as flights are the one thing that providing they don’t crash (nepalase air safety record is not the best!) they always run!!
I had a few days in Kathmandu saying goodbye to some of the fantastic people i had met and generally trying to obtain pointless visas i had been told i needed to reenter india. I flew out of Kathmandu back to Delhi to pick up my connections.
“hello madam are you married” asked the customs man
“no” i replied “I’m not”
“would you like a husband?” he offered “I am looking for a wife”!........ god it was good to be back in India 
Anyway i made it after a 18 hour flight to Borneo and am heading off tomorrow to find out if my newly acquired mountaining skills are still working!! We are heading off to conquer Mt Kinabulu if we can afford it (its pretty expensive!). At 4000m it should be easy but the fact you have to climb it in 1 or 2 days may make it slightly more challenging! After that its into the jungle in search of Orangatans and probably a whole lot of leeches!
I’ll keep you posted on how it all goes. Huge love and hugs
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Photos

5400m
yes i am well aware puffer jackets and those sun glasses are not for me!