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Published: November 30th 2010
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Hello again, time to hit you up with the second helping of backlogged information from my travels, as due to the fact that I am too bone-idle to bother keeping a written record of events, I am liable to forget all this if I don't get it typed up and published quick-smart!!
Picking up from where I left the preceding update, I had stationed myself in Pokhara, Nepal, in order to prepare myself for tackling the world famous 'Annapurna Circuit' trek. The first few days that I spent in Pokhara were simply used as recovery time, as in preparation for Annapurna, I took on the Helambu Trek which is shorter at only six days, and this turned out to be a good decision on my part as it absolutely ripped me (more specifically my legs) apart in the final couple of days, and gave me a clear idea of just what to expect on the Annapurna trek! I had to spend four days resting myself up before feeling fit enough to depart Pokhara and head for Besi Sahar, which is the jump off point for the trek. It was at this point on the bus journey that I got chatting
to three British guys that were starting the trek on the same day, and these unfortunate individuals ended up having to tolerate me over the course of the entire 16 days of the trek! Let's hope they didn't mind...
It would take far too long for me to describe all the individual details of the trek (also refer back to what i said at the start about not keeping a written record!), so anyone reading will have to make do with a brief overview of the finer points!
The first thing to mention is that the Himalayas are truly amazing, and I could work this out with ease despite being there at a time when visibility was far from brilliant. In the early stages of the trek whilst you are at lower altitudes, the surroundings are hilly and an incredibly lush colour of green, but as the altitude increases the vegetation gets much thinner (as well as the air), and the archetypal postcard image of the Himalayas is clear to see, snow topped rocky mountains shooting up all over the horizon. Spending the bulk of my days walking through this kind of backdrop was absolutely amazing, and truly awe-inspiring.
The trek takes you all the way around the outside of the mountain range, and the towns and villages in which you stay are a world away from back in the U.K, most of them have a somewhat medieval or 'Lord of the Rings' type feel to them, lots of dry stone used in the construction and open fires as the only source of heating. Personal favorites of mine were Manang and Upper Pisang, the latter being the 'Edoras' lookalike, the picture of which was included in the last blog update.
By far the most challenging day of the trek was the climb over the Thorung La pass, which took us to the maximum elevation of the trek. This was attempted on the kind of day that, in my opinion, such a task should be carried out. Despite the fact that it had a negative effect on the visibility on the day, the weather was pretty appalling, and for the majority of the final ascent of over 1000m we had a snowstorm blowing directly into out faces as we trekked over. This was compounded by the fact that we set off at around 05:30 a.m at which point it
Heading over Thorung La...
Plenty of mist and snow... was still dark, and this undoubtedly added to the "danger" element, and also helped keep the adrenaline pumping for the duration of the uphill climb, which I can assure you was a necessity. Once we had reached the highest point and taken a few celebratory photographs in front of the sign proclaiming the exact height we were at, the guy that I had conquered this Goliath of a mountain with started complaining that he was feeling unwell, so obviously altitude sickness was beginning to hit him (obviously 'Iron Man' McCue doesn't suffer from such problems), and the only way to deal with that particular demon is to descend, so down we went without really being able to take in too much of the atmosphere or surroundings, but a man's life was at stake! So we headed down to a town called Muktinath, where there is a rather impressive Hindu/Buddhist temple complex which we checked out once rested, and then headed off to Jomsom, from where he flew back to Pokhara and I continued on the remainder of the trek. I was also intending on tacking the 'Annapurna Sanctuary' trek onto the end of the Annapurna Circuit, but I was sick
of mountains by this point and decided to head further towards sea level.
The remainder of the time that I spent in Nepal was spent in the lowlands region called the Terai, which is a beautiful area, consisting of acres of rolling green fields (similar to the countryside back home in good old England), and also home to two national parks which I headed to in order to try and spot some wildlife. This sojourn proved to be a bit of a disappointment however, as despite the fact that I saw a range of different creatures such as crocodiles, spotted deer, sloth bears and a plethora of exotic birds, I really wanted to see a tiger in it's natural habitat, something that was not achieved unfortunately! Also it's always a lot worse if someone you speak to on the bus journey back proceeds to tell you that they saw one in the exact place that you sat and waited for hours to spot one, just a day earlier, isn't it? The lack of wildlife spotting was somewhat compensated by the fact that the Terai is such a delightful, picturesque area, and the weather was glorious the entire time that
I was there. Every evening consisted of drinking cold beers whilst watching an amazing sunset.
The final few days in Nepal were spent in two different towns of significant historical importance. First and foremost, disappointed as I was not to have been able to see the Dalai Lama deliver a teaching whilst I was in northern India a few weeks previously, I decided to go one better and pay a visit to Lumbini, the birthplace of Siddhārtha Gautama, or the Buddha, in comparison to whom "The Dalai Lama" is a mere foot-soldier! There is a temple that surrounds a stone marker pinpointing the exact place where he was born, and also a massive complex where various nations have erected monasteries due to the fact that this spot is of such significance to Buddhism, some of which are seriously impressive. In particular the Chinese, and more bizarrely in my opinion, the German monastery, Germany being a nation which to my knowledge doesn't have too significant a Buddhist population, but there you go. Once finished here I headed to the town of Bhaktapur just outside Kathmandu. Bhaktapur is a place where there is a range of medieval architecture similar to that
in Kathmandu and Patan, both of which I had already visited, but it was a lot better maintained and simply much more impressive due to the scale of the buildings and temples. As an added bonus I accidentally ended up here at a time when there was a Hindu festival known as Dasain taking place, which basically consists of sacrificing animals to the goddess Durga. Unfortunately I didn't get to see any of the actual sacrifices taking place, as the temples in which they were carried out were off limits to non-Hindus, but I did get to see the odd example, people walking down the street with decapitated chickens, goats heads outside peoples houses surrounded by pools of blood, you know, the usual. So that was a delightful end to my experience in Nepal, but it was time for me to head off with my next stop being Malaysia, where I eventually managed to get to a day late due to the fact that my flight was canceled, a happening that I was non too pleased with! However, I did more than enough complaining in the last blog update, so I shall spare you for now, and the next update
in this epic tale will be coming at you from Malaysia!! No doubt you cannot wait for that particular portion of literary genius....
Until that time comes, take care!!
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Mini mccue
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Peaking Brilliant!
Well Ryan it sounds like you are still having a brilliant time! I love the fact that the travelling and amazing stories does not deter you away from literary excellence, maintaing such a vocabulary of words such as 'plethora' one would think it was written by a certain Mr Fry! 'Iron Man' McCue indeed! Have you suffered no altitude sickness at all? Thats pretty good going i would say! Looks amazing bro, it really does. Im very jealous as i always say! One day i shall venture myself! Good to hear you are still making lots of friends! Keep em coming! Your blogs brighten up my otherwise dreary life! You are missing the snow! Got about 6 inches of the white stuff in Leeds! School isnt closed though! So still at work where i am writing this comment to you instead of doing work! Better get back to it! Miss you and love you xxx