Blogs from Himalayas, Nepal, Asia - page 16

we set off for the village of Yak Kharka situated an hour or so past the village that people used to stop in, but that had suffered servere landslides and according to kapil was still not safe. we stopped in upper Manang and i bought a very ornate Gourkha knife with a hand made sheaf that was apparently from Tibet. it seemed everything was from Tibet according to the stool owners, they were obviously aware that this was somewhat of a novelty for the average tourist, as was yak bone jewelery, that was infact a cheap synthetic resin mix made in moulds that were being passed of as hand carved. some pieces were still very nice tho and a lot cheaper than the same thing in kathmandu. the closer we got to Yak Kharka the more ... read more

Well we have made it out of the heat and humidity of Indo China, via Singapore, to find that Kathmandu was just as hot but nowhere near as humid. After the initial shock of arriving at the aiport with no sign of our anticipated hotel shuttle. It was just grin and bear it time with a local taxi. We were taken to our car / shed on wheels, which had recently passed its road worthiness test (the horn must work), and we were off dicing with death to our hotel just outside Kathmandu. Our hotel had been chosen from the "Tinternet" and we thought it would nice and relaxing. It was that, but it was miles from anywhere and less than ideal. That aside we were only going to be here for two nights before we ... read more

The first part of time in Nepal mostly involved visiting Katmandu’s Thamel (the touristic 'shopping district' of the city). But we also booked a sight seeing flight (through GVI) along the Himalayas to Mount Everest and a few sister mountains. We got up before 06:00 as our taxi would be waiting for us. GVI had told us that the taxi would pick us up, bring us to the airport, wait for us there and bring us back after the flight. And all that for just 700 Nepaless Rupees (that’s EUR 7,-) unbelievable! We went there and the flight was delayed (not really unexpected). But the scenic flight was worth doing! It’s beautiful to see the mountain range up there in an airplane and boy is that mountain high! We saw it at a bit of a ... read more

Kazde z miejsc urzeklo mnie w jakis sposob. Indie, Tajlandia,Kambodza, Chiny, Tybet, Peru, Brazylia, Amazonia, Tybet. Lecz Nepal wywarl najwiekszy wplyw na moja osobe. Rozpoczynajac swoja podroz Dookola Swiata w 2007 roku najbardziej oczekiwalem spotkania z tymze krajem, jak i Tybetem. Jeszcze przed wyjazdem z US dlugo sie nie moglem zdecydowac co wybrac. Rafting - Nepal jedno z najlepszych miejsc na swiecie do uprawiania tego extremalnego sportu. W sezonie wiele rzek przekracza poziom 5(w 6 stopniowej skali kwalifikacji rzek - 6 sa to rzeki nie operowalne, zbyt niebezpieczne dla komercyjnych wypraw - czasem okreslane "Ratuj sie kto moze!!"). Ale EBC (Everest Base Camp) jest tylko jeden na swiecie. Mozliwosc zobaczenia Himalajow, tych najwyzszych szczytow, prawie "na wyciagniecie reki", byla nie do odparcia. Pewnie niewiele z was slyszalo/czytalo o stronce www.couchsurfing.com (dzi... read more

„Becouse it is there” - te slowa na zawsze utkna mi w pamieci wypowiedziane przez Georga Mallorego w 1924r. , zapytany dlaczego tak uproczliwie dazy do zdobycia Mt Everest. Zdobywanie szczytow?! Ludzie placa fortuny tysiace dolarow, dziesiatki tys. Dolarow za co?? Za caly trud, narazanie swojego zdrowia/zycia na niebezpieczenstwo ktore niesie za soba wspinaczka. Za te 10-15 min na szczycie poprzedzone dniami/tygodniami ciezkiej pracy. Tysiace dolarow zainwestowane w „kota w worku”. Bo nikt nigdy nie da Ci pewnosci ze osiagniesz wyznaczony cel. Ktos by pomyslal to jak granie w rosyjska ruletke. Takze szczescie odgrywa ogromna role w tej „grze”. Lecz rowniez kolosalne znaczenie ma cale logistyczne rozplanowanie wyprawy, przygotowania z nia zwiazane, wlasne umiejetnosci techniczne zwiazane ze wspinaczka , jak i odpowiednio dobrana druzyna i sprzet. Bo to na nich bedziemy glownie polegali, ... read more