Seth and Claire

Well after our long trek, we decided that we wanted to relax a little and head to the jungle.  Neither of us had ever gone on any kind of safari, so we didn’t really know what to expect.  We arrived at our ‘Unique Wild Lodge’, expecting, of course, some uniqueness and wildness.  I think the wildest animals may have been the tourists clambering over each other for photos of rhinos, but overall we had a great time.  The best part was our lodge was that it was all-inclusive, all you can eat.  Although I think the appetite Seth and I worked up over chasing animals and bathing elephants may have been a little surprise for the staff, and we actually ate everything they had a couple of times! 

First we checked out the visitor’s center and enjoyed a sunset by the river.

The next day we woke up early for a foggy dawn canoe ride down the river, checked out the elephant breeding center where there was a 4-day old elephant (so cute and wrinkly!) and then Seth helped give an elephant a bath.  Or maybe the elephant helped give Seth a bath, judging by the way Seth was tossed into the river!  One interesting thing I learned about elephants is that they drink about 200L of water a day.  And watching how much they pee, I can believe it!

Finally we got onto the back of a big elephant to go rhino hunting.  We saw some big crocodiles, wild peacocks, and a few rhinos, including a mother and baby.  We actually got surprisingly close to the rhinos, they seemed relatively unconcerned by the excited people on the back of the elephant – I think they were more interested in the delicious plants.

Later on we watched another sunset, had a beer to celebrate our hunting success, and called it a night.  Now we are off to Kathmandu!

How to describe a trek that was so long, so varied, and so incredible?  We started out expecting a wild and snowy land, with moments of exhaustion and cold.  While we did find a bit of that, we also found luxury guesthouses with hot water (!), incredible pumpkin curries and homemade local apple pie, soothing hot springs, and some very interesting people. 

We saw lots of interesting people and sights, including a 65 year-old man who carried a 65kg pack on his head day after day, and quite a few ‘chicken men’.  The reason for this madness is that these towns are only accesible by foot, so all goods have to be carried/donkeyed in for up to 7 days!  It made for quiet peaceful walking!

Day 4-7:  We began to climb higher, and rounded the hills to enter a large glacial valley, with our first up-close view of the most majestic mountains in the Annapurna range – Annapurna II, III, and IV, and Gangapurna rising to our left.  The air became quite chilly and the land less inhabited.  Although farming was no longer evident, the ‘donkey train’ ensured that fresh food was still available, and we discovered the homemade apple pie, which was INCREDIBLE.  Our guide was working out very well, being lots of fun and incredibly knowledgeable about where to find the best bakeries and local cuisine.  There was lots of local culture to see including a new monastary, and we met a few very friendly local people.

Day 8-9: After 8 days of buildup, we were finally nearing….THE PASS.  Being located at 5400M, the highest pass in the world, we found that the guides and other travellers really hyped up the difficulty and danger of this part of the trek.  The night before we made ‘our summit bid’ we stayed in a lodge full of sick and anxious trekkers popping Diamox and aspirin like candy.  We made serious waves in the crowd when we mentionned that we had skipped our ‘acclimatization day’ in favour of continuing towards the next apple pie stop.  But we figured that with the extra fuel, it would be a breeze.

(claire) Well, Seth annoyingly DID find it a breeze, more or less.  However, I did not.  It was probably the hardest physical day I have ever had, although I did make it over.  It took 4 hours of climbing to the top and the severe lack of oxygen made me take about a full breath to every step.  Seth took a funny video in ‘real time’ of my progress, but it definitely looked like someone put it in slo-mo.  But if I turned around, I would just have to try again the next day, and I sure wasn’t going to do that, so I pushed on.  I don’t remember a lot of the last hour of climbing, the top, and the first hour of descending.  I got a splitting headache and felt pretty dizzy, sort of in my own little world, and Seth luckily realized by the top that we would need to descend quickly.  Luckily it was a quick descent and I was feeling better in a few hours.  It was pretty scary though, and my body took a few days to feel normal again.  I was still proud of my determination and now I can be part of the altitude-sickness club with laura.  (it’s a pretty exclusive club!)

(seth)I would like to think that my incredible physical strength and determination was what got me to the top, but the reality is that it is more likely to do with spending time at high altitude before (although never this high).  The first hour in the dark reminded me of a series of paintings by one of my favorite artists.  As the sun rose behind the impressive Annapurna II and IV it looked like “The Domination of Light” by Magrite.  Truely beautiful and a fit distraction from the cold of -12C at 4500m.  After sun was up we found ourselves in a barren landscape dominated by rock and snow.  Whit little to look at and no altitude headache I pushed until I reached what I called ‘hypoxic euphoria’, a condition similar to ‘the zone’ that joggers experience, but occurs at only a walking pace.  We reached the top and sat in the tea house for some cookies and tea.  Strapped to the pillar was a small balloon with a red Canadian flag, left (I presume) by Justina and Lifa only 2 weeks earlier!  Claire was not looking good at this point and kept telling me to give Krishna more cookies. He was not disappointed and in no hurry to leave.  We snapped a quick photo and pretty much ran down the 1600m decent to Muktinath, where we enjoyed the hottest showers of our trek and local popped corn.

Day 10-12: The next few days were shorter, as we recovered from our climb.  We passed through the ‘windy valley’ which is absolutely the most reliable wind we have ever seen (every day at 10am on the dot the massive wind comes up).  In Marpha we tried some local apple brandy, and made another bakery stop (luckily we were walking everyday otherwise we’d probably be growing out of our clothes by now).  We also stayed in some nice hotels, and to our complete shock, one even had a REAL sit-down toilet.  After months of squatting to pee down a hole, we both stopped dead in our tracks at the sight of what seth termed ‘the butt-cup’.  We decided that in a country that doesn’t have sanitizer, we prefer the hole!

Day 13-15:  As our trek neared to a close, we finally got the chance to stay with a family.  We stopped for lunch at a lovely little cottage, and the warmth and friendliness of the 5 kids and parents, and the incredible lunch (fresh limes from the tree, cilantro, local rice, thick fresh dal, homemade chapatis) won us over and we decided to stay for the night.  Their sign did say they were a ‘guesthouse’ but in the end, we took the parent’s beds and the kids slept on the floor of the kitchen.  Well, actually it was only one room but with partitions.  It was a humbling experience as this family shared everything they had with us, and to watch a family of 7 living together in a house with no windows, holes in the roof, and at the same time living with such warmth and happiness and joy.  The little girl delighted us by picking up the chickens and trying to get them to ride the goat (which we soon began to help her with!) 

While sharing some whisky over dinner with the father, a heated exchange about the Maoists (who have signed a deal with the government here but show few signs of honouring it) resulted in the father tearing up and burning our Maoist receipt.  We didn’t think it was such a big deal at the time, because the Maoists are supposed to have stopped taxing trekkers, but on our last day we ran into some more Maoists who didn’t seem to ‘remember’ that fact.  Thank goodness for our sweet-talking guide, who convinced them to let us off with a 100 rupee ‘replacement receipt fee’…without him, things could have been much more expensive!

Our trek concluded with a climb to Poon Hill to watch the beautiful sunrise on the mountains.  Unfortunately, it’s proximity to Pokhara and description in the Lonely Planet ensured that we were not alone – at least 50 other people were there to make ooohhing noises.  Not exactly what we are used to (like in Garibaldi) but it was gorgeous nonetheless.

One note of caution: anyone planning on one day trekking in this region may want to do it SOON.  They are building roads like crazy, and there may be road access to most of the conservation area in as little as 4-5 years.  This will really change the feel, and as it is already touristy enough, it may destroy what little culture and peace remains.  We feel so fortunate to have been able to do it, but we certainly learned a lot about the effects of tourism during our time there, and the increase in people is sure to reduce future experiences.

Well after leaving Nirvana we have had quite the week!We saw a cool fort in Kangra and then set out on our train journey From Dharamshala area to Gorakpur.     The wait for our first train at the lovely stationwas a good start, but then the train was 2.5 hours late, which would cause us to miss our connection, a relatively pricey and rare 21 hour sleeper train.  We had to fork out for a cab in order to make it.  On the train to Gorakpur we met some…okay, TONS, of very very friendly Indians giving us high hopes for our arrival.

But then I felt the dreaded upset stomach feelings and knew my last 7 or 8 hours were not going to be good.  I had become so sick by the end of the train ride that I was only able to walk in 30M spurts across the station before collapsing on the ground amongst garbage and homeless people.  Lovely.  And quite the show for everyone.  Seth was wonderful and found us a room right in the train station, above platform 1, but while I was waiting for him to do this I was groped by some kid.  Adding to my good times.  Pictures were NOT being taken at this time.

Further memories of the next few days, in which we were cursed, were being meowed at and laughed at by 7 adult men while taking my first shaky steps after illness, arriving late at night at a closed India/Nepal border and staying the night in a bed that was LITERALLY crawling with bugs, and then arriving in Nepal at last to realize there was a strike and all roads were indefinitely closed.  Ahh…good times.

Luckily the roads reopened the next day and we splurged on a cab for the last 5 hours to Pokhara.  We truly appreciate the luxuries here, staying in our own little cabin by the lake, and preparing for our 16+ day trek around the epic Annapurna range which starts tomorrow.  We will be spending the next two-three weeks away from it all, in the presence of 7,000M peaks, stopping at natural hot springs and following what is termed the ‘apple pie trail’ (aka we are going to eat our way to heaven as usual).  And luckily, our lovely guide has told us it is ‘yak killing season’ right now…whatever that means. 

 Well somehow an entire week has passed us by here in Dharamshala.  Time slips by surprisingly quickly here, as our days are filled with hikes, cooking lessons, meeting new friends, and browsing art and bookshops.  However, we are feeling the need to get trekking in Nepal before the winter sets in, so we’ll be taking a sleeper train tomorrow night to the Nepal border. 

This town has been by far the most Westernized that we have come across, with real coffee in many shops and more white people than you can shake a stick at.  But it is also the current home of the Dalai Lama in exile, and so is a very interesting and politically charged place.  One night here we were eating some dinner in a little Tibetan cafe and began a conversation with some of the Tibetan guys there, and they told us of how they had been imprisoned and tortured.  We also saw a former Tibetan prisoner speak last night and visited the Tibetan history museum, a place that brought two of our friends to tears and really hit Seth and I hard.  This town seems to be a place of contrast, where life is laid-back and people are smiling, but at the same time, sobered by the fact that the majority of adult Tibetan people here have been imprisoned, abused by the Chinese government, have lost some of their family and friends, and have had to escape over the Himalayas to get to India, some dying in the process and others suffering amputations due to the frostbite.

On a lighter note, yesterday Seth and I hiked up to 3000 metres to a ridge called Triund, where we slept in a cave with some rented sleeping bags and foamy mats.  Two Israeli guys shared our cave, but they just had flimsy blankets and were freezing!  However, there were a bunch of people up there and we had a big bonfire, and so nobody died of cold.  It was great because at the top of this ridge there was also an Indian guy who would cook dinner for the hungry hikers, and he also made omelettes and tea in the morning.  I am really getting used to this ‘luxury’ trekking – you get delicious hot food even in the middle of nowhere!

A few more things of note before I sign off…first of all, I would like to point out that there are at least 5 German bakeries in this town, but so far no sign of any German people or even any decent baked goods.  Secondly, yesterday a shopkeeper asked me how long I had lived in India for – I’m pretty sure with my lady-suit and my new tan I am pretty much Indian!… And finally, we took a picture of the sign at the Dalai Lama’s residence, to illustrate the brilliance of the signage in this country.  You couldn’t find a road sign if you tried, and nowhere in this town is the way to his residence signed, but when you get there they make sure you know exactly how to proceed!

sidenote: for those who are interested (and know how!) the coordinates of our locations are being taken by Seth’s handy GPS machinery…and are posted on his page!

FYI: We added pictures to the last couple of posts so check it out (and Chloe you can ID our monkey)!

Well, for the last few days Claire and I have been living easy! We went on a trek just outside of Chamba and were waited on hand and foot for 5 days and 5 nights! On our first day in Chamba we talked to a trekking agency and were convinced to blow our budget for a few days and get out of the hustle, bustle and litter of the Indian cities.

We started the trek at a charming lodge called the Orchard Hut and after Claire got her measurements taken by a local seamstress in the small village (for her “lady suit”) we were off on the first day of our adventure. For the benefit of those who have not “trekked” before it is more akin to hiking than anything else.

Our porter and guide loaded up their 1980’s, cheap Jansport backpacks with 5 days of food, four sleeping bags, our tent and everything they needed (which was nothing), donned their casual shoes (guide) and rubber slippers (porter) and we headed off up the steep 1100m climb to our first night’s destination.
Things started out a bit rough, our guide came down with the flu on day one (typical, eh) and was taking frequent forays into the forest and returning looking feverish and distant. Still, with the mind set of a pack animal, he hefted his rucksack and gritted through the day without one complaint! The people here have the most incredible work ethic, it must get done, and whining will not be tolerated!

That evening we stayed the night at a hut owned by the company. A couple of important things happened here, for one, we discovered what it is like to be rich! Within minutes of arriving our bed was made and we were relaxing to the view with hot tea and the sounds of dinner preparation coming from the kitchen! The other was that we gained a companion…later named Jackie, a farm dog came out of nowhere and decided that we were far better companions than any of the animals in the area. He was with us everyday (even though we threw sicks and stones to ward him off) until we eventually had to abandoned him two days walk from his home when we caught the bus at the end of the ride :(

The next few days were spent hiking and being pampered. The days were spent enjoying the high meadows and grazing lands of the area. Sitting in fields, listening to shepherd boys play the flute, and hiking to temples built by hand surrounded cliffs, all the while carrying only our clothes and a sleeping mat. Every night we were served a minimum 2 course meal, with home made bread!

Once the trek was finished we spent one more night at the Orchard Hut and arranged to bus to Dharamshala the next day. Leaving at 9am we rode 4 public buses for a total of 9 hours, getting to our destination in the dark.

Dharamshala is the home of the Dali Lama and pretty much every Westerner in India! We had more of them around us last night in our restaurant than we have seen in the entire first two weeks of our trip… But more on that later.

We have endured the TERRIFYING bus ride, inches away from 300 foot drops the whole way, to Chamba, another small mountain town in the north of India.

The rest of our time in Dalhousie was wonderful, relaxing, and we celebrated our one-year anniversary there. Of course, there aren’t any nice, romantic restaurants there, but we did manage to have a good time, finding some some really bad contraband rum and drinking rum and cokes while playing some cards with the sun setting over the mountains, and then ending up at a little restaurant where about 30 people were celebrating some little girl’s birthday. They didn’t mind us being there and even gave us some of her birthday cake!

Well today in Chamba we FINALLY found pasturized milk. Now, I’ve always been a milk drinker, but since most of the milk here is ‘fresh’ (and therefore lethal for us white kids) we have not had any in almost two weeks. Today we found some safe milk for the first time, in a plastic bag at a convenience store. We snipped a hole in it, stuck a straw in, and just stood there in the middle of the hot busy street sucking it back. We polished off the hole bag in about 2 minutes, much to the amusement of our audience. It’s funny, I thought I’d miss my family and friends, clean water, and showers, but I am actually doing okay with all that (although I do miss you guys!). What I would kill for, (REALLY) are very simple things – a cold glass of milk, fresh fruit, and a salad. Other than that though we are finding that we are feeling quite at home here, its funny how the craziness wears off and everything seems more friendly and familiar!

Also, today I have been enjoying my first real clothing shopping experience. I have decided that I need some Indian clothing because it looks so comfy and beautiful, so I bought some lovely green material today and am going to get measured tomorrow morning by some random tailor lady in the countryside near here. She will sew it up for me into a ‘shalwar kumeez’, or a ladies suit. I promise to do a photo shoot after so you can all see it!

Other than that, we are departing on a trek tomorrow for 5 days in the himalayas, staying in huts for two nights and a tent for two nights. We have a guide and a porter (aahhh the life!). When we find somewhere that has a decent internet connection (from Dharamshala in a week) we will post it all – new clothes, monkeys, snowy mountains. Until then, hope you are all well!

– Claire

Well the rest of Amritsar was fun but smoggy and loud! Luckily on day 3 we got a terrific deluge of rain that flooded the streets and cleaned the air. We found a smaller temple (Durgiana) to shelter us from the rain, and spent the day learning Hindi from random schoolboys and doing the ‘chai crawl’ (stopping frequently to try new foods and hot beverages). We also met another traveller and all went together to the changing of the guard at the Pakistan border (lots of boot stomping and yelling, and an Indian crowd of thousands chanting ‘HINDUSTAN’)

We arrived in time to check into our $3/night hotel with a deck looking over the mountains and sunrise, and then watched the Divali celebrations from there. It was magical – lights and fireworks and sounds of joy. Like Hallowe’en but way more firecrackers and no costumes. This small town, with houses and tea stalls hugging the hillsides, green terraced gardens all around, is exactly what we were hoping to find here. There are even monkeys here – big ones! We aren’t really sure if they are orangotangs or what, but they are noisy and rambunctious and about two feet tall sitting down.

We are planning to stay here a few days, and then explore nearby villages and maybe do some trekking and horseback riding. We aren’t sure if we will have constant internet access but we plan to get a cell phone when we arrive in Dharamshala in a week or two, and will post the number and pics from there.

Well it feels good to have finally arrived here after such build up over the last few weeks!  I think after all of the things I have read and heard about India, the first few days haven’t been shocking as much as supremely interesting.  At any given moment on the street, there is a cacophony of sound, colours and shapes whizzing by, strange and not always pleasant smells, and the brush of wind on my skin as rickshaws screech by me.  The train trip from Delhi to Amritsar in the Punjab province, where we are now, was such an education.  The poverty here is really uncomprehensible – we spent long stretches of time looking out the window at people living in shanty tents, their washing, cooking, and defecating done in the open right by the side of the tracks. 

I have really enjoyed every moment so far, even the heat and smells and craziness, because it comes right along with so many smiles, incredible food, and new experiences that are so alien to me.  I don’t really like the pushiness of the people on the streets, but it doesn’t take long to develop a good ‘I’m ignoring you’ face…which seems to do the trick.  We are in the holy town of Amritsar right now, and plan to stay here for a few more days, take in more of the Golden Temple and the festival Deepwali, and then head north, to the cool mountains.  I can’t wait to see what else this country has in store for us!  Hopefully lots more delicious samosas.  mmm… 

– Claire

So, how to describe my first four days in India in a manner that conveys the gravity and shock of the whole situation?  I have filled pages of my journal, but will try to put some of the more tangible differences on paper here.

The India experiance started pretty much right in the Delhi airport.  The hotel had arranged a (very overpriced) driver to collect us from the airport, but thank god for having someone who knew up from down to take us where we needed to go!  The air was hot and muggy and the squat little Delhi taxis were flying through the crowd ready to kill anybody who got in the way.  We retreated to the back of a car and were whisked down a road with 3 lanes at times and 6 at others (but the actual width never changed) to the “hotel” on the Grand Bazar.  And bizaar it was!  I thought we were heading to our deaths as we pulled up, but nope, just another Monday night in Delhi!

The Delhi experiance was less than savory, but was all the same very exciting and throughly enjoyable.  I wouldn’t really call it a holiday destination as 99 out of 100 people (or more) was trying to such you for all you were worth.  You had to be on your guard all the time, but none the less, it was all new and one of the most educational 24 hours of my life!

In this city of pure, unabridged life the basics are paramount.  The search for food and water will keep you busy for days on end, rather than just the hour before a meal.  The locals were in a constant battle with each other and the elements, eating on the streets, sleeping on the streets, and peddling everything from toy helicopters to toilet paper.

Even with the extremes of life in Delhi, little could prepare me for the train ride to Amritsar.  As soon as the train left the station I was shocked by the magnitude and scale of the poverty that existed within the vast and surreal metropolis.  The ghettos consisted of mud huts and makeshift buildings where the basics of life were tended to with putrid green water and and little modesty.  Wow!  Within minutes though we were in the flat and beautiful, if hazy, farm lands that fill most of the northwest of India.  Here life seemed more simple and more tolerable than in the cities.  More normal.

There are some things that come hand in hand with the poverty that are tough to think about, much less mention on a blog, but seeing as this is a note of striking experiances, this one rates high.  From the comfort of my reclined, A/C seat on the train I saw the first, fresh corps of my life.  Lying face down on the train tracks, his head severed and about 10 inches away it was tough to tell if it was a accident or a suicide, but none the less, no one was lifting a finger to call the police or to even move the body to a more discreet location.  He was simply left for the dogs.  Literally.

Not to end on a bad note, but this is getting long winded.  Rest assured that we are safe and for the most part very comfortable in our $8 per night accomidation (large room with 30 foot celings, a vanity, attached bath and private roof top balcony) and even with the total lack of other tourists we are starting to feel quite at home…

–Seth

Singapore, Singapore, Singapore.  Hot, sterile, Westernized land of malls and highways.  Our 24 hour layover in Singapore was much needed after a 19 hour flight, but we didn’t really love the place.  It was so hot and humid, and the area we were staying in was really hazy and full of busy roads and malls.  So after a quick breakfast, we went straight to the national orchid and botanical gardens.  What a relief to be out of the city and in a peaceful oasis filled with amazing flowers, turtles, kimodo dragon lizards, tropical rainforest…the list goes on.  Here are a few pics!

Well we’ve spent the last week or so visting friends, family, and generally enjoying being homeless and jobless on the West Coast.  We spent time in Portland, Hood River, and Victoria, doing all the ‘west coasty’ things we could think of and enjoying hot showers, good food, and relaxation while we have it – and we just have one last night in Vancouver before we fly out on Saturday.  (On an 18 hour plane ride – sounds kind of like my worst nightmare!)  Our next post will be from the other side of the world!