The mountains

 

Yak-shemash and welcome to this high-altitude update on Nepal. I am writing to you from our hotel in Kathmandu, where Judith and I sit, take turns drinking Masala tea or beer, and wait for our flight to Thailand (the last stop on our journey – aaaaaaaah!). Since I have a lot of time to spare, and since we've spent quite some time in Nepal, this post will be... the longest post yet! Muahahaha! There's no way to escape. Since this post is so incredibly long, here's a table of contents:

• busy Kathmandu
• trekking in the Himalayas - one of the highlights on our tour to date
• the lakeside town of Pokhara
• exciting safaris - including a real safari documentary video, yeah!
• how to kill time in Nepal - e.g. by writing long blog posts
• random observations about the country and its people

Chapter 1: We started off in the capital of Nepal, Kathmandu, taking care of some logistics (such as buying trekking equipment, getting permits, or arranging transport). Despite its nice location in a fertile valley and its altitude of 1,300 meters, Kathmandu is not exactly a beauty. Most tourists try to escape the traffic and the smell as quickly as possible. I'm not an English native speaker, but I believe the technical term for a place like this is 'shithole'. Apologies to all of our readers from Nepal, it must be the lack of oxygen talking.

Our accommodation in Kathmandu was close to Thamel, the local tourist trap. The Thamel quarter is the proud home of hundreds of fake North Face shops geared towards the needs of the Western outdoors tourist. Besides indulging in buying fake stuff, we had a great time observing the many 'Jesus-tourists' in town. Jesus-tourists differ from regular tourists in their physical appearance and in that they typically are in search of spirituality, themselves, or new chemical substances. In terms of appearance, both the clothing and the tendency to grow facial hair make them resemble the man who, 2000 years after his death, still has a stronger influence on Italian daily life than Mr Berlusconi - hence the name. But judge for yourself, here are some pictures.

 

Anyway, our main reason to visit Nepal was to go trekking in the Himalayas, not to take pictures of fellow tourists. Having considered several trekking regions in Nepal, we eventually opted for the well-known Annapurna Conservation Area. Some 6-7 hours (bus or walking, same same) West of Kathmandu, Annapurna offers a range of treks, among them the 2-3 week trek around the entire Annapurna mountain range – the Annapurna Circuit. The Circuit passes by (not over) several 8,000-metre-peaks and a variety of vegetation zones. We decided not to hire a guide or porters, but to go independently. I just needed the exercise to do something against my beer belly. Later, we estimated that some 75% of tourists we met on the trek did have a guide, or a porter (who can carry up to 45kg - incredible), or both. I can't blame them. Well, maybe a little. Below, you'll find a summary of our trekking experience. In case you are wondering why the pictures look different – we left our nice SLR camera at home, carrying a light-but-not-so-nice one instead. That's the price you pay for not hiring a porter.

Days 1-3: The green rice paddies

Highly motivated, but also unsure about what to expect, we started our trek on the Annapurna Circuit in the town of Besisahar at an altitude of only 800m above sea level. We used the first few hours of walking to get accustomed to our flashy new (and of course fake) Leki walking sticks and our backpacks. Judith carried around 13kg, I did 18kg. 

 

Passing through beautiful rice paddies, we trekked at a good pace along a white-water river in a valley. The one thing slowing us down were several steep ascents, which we often had to tackle in the midday heat (yes, Nepal can get sub-tropical in places). 

 

During the ascents, we cursed every kg in our backpacks, but on the flat parts of the trek we coped well with the weight. Usually, we started trekking rather early, getting up at around 5.30h. Yepp, travelling can be hard work. In return, we managed to arrive at our destination at around 1 – 2pm, which enabled us to wash some clothes, take (bucket) showers, and dry our stuff before going to bed at 6 or 7pm - no kidding. Without light, there's just not a lot you can do in the evening. In every village along the trek, there are several 'teahouses', offering very basic accommodation at very basic prices (we paid as little as € 0.5 for a 'room'). 

The food on offer was a strange mix of Nepali, Indian, and Western dishes, but it did the trick. For most of the trek (and most of our time in Nepal in fact), we went for vegetarian, since the level of hygiene in handling meat in many parts of this country is as appetising as a dentist's job description. At the end of our first three days, after 45km of trekking, and with many beautiful impressions in our head, we arrived in Danaqyu (elevation 2,200m).

Days 4-6: It's getting cold

In the days following Danaqyu, our trekking routine (getting up early, eating apple porridge, hiking, devouring more carbs, sleeping early) didn't change much, but the landscape did. Gone were the rice paddies, replaced by the pine-dominated mountain landscape you would expect at an altitude of around 3,000m. 

Fortunately, the Maoist rebels which had occupied the territory in the region until a few years ago didn't bother to bother us. Day 5 in particular was fabulous – I hope I won't forget the scenery for the rest of my life, or at least not until Alzheimer kicks in. For the first time ever, Judith & I saw an 8,000m peak (Mt. Manaslu) and several 7,000m peaks (e.g. Mt. Gangapurna, Annapurna III). Amazing. We spent the evening of day 5 and day 6 in the area around Manang (elevation 3,540m), gazing at the peaks and acclimatising to the altitude. Watching 'Into Thin Air', a movie about lots of people dying of Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS) at Mt. Everest, maybe wasn't the best idea, but Manang's movie theatre itself (a room with wooden benches, a fireplace, and complimentary hot tea) was definitely worth the experience. We also met some trekking buddies: Scott & Kris from Canada/ Hong Kong were great companions and their endless reservoir of Family Guy & Borat quotes made even the steepest ascents seem fun. I like. From a logistics standpoint, Judith & I managed to reduce the weight of our backpacks by almost 3kg each by eating our food stocks, reducing the amount of water we carried, and getting rid of some completely worn out clothes. 

Days 7-9: Passing the pass

In terms of distance, day 7 and day 8 were shorter than the previous ones – a fact which was very much welcomed by Judith's back and my knees. Basically, at that altitude, you shouldn't go higher than 300m – 500m in altitude per day. Otherwise, your chances of getting AMS are too high – and that threat is very real. We talked to one guy who had spent his nights before sleepless, vomiting his guts out. Despite these classic AMS symptoms, he continued the trek with his group. 

Well above the tree line, even the last shrubs started to disappear as we continued our way up. Our main worry by then, being at 4,200m – 4,500m, wasn't the vegetation, though. We were more concerned with breathing (there's only slightly more than half the oxygen you would get at sea level) and sleeping at -10°C room temperature at night (we checked!). Thankfully, our substantial investment in top-notch sleeping bags finally paid off. After all, we had carried them around the world for 8 months for this special occasion. Despite the challenges, the views and the overall experience were great.

Day 9 was the big day: crossing the Thorung La, which, at 5,416m, is one of the highest passes in the world (locals of course claim it to be the highest). We left our teahouse, the 'Base Camp', at 5am, slowly ascending the winding trail using our headlamps. 

To climb the 1,000m took us some 3.5 hours, since we literally went step-by-step, taking several breaks on the way. Considering we were carrying our heavy backpacks, we still did it in a respectable time, overtaking many other tourists. Sometimes, we even overtook the main source of traffic, donkeys. 

 

Once we reached the pass, we took a quick picture, peed (increased bladder activity is normal when adjusting to altitude), and tried to get down again as quickly as possible. Temperatures at the top were some lovely -20°C, not taking into account the heavy wind-chill. 

On the way down, Judith virtually ran down the trek, leaving her male knee-handicapped trekking mates Scott, Kris, & myself in awe. After a total distance of 19km, 1000m up, and 1,600m down, we were relieved to finally arrive in our teahouse in the town of Muktinath. To celebrate, we got slightly drunk. Sadly, we later found out that not everybody managed to pass the pass as well as we did. Remember the guy with the AMS symptoms? Well, having arrived in his teahouse in Muktinath, he fainted, hit his head, and died. We were shocked when we heard the news. 

Days 10-12: The other side

The scenery on the other side of the Thorung La pass was completely different from what we had seen before. Since there's very little rainfall in that area, the barren landscape looks as fertile as Yemen's hinterland. Continuing to walk downhill, we arrived in the town of Jomsom. By then, Kris' knee pains in particular had become so bad that he had started walking downhill backwards. Fortunately for him, he and Scott were to fly out from Jomsom the next day. 

Meanwhile, Judith & I carried on with two more days of hiking in the world's deepest valley (with Mt. Dhaulagiri, the world's 7^th highest peak on the one side, and Annapurna I, the world's 10^th highest peak, on the other). We eventually decided to skip the last day of walking by hopping onto an adventurous local bus. In total, we had trekked a distance of 190km, not taking into account the many extra (voluntary) detours. Despite an aching back (Judith) and aching knees (me), we felt exhilarated having successfully completed this spectacular trek (way ahead of the recommended trekking time, too - yeah!). 

Having arrived in Pokhara, a tourist hotspot located at a sissy altitude of 800m, we treated ourselves to a hotel with hot showers, electricity (the power is out half of the time, but what can you do?), and even a TV. We spent several days in Pokhara, both because we felt like relaxing (deservedly so) and because Judith caught a cold. The main attraction of the city is the beautiful view of the Himalayas in the background, and the lake in the centre of town.

From Pokhara, we took a bus to the Nepalese lowlands bordering India to visit Chitwan National Park. The park represents a stark contrast to the mountain regions of the country, both in terms of vegetation and wildlife. 

Our highlight in Chitwan was a safari, where our 2 guides took us on a walk through the park without a vehicle, guns, or any other form of protection. Considering that there are plenty of rhinos, tigers, leopards, crocodiles, bears, and snakes around, the walk was pretty exciting. We were constantly scanning our environment for trees to climb in case of a surprise attack. In the end, we saw rhinos, crossed a river with crocodiles swimming 200m further upstream, chased away a cobra from our trek, and discovered many humongous tiger footprints. Since I've written too much in this post already, I shall let this little video clip speak for itself (click to start).

To kill the remaining time before our flight out of Kathmandu, we did one last stop at Nagarkot. Nagarkot is a viewpoint where, when the air is clear, one is supposed to be able to see a big part of the Himalayan mountain range, including some hill called Mt. Everest. Unfortunately, we spent 2 days in fog and in clouds. Even without the view, Judith & I preferred Nagarkot to, ehem, beautiful Kathmandu.

I haven't stereotyped enough about the country and the people this time. Anyway, I'll give it a shot: Having China and Tibet to its North and India to its South, Nepal is a very diverse country and it really does represent a blend of Asian cultures. Religion (Hinduism, but also Buddhism) plays a huge role in everyday life. We witnessed two major festivals, both lasting several days. One day they even celebrated their dogs, no kidding. Given the huge number of stray dogs around, there was a lot to celebrate. 

From an economic and social perspective, Nepal still has a long way to go. Most parts of the country are dirt poor, and given the lack of proper industries, I can't see the country catching up to its rapidly developing neighbours. Despite these problems, the Nepalese people are very, very friendly and welcoming. Even when you don't spend your tourist rupees. 

Now that the Maoist situation is under control, the government wants to make 2011 a tourist year for the country. Judith & I can only recommend to visit, you won't regret it. Sorry, let me qualify this statement: if you're on the faint-hearted side and have a thing for hygiene, maybe better watch a documentary about Nepal at home rather than coming here.

Wow, this has been one long post. Sorry about that. In two days, we will fly to Bangkok. As mentioned above, Thailand will be the last stop on our itinerary. It's hard to believe that the end of our trip is drawing close. Yet, Judith & I are in a very upbeat mood – we hope Thailand will be nice and relaxing, and above all, we are looking forward to seeing our friends and family back home. Woohooo! We still got the odd closing post in the pipeline, so feel free to stop by again. Dhanyabaad.

The peninsula and the insula

Namaste. Our most recent post hasn't even celebrated it's two-day birthday yet but here we are once again stealing your precious time with this new post. To make it more bearable, we'll try to keep it short. The reason for this unusual buzz of activity is that we are heading out from our current location in Kathmandu to go on a 2-3 week (!!) trek around the Annapurna mountain range in the Himalayas tomorrow. I don't expect an awful lot of internet access there.

Anyway, this little post will cover our limited time in Malaysia (the peninsula) and Singapore (the insula – I know that's not even a proper English word, but hey, it sounds clever).

Having landed in Kuala Lumpur (please note that we didn't take a bus for a change), Judith & I were thrilled to be in a developed developing country. The big advantage of a developed developing country like Malaysia is to have the best of both worlds: the benefits of modern civilisation (like clean toilets, wohooo!), while maintaining low prices and an exotic feel (like spices seriously testing your facial perspiration).

From our shabby hostel in Chinatown, we went to explore the city. The one thing immediately capturing our attention was the wide diversity of people, cultures, and food in KL. Close to Chinatown, there is Little India, next to that you find Malay mosques, and a few blocks down the road there are skyscrapers which make most Western cities look ridiculously old-fashioned. While modern Malaysia is a functioning multi-ethnic state, not all is perfect, though. The government, run by the Malay majority, has a range of affirmative action policies in place – making the Muslim part of the population “more equal” than the others. We indulged in the diversity by sampling the different cuisines available (like this as-cheap-as-it-gets Chinese food place). When not eating, we engaged in a two day power-sightseeing tour, including visiting the formerly highest skyscrapers in the world, the Petronas Towers.

The next stop on our route was Melakka, some three hours South of KL. Owning Melakka must once have been fashionable among the world's colonial powers, since the Portuguese, the Dutch, and the British all decided to run it at some point in time. Today, the importance of the city as a trading hub might have faded, but the beautiful colonial heritage makes it a favourite tourist destination for Malaysians and foreign tourists alike. Again, the mix of influences, this time including more European stuff, was cool. In one of the streets, we found a mosque, a Christian church, a Hindu temple and a Chinese Buddhist-Confucianist temple virtually next to each other.

Originally, we had planned to spend more time in the rural parts of Malaysia including some quality beach time, but we had to change our plans on short notice and leave for Singapore earlier than anticipated. 

We got a first taste of the impressive structures in Singapore at the freakishly huge & modern border station (entering on, guess what, a bus!). Singapore is different – the state is run by a very strong government, which is world famous for imposing fines and sometimes limiting civil liberties of its underlings. Critics have referred to the city state as “Disneyland with a death penalty” and say it is as much fun as “a Californian beach resort run by Mormons”. However, if you come to Singapore, you will notice that most things run extremely smoothly, and it seems like most voters are fairly happy. For example, the city is as clean as a conservative Southern German village (i.e. very), it's safe, there are plenty of playgrounds for young families, it's an economic powerhouse, and public transport even beats Japan – just to name a few! The most interesting feature of Singapore, at least from my perspective, is once again the melting pot atmosphere and international flair. We had long discussions about the pro's and con's of Singapore's approach, but I won't get into this here. For one, I haven't really made up my mind yet, and second, as promised, I'll try to keep it short today.

Anyway, for the first few days, we stayed in Little India, which really reminded us of our time in India some four years back – just a lot cleaner. Actually, we were kind of relieved to see that not everything in Singapore is glass & steel - there are some old parts of town as well. Tststs, sentimental Europeans.

On the third day, I had to fly back to Frankfurt to take care of some bizness (that's why we had to come to Singapore earlier than originally planned), while Judith would stay in Singapore. The only problem with that was my looks: you might recall some of my more recent pictures... I didn't really look fit for business, with all that lavishly long hair, worn out shorts, and flip-flops marks on my feet. To tackle this, I managed to get my hair cut and buy a suit, shirts, ties, shoes, a belt, cuff links, and a proper wallet, all pretty much within one day. Thankfully, Singapore appears to be the place with the highest density of shopping centres in the world.

While I was feeling important flying back and forth to Frankfurt for just two days, Judith spent some more time enjoying the city. She particularly loved the Botanic Gardens (actually, Singapore is very, very green, and native tropical rainforest covers a substantial part of the island) and the world-famous Zoo (see the first picture of this post). There are some very strange-looking animals in that Zoo – for example, what the heck is that thing on the right hand side below? The Zoo also offers a popular night safari, which is really worth seeing.

The best thing about Singapore for us, though, was that we knew some true locals: Raj and his wife showed us around Little India, including taking us to a very interesting temple, and treating us to some lovely Southern Indian food. Kuan Wai even spent a whole day with us, including inviting us to a fabulous all-you-can-eat-but-very-high-quality lunch buffet on the 70^th story of a high-rise. We've never been in a 70-story skyscraper before (I don't think there even is one in Western Europe), let alone had we had lunch there. The views were stunning. Barely being able to walk after all that food, we explored some more parts of the city, among others visiting the new casino complex. In the evening, Kuan Wai's wife joined us as we headed to a local beach and, once again, had some great food. Come to think of it, all Singaporeans seem to be crazy about food.

Sadly, we eventually had to leave Singapore, flying to Kathmandu via Bangkok. I've just noticed that this post isn't that short after all. Sorry, but there was just so much to write about... Malaysia and Singapore are great places. My present to Judith for her b'day tomorrow is another hazardous bus ride, which regular readers will know she loves. After that, we'll start our 3-week trek (Annapurna Circuit) right away. If you don't hear back from us before let's say five weeks from now, please send a rescue team. So long and goodbye.

The land of Angkor and Angkar

After our great time in Laos, Judith & I knew that Cambodia would have a tough time to convince us of its beauty. Nevertheless, despite its cruel history and poverty-stricken present, we managed to leave Cambodia with some positive impressions in the end.

We had booked a bus from Laos to Siem Reap, the hub for tourist-paradise Angkor. However, the bus which was supposed to pick us up in a town after the border allegedly had broken down – yeah, right. The mini-van substitute sped like crazy, and we were kind of relieved to change yet again into what turned out to be a complete disaster of a bus with broken windows, holes in the floor, and trash and spare parts flying around. The landscapes we passed were either flooded (that's what you get for being a flat country in rainy season) or full of signs warning of land mines. Anyway, we were astonished to see that the bus did make it to Siem Reap eventually. After having successfully avoided a couple of tourist scams, we finally managed to check into our guest house. Actually, the guys trying to pull the scams did it in such an obvious way (the hostel you have booked 1. “is full”, 2. “is closed”, 3. “burnt down yesterday”) that it was almost cute. 

Siem Reap, aka Siem Reap Off, is a fairly big city which exists for one reason and one reason only: extracting money from the more than 1 million tourists who visit the world famous temple of Angkor Wat every year. As a result, the city only consists of hotels, restaurants, dirt cheap bars (24 hour happy hour featuring beer for US$ 0.5, wohoooo!), and massage parlours, some of which offer “happy endings” for their clients. This might sound horrible, but Judith & I very much enjoyed being in a place providing everything a tourist could wish for (excluding the happy endings, of course). For our six-month travel anniversary, we even managed to find a German restaurant featuring sausages, sauerkraut, and most importantly, nice beer. Hmm, Erdinger. 

On day two, we headed to the ancient city of Angkor. Angkor comprises a lot more than Angkor Wat itself. There are dozens of huge temples, palaces, and urban structures, which were built at the peak of the Khmer empire in the 9^th to the 13^th century. In fact, many historians think that the construction of Angkor itself eventually was responsible for the downfall of the mighty Khmer rulers, since it overstretched the available resources. Kind of like Western welfare states today, just with more temples. Anyway, Angkor is really, really impressive: it is to man-made ancient structures what Alberto Contador is to the Tour de France, just without the doping. In the evening, Judith & I headed up a little hill to see the sunset over the many temples, alongside 1000 friendly Japanese travelling in tourist groups. We felt like being back at Shinjuku Station in Tokyo.

The next morning, we got up early to watch the sunrise at Angkor Wat itself. At 5 am. Usually, I only get up that early when somebody pays me to do so. Sunrise at Angkor Wat is a tourist mass event, but after our Japanese tour group friends had left, Judith & I had large parts of the massive compounds to ourselves. Beautiful. Actually, Angkor Wat had first been built as a Hindu temple, but after Buddhism gained the upper hand in the Khmer empire, they simply blocked the entrance to the inside of the temple, where the massive Shiva statues used to be located. That's Khmer pragmatism for you. After Angkor Wat, we headed on to many of the other temples & palaces, accompanied by our funny Tuk-Tuk driver. The most memorable things we saw were the “tree temple” (an Indiana Jones-esque structure with trees & tropical vegetation rising from its massive walls) and the “face temple” (featuring, you wouldn't have guessed, dozens of Buddha busts carved into massive bricks). Rather than boring you to death with endless descriptions of what we saw, we will let the pictures below speak for themselves... Attentive observers might also notice that we have discovered the monochrome-function of our camera – simple, but nice.

 

 

Soon, it was time to move on to Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh. Again, we felt relieved to have survived the bus ride. Judith in particular grew so frustrated at the concept of riding on a bus that we decided to skip one or two other stops we had initially planned. Pmonh Phen is a strange place: besides being shockingly dirty & poor, the city has a strange atmosphere to it. Somehow, despite some 1-2 million inhabitants, Pehn Pmhno doesn't feel urban at all. This is where the Angkar comes in. “Angkar” in Khmer means “organisation” and it's the term used for the Khmer Rouge, the world's most brutal regime in recent decades. Under the leadership of Pol Pot, the Angkar tried to establish a form of communism using extremely cruel social engineering measures. Their aim was to build a completely uniform, rural, agrarian society, renouncing all scientific and mechanical progress. To achieve this, they killed everybody who didn't fit into that picture. People with a secondary or tertiary education, monks, non-Khmer Cambodians, people living in cities, people wearing glasses (suspiciously intellectual) – they all got killed. I presume that everybody reading this blog would have been killed, too. Only 4 years of terror (1975 – 1979) were sufficient for the Khmer Rouge to kill roughly 25% of the total population – either by beheading their “enemies” (to save precious bullets) or by starving to death the rural population to buy weapons from China in exchange for rice. Allegedly, by 1979, there was not a single architect left in the country. 

Judith & I went to visit the Toul Sleng Museum of Genocide, a former school-turned-torture-prison. The place definitely is a shocker, particularly considering how recent those events were. Coming back to my point on Pnem Ponh: basically, it's a large city, but its inhabitants really are rice farmers from the countryside, since the original population has been exterminated. No wonder it doesn't feel urban.

Since the fall of the Khmer Rouge (its commie neighbours from 'Nam eventually invaded the country and ousted the regime), Cambodia has improved, but is still quite unstable. The opposition leader has just been sentenced to ten years in prison in absentia, and corruption is rampant. The huge number of armoured luxury SUVs speeding through the country next to people not being able to earn a decent living is shocking. Since there is no proper industry or service sector in Cambodia, I wonder how those rich people got rich in the first place. On a totally unrelated matter, Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index (2009) ranks Cambodia at an impressive 158 out of 180 countries. That's worse than Mugabe's Zimbabwe (rank 146), and just a wee bit better than the Central African Republic (rank 159), which I didn't even know existed. Compared to most of its South East Asian peers, that's just appalling. 

Ooops, I got carried away. Apologies. Anyway, we ended up making one more stop after Pnem Pohnh after all. We took a bus (sorry, Judith) to the coastal town of Kep, a former beach resort built for the French colonial elite. In Kep, we enjoyed the very friendly people, the good seafood, fresh pepper, and a day of driving irresponsibly fast with a little scooter we had rented. 

Soon, though, it was time to say goodbye to the thirteenth country on our trip. To summarise: Cambodia definitely left a strong impression on us: both in good ways (e.g. fabulous Angkor) and in bad (e.g. horrific Angkar, corruption). From Phnom Penh, we took a pleasantly cheap Air Asia flight to Kuala Lumpur. Flying felt great again after weeks on break-neck bus rides. I'm not sure if the guy next to us (who obviously was on the first flight of his life) thought so, too. Our next two stops, Malaysia and Singapore, were very different to Cambodia and featured some big surprises. I'll try to post again over the next two days (!!!), this time for reals. Muchas gracias, senoritas.