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Bungee Jumping + Chitwan Pictures

Published July 2nd, 2009 in crazy, Pictures, National Parks and Nepal. 4 Comments

Chris and I found ourselves jumping off a suspension bridge 500 feet above a raging river near the Nepal/Tibet border yesterday. I was doing pretty well standing on the bridge waiting my turn. Not so nervous. Then it’s my turn and I get suited up and creep up to the edge. Wow. Not too much time to anticipate what is going to happen before it’s “3… 2… 1… BUNGEE” time. I spread my arms and jump off the platform. The ground begins to rush up at me faster than ever before in my life and for 2 seconds adrenaline floods my system as I am sure I am going to hit the bottom and die. As quickly as the panic sets in the cable dutifully saves me from an early grave and I start laughing hysterically because I had forgotten about it during the free fall. Definitely worth doing and the most intense few seconds of my life.

I highly recommend this video to check the jump out.

We also ended up doing the canyon swing, the highest in the world. You are connected to another cable that spans the canyon a few hundred feet in front of you by a rope. You jump from the same ledge as the bungee but the rope pulls you and you free fall for a longer period of time before you gently swing down and around.
Here are some pictures from Chitwan that I talked about in the last post.

The full flickr slideshow can be seen here.

We are flying to Delhi, India in a few hours and then heading up North into the mountains. Good bye sweet sweet Nepal! You have been so good to me!

Rafting, Rhinos, and Annapurna Circuit Pictures

Published June 29th, 2009 in Pictures, Travel and Nepal. 11 Comments

We are in Kathmandu right now after finishing a 2 day overnight rafting trip. Highlights include:

Nobody understanding our incredible quiet, monotone, and apathetic sounding tour guide explaining safety instructions.
Our guide dangerously tying a large metal pump to the top of our bags in the middle of the raft. We joked about smashing our teeth into it during a big rapid but actually a British guy did end up smashing his head into it and getting a pretty nasty bump.
On our overnight stay we slept underneath a tarp with no tent or mosquito net. This meant that if you had your head lamp turned on you were getting swarmed with insects. I woke up the next morning with a nasty open wound rash thing on my leg that was apparently caused by a spider squirting venom on me sometime during the night (says the guide).

Afterwards we continued on to Chitwan National Park which feels more like Africa than Nepal. It has jungles as well as wide open flat land covered with elephant grass up to 8 feet tall. It’s the most popular national park in Nepal and is famous for its rhinos, tigers, crocodiles, birds, and lesser known mammals such as the sloth bear.

In Chitwan we took a canoe ride through the river which was nice despite the fact that the canoe was a traditional skinny one and it felt like it was going to tip over at any second. I asked the guide about it and he confirmed that yes, if we hit a rock or the people in the canoe have bad balance it can tip over. We saw a rare ultra-skinny crocodile which I don’t care enough to look the name up during that excursion.

My favorite part of Chitwan though was the elephant safari. Chris and I rode on an elephant through the jungle and ended up spotting 5 rhinos and countless deer. Elephant bathing was also great. The elephants come down to the river and you climb on top of them and wait for them to spray you with a trunk full of water. Most of the time this knocks you off and you climb back on again for a repeat.

I am loving Kathmandu right now. It is well known for its budget yet quality eateries. Our first night back I had one of the most incredible steaks of my life for 8 dollars (by far the most I have paid for a meal on this trip). It tasted extra delicious since I’ve been close to a vegetarian for the majority of the trip thus far.

Here are the second half of some of my favorite Annapurna Circuit pictures.

Check out the full slideshow here.

The Annapurna Circuit

Published June 23rd, 2009 in Pictures, Travel and Nepal. 11 Comments

The Annapurna Circuit is completely amazing and a dream come true for anybody that enjoys hiking. We covered around 215 miles in 16 days including 1 day of rest, veering off the main path to go to Tilicho Lake, and a 15 mile day hike. Some of the days were pretty brutal but always incredibly beautiful at the same time. We would wake up around 5:30, breakfast at 6, leave after 7, hike all day with a lunch break, then pass out around 7 or 8 but sometimes as early as 6 pm.

I can’t recommend the Annapurna Circuit higher. The route takes you around and up into some of the highest mountains in the world, peaking at around 17,800 feet for Thorong Pass, certainly one of the highest places I’ll ever be in my life. The scenery is as diverse as a 200 mile trek can get. We started in deep forested valleys which turned into a barron wide open rock landscape for a while. Then we went up to Tilicho Lake. Despite the fact that signs say its the highest lake in the world all over the place, it isn’t, but it is pretty damn high at 15,000 feet. It had snowed the previous night and still had some of it on the ground. The lake was sandwiched at the base of snowy mountain peaks which were surprisingly loud with the sound of the snow and ice cracking and creating mini avalanches.

We crossed over Thorong La a couple days later wearing every piece of clothing we had in the chilly 20 degree weather (Fahrenheit). Above the tree line there were rocks and mountain peaks everywhere we looked. The altitude made the climb even harder than it would have normally been so the roughly 5000 feet downhill that followed was a welcome relief on my legs but not so much my knees. The scenery change that followed was intense as the trail weaved through a landscape I would more except to find near the Grand Canyon. There were no trees, despite the fact that we had gone below the tree line again, instead only small bushes and dust that stretched on into the canyon the trail followed and eventually went into.

Now we were in the Kali Ghandaki valley. The valley is deep and wide and similarly barron and dry, with snowy mountain peaks lining the way and a river cutting through it all. It’s also one of the windiest places I’ve ever been with unrelenting wind that seems impossibly strong. Eventually the trees start to come back again and for the last days you are in forested mountains again that look closer to the Appalachain mountains but in a more dramatic Himalayan way.

Some details of the trip:

We were not carrying a tent, sleeping bag, or food so our packs aren’t as heavy as they could be. There are generally villages or at least a guesthouse every couple of hours. This means you can get a freshly prepared, reasonably priced breakfast, lunch, and dinner everywhere you go without having to carry it or make it.

There were almost no other tourists on the trail! I was constantly amazed at the low number of tourists. We were often times the only tourists in a guest house and we ended up meeting and knowing the majority of other tourists heading in our same direction. This is the off season as the monsoon is about to start but even then most of the trail is protected from the rain by the Himalayas. We didn’t get a single day of rain on our entire trip, the weather was beautiful. Often times the mountain peaks are obscured by clouds which wouldn’t happen during the peak season (October or April) but the majority of the mornings provided us with excellent views.

Pictures (more highlights next post or check slideshow here):

Tomorrow morning we are leaving for a 2 day rafting trip, a couple days in Chitwan National Park afterwards, lastly followed with a few days in Kathmandu before we head back to India. Can’t wait

<3 Nepal

Published June 11th, 2009 in Nepal. 6 Comments

This trek so far has been nothing but incredible. The scenery here is definitely some of the most beautiful in the world. It’s like you are walking through a National Geographic poster every single day.

We will spend tomorrow here in Manang getting used to the altitude and then we will go to lake Tilicho, the highest lake in the world. After that we’ll continue with the standard Annapurna Circuit.

Internet here is incredibly slow, costs 15 dollars an hour, and we are on a tight budget considering there are no ATMs for a while so this is the only post I’m going to have for a while (10+ days?). I am safe, everything is fantastic, and I love and miss you all

Nepal

Published June 5th, 2009 in Nepal. 3 Comments

Nepal has so far treated Chris and I nicely. It is much more relaxed than the places we have been to in India. Tomorrow morning we will start our 20ish day trek called the Annapurna Circuit. It isn’t normally 20 days unless you are a bit slow but we will go on some side paths and stay an extra day or two in a couple places. Our next constraint is simply that we have to be back in India on July 2nd for our train ride up to McLeod Ganj where the Dalai Lama is going to come celebrate his birthday on July 6th. Apparently there is a huge multiday celebration including talks by the Dalai Lama.

Anyways, check out the elevation chart for the Annapurna Circuit:

Awesome. Next post will be from the mountain sometime.

Varanasi, The Ganges

Published June 4th, 2009 in Pictures, India and Travel. 5 Comments

I thoroughly enjoyed my stay in Varanasi. Varanasi has a population of 3 million people which is far more managable than the 15ish million of Mumbai and Kolkata. It also has something incredibly sacred to the roughly 900 million Hindus in the world: The Ganges River. In Varanasi alone every single day 60,000 people come and bathe in the holy waters of the Ganges. Aside from just Varanasi as many as 2 million ritually bathe in the Ganges every day. It is said that if you die along the river (or in the river) and your body is put in the river (ashes, corpse, whatever) you will immediately be forgiven of your sins and ascend to Heaven. It’s also important to drink the water on your dying breath so many Hindus keep a bottle around the house.

The Ganges is, however, disgustingly polluted. Aside from the incredible pollution that companies are spilling into the river there are also a large number of sewage pipes pointed directly into it. The 4 miles that flow through Varanasi were described as a “brown soup of excrement and industrial effluents” by The Economist that did a study and determined that the section of the river has over 120 times what is considered a “safe” level of fecal matter. Other parts of the river this figure jumps up to 3000 or so. Around 1000 children die every day from the effects of the dirty river. You will not catch me swimming in the river.

There is more text underneath the pictures here.

The full flickr slideshow is here: Flickr Slideshow

Highlights:

Click below for more

Continue reading ‘Varanasi, The Ganges’

Love and Hate + Bodhgaya

Published May 30th, 2009 in India and Travel. 9 Comments

First I would like to say that I’m in Bodhgaya right now, the city where Buddha achieved enlightenment. The fact that I can be at the same temple where Buddha achieved enlightenment is amazing enough to be the “I love India” aspect of this post. Here’s the “I hate India” part

Every day in India is a test of patience. I’ve gotten used to everything being dirty, the insanity of traffic, the honking, the constant staring, and people coming up to us wanting our money (”Hello sir, where are you going?” “Hello friend, take a look!”). No thanks, broseph!!!

Click below to read more
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Greetings from Kolkata

Published May 28th, 2009 in Pictures, India and Travel. 7 Comments

Anybody that thinks New York City is dirty and crowded would absolutely hate Kolkata with a passion. In fact, you would easily hate any major Indian city. My pictures do not do major cities justice, nor any part of our Indian travel experience for that matter.

There is lots more to read below the pictures here, just click the link.

Check out my recent flickr set for more of my pictures: India set #2

Highlights below with captions for each:

Click below to read more

Continue reading ‘Greetings from Kolkata’

Pictures from Hampi

Published May 23rd, 2009 in Pictures, India and Travel. 7 Comments

You can get a lot of details I don’t have time to write about on Chris’ blog. I spent most of my time here working on pictures. Here are some unrelated things:

- We believe Aman, the Indian guy we met on our first day in Goa, was trying to scam us. The next day after we had met him he was still being extremely nice to us, helping us get motorbikes and such. He introduced us to his 2 friends that night and we all just sat around by the ocean front restaurant and drank beer and talked. The next day when we were eating breakfast at the restaurant his 2 friends started talking to us again, actually giving us a lot of great suggestions about places to go in India. Then they started telling us about how they buy jewelry and get foreigners to take it with them overseas so they can avoid export taxes and sell the jewelry for a large profit. They asked us if we were interested and of course we said no even after being pushed a bit. It was slightly awkward then and Aman never even really talked to us for more than a couple minutes after, although he was still friendly. It’s true, it’s difficult to trust anyone here.

- I often feel more like the attraction here than the tourist. We’re stared at all the time. People are constantly shaking our hands and asking us where we are from. The braver ones that have cameras ask to take their picture with us. The children and people without cameras ask us to take their picture and have us show it to them. The other day at a temple some kids asked me to take their picture and it escalated rapidly into a large group of Indian people interchanging different combinations while I take their picture and show it to them. The adults were a little more bashful but would still laugh and smile when I showed them their picture and then would ask for me to take their shy daughter’s picture. A small fraction of them are in the picture set below.

I went crazy and uploaded too many of them here: Flickr Slideshow
Here are 12 of them:

Mumbai and overnight Bus to Goa

Published May 20th, 2009 in India and Travel. 11 Comments

Our first day in Mumbai we spent the first part of it reserving tickets. We got our bus ticket to Goa, our hostel in Goa, and our train ticket out of Goa (to Hampi). After that we had some fantastic tuk tuk rides around the city. These are basically motorbikes with a small cabin for 2 other people attached to the back.

Riding around Mumbai in these was similar to riding around Bangkok. Both cities are horribly run down, stinky, hot, trash all over the place, basically pretty unpleasant places to be. When you ride around in a tuk-tuk though you get to see lots of the city without having to walk around in the hot stinky sewer-esque air. Traffic is also completely insane in both places. Nobody pays attention to lanes, everybody is constantly honking and passing each other. There are motorbikes, cars, and tuk-tuks flying all over the place. There are also no cross walks and hardly any stoplights or anything so pedestrians crossing the street have to seriously watch out.

The major difference for me was just how friendly Indians have been to us. If we make eye contact with people and smile most of the time they smile and wave back. People yell things to us all the time: “Hello how are you doing!?” “It’s very hot here!” or things in Hindi I can’t understand but at least seem friendly. People start up conversations with us on the streets sometimes just for fun. When we took a tuk-tuk to a nasty beach in Mumbai we got off and these three guys immediately started befriending us and even taking our picture. All 3 of them took a picture one by one in between Chris and I and then they took pictures of me and Chris by ourselves and even a couple pictures of me eating this vegetarian sandwich I bought on the street (50 cents and crazy delicious). There are some pictures of us on my camera that I’ll post later.

We went to a restaurant later that day and an Indian and a British guy (the 4th white person we’d seen in Mumbai) ended up sitting beside us and we chatted it up as well. The Indian guy was amazingly cool and said he would show Chris and I around the slums when we came back in late July. On the way to Goa the people in our bus were also extremely friendly, and now in Goa we’ve already met this Indian guy named Aman who we hung out with some today and will meet up with tonight to go out drinking a bit. There are of course plenty of people who are nice to us only because they want our money but there are also a surprisingly large number of people who just seem genuinely nice and particularly interested in meeting foreigners.

Our bus ride down here was not the most pleasant experience however… We really tried to get a train down to Goa but it turned out we needed to book it in advance… so we ended up on an overnight sleeper bus. It was a 14 hour ride from Mumbai to Goa, specifically Anjuna Beach where we are now. A sleeper bus put me into a 6 foot long, 2 feet wide, and 2 & a half feet high platform. The bus ride was insanely curvy so I was constantly being rolled to the sides, plus the fact that he’s speeding up and slowing down like a mad man doesn’t make it any easier to sleep. The bus is also bouncing up and down all the time and honking its horn at everything it passes. I couldn’t read or write anything or do anything but try to sleep and think and think and think. Also, no bathroom so you gotta hold out until 1 of the 3 times the bus stopped or pull a Chris and pee in a bottle. Anyways, experiences like that are what I got myself into so it’s all good but we will certainly be booking trains in advance from now on. Chris actually had it worse than me. The ceiling on his coffin-space was even lower, it was really difficult for him to turn around or grab things at his feet. He also didn’t really have any window he could look out of. Ouch, word to the wise: Don’t get seat number 11!

We have a train leaving Sunday morning from Margao to Hampi. After that we are going to head way up north to Kolkata. Good deal, will post again from Goa. It’s been a crazy couple of days already… I am really enjoying myself and am pretty sure I will be all travelled out when I come back on August 3rd.

If you want Chris’ description of things check out his blog here: http://hongkongchris.wordpress.com/