Namaste all
I promised to write about my arrival in Nepal before I head into the mountains tomorrow. So here it is.
We arrived at the airport to a smiling faced, Sarba (our guide) waving wildly at us. He had gone with Sandy a few years back when Sandy had become extreamly ill and was unable to make it to base camp due to food poisoning. Sandy has raved about him since, so there was no question who we'd be going with. He wisked us out to the car and presented us with floral necklaces as a welcome and the chatted non-stop all the way to the hotel. Turns out that when Sandy went with him in 2007, it was just him operating out of his living room, but now he has an office with several guides. Unfortunately he was not going to be accompanying us on our hike, but was sending us with his brother instead, as things at the office were just too busy to take 3 weeks away (personally, I think the fact he has a one year old at home, as well as another small child may have something to do with it as well).
After freshing up at the hotel, we walked to Durbur square which is a really cool square with all sorts of things going on, huge giant temples, street merchants, people carrying things 5 times the size of me, you name it - it's happening. After we met up with Sarba at the end of his work day and went out to dinner with him so that they could catch up. I did run into some credit card issues, but thanks to a wonderful friend and cousin at the bank, those have been fixed : )
The following day was spent with a driver doing "the sites of Katmandu" which included a very cool Buddist temple with prayer wheels that were 8 feet tall and prayer flags draped everywhere. It's so pretty. Another older kind of town square with some cool temples and finally the "monkey temple". which surprisingly enough was quite devoid of monkeys. Sandy had been to this temple before and remembers them being everywhere, but this time we had to search for 45 min before we saw any of them! Eventually we stumbled across a few which followed us back up to the temple. Sure was glad we got to play with the ones in Jaipur!
Later that evening Sarba and his wife and 2 little boys took us to a traditional Nepalese dinner which included music and dancing. It was a great night with so much food!!! Unfortunately my tummy had continued giving me issues since earlier in the week, but it wasn't the normal travellers issues. We decided that with it not getting any better and heading out into the mountains tomorrow - we'd better get me to a doctor.
So Sarba the amazing, walked me down to a local pharmacy, spoke to the pharmacist and somehow convinced him to call the doctor in specially for me. So within a half hour I had an appt with the doc, 3 different kinds of meds (turns out he thinks I had food poisoning in Goa along with a travellers bug) and was on our way back to meet Sandy at the hotel. Yeah Sarba!!!!!
What an awesome guy!
If anyone would like to see the route we'll be doing over the next 3 weeks you can check it out at
www.nepalnomad.com it's the 22 day Gokyo lake , Cholapass, Everest Base Camp trek
what that means is that there won't be any updates for that time period as there's no internet on the side of the mountains! I promise to make up for the updates when I get back - but yes, I will be disappearing off the face of the earth for the next 3 weeks (in other words, mum, I'm fine!).
I'll talk to you all in three weeks!
namaste
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Friday, April 23, 2010
farewell India, hello Nepal
Namaste
Sorry for the delay, there were supposed to be a couple of opportunities for me to get a blog entry in this week that didn't actually materialize. Largely the internet in Mumbai, didn't really happen, I was hoping to post some photos - but it was taking forever, and as it is Sandy's netbook, I did kind of need to share... a few did make it onto my facebook page, so for those of you who are on that you can see some kayaking & body surfing ones there.
Since I left off, I had been wanting to take a cooking course while I was in India as I love Indian food. Although I'll be honest that on this trip I've been a little disappointed as I guess I was expecting the food to be like when you go to Thailand. If you like Thai food, the food in Thailand is amazing! The Indian food here, isn't really any better than you can find in some good Indian restaurants in T.O.. Oh well, I've enjoyed it none the less.
So I signed myself up for a cooking class, Sandy wanted to have no part of it. I met a lovely young woman who taught me how to make veggie masala (without using stuff from a jar!). It was really good, and surprsingly easy. It gave me the confidence to experiment more at home.
I also learned that not only are school all private here, but most of them teach strictly English until about gr 3, as they figure the kids are getting Hindi at home - interesting concept!
The remainder of the day was spent lounging and shopping. The next morning I had something that didn't agree with me at breakfast, so the remainder of the day was spent lying in bed, moaning as my stomach wretched. Fun way to spend my last day in Goa eh?
The following day was spent getting to the aiport and flying to Mumbai. Eventually we made it to the hotel and just took it easy as the internet was moving at turtle speed. Only really interesting moment was being asked for our boarding cards as we were getting off the plane.... (and yes, we had been asked for it when we got on). Off the plane... I kept waiting for the guy to smile and let us in on the joke - but no... that wasn't to happen, that's just India.
Sorry for the delay, there were supposed to be a couple of opportunities for me to get a blog entry in this week that didn't actually materialize. Largely the internet in Mumbai, didn't really happen, I was hoping to post some photos - but it was taking forever, and as it is Sandy's netbook, I did kind of need to share... a few did make it onto my facebook page, so for those of you who are on that you can see some kayaking & body surfing ones there.
Since I left off, I had been wanting to take a cooking course while I was in India as I love Indian food. Although I'll be honest that on this trip I've been a little disappointed as I guess I was expecting the food to be like when you go to Thailand. If you like Thai food, the food in Thailand is amazing! The Indian food here, isn't really any better than you can find in some good Indian restaurants in T.O.. Oh well, I've enjoyed it none the less.
So I signed myself up for a cooking class, Sandy wanted to have no part of it. I met a lovely young woman who taught me how to make veggie masala (without using stuff from a jar!). It was really good, and surprsingly easy. It gave me the confidence to experiment more at home.
I also learned that not only are school all private here, but most of them teach strictly English until about gr 3, as they figure the kids are getting Hindi at home - interesting concept!
The remainder of the day was spent lounging and shopping. The next morning I had something that didn't agree with me at breakfast, so the remainder of the day was spent lying in bed, moaning as my stomach wretched. Fun way to spend my last day in Goa eh?
The following day was spent getting to the aiport and flying to Mumbai. Eventually we made it to the hotel and just took it easy as the internet was moving at turtle speed. Only really interesting moment was being asked for our boarding cards as we were getting off the plane.... (and yes, we had been asked for it when we got on). Off the plane... I kept waiting for the guy to smile and let us in on the joke - but no... that wasn't to happen, that's just India.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
kicking tan
Hello all
Here I am again in sunny Goa. What Sandy and I have discovered on this part of the adventure is that there really isn't as much to do here as we originally thought. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining - I'm on a beautiful beach, with warm weather and water. We've discovered many restaurants and have a few favs that we've been frequenting, I even have a favourite waiter... (he's just always smiling, and sits down with you to take your order- it's cute). We just seem to be falling into a regular routine: get up, breakfast, walk, swim (and by swim I mean play in the waves), shower, lunch , read on porch, swim, shower, dinner - repeat.
So I know the question most of you have... how is Glassford dealing without a/c? Well after day 3, he decided he needed the a/c so off we went that am to find better digs. Turns out, there are only a few places with a/c and all of them were twice the price and a bigger dive then where we're staying; so we're staying put. He's referring to our temporary home as "one step up from a slum" but I really don't think it's that bad - it's less than $10 a night! I'll post photos later this week. You can judge for yourselves!
The other morning I had quite the surprise. I had got up early and headed for the main street leaving Sandy lounging at our hut; I had bought a danish for breakfast and was walking along the street with it when I noticed a figure following me. I quickened my pace, so did he. The follower got closer and closer until he brushed into my arm. At that point I turned to face him and said in a forceful tone "get your own breakfast cow!". That seemed to do the trick as he left me and my danish alone. Poor cow, pushy cow! : ) Still cute though.
Got to love those cows!
Namaste
Here I am again in sunny Goa. What Sandy and I have discovered on this part of the adventure is that there really isn't as much to do here as we originally thought. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining - I'm on a beautiful beach, with warm weather and water. We've discovered many restaurants and have a few favs that we've been frequenting, I even have a favourite waiter... (he's just always smiling, and sits down with you to take your order- it's cute). We just seem to be falling into a regular routine: get up, breakfast, walk, swim (and by swim I mean play in the waves), shower, lunch , read on porch, swim, shower, dinner - repeat.
So I know the question most of you have... how is Glassford dealing without a/c? Well after day 3, he decided he needed the a/c so off we went that am to find better digs. Turns out, there are only a few places with a/c and all of them were twice the price and a bigger dive then where we're staying; so we're staying put. He's referring to our temporary home as "one step up from a slum" but I really don't think it's that bad - it's less than $10 a night! I'll post photos later this week. You can judge for yourselves!
The other morning I had quite the surprise. I had got up early and headed for the main street leaving Sandy lounging at our hut; I had bought a danish for breakfast and was walking along the street with it when I noticed a figure following me. I quickened my pace, so did he. The follower got closer and closer until he brushed into my arm. At that point I turned to face him and said in a forceful tone "get your own breakfast cow!". That seemed to do the trick as he left me and my danish alone. Poor cow, pushy cow! : ) Still cute though.
Got to love those cows!
Namaste
Thursday, April 15, 2010
sunny sunny Goa
Hello all
After much running around at breakneck speed, Sandy and I have made our way to Goa. Beaches, beaches and more beaches... We figured that by this point we'd need a bit of down time, and by me falling asleep in a chair earlier today - I'd say we were right!
From the airport we had a crazy taxi ride down to our beach of choice. Here we've found a little shack on the beach (which will be torn down next month in preparation for the monsoons) for less than $10 a night. Mosiquito netting, a fan, a porch and our own bathroom with cold and cold running water. I'm ok here, we'll see how long Sandy lasts without the a/c .
We've met up with a couple of my friends from the ashram and went for dinner last night. It's a quiet sleepy town here and I'm not sure if we'll be going a bit nuts near the end of the week, but for now it's all good.
Only appointment for today is to hit the 4 o'clock waves. As that's when they start getting big and you can just spend a couple of hours riding them into shore. Hudson would love it!
It's much more of a laid back atmosphere here, which I'm enjoying. So this week's entries may not be the most interesting, but I'm just operating at a bit of a slower pace.
Did have another giggle this morning at breakfast. Now as the owner of a Golden retriever I'm quite used to having company watching me eat. We'll even go as far to say "being stared at" while I'm eating. Well this morning I was having my toast, getting that exact same feeling that I was being watched. I turned around to discover a young calf had entered the restaurant and was behind me eyeing my toast, before getting chased off by the waiter. Ya gotta love the cows!
Hope everyone is well and the spring weather is upon you
Namaste
After much running around at breakneck speed, Sandy and I have made our way to Goa. Beaches, beaches and more beaches... We figured that by this point we'd need a bit of down time, and by me falling asleep in a chair earlier today - I'd say we were right!
From the airport we had a crazy taxi ride down to our beach of choice. Here we've found a little shack on the beach (which will be torn down next month in preparation for the monsoons) for less than $10 a night. Mosiquito netting, a fan, a porch and our own bathroom with cold and cold running water. I'm ok here, we'll see how long Sandy lasts without the a/c .
We've met up with a couple of my friends from the ashram and went for dinner last night. It's a quiet sleepy town here and I'm not sure if we'll be going a bit nuts near the end of the week, but for now it's all good.
Only appointment for today is to hit the 4 o'clock waves. As that's when they start getting big and you can just spend a couple of hours riding them into shore. Hudson would love it!
It's much more of a laid back atmosphere here, which I'm enjoying. So this week's entries may not be the most interesting, but I'm just operating at a bit of a slower pace.
Did have another giggle this morning at breakfast. Now as the owner of a Golden retriever I'm quite used to having company watching me eat. We'll even go as far to say "being stared at" while I'm eating. Well this morning I was having my toast, getting that exact same feeling that I was being watched. I turned around to discover a young calf had entered the restaurant and was behind me eyeing my toast, before getting chased off by the waiter. Ya gotta love the cows!
Hope everyone is well and the spring weather is upon you
Namaste
Monday, April 12, 2010
Monkey Temple in Jaipur
These guys were just plain cute. We had the "Monkey master" with us so he knew which ones to approach and which to avoid. So mum, you can relax. Sandy and I are feeding him peanuts in the one shot with the cool temple in the background.
This other little guy had already had peanuts from me, had inspected that my hands were both empty and yet, decided to sit and just hold my hands for a few minutes...
Pushkar - my pal Johnny
Here's Mr. Goodlooking for you all to admire. He really is a good camel, didn't throw me off once and very kind., I had a great time with him.
You'll also notice the picture of Sandy's camel named Donny. As soon as Sandy got off for a break Donny stretched right out like a certain Golden retriever I know!
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