Merry Christmas from the roof of the world!


First and foremostly I'd like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! I hope everyone's enjoying the holiday and partaking in some excellent food and drink.

At the moment i'm sitting in an extremely large internet cafe (more like a hall actually) in Lhasa. It wasn't really what we expected to find here, but it's actually kind of a welcome change. So far today we've spent about 3 hours playing video games... not your standard christmas, however, after a large night of drinking and Christmas Eve cheer, it was exactly what we needed.

Actually, Christmas in Lhasa was some what of a strange experience. Our Christmas eve kicked off at about 8:00pm when we got a knock on our hotel door, who should it be? Santa Clause! who then proceeded to invite us up to the roof for drinks, courtesy of the hotel. This was pretty bizzare. We entered the room to find two long rows of tables, completely filled with locals and staff: and four empty seats at the end of the room waiting for us. It seemed like we were the guests of honor. Once we got over this, we actually had a fairly good time. They force fed us beer and presented us with gifts and white scraves and in the end we felt kind of bad when we had to leave.

The night then shifted into a bit of a blur, possibly due to drinking games played with some new irish friends: never a good idea. In the end a good night though, it was great to be somewhere we could relax and try and recreate a sense of home.

That was just last night though: allow me to rewind a bit and recap our adventures since we left Kathmandu:

After the pain of organising a tour, the drive here really wasn't too bad: on the contrary, it was absolutely amazing. Our first morning in Tibet began with a drive from the border up to the high pass of Tong-La. At 5200m, this is the highest any of us had been, the air was noticably thinner and it was bone achinhgly called: just before reaching the pass we realised that the condensation on the inside of the jeep's windows had turned to ice.... that's while the heater was on.

Once we got there though, the views from Tong-La where nothing short of amazing. Tibet seems to be a photographers paradise: Big bluesky + Mountains + Prayer flags meant that these are probably some of the best photos i've ever taken. Below are some of my favourites:

Prayer flags atop the pass.

The distant Himilayas (not sure what peak this is, but it's above 8000m apparently)

The wide open spaces of the Tibetan plateau.

From here we continued on to the town of Shigatse, via the town of Tingri with it's views of Everestand and Cho Oyu. Unfortunately this was a little disappionting. We had hoped to get to Base Camp that day, however, our "Guide" turned out to be an obstinate bastard who would not take us there unless we payed an extra 2000Yuan between the four of us. This pattern continued: the guy was all but useless, he was pretty unresponsive, offered little in information and would never deviate from the prescribed route. Oh yes, he was also a certifiable maniac. After narrowly avioding hitting a car which pulled in front of us, he lept from the vehicle and began chasing down the offending vehicle... with a 8inch knife drawn. Luckily this incident occured just before we arrived in Lhasa, so we only had a few more hours before we were rid of him for ever.

Back to the journey: at our guides suggestion (the only good one he had) we skipped the truck stop town of Lhatse and headed straight to Shigatse, the seat of the Panchen Lamas. The Panchens are the second in charge in Tibetan Buddhism and the source of some controversy. The latest reincarnation was original found by the Tibetan's, however, the child was immediately taken into Chinese custody and has not been seen since. Shortly after, the Chinese government announced that they had found their own (government sanctioned) reincarnation of the lama who is now cloistered in Beijing. The whole thing really stinks, but it also typifies China's approach when dealing with Tibet.

That aside, the Shigatse monastery is a really amazing place. We were the only tourist there among hundreds and hundreds of Tibetan pilgrims. It's great to see that the culture is still very alive inside these buildings, even if the towns surrounding them are now rampantly Chinese. We were allowed to explore most of the buildings including the library and study rooms which are in full use by the monks. We were also lucky to witness a large scale debate which took the form of around 50 monks arguing very animatedly in an outside courteyard. Very very cool.

From Shigatse we headed straight for Lhasa, which turns out to be a pretty modern town. Again, we had to spend a lot of time organising our onward travel and it wasn't until the third day that we actually got out to see the sites: namely the Potala and the Jarkhong. Once again I'll take a dig at the Chinese Government: In front of the Potala is one of the ugliest things i've seen, a massive Tienamen square style replica replete with Chinese flag and a statue dedicated to "the libteration of the Tibetan people". Give me a break, the only good thing is that they held back on putting in a 40ft statue of Mao.

Rant aside, the Potala and Jarkhong were both massively impressive buildings. The Potala due to it's sheer size and splendour and Jarkhong because it is the spiritual centre of Tibetan Buddhism. At the Jarkhong we became part of a massive push of pilgrims to try and get into the most sacred chapel within, pretty cool experience.

And so here we are. Tomorrow morning we fly out to Lijang in the south-western Chinese province of Yunan. This has a reputation of being one of the most beautiful places in China and is supposedly the inspirtation for the book Shangri-la. Looking forward to it.

After that we plan to head south west into Burma, political climate permiting, or otherwise into northern Laos. As a result internet may soon become scarce, so it might be a while before I update this again.

Once again, hope everyone had a great christmas and is looking forward to fun new year!

Maoists, Yak Donalds and those bastards at the Chinese Government.

For various reason (some of the above) it's been a while since my last post. So in the interest of public health, I should warn you that this will be a long one.

In my last communique, I was recovering from a bout of illness and preparing for the journey up into the Himalayas. Luckily, the anti-boitics did there thing and I actually ended up quite enjoying our last night in India. We spent it at the International Music Ashram, something I can definitely recommend to anyone traveling to Varanasi. The place is small and low key, but the music was amazing. We spent about 40 minutes marveling at the supreme Tabla and Sitar skills of.... well I'm not sure really, but these two guys were amazing and it was really great to leave India on a high note.

I won't bore you with the details of journey north, not because it was a particularly painful, more that the memory has become a rather mundane blur and I'd rather leave it that way.

Our arrival in Pokhara however, was nothing short of spectacular. After the heavy, smog filled air of India, the fresh mountain air was great. The general feel was also different, the place is less crowded, there was nowhere near as many touts and you don't get hassled nearly as much. It really was a breath of fresh air.

As a result, we were quite happy to spend two days in a fairly relaxed state of mind while we prepared our selves for the upcoming trek. Our choice of trek was pretty much decided when a dutch friend of ours, Simone, mentioned there was a Dutch Barkery in a town called Tukuche. Once James heard this, there was no arguing: we were going to Tukuche.

So there we were, two day later departing Nyapul with our bags packed and our new guide, Surresh, leading the way. This was the beginning of the Jonsom Trek: a 10 day hike which wanders around the balk of the Annapurna range and up through the Kali Gandaki, "the worlds deepest valley" before emerging at the town of Muktinah high on (the beginning of) the Tibetan plateau.

I found the first day of the trek the most difficult. We actually climbed a fair way and it had been a long time since I'd exercised, so it was a bit of a struggle. The reward at the end though was well worth it. An amazing lodge, with hot showers and a spectacular view of Annapurna South. Absolutely breath taking.

As an interesting aside, on the first day we also had our first encounter with the Maoist Rebels. In general, the Maoist situation is pretty complicated and hard to understand, especially for someone from outside the country. In the past, they've done some pretty abhorrent things, but at the same time they do have a lot of genuine support and a lot of the reforms they suggest, such as abolishing the caste system and strengthening workers rights, are drastically needed. All along out trek it was pretty common topic of conversation and it was great to talk to various people, both Nepalese and ex patriots about their views on the rebellion.

Their fund raising methods still do leave a lot to be desired though: we were stopped and asked to pay a "compulsory fixed donation" which all foreigners traveling through the Annapurna region have to pay. After a bit of haggling and some philosophical and political debate we settled on a price of 1500 NRP for the four of us. In reality, we could probably have just walked away, they weren't armed and there were only 2 or 3 of them. Then again, this is still an armed insurgency and it's not a risk we wanted to take.


Anyway, back to the Trek:

The next two days were similarly amazing. We continued to climb up through the valleys and I was amazed by the constant change in landscape: from the heavily terraced and populated hills of the first day, through the Rhododendron forests and jungle of the second on into the amazing snow and high alpine forests of the third.

After three days walk, we finally reached Ghorepani, one of the highlights of the trip. We got up early the next morning to climb Poon Hill. This "hill" is actually about 3200m high, so is infact half again as high as anything we have in Australia... but it only qualifies for hill status over here and you understand why when you get to the top.

From here, you have a spectacular view of some of the greatest mountains in the world. On the left you have the Dhaulagiri range (around 8150m) and on the right you have the Annapurna massif, including Annapurna I at 8050m, in the distance Macchapucchare and Mansalu (another 8000m peak).





This ended the first part of Trek and to anyone thinking of doing the Jonsom trek I'll make this recommendation: The slight deviation (maybe 1 extra day) from Ghorepani to Tadapani and Ghandruk is WELL worth it. It provided for some amazing scenery which I just don't think you get if you head straight from Ghorepani down to Nyapul.

The next few days were a bit of an emotional, geographical and physical downer. Problems began with the bone aching 1700m decent into the town of Tatopani, at the bottom of the previously mentioned "deepest valley in the world": it sure felt like it. This took it’s toll on everyone, especially Wooky and V. Wooky's knee blew out about half way down and at about the same time Nick succumbed to some pretty horrific blisters.

We struggled on though and finally made it to Tatopani. After a quick refreshing bathe in the famous hot-springs we felt slightly more invigorated and decided to stop in for some drinks and a feed at the “Bob Marley” bar. Bad mistake. We indulged a little too much and ended up waking up at 10:00 the next morning (we were meant to meet the guide at 8:00am…) every one in pretty bad shape, especially Wooky.

End result was that after another average day of hiking, V and Wooky decided to call it quits and jumped into the jeep up to Jonsom, leaving James and I to soldier on. I’m not sure I envy them their choice as they ended up spending 4 days in Jonsom… not the most happening place in the world. In fact it’s more akin to an extremely cold and windy ghost town. It’s only attraction is an airport, which unfortunately doesn’t operate that often, due to the high winds and cold…

Anyway James and I stoically continued on our journey. We smashed through the next three days of hiking in near record time (for us anyway). Again, this section of the trek offered another twist in scenery as we ascended to the high altitude desert that forms the Tibetan Plateau.

We also ascended to what was arguably the high point of the trip for James: the Dutch Bakery in Tukuche. We had heard rumors of this bakery and in our minds it had become an oasis of warmth and good food. Luckily, it didn’t disappoint. The apple crumble at this place was absolutely amazing as was all the food.

At this point it is probably worth mentioning the conditions under which we were trekking, they were verging on luxury. Trekking the Jonsom trek really isn’t roughing it. We were pretty much spoiled, for example: hot showers weren’t a luxury, they were a must have.

From Tukuche we headed to Kagbenni, an interesting town bordering the Forbidden Kingdom of Mustang. This isn't a joke, it's actually a forbidden kingdom: you have to pay $700US just to get in. Kagbenni is also the home of Tea House called "Yak Donalds"... we don't recommend it. We'd overheard people talking about the amazing burgers and fries and this set some serious expectations. The idea of a juicy meat paddy on a soft white bread roll with some salad was almost too much to bare. Unfortunately (unlike the Dutch Bakery), Yak Donalds failed to live up to expectations in almost every respect. I won't go into detail except to say (like it's namesake) you should probably avoid it at all cost.

Finally, we made it to our ultimate destination, Muktinah. This was the highest point (3800m) and to go any further we would have had to ascend the Throng La pass which is seriously discouraged if your coming from the Muktinah side. To do so involves ascending from 3800 to about 5400m in a very short space (both distance and time), which is both difficult and asking for a severe attack of acute in sickness.


Up here it really felt like we were at the edge of civilization. It’s an extremely harsh environment, very cold, windy and dry. In a word, spectacular.

Finally after 9 days walking we (James and I) had made it. Fittingly, Nick and Wooks also caught a jeep up from Jonsom, so we were reunited before returning to Jonsom and preparing to fly back to Pokhara.

Unfortunately, the next morning there were only 3 places in the plane back, meaning James was left to idle away another day in Jonsom, before completing possible the most outrageous and significant feet of mountaineering seen in this part of the Himilayas: His epic trek from Jonsom to Beni in a single day. Why is this amazing? Well firstly, James and Surresh's flights the next morning were canceled due to bad weather and, not wanting to waste any time, they decided to start walking. And walk they did, Jonsom to Beni is about the same distance as our entire trek, around 9 days walking. With the help of 3 hours in a jeep, these men of steel managed to completed in but a single day. My hat goes off to them...

Histrionics aside, this was pretty impressive and also, pretty important. Our 10 days in the Himalayas chewed up a fair bit of time and had James been delayed further it may have seriously affected our onward plans.

So here we are in Kathmandu, ready to embark on the next step of our journey… Tibet. Unforuntately, due to some changes made by those bastards in the Chinese government, it is now even more prohibitively expensive to get there. The official line is that THE ONLY way to get into Tibet is to take a fixed 8 day tour costing $450US. Luckily, after much hunting around and haggling we found a tour group which was happy to take the 4 of us on a private 4 night tour for a mere $328US. Still more than we wanted to pay, but that's just the way it is.

And so that's where we are. Tomorrow morning we leave Kathmandu (which by the way is an extremely cool place) and head up into the mountains and across the plateau to the forbidden city of Lhasa.

Finally, I've actually managed to upload some photos to my web album:

http://picasaweb.google.com/healsJnr/Nepal

until next time...

Waving the white flag

After a torrent 6 day battle with Wooky for the title of Iron Gut (last to get sick) I've had to wave the white flag and admit that I've suffered a severe dose of Vitamin G (otherwise known as Giardia)... welcome to Varanasi.

In the last post we were preparing for an early morning drive to Agra to see the Taj Mahal at sunset. Sadly, this wasn't quite the brilliant spectacle we had been hoping for. It seems that November / December are the foggy (smoggy) months in nothern India. As a result there wasn't really a sunrise as such, more a gradual thinning of the mists. This in itself was rather cool. It was pretty mystical to see the white balk of the Taj slowly revealed out of the early morning fog. One other advantage of seeing the Taj at this time was that it was almost empty, I'm kind of impressed that we are the only ones in photo below.

Speaking of this, I thought it was about time to introduce everyone and what better way to do it than with a rampant tourist style photo (below). From left to right: James English, Nick Valmas, Daniel Woolhouse (Wooky), Me, Chris Rawling (english friend of James and Wooky's they met in Central America).

After the Taj we jumped on an overnight train from Delhi to Varanasi, the holy city on the Ganges. I must admit, the overnight sleeper trains are pretty good, crowded but comfortable, and cheap too.

Unfortunately, my view of Varanasi was a little clouded by the aforementioned run in with Giardia. Even so, it is a pretty impressive city. The Ghats (where people bathe in the ganges) are interesting to observe, especially the burning Ghats where Hindus burn their dead before washing the ashes into the Ganges. Hindus believe (i think) that if you are burned at burning Ghat in Varanasi, you will escape the cycle of reincarnation, so it is a very important place.

I'm still amazed that people swim that river though, it is pretty much the foulest water I've ever seen. Wooky made the comment "obviously none of these guys are microbioligists", otherwise they'd be staying as far away possible (as we were).

This evening we board a train to the Nepali border before continuing onto either Pokhara or Kathmandu. Looks like we'll have more time than we thought in Nepal so we are going to try and get in a good 6 or 7 day hike, which should be great.

Below are some photos from Delhi through to Varanasi:

The Main Bazzar road in Praha Ganj, Delhi. This is one of the major back packer centres.

Photo from the Train on the way to Varanasi.

The Ghats and the Ganges at Varanasi

Early morning on the river

Washing clothes in the ganges, I fail to see how this makes anything clean.

Let the fleecing begin...

After nearly 30 hours of transit, I was feeling scattered (to say the least) when I arrived at midnight in Delhi, hence I was in no mood to batter / haggle / get generally ripped off. So it was lucky that i had a pre-arranged hotel pickup.

The next morning, after meeting up with James, Wookie, Nicki and Chris, we head out into the maelstrom which is Delhi. The scene which greeted me was as hectic and crazy as I had expected and was hoping for. Delhi is a crazy city, the shear mass of people here is overwhelming and it is a pretty unique experience.

And unfortunately, everyone here seems to want something from you, especially at the Hotel Ajunta (our current abode). I'm sort of used to being hassled by touts and I don't mind haggling over prices, but the lengths the guys at the hotel will go to is ridiculous. Every single price is inflated by at least 3 and it's impossible to ask about anything without being queried about your future travels plans and whether you would like to meet there friend who runs a very cheap travel agency.

But I guess this is just all part of Delhi and apparently the rest of India is slightly better on this score. We've spent the last two days wandering the city and, for me anyway, adjusting to the general pace of life in India.

Tomorrow morning (1:30am!) we are off to Agra to see the sunrise over the Taj Mahal before returning to Delhi to get an overnight sleeper to Varanasi.

One final thing: I don't know if this is normal, but yesteday we were indundated with people wanting to take a picture with/of us. This may have been because i had a cricket bat sticking out the back of back pack, but who knows.

Bangkok Airport: traveller's limbo.

Welcome to Bangkok airport. This place kind of reminds me of Indooroopilly shopping centre if it was decked out in fake gold. I'm currently about half way through my 14 hour stop over. Earlier, due to lack of sleep, I decided to forgo a trip into the city and thought my time would be better spent hanging around the airport. Jury's still out on that one.

I had received a heads up that Thai airways had a transit lounge complete with full length couches which were perfect for sleeping on. Unfortunately, it seems that sometime in the last month these couches were replaced with... well, nothing. Dissapointing.

Not all bad though, after several laps of the airport I managed to find a rather out of place collection of padded seats opposite gate D5. These turned out to be quite comfy and i manged to get about 3 hours sleep. So, if anyone's heading to Bangkok for an extended stay, head straight to gate D5!

So, here we are. After two years abroad, I final decided to start up a Blog.

I'm about to embark on some needed extended traveling. Again, after two years away, this is the first chance I'll have to travel with out the shadow of work hanging over me and it feels great.

Down to specifics, the plan is as follows:

- Depart Brisbane this evening and fly to Delhi.
- Meet up with James, Wookie and Nicki.
- ....
- Depart Bangkok on the 25th January 2008.

Ok, so i'm a little sketchy on the "specifics", however, we do have at least a rough plan of how we are going to fill the coming two months.

The basic plan is to head through northern India via the Taj and Varanasi into Nepal. After spending some time around Pokhara and Kathmandu we'll head jump in a jeep and head for Lhasa, hopefully via Everest. This should bring us up to Christmas time (i think).

After this things get a little hazy. We'll probably head out of Tibet and down to Kunming in the Yunnan province of China. From there we have a choice, Burma or Laos. Given the current unrest in Burma, the choice may be made for us, but we'll have to wait and see about that.

After that, who knows. As long as i get to Bangkok in time to catch my plane, I'll be happy.

There you have it. If you're interest in following our progress, tune in and I'll update this as regularly as I can.


P.s For those of you who may not exactly where all these places are, here is a map or our intended route.