Kathmandu to Base Camp, it begins

Namste!

So here I am, after day of our Nepalese trek, and quite exhausted, and up in the last remaining city before we really get into the mountains. The internet connection is decent here, so figured I'd sit down and have a little blog session.

So continuing on where we last were, I was blogging the one evening and my computer battery died, not a whole lot else happened that night other than our cross eyed server messing up our bill and bringing back the wrong change several times, and thus began Dave and my pun session poking a bit of fun at the fellow...he was a nice enough guy but we had to make some jokes to make up for the mess up. So after having the beers, and sitting down with another Canadian and an Irish fellow, I just ended up crashing pretty hard, as I was quite exhausted, but found that I could only sleep until 6:30 am which was rather unfortunate.

So after laying in bed for awhile, and waiting for Dave to get out of bed, we went and had a quick breakfast, and began our adventure in trying to secure motor scooters....we walked around for a good 2 hours checking out places and finding that we would have to leave a passport to rent scooters, which was a pretty big bummer since we don't feel comfortable leaving passports at random shops. I devised a plan where I would bring my void passport and use that instead, and it almost worked, except the shop keeper said there was no Nepalese visa in it, so that was a fail.....so instead of renting motor scooters and getting crazy, we decided to hire mountain bikes and head to the Monkey Temple and see what all the jazz was about....Now after walking through the streets for a few days and seeing the absolute mayhem, you can imagine the fear and sheer awesomness of renting mountain bikes and traveling through traffic...fortunately they came with helmets, so that was a good option. We managed to make our way to the Monkey Temple and snapped a few pics along the way... see following.

After adventuring around the Monkey park, or near the Monkey park I should say since we didn't have bike locks, we then started to try and make our way back to the hotel...which lead us to coming upon the sketchy Ring Road that surrounds Kathmandu....now this is very unlike any other roads I've driven a peddle bike as it is absolutely nuts on this road, the pollution is terrible, and the vehicles drive rather recklessly...I have a hilarious video of Dave trying to cross through, and surprisingly we both made it across and along the road without incident, although we did get cut off several times and nearly hit the back of a few vehicles, but that's a learning curve so no big deal! So after adventuring down that road, we decided to start side tracking and seeing if we could find our way back...we somehow managed to get back into the general area of town that our hotel was located, and returned our bikes a bit early....After returning the bikes we made quick pit stop at the hotel, and then decided to up our "Street Cred" by taking a rickshaw ride with a guy who had been hassling us earlier in the day.

We hopped aboard, without first negotiating a price ( big mistake) and went on a tour of the city...we were wearing our mega sweet Beanies that we purchased the previous day, and much to the delight or disgust of locals and foreigners alike, we made our rickshaw ride a fun adventure. Our driver was DJ and he took us to some cool temples and gave us a bit of a tour...of course what rickshaw ride wouldn't be complete without the obligatory stop at some shop where we were forced into trying to buy paintings...I've experienced this whole deal before in Thailand, so I wasn't falling for it, but Dave seemed to be pretty caught up in it, I thought he was actually going to buy one!! Fortunately he didn't, and we managed to escape without spending a lot of money on shoddy fake paintings.

After the rickshaw ride we got back to the hotel and asked what the price was...I was thinking somewhere along the line of 500 rupees?? and DJ says 3000 rupees!! I say no effin way....and Dave is already reaching for his wallet...Dave is a terrible barterer ha ha....so I eventually get him down to 1500 rupees...which is still waaaaaaay tooo much...but we pay it to get rid of DJ as he's starting to annoy me ha ha.

So after that fun adventure, we sort out some food, which turns out to be some pretty terrible chicken and both feel pretty rough...we then found a cool Shesha bar with free WiFi, so we hit that up and continued our training by drinking more beer and smoking Shesha ha ha....we met some English chicks and hung out with them for the night and then started to get pretty tired, so we headed back to the hotel....upon arrival I found a bunch of pigeons lurking on our window ledge and I decided I didn't want them anywhere nearby, so I began spitting water on them...well that was a karma fail....as the next morning the gathered around 5:30 am and began cooing and singing in unison loud enough that it awoke me and kept me awake for the rest of the morning...well played pigeons...well played... So after getting out of bed, we went on a little shopping trip, where Dave continued to display his awful bartering skills, while I was able to get several items for at least 25% less of the sticker price. At this point we had to go meet up with the rest of our tour group and have our orientation for the trek...We met with the group which ended up only being two others, a Kiwi couple. On our information forms, I made sure to make note that Dave Budd was an undergarment thief, and that others on the trek should watch out for him....take that Dave! Unfortunately, the guides never made mention of my subtle jabs...so I guess I'm not as funny as I thought.

So after that orientation we didn't really do a whole lot, just had a late dinner and a few beers then called it a night. We headed early to the airport, and lined up in the Yeti airlines line, I was pretty pumped as you can see.

Damn I love that beanie...so sweet.

So we fly into this Lukla place..which probably has the shortest runway in the world....I have a video, let's see if it will upload or not...

So remembering back onto our orientation day..our guide had suggested we don't smoke, we don't drink beer, and we shouldn't eat meat...so of course we have been drinking beer..and we stopped at Lukla for our first meal before trekking...I notice there's yak on the menu..and am curious of course...so I ask the guide if Yak is any good..he says it's awful and to not bother...so being the bad ass I am...I of course order the yak....and I must say, it really wasn't anything special...but it was an experience...

So after eating yak, and hoping that I don't yak after eating the creature, we begin our first real day of trekking, which only took 2 hours..we grabbed some decent photos along the way and settled down for the first night. At dinner time, I decide I've tempted fate enough, so I go with a vegetable alternative, and a beer of course, while Dave gets a bit "cocky" and goes with the chicken...well that was a big mistake...ha ha ha...so I'm sleeping well enough and then I hear some yakking in the bathoom around 11 pm at night...and it wasn't the semi delicious mountain based animal yak..it was poor Dave becoming awfully sick from the chicken....of course when he was about to exit the bathroom I had the camera ready, but I didn't exactly get a great photo of the man....here's a pic of him hiding in embarassment though....

  

So after laughing at poor Dave's expense..and hearing him battle back and forth with the toilet all night, we rise up early today and have our breakfast and hit the road....the trek today was fairly grueling as we went upwards about 1000 m...so the air is a bit thin, and we're starting to realize how bad of shape we really are...some of the highlights today were the random long bridges that we had to cross, and hope that we didn't run into any yaks at the same time, as they are a bit unruly at times ha ha...here's a good photo of the yaks crossing one of the bridges...which terrify me normally, since I'm afraid of heights....

So we continued hiking all day, while poor Dave has continued to struggle with his chicken adventures....everytime we see chickens I'm certain to point them out and mention how they are mocking his every move...he'll learn his lesson I think. 

So anyways, that's about it for this blog, here's one last photo from today that I like..

Yes I look like a bit of a tool, but it's a cool background at least ha ha.

Anyways, probably last real day of internet until after Base Camp....

See ya'll soon

Adios North America, Hello Asia!!

Sooo here I am in a cafe in Kathmandu, watching the rain and figured it's time to start blogging. The Wi-Fi isn't free, so that's a fail, but the beer is cheap and the company is good, so that's a win!

So to recap the last few days, I said goodbye to my Ma in Regina, hopped on a plane at 7 am to Vancouver from Regina, and randomly met an old friend who had been trekking in Nepal a few months earlier, which was pretty sweet. We caught up a bit, and she gave me some last minute tips. I got to Vancouver and hung out for a bit, enjoyed my last bit of Canada and hopped aboard my plane to HK....It was pretty funny start to the trip as I was sitting next to a younger girl briefly and started chatting her up, then her father came over and said she should go sit by her mother as there was a free seat there...she put up a bit of a fight, probably because I'm an interesting character and she wanted to chat, but her father made her move so I got to sit next to him...fun times... ha ha. He ended up being an employee of Air Canada, and thus had to get out and go talk to staff members once every 30 minutes it seemed...a bit annoying since I was in the Aisle, so I had to move often...I'm not used to moving often when it comes to plane rides, but oh well. Several beers and some wine, plus numerous naps later I was in Hong Kong!

The visa entry process to HK was pretty easy, I think I was in the country and had a 90 days visitor visa within 15 minutes of landing...that's a win, considering I don't have a job, nor a means to support myself ha ha ha! I stopped by a convenience store and purchased my first Pocari Sweat (an Asian gatorade product which is awesome (and tastes like sweat according to my mate Dave) ) I crushed that with enjoyment of being in Asia again and enjoying the wacky culture. I had to wait for about an hour and a bit for Dave to land, so during this time I looked up the Chinese translation for Dave and drew it out on a piece of paper for when he arrived. It took a fair bit of ink, and I came to realize that calligraphy isn't my strongpoint, but I made a decent run at drawing Cantonese characters and awaited his arrival. "Dai Fu" arrived, and I presented him with a Cuban cigar that I had purchased at the duty free, and we were on our way to Nathan Road and the sketchy nature of our hostel area.... I was warned about many Chinese and Indians "touting" about the area where we were staying, and I wasn't disappointed, as I was offered drugs and cheap hostel accomodations within 3 minutes of arriving in the area, but I found my place and checked in.

Our mate Tim was in the area for the HK 7s which is a huge Rugby tournament, so we met up with Tim and started the shenanigans....we wandered about the tourist/costume packed area and had a pretty good time having some beers and catching up on the past few years....it was pretty good times, but I didn't bring my camera so I can't show you the exact crazy nature of the scene there, oh well. Dave has some decent photos, so I'm sure when he uploads them, you can see exactly what we were dealing with. Anyways, jet lag eventually struck, so we ripped back to the hostels and called it quits for the night.

The next day we did a little walk around, where I was again offered hash and marijuana, since clearly I'm a chronic drug user ha ha, I can't seem to win with these guys....after shooing them away, we went and grabbed some decent Vietnamese right by the port, which was a great price considering the location, although there was a giant ship blocking our view to the port...see attached photo

Oh wait I also have an epic picture of Dave's plummer crack while he was packing his bag for the walk...see attached

I'm sitting across the table from him right now, and he's called me a jerk...so I think that was a fantastic photo btw.

So anyways, after wandering around HK for awhile, we headed back to the airport and took our flight over to Nepal....of course we tried several currency exchange booths to attempt to get some Nepalese currency, but no exchange places offer it...I'm thinking that there's just no Nepalese currency left in circulation, seeing as how I could only acquire $30 CAD worth of it before I left home.....So we took that flight, touched down in Dharka Bangladesh, and technically got our Bengal flags, then continued on to Kathmandu....Kathmandu airport is pretty much what you would expect from a third world country, no fancy restaurants, old brick building, and no modern tools, other than the camera which was handy for taking Visa photos...win!

Grabbed the necessary visa photo, paid the $40 US visa fee...thanks to Dave having US currency...best mate ever...and exited the airport to pushy/grabby Nepalese cab drivers....one grabbed Dave's bags and carried it to some random car saying "Kathmandu guest house"....Dave thought we were on the right course, until I spotted a van that said "Kathmandu guest house" on the side of it, and walked over there instead...Dave haggled for his bag and managed to secure it, then had to tip $5 US for walking his bag over from sketchy vehicle to our proper vehicle...tipping fail!

So we went through the crazy quiet streets of Kathmandu, arrived at our hotel and found they were double booked, and they sent us to some other sketchy hotel....after arriving at said hotel and checking in....we went for a late night wander and found 2 beers, 2 waters, and a box of pringles for $9 CAD..not bad....went back to hotel, had beers, passed out...fun times!

Woke up this morning, had a decent cheap breakfast and came to our original hotel, checked in, and actually received room we had booked, win!

After checking in, we went for a wander through the wild streets of Kathmandu (including dodgy electrical system)....see attached photo to see the mayhem and pollution!

I also almost got run over by cars and motorbikes several times, but there's a delicate honking system and traffic system that is absolute chaos yet seems to somehow work here, it's great.



So after wandering around aimlessly for the afternoon and training (my legs are so sore), we have now settled down for some beers and some WiFi in the cafe at our hotel building. We just met some cool Norwegian dude, and had a good chat with him, then he left to go find some friends, and didn't pay for his cigarettes, so they're now stuck on our tab...damn sneaky Norwegian..oh well maybe he'll be back.

Anyways, our plan for tomorrow may include hiring a motorbike for tomorrow (hope they come with helmets) and cruising around the Kathmandu valley....and other than that, we're just enjoying the cheap food and easy going nature of Kathmandu.

Also, I've discussed how these blog may revolve around Dave and what he's doing, so I'll recap....he's worn the same plaid shirt for the last 3 days...kind of smelly and embarrassing, but I've gotten used to it...also, he's attempted to be the early bird on several occasions but hasn't succeeded.

My battery is dying here so I should check out for now

Leavin on a jet plane

Well the day finally came where I left Devon and Fort St John! A very surreal day as it's hard to say goodbye to so many great ppl that have been part of my family for the last few years. We had some good times together and I hope I've left a lasting impression on all of you! I'm on my way back to Regina for a few days to spend some quality time with my family and to clear my head before I embark on something that I still don't know how to actually plan for! Once I get to Nepal I don't think there will be the greatest Internet so my blog will be a bit slow off the hop!