The night before the trek we met up with some Spanish friends (Alba, Pablo, Javi, Arnao, and Anna) that we met in Kolkatta who also happened to be in Kathmandu for a mini vacation after volunteering. It was their last night of travels as their flight back was the next day so the night stretched a little longer than it probably should have. After a few drinks at the Kathmandu Guest House we made it to bed at 1:30am to get up at 5:30am to meet our porter the next morning.
Mike and I are a little bit on a budget so we opted to share one trekking bag for the week and share the expense of one porter. We met Mr. Lama and headed out to the taxi which he paid for and up to the bus stop where we caught our 7.5 hour bus ride that was actually suppose to take 9 hours. Thank God! The first part of the bus ride was horrible as Mike and I had no seat so we ended up scrunched up next to the driver in the front of the bus with two rather large Nepali women who kept moving throughout the bus ride.
After lunch I decided enough was enough and went out on top of the bus where about 50 other Nepalis had been riding the whole time! What a rush! Despite it being the monsoon season, the weather was amazing so there were no clouds which meant I had the perfect view of all the constant death-defying switchbacks which are all so common in a bus ride up the Himalayas. I sat and talked to a Nepali guide for a while. In between comments I would have to duck below overhanging power lines and tree branches.
After about 7.5 hours we were let off at a landslide which was too dangerous for the bus to cross. We got out, registered with the Langtang park officials and set out past the landslides down the first nights stop in the national park to a town called Dunche (Doon-chay). The first night was rather uneventful as we were exhausted from the bus ride and basically slept the whole time in Dunche (sleeping ended up being a common theme throughout the trek).
The following morning we trekked for a town called Syabrubensi where we started up at one of the trail heads. It was Mike, our porter (Mr. Lama), and me with two day-packs and a bag with the rest of our belongings for the next week. We had no food (we could buy food at towns along the way), just Iodine tablets to purify the water from waterfalls coming down the mountains. At this point in Syabrubensi we had been hiking for 2.5 hrs and were a little behind as our LP Nepali trekking guide had the first day's trek start at Syabrubensi and hike for 6-7 hrs to a town called Lama Hotel. For the most part, the first part of the trek was fairly straightforward until we hit a few landslides where we had to find our own way up or down the mountain safely through other obstacles. We were still below the tree line and ran into some vegetation and a certain species of thorn that Mike and I both grabbed onto which made that part of our hands go numb for a few days afterward (probably poisonous). We had been trekking for most of the day when we ran into a waterfall falling straight along the path. There was no way around it or under it except to get soaked so we took out the rain coats and took it on. As it turns out, most of our clothes would not be dry the entire week. That night we stayed in a little town called Bamboo which consisted of two lodges and two families in the middle of the national park. We paid 150 rupee ($2) for a hot bucket shower and actually the same price for the room for the night.
The following morning we woke up early and headed out for the day of catchup. We made it up 400m in the first hour, stopped for some milk tea at Lama hotel where we should have stayed the night before. Then proceeded see how close to Langtang Village (LP guide's stop for night two) we could get for the night. There were a few villages that normally have lodging for the night, however there was a festival going on in one of the other areas of the park so the families had all left and locked up all the buildings. After hours of hiking and a few abandoned villages later we were getting a bit concerned about finding a place to stay for the night as we were all running really low on energy, water, and food as we hadn't had lunch at this point. Finally, after ascending 1500m and an incredibly long day of trekking we made it to Langtang for the night and stayed at one of the nicest places of the trek, Peaceful Hotel. 1760m is in one mile so that was almost a mile up in 1 day!
Day three consisted of a shorter trek up to Kanjin Gompa which is the final city along the Langtang route. It took us a little less than 3 hrs and we found a lodge next to a 700 year old Buddhist Monastery for the night. The next morning when we woke up the views were incredible! I'll upload some pics when I get back to the states. The monastery was really cool to check out and we also went to a yak cheese factory where the manager let us sample some. It was actually really good, although don't worry, it doesn't compare to Wisconsin cheese!
The decent was suppose to take us two days but took Mike and I three days as we had some stomach problems towards the top. The first night we went back to Langtang and stayed at Peaceful Hotel again, followed by another days trek down to a town called Remche (Rim-chee) for the night where we had a nice hot propane shower! Most of the places we stayed at offered solar powered shower, but because of the monsoon season there were alot of clouds which put the nix on a hot shower.
The last day of the trek (day 6) was definitely my favorite part. We decided to take the "high route" back to Syabrubensi instead of the original way that we came which meant we skipped the landslides and waterfalls and also meant we got some amazing views! We had read that if you're afraid of heights don't take the high route because there are some sheer drop-offs along the way. They were right, it was a little nerve wracking at first, but the path was safe in terms of footing so we had nothing to worry about.
We made it back to Syabrubensi and stayed the night in a Nepali hotel instead of a tourist hotel because it was the cheap route. Mr. Lama talked to the locals that night about a bus back to the landslide the following morning. They said it wasn't going to come as there was a motorcycle accident along the way which caused a traffic jam. Since the roads are so narrow there was no way of knowing when the path would be clear again. We decided to give it a go the next morning and see how far we could get. We headed back to Dunche and walked past the landslide where we found a bus to Kathmandu at 12:30 in the afternoon! The good news was that we got a bus, the bad news was we got the back row, which isn't even enough room for Nepalis. I barely fit...I should say I squeezed in. In the US the capacity for this bus would have been 45 or 50. In Nepal there is no such thing as "capacity" so we had easily over 100 people on this bus (including the roof). Tonight I'll be going to get a massage to recuperate!
We made it back to the KGH last night and I have another two full days in Kathmandu before heading back to the states! All things considered trekking was a great experience. Difficult, especially the 1500m climb, but definitely worth it!
Kyle
lunes, 15 de agosto de 2011
sábado, 6 de agosto de 2011
Chitwan National Park and Kathmandu
Hey Guys!
Mike and I left Kolkatta on August 1st on a train that was scheduled to take 16 hours to get to the border of Nepal at a town called Raxaul which is a major trade route between India and Nepal. Considering none of the previous trains that we took have been on time it turned into just under 20 hours. We were both so tired from taking extra afternoon shifts in volunteering the week before that we were both banking on sleeping for most of the trip as it was an overnight-er. Well as with all traveling you need to be a little flexible, especially in India. About halfway though the night I was woken up by a horde of Indians wearing orange piling on our car in the aisles, between beds and putting down mats wherever then could. They were all wearing orange because that is the apparel of the Hindu pilgrims in the festival of Puja which is around this time of year. This had never happened before so Mike and I think that it was an overflow of people who didn't have any room in the third class seating and had to make do and find other places to stay on the train. There were so many people flooding the train at once that one man opened up the window above my bunk and hoped in through the window over my legs. Mike even ended up sleeping with another Indian for much of the rest of the train ride! As I was lying down in my bed one Indian sat right down near my feet. I knew where this was going, so I made sure and not budge an inch. That lasted for about 5 hours, two of which were spent with me trying to hold back the urge to pee. I knew that the second I got up it would be a free for all for my bed. Sure enough, I got back and three orange, puja-clad Indians were in my seat. By that time the man sleeping in the same bunk as Mike had left, so I went to the upper bunk to chill with him.
We finally made it to Raxaul and walked for about twenty minutes to the border and almost passed into Nepal without getting the official exit stamp on the Indian side of the border. The office wasn't well marked, there was a TON of traffic and there was nothing stopping us from crossing over easily. We finally found this little dusty office near the border, got the stamp, made it through and went to the Nepali border stop on the other side of the bridge in Birganj, Nepal. From there we boarded the first of many Nepali buses through the mountains. It left at 2:30pm and we made it into Tandi Bazaar at 6:30 which is a little over 3 miles outside of Sauraha, Nepal, on the edge of the Chitwan National Park. We found a little budget place there, Chitwan Rest House and stayed in little mud huts which actually happened to be very nice! The staff was amazing and hung out with us for a few hours under a little straw hut while we ate some amazing spicy Nepali curry and made plans to wake up early the next morning to go on a two day jungle walk. We had read up on the rhinos, tigers and sloth bears many times to know how to react if we came upon one that seemed aggressive. We set out a little after 8am and had to cross a river to get into the park. Sure enough, even before we got in the boat, our guides, Poohban and Pasun pointed out a crocodile poking its eyes and snout just above the water in a marsh. Alright, here we go! The guides were very experienced and had years of experience between the two of them so I wasn't worried. We walked through a heavily forested area of the jungle for a while followed by large expanses of 8-13 foot tall grasslands. Every few hours we would come across a lookout tower in the grassy areas where we saw many different species of birds, monkeys, deer and other animals and various crazy looking insects including a bright yellow and green caterpillar which the guides said was in the most poisonous one in all of the forest. Luckily their easy to spot! That night we made into a place just outside of the park as you can't stay inside the national park at night. The place we stayed at was another mud hut, but was just built 6 months ago. It was just about as nice as you could think of a mud hut. Mud walls, floors, and a mud bathroom, equipped with a squatty potty.
We ended up having another amazing Nepali dinner and sharing much of our food with our guides. Nepali people are also very into their homemade wines so we sampled the local white wine selection...ok actually more than sampled. Nepalis don't drink socially, they drink to get drunk. So about halfway through our first few "wine glasses" aka Moonshine, our guides also gave us their portion. Needless to say we were well under our way after about an hour and a half. We ended up sitting around chatting with the guides and the family of the owner of the mud huts until late into the night. We would have felt horrible the next morning if it weren't for a massive amount of food that they served us at 10pm. We ordered chicken beforehand. It wasn't much but seeing as they didn't bring us anymore food, we thought that was our dinner. I don't think I've ever eaten so much rice in my life! We ended up drinking a TON of water afterward, then headed off to bed.
The second day of the jungle walk turned out to be much like the previous day until later on in the afternoon when our guides decided to get off the trail for a little break. We hung out for a while in our tree stand for a few minutes when I spotted a wild elephant! As we took pictures the guides seemed to be discussing something intensely in Nepali which we couldn't pick up on at first. Even through the elephant was a long way off, Poohban was very adamant about leaving. We found out later on that it was for a good reason. He knew that elephant well as it had recently trampled someone a few weeks earlier. If we had not stopped at this tree stand when we did, within the next 3-5 minutes we would have been dangerously close to the elephant! So that was a bit intense. We walked for a ways afterward and finally crossed the river to make it back to Sauraha to finish up the journey. Couldn't have crossed at a better time as there were two rhinos waiting for us on the other side of the river! We were looking for them for 2 days without finding any. Ironically we finally had to leave the park to find them.
We stayed that night in the Chitwan Rest House and got up early the next morning for an elephant ride through the jungle. It was nice to simply ride and not walk for a while. The animals were much friendlier as well and we got within a few feet of various types of deer and wild boars.
After the elephant ride we took a five hour bus ride to Kathmandu and are currently staying at the Kathmandu Guest House which has been amazing. It has HOT water! That was the first hot shower we've had in over a month. Beautiful. Today we went around Kathmandu and made plans for our 7 day trek in the Langtang region of Nepal which will start tomorrow morning with a bus ride we have to be ready for at 6:20am!
Sorry for the grammatical errors/if anything is a bit confusing. I haven't had much time to type tonight as we've had errands to run and are meeting a few Spaniards for dinner that we volunteered with in Kolkatta. They also just happen to be in Kathmandu!
Enjoy and God Bless,
Kyle
Mike and I left Kolkatta on August 1st on a train that was scheduled to take 16 hours to get to the border of Nepal at a town called Raxaul which is a major trade route between India and Nepal. Considering none of the previous trains that we took have been on time it turned into just under 20 hours. We were both so tired from taking extra afternoon shifts in volunteering the week before that we were both banking on sleeping for most of the trip as it was an overnight-er. Well as with all traveling you need to be a little flexible, especially in India. About halfway though the night I was woken up by a horde of Indians wearing orange piling on our car in the aisles, between beds and putting down mats wherever then could. They were all wearing orange because that is the apparel of the Hindu pilgrims in the festival of Puja which is around this time of year. This had never happened before so Mike and I think that it was an overflow of people who didn't have any room in the third class seating and had to make do and find other places to stay on the train. There were so many people flooding the train at once that one man opened up the window above my bunk and hoped in through the window over my legs. Mike even ended up sleeping with another Indian for much of the rest of the train ride! As I was lying down in my bed one Indian sat right down near my feet. I knew where this was going, so I made sure and not budge an inch. That lasted for about 5 hours, two of which were spent with me trying to hold back the urge to pee. I knew that the second I got up it would be a free for all for my bed. Sure enough, I got back and three orange, puja-clad Indians were in my seat. By that time the man sleeping in the same bunk as Mike had left, so I went to the upper bunk to chill with him.
We finally made it to Raxaul and walked for about twenty minutes to the border and almost passed into Nepal without getting the official exit stamp on the Indian side of the border. The office wasn't well marked, there was a TON of traffic and there was nothing stopping us from crossing over easily. We finally found this little dusty office near the border, got the stamp, made it through and went to the Nepali border stop on the other side of the bridge in Birganj, Nepal. From there we boarded the first of many Nepali buses through the mountains. It left at 2:30pm and we made it into Tandi Bazaar at 6:30 which is a little over 3 miles outside of Sauraha, Nepal, on the edge of the Chitwan National Park. We found a little budget place there, Chitwan Rest House and stayed in little mud huts which actually happened to be very nice! The staff was amazing and hung out with us for a few hours under a little straw hut while we ate some amazing spicy Nepali curry and made plans to wake up early the next morning to go on a two day jungle walk. We had read up on the rhinos, tigers and sloth bears many times to know how to react if we came upon one that seemed aggressive. We set out a little after 8am and had to cross a river to get into the park. Sure enough, even before we got in the boat, our guides, Poohban and Pasun pointed out a crocodile poking its eyes and snout just above the water in a marsh. Alright, here we go! The guides were very experienced and had years of experience between the two of them so I wasn't worried. We walked through a heavily forested area of the jungle for a while followed by large expanses of 8-13 foot tall grasslands. Every few hours we would come across a lookout tower in the grassy areas where we saw many different species of birds, monkeys, deer and other animals and various crazy looking insects including a bright yellow and green caterpillar which the guides said was in the most poisonous one in all of the forest. Luckily their easy to spot! That night we made into a place just outside of the park as you can't stay inside the national park at night. The place we stayed at was another mud hut, but was just built 6 months ago. It was just about as nice as you could think of a mud hut. Mud walls, floors, and a mud bathroom, equipped with a squatty potty.
We ended up having another amazing Nepali dinner and sharing much of our food with our guides. Nepali people are also very into their homemade wines so we sampled the local white wine selection...ok actually more than sampled. Nepalis don't drink socially, they drink to get drunk. So about halfway through our first few "wine glasses" aka Moonshine, our guides also gave us their portion. Needless to say we were well under our way after about an hour and a half. We ended up sitting around chatting with the guides and the family of the owner of the mud huts until late into the night. We would have felt horrible the next morning if it weren't for a massive amount of food that they served us at 10pm. We ordered chicken beforehand. It wasn't much but seeing as they didn't bring us anymore food, we thought that was our dinner. I don't think I've ever eaten so much rice in my life! We ended up drinking a TON of water afterward, then headed off to bed.
The second day of the jungle walk turned out to be much like the previous day until later on in the afternoon when our guides decided to get off the trail for a little break. We hung out for a while in our tree stand for a few minutes when I spotted a wild elephant! As we took pictures the guides seemed to be discussing something intensely in Nepali which we couldn't pick up on at first. Even through the elephant was a long way off, Poohban was very adamant about leaving. We found out later on that it was for a good reason. He knew that elephant well as it had recently trampled someone a few weeks earlier. If we had not stopped at this tree stand when we did, within the next 3-5 minutes we would have been dangerously close to the elephant! So that was a bit intense. We walked for a ways afterward and finally crossed the river to make it back to Sauraha to finish up the journey. Couldn't have crossed at a better time as there were two rhinos waiting for us on the other side of the river! We were looking for them for 2 days without finding any. Ironically we finally had to leave the park to find them.
We stayed that night in the Chitwan Rest House and got up early the next morning for an elephant ride through the jungle. It was nice to simply ride and not walk for a while. The animals were much friendlier as well and we got within a few feet of various types of deer and wild boars.
After the elephant ride we took a five hour bus ride to Kathmandu and are currently staying at the Kathmandu Guest House which has been amazing. It has HOT water! That was the first hot shower we've had in over a month. Beautiful. Today we went around Kathmandu and made plans for our 7 day trek in the Langtang region of Nepal which will start tomorrow morning with a bus ride we have to be ready for at 6:20am!
Sorry for the grammatical errors/if anything is a bit confusing. I haven't had much time to type tonight as we've had errands to run and are meeting a few Spaniards for dinner that we volunteered with in Kolkatta. They also just happen to be in Kathmandu!
Enjoy and God Bless,
Kyle
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