My travelling adventures...

Hey. Just a quick hello. Yup - in the apple capital - Bianca and I have been hearing all about this plac and the fantastic apple pies and apple brandy along this trek - so cant wait til lunch time to try it out! everything has been going fantastically - amazing scenery, cute little villages, friendly people etc etc... We've usually finsihed walking by around lunchtime so have an easy afternoon which is always nice - walk around the village etc etc. The place we stayed last night didnt have any power - dinner by candlelight - was nice tho... we've been managing to get a spare blankie everywhere so have been kept toasty enough.
Anyway, the mtns beckon.

Later!

Hi! Just to let you know that we are happily trekking along the Jonsom part of the Annapurnas. The flight from Kathmandu to Pokhara was really good, and we spent the day taking it easy, strolling along the lakeside and caught a couple of movies on TV so we were feeling pretty good the next day for our 1.5hr little car ride to the beginning of the trek. We did a few hours walk to Hile where we spent the first night. From tehre we hired horses (got plenty of stares and a few photos of us taken) for the 'hard' day - 3000 steps they reckon - i think it has to be more than that... took 7hrs on the horses to get to Ghoropeni... We then had an early morning walk up Poon Hill to watch the sunrise over the annapurnas and then onto Shikhra... We are now in Totopeni - took a few hours walk to get here... so another easy day :) Off up into altitude again tomorrow but we're ready for it :)
The area is so different here - a lot greener, the paths are lined with slate-type rock, nowhere near as dusty... the porters dont carry as much (I suppose in the everest region they had to rely on porters to get food between villages so they carried up to 80kgs whereas here there are a few roads etc). anyway just a quick hello.

later!

On day 3 of our trek we had a rest day at Namache where we did a 2hr very steep uphill hike to Everest view Hotel (which reminded me of the Bucket List)- but the hike was worth it. It was so amazing to be able to see Everest in 'the flesh'. We had a snack on a rcoky outcrop by ourselves and went for a little stroll to this monument thing, past some yaks. It was truly amazing :)
Day 4 was to tengboche - which had amazing views the whole way... Most of the time we were walking along a cliff - so no side paths in case of an urgent toilet stop... whcih of course i needed to do... so round a corner - Bianca calls its now or never - so while she blockades one way, and the otehrs pass round the corner in front, i clamber slightly uphill behind a rock. Bianca had to tell a guy to wait 10seconds - and he looks at his watch!!! and of course - with my luck some one comes round the corner the other way and must have had a spectacular view - oh well - with beanie, sunclasses and face mask he'll never recognise me! :)  And worse luck - there was a toilet about 5mins walk (I could've waited that much longer - but thanks to a bit of language barrier with our porter i thought the next toilet stop was 2 hrs away). At tengboche we went for another afternoon stroll -hoping to make it up this hill of flags but found the rubbish tip instead - still had amazing views - and probably not as visited by tourists ;) We saw a munk deer along the way too. We also did end up finding the right path to flag hill as well.
Day 5 was to Khumjung - Bianca had a tummy bug so was walking more my pace as she was feeling very rotten. It was only a 3hr walk and we napped in the afternoon. It was a really pretty little village, no shops or anything... And the nxt day the tummy bug hit me :( We had a 6hr walk back to Phakding.
Day 7 was the short walk back to Lukla where we strolled in town and took it easy (still recovering). Despite the altitude effects and the tummy bug it so has been worth it - absolutely amazing scenery! And we have had almost perfect weather.
This morning we had a 5hr delay for our little plane as there was bad weatehr in Kathmandu (when flying tho it felt like most of the sky! - not really that bad but was a bit bumpy and a few sudden drops).
So we have a night in Kathmandu before heading off to Pokhara tomorrow. Bianca isn't feeling too good so we are unsure of what we will do from there (whether to do the 12day Annapurna hike to Jonsom, or some alternative) -at this stage due to get back to Kathmandu on 26th. I managed to get my laundry done - 3hrs express despite the electricity going off in Thamel ('suburb' where we are staying in Kathmandu) at 5pm.
Favourite saying so far from sudasan (our porter) (get told it often as Bianca zooms ahead) - dont worry we have time :)
Later!

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hi - doing this in two stages in case it blocks up...
Anyway - back to Kathmandu first of all... Well the average price for a meal (as u know food is very important!) from $2.50-4 - pretty good and sooo tasty - vegetable curries are amazing and they give you so much food as well... The pretty much one-lane streets are lined with super cheap hiking gear and other knitted good etc but you dont get hassled which is great - only for a taxi  but you can block them out... And feel completely safe here - probably not that great as you get complacent with leaving stuff around etc...
Anyway on our second day we had an early morning flight (6.30) to Lukla - had fantastic views of all the little villages that were connected mainly with walking paths mainly than roads. And as you pass overhead you wonder what the people down there are like, what they are doing etc etc... and then we landed and we were at one of those little villages and spent the next 7 days walking through them - it was a fantastic experience!! So we arrived in Lukla on a teeny tiny runway, stopped for breakfast and managed to lose Bianca before starting the trek! Found her eventually and it all began... downhill, uphill and a little bit of flat... We had a toilet stop at a loo that was soo like the toilet in slumdog millionaire - up on stilts, perched on a cliff where tehre was a hole amongst the gaps in the floorboards in which to do your thing...  the first day was only about 2.5hr walk, which was ok cos we were getting used to the altitude (headaches, losing your puff up hill, hard to catch your breath).
And if you walk along with you ipod in (which some people do) you'd miss out on the sounds of the trek - the tinkling jingle or the hollow bells of the horses and cows heading your way, the birds and insects, the rush of the river water passing by, the occasional radio, the melodic nepali humming, the occasional bovine bellow, the friendly "namastes' along the way and the lovely sound of people hoicking up phlegm :)
You see ladies washing their hair in the freezing cold spring water that constantly runs out of taps - dont know how they do that... and loads of prayer flags everywhere - not sure how they get them to some places.
Day 2 we made our way to Namache Bazaar - was lots of uphill (up to `3600m) - but you could see snowcapped mountains along the way - lovely! We had a wander through the bazaar in the afternoon - mainly selling hiking gear to locals... and the streets had a lot more handicrafts...
It was way chillier than we expected - we rugged up in all our clothes at night and had to ask for spare blankets (stinky!!!) to keep ourselves warm enough to get to sleep. We had an effort to keep ourselves up til after 8... (we only get up around 6.30)....

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Hey :)
Bianca arrived a bit late yesterday - flight delayed and minus her bag!!!  We are about to head out amongst the rickshaws, beeping cars, hiking equipment and pashminas :) for a bit more of a wander around the town before heading back to the airport where her bag is hopefully going to be waiting for her. Got to say she has been very relaxed about it - staying in the same clothes after ~15hrs flying...
The guesthouse accomodation is pretty good (and their food is very tasty!)

Last night a 15yo boy had a bit of a chat to us - showing of all his facts he knew about Australia... he ended up asking if we could buy some powdered milk for him to give to his baby sister (which we did)...
Met our porter this morning - spent a couple of hours talking to him about our plans - getting very excited now!!!
Have a 6.30am flight tomorrow to Lukla where we start part of the Everest Base Camp trek (just to tengboche monestary)... We'll get back to Kathmandu on 13th... then leave on the 14th to begin our next trek on Annapurna circuit... Yay!
Well thats about all the news for now... Later!

Well I arrived safe n sound :) Next leg of the flight was pretty good - despire no movies -had a yummy curry dish :)
Had an airport pickup which had to wait around for a bit but that was ok... It was about 23 degrees when arrived - feels a bit chillier now... (4pm)
On the way thru to the hostel saw a cow grazing on a roundabout, calves hanging out on the footpaths (free reign) - poor goats were tethered up, beautiful saris, a lady hanging washing from her roof top on the power lines!!! traffic of course is crazy (not as bad as Vietnam but still...) Anyway now am waiting for Bianca to arrive... so will catchya later~!!

In Singapore at the mo... Zzzzzzzz :)
All the beginning stuff went ok... not sure what I packed - but it was getting close to 20! - do have a few chocolate supplies tho, so once i get thru them it might make a difference ;)
Plane ride was ok - managed to have a good nap despite Mr Sniffy Man beside me (just hope I dont catch his cold!)... There were heaps of good movies - I went for the short ones tho (maximise sleeping time) - they had 'Up' definitelywas not watching that one again (way too sad despite what everyone else thinks ;) )!!!  So watched Mary and Max and 500 days of summer - which were both ok - kept me entertained :)... Am about to have a bit of a wander and then another nap I think... :)
Speak to u from Nepal!!!! Yay!

Hey, Well I am back to my blog.... ahhhhh feels good - travelling again! (has been +9mnths apparently!) So I am off to Nepal with a friend (Bianca) from work... we started planning it about March - so has been ages to look forward to it... We are planning on doing a bit of the everest base camp trek - just to Tengboche Monestary... and then perhaps a bit of the Annapurna Circuit from Muktinah/Jonsom to Pokhara... We have already organised a porter to meet us on the day after we both arrive in Nepal and we then fly out the next day to Lukla where the adventures begin :) We are in Nepal until the 28th November (~3.5weeks)... from there Bianca flies back home and I will go on to India where the plan is to have no (or minimal) plan ;) - we'll see how I go with that... -I have booked my train ticket from Dehli to Agra a few hours after I land and the first night's accommodation in Agra.... from there...? The plan is to mainly stick to the NW of India (Rajasthan). Have ~3 weeks in India (I come back 18 December). A bit nervous about the India part - but I know from experience that it is the most challenging adventures are the most rewarding in the end :) So thanks for joining me - and hopefully I will get an email from you soon :)

Hi! Well i back in Australia - back at work and everything... :( .

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Hi!  Well we have been to Sihanoukville - not the idyllic beach getaway we were envisioning (however you spell it :) ) but it was still... well I'll tell you about it... the bus ride was ok there... but as we arrived a day earlier than planned we couldn't get into our first choice of accom but thatwas ok - still got a beachfront hotel room... we went diving the next day - Stella and I had a huge boat to ourselves it was amazing... It took a few hours to get out to the dive site and this time stella couldn't make it down as I had passed my cold onto her :(  But the diving was good - nice and relaxing -altho not entirely clear (from above tho it was absolutely beautiful blue water near lovely green island)... The next day we did an overnight trip - it was meant to be to Ko Tang - about 4 hours out... but they told us when we were already on our way out there that cos of bad weather we would be going near where we went yesterday and doing the overnight there - Stella and I weren't that impressed as the boat wasn't exactly catered for an overnight expedition and the diving wasn't overly brilliant to be doing 5 dives there (Stella was able to make it down diving)... so we had 2 dives during the day and I did a niht dive as well... was all ok but nothing brilliant... Then we spent the night in the howling wind on the top deck of the boat with tarps down along the side that flapped in the breeze sleeping on gym mats - not a good nights sleep.  We didnt bother diving the next day and waited for the open water student to finish his dives before we made our way back in the rough weather (wasnt that bad - was meant to be 5-6m swell - didnt feel like that at all tho).  And of course when we got back our accomodation hadnt saved our room at Coasters so we stayed where we spent our first night which was all ok.  We didnt remember that we hadnt paid Coasters for our night there - but dnt worry they somehow tracked us down 3 days later when we were on a bus back to Phnom Penh (he phoned the bus driver to get hold of us! - very bizarre!). 
From Sihanoukville we headed to what tur books describe as pretty Kampot... hmm - we stayed by the river in a really nice place so we just hung out there and had some amazing BBQ pork ribs at a place - the Rusty Keyhole - nearby for lunch - never eaten so much meat in my life!  The next day was a bus back to Phnom Penh - which did a loop to Kep (which did look beautiful and quiet) and back to P. Penh.  We did a bit of shopping and then today we caught the boat to Siem Reap.... It was a looooooong 5.5hr boat ride - but we made it eventually - the place we are staying is a bit out of town but really nice.  Have been dong a bit of market shopping this arvo (well I have  - silver jewellery is cheap!!!) We are getting up for the sunrise at Angkor Wat - hiring bicycles for the day and making our way round - should be good.
Then the day after I will be leaving :(  gone so quick - altho HCMC feels like ages ago now.
Anyway hope everyone is doing great...
Later gators!