Just Kathmandu it

One of my few regrets from my round-the-world trip was that I didn't budget my time well in Nepal. I didn't leave myself enough time to hike what is considered the best trail in Nepal, the Annapurna Circuit. I hiked to Annapurna Base Camp, but did not do the full circuit. It takes at least three weeks. The best time to do it is in October.

I just finished my TEFL class and have been stressing about where to teach. I haven't even decided which country to teach in, let alone which city, school or grade. I took a bus from Saigon to Phnom Penh and spent a couple days there. I took a bus from Phnom Penh to Bangkok, which is where I am now.

Tomorrow I fly to Kathmandu. I decided to take advantage of the opportunity. When is the next time I will have the entire month of October free? I really can't afford it, but I can't pass up the chance. It'll give me time to think, unwind and lose some weight!

I have a few more posts I'll try to publish before I hit the trail. I was flabbergasted last year when I found internet cafes on the trails in the Himalayas, so I wouldn't be surprised to find internet access on this hike. For all intents and purposes though, once I start the hike I will be off the grid for at least three weeks.

Travel tips: Nepal

To my great surprise, people actually seem to be reading my blog. It's fun to write, but even more so knowing someone is paying attention.

I've tried to focus on the positive and only write about negative experiences if I can find the humor in them, or if there's some sort of lesson to be learned. There have been too many great experiences and so many fantastic people to write about, so it doesn't make sense to waste any time on the the few exceptions.

However, perhaps it makes sense for me to at least point out cities, hostels, restaurants, travel agents, etc., that I think should be avoided, as well as ones that are worth checking out.

Thus begins the first installment of travel tips:

In Kathmandu, if you're looking for a travel agent do NOT use Himalayan Glacier. They were hideously expensive and set me up with one of the worst travel guides I've ever had. He was lazy, sleazy and dishonest.

In Kathmandu, if you're looking for a travel agent do NOT use Himalayan Trail Finder. I booked my trip to Chitwan National Park through them and they failed to pick me up, not once, but twice!

If you're looking for a place to stay in Chitwan National Park, do NOT go to Island Jungle Resort. I wrote a lengthy post about it in which I called "the world's most remote tourist trap."

In Pokhara, I highly recommend paragliding, but do NOT use the Blue Sky company. I wrote a post about how my pilot screwed up and I only got about half the time I paid for and all they offered me by way of "apology" was a free t-shirt.

In Pokhara, if you're looking for a guest house, do NOT use Karma Guest House.

If you want further details email me.

Kathmandu

Kathmandu is a city of about 750,000 that sprawls through the Kathmandu Valley. When I first started researching this trip years ago I was surprised to find that you shouldn't travel here in the summer because it's too hot. The image of Nepal in my mind is of frostbitten mountainclimbers, but Kathmandu is at roughly the same latitude as Miami. The valley is tropical.

The Himalayas sit like a wall on the other side of the valley, so as the monsoon rains roll in (as they are at the moment) the mountains are so high they essentially wring all the water out against them. So one side is a lush tropical valley, while on the other is a desert, the Tibetan plateau. The difference was quite striking to see on the flight in.

I'm staying in a tourist ghetto called Thamel. The first hippie hikers congregated in an area nearby which is still known locally as Freak Street. The streets are narrow and crammed full of people dodging rickshaws, bicycles, motorbikes and taxis. Tourist agencies, restaurants, souvenir shops, internet cafes, etc loom over the street.

Mt Everest

Ok, it was from the seat of my plane, but it was still pretty darn exciting to see it. It doesn't look so high, until you realize that it's poking through the clouds. In fact, on the plane's video screens they showed flight statistics shortly before we saw it and we were actually flying lower than the summit! Almost six miles, straight up...

I'm in Kathmandu, Nepal. I can't believe I'm finally here. I tried to plan a trip here in 2001 but the political situation got a little messy after the crown prince gunned down 10 members of the royal family, including the king, the queen and himself.

I woke up at about 7 a.m. yesterday in Xi'an, China, knowing I had a miserable travel day ahead of me. It's now 2:44 p.m. I haven't slept since yesterday morning. and I just I am way to tired to deal with it right now. I've never been anywhere so chaotic. It's wonderful, but I'm way too tired to deal with it today!

I wasn't looking forward to an 8-hour layover in Chengdu after arriving at 11 p.m. I figured I'd check in as early as possible so I could get a good window seat, then either try to sleep a little or just read.

Chengdu is a city of about 5 million people with a decent-sized international airport. The last flight arrived around 1 a.m. And then they closed the airport. Kicked us all out and locked the doors. I had to sit out on the sidewalk with about a dozen similarly shocked tourists. I was the only Westerner. Needless to say I didn't sleep.

I figured out how to ask for a window seat on the right so I could see the Himalaya from the air. She gave me a seat on the window, on the right-hand side and -- all together now -- on the wing!

It was quite cloudy in sections but even so I managed to take quite a few pretty amazing photos. I could barely open my eyes when we left Lhasa -- yes, I actually set foot on Tibetan soil -- but as soon as I saw the wall of mountains stuck my nose against the window like a little kid!

This was the initial approach into Tibet.



The white at the bottom is clouds, and then there are clouds over the peaks as well. And the Tibetan side is the low side.

The landscape was stupendous. Glaciers, glacial lakes, and in the valleys there were little villages where it didn't look like there was enough flat land to pitch a tent. I came here to trek. Maybe I'll even use this path.



This is going to be fun.