birthday and Xmas in religious places and no baby Jesus!

Here's some pictures from our alternative festive season so far. Firstly, there was my birthday on the 21st. We found out that Bodanath Buddhist Stupa, one of the KTM valley's World Heritage Sites, was always lit by butter lamps every full moon. Evidently, this is an auspicious date within the Himalayan Buddhist calendar. Turns out this coincided with my birthday, so we joined the march of pilgrims and the faithful in a number of clockwise circumnavigations. What an interesting people watching day this was. The usual tourists like us, Buddhist monks in their long maroon robes, including some Western monks too, Tibetan refugees with their hair in plaits coiled up on their heads and red wool woven through it. Some faithful even made their way around the stupa by making full prostrations on the ground. Everyone chanting mantras to themselves and swinging inscence too. Definitely a birthday to remember and very different to the previous 46! We ate nice food too and had a beer (third time in 3 months).

Christmas was a treat. We booked into the Newar Chen Hotel in Patan http://www.newachen.com/ Do check it out if you are ever in town. It's right off Durbur Square too.
This is a small boutique hotel made from a renovated Newar house. This is the local clan/tribal group of the KTM valley famous for the ornate window carvings. Oh what bliss, we didn't want to leave as this place was so lush and so comfortable and clean compared to our 500 rupees option back in Paknanjol! Here's a picture of Greg and I having breakfast on Xmas morning. Note down jackets - it does get chilly at night (about 2C) although not as cold as Blighty at the mo I know. More to follow on various adventures and activities before we leave Nepal on the 4th January for a night sleeping in Mumbai airport mmmmmm.

Bits and bobs

The Wise Man of the Himalaya

We'd been up Island Peak and had been in the hills for 4 weeks. We wanted out to warmth and green things and I wanted steak and beer. Heading to Lukla we stopped late in the day and I walked into a rather attractive lodge. I asked if they had rooms and the guy said yes but I couldn't afford to stay there. A bit offended as we still has a decent stash of cash I asked how much it was.
He replied matter of factly it was $150 a night.
I clapped him on the shoulder and advised he was very wise as I backed out the door into the cold dark night. We stayed next door for $2 and a guy called Sonam served us breakfast the next day. Over coffee and a chat we discovered he had been with Stu Peacock as a Sherpa on his Everest summit. If anyone speaks to him pass on Sonam's regards!

Insider Information

When we arrived in Lukla the airport had been closed for a week due to bad weather. Tickets were being re-confirmed and cancelled quicker than a bottle of wine disappears on a Friday night. Town was packed full of stressed out trekkers. Me and Liz arrived with no tickets or reservations but with some insider knowledge. The clouds cleared and the first flight left at 7 am the next morning. We were on the second flight at 7:10 am. Back in Kathmandu in 40 minutes. It had taken us 9 days to walk in that far. We left behind lots of angry and frustrated faces who had sat there for a week. Still my steak and beer tasted great.

Rest and recuperation

We headed to lakeside at Pokhara and stayed as the first and only guests in a new hotel. The owners spoke French and Nepali but no English. Communication was pantomime and pointing. I sat on the balcony for a week indulging in the local delicacies and Liz got restless. We headed up to Annapurna Base Camp a "quick" 8 day trip by our new standards. Base Camp is incredible perhaps more so than anything on the previous trek. An amphitheatre of mountains after you emerge out of bamboo forests. We played lots of poker with Bilbao Basques and Korean trekkers and walked up and down the thousands of stone steps that make up the trail. I do feel a bit trekked out now.

Annapurna Sanctuary

Set off on this trek on December 1st by taking a taxi to the trail start at Phedi. How not the Khumbu this is and I am so enjoying the contrast. So warm as well - about 25C. Yip yip yip! The trail started with steep zig-zags up between fields and meets a ridge top at Deorli about an hour and a half later. Then the pair of doughnuts that we are, followed a brilliantly made, paved trail through the rest of the village downhill and through more fields. Lots of people busy in their day to day chores, ploughing fields, thrashing and drying millet, chopping (pruning?) trees. Then, after not seeing a single other walker or bhatti (local tea shack) we decided to consult the map. Wrong way - so after me having a hissy fit as it was obviously Greg's fault (I have an ML after all), we made our way back up hill (in silence).

The real trail followed a ridge and then up through woodland. Two village strays (dogs) decided to accompany us in between trying to bite off each other's ears, and then we heard a right old commotion in the valley that definitely involved something bovine. Anyhow, it all went silent so we carried on. A few minutes later, two guys were coming towards us in the opposite direction. "Did you hear all that noise?" "Yes, a tiger has attacked a cow" No way was I going to believe this, but we kept the dogs with us so that they could get eaten first. Oh yes, and Greg and I were friends again by then so I couldn't really push him in front either!

The next three days involved really gradual climbing up the Modi Khosa (river) valley and going through some really picturesque villages. This time the local were from the Gurung tribe (related to Tibetan people), but not as much Buddhist in your face as the Khumbu as there were few stupas, prayer flags and gompas (oh yeah and no yaks too - too low and warm - see previous post to explain).

Nights are starting to get get quite cold now (December after all) and once the sun went in it was quite cold. How grateful we were to our massive 4 season bags and down jackets. I reckon at Annapurna BC it was about -10C outside during the night is not more.

Instead of having a yak burning stove as we had been used to, the lodges on this trek put kerosene gas burners under the table (often in a small pit). The table has heavy matting as a sort of skirt, under which your legs are warmed up draught free. I thought my manmade fibre soft shell pants would melt, nevermind being overcome by carbon monoxide poisoning! Noisy and smelly it was, but it worked. Flippin 100 rupees each though for the pleasure..hmm.

Well, I've seen some mountain panoramas in my time, but the Annapurna Sanctuary is amazing. 360 degrees of 7000 and 8000m giants. Annapurna South, 1, 2 & 3, Machupuchre (Fishtail), Annapurna itself...... Quite awestruck actually. We have a lovely video of this, but uploading is still a problem, so it will just have to wait.I would really reccomend this trek as a first time Himalaya taster.

No altitude problems which was good, and I learnt how to play poker with our new pals from Bilbao and Korea. I also saw my first wild monkeys in the bamboo and birch forest on the way down. A small family group were divided by the trail and were making a big noise calling to each other. One half eventually decided that they were going across, so they literally swang across the branches over our heads leaving the baby behind! Baby didn't like this and made very wimpery sort of noises as being the shortie of the family he just couldn't keep up with the big guys. Poor parenting I say! Liz Kay cute attack!

Got back to Pokhara and our friendly Yesmi guesthouse on December 8th via public bus from Naya Pul and have noticed even Pokhara is now colder...brrrrrr.