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.

Island Peak, yaks and people

In my attempt of trying to round things off a bit so I can keep the blog more in real time, I thought I would try and write a little about all of the below as all three impressed us greatly. I will also get Greg to recount his stories about looking too poor to aford a certain lodge in Pangboche, and how to buy air tickets when there's a five day wait!

Island Peak (Imja Tse) 6189m

The highest point so far in our relationship (groan)! At about 8.30am on the morning of November 14th, Greg and I heaved ourselves up onto the snowy summit of Island Peak. Originally climbed in the 50s by Eric Shipton as a warm up for an Everest expedition, he re-named Imja Tse thus, because it does indeed stand out as an island in it's own bit of space surrounded by 8000m giants of Lhotse, Nuptse, Everest, Makalu etc. We set off at 1am in the morning and trudged our way up a morraine track and then a scramble (looked well dodgy in the light of descent), up onto the glacier for the final headwall and summit ridge. It was all a bit strange on these sections as we would normally have roped up and climbed these bits alpine stylee, but no complaints as this was tough and slow work due to the lack of oxygen. So, like all the climbers there we jumared our way up and followed the other couple of groups ahead of us. Oh how slow we felt, our climbing sherpa, Kar Jong Dorjee was hopping and skipping his way up, and I know I felt like some kind of geriatric patient with my carer in tow. Anyhow, we got there, and back (despite a dodgy tum) and were sitting supping tea with Pemba (our cook) and Kumar (kitchen boy) back at base camp (@4900m) at around 1pm the same day.

Not the most technical of climbs I have ever subjected myself to, but definitely one of the hardest days of effort ever in terms of stamina.

Pictures above show approaching the summit ridge, looking back down the ridge from the top, Greg and Kar Jong and one of us both on the summit.

I do have some video footage of us on the top and will post it, if you, dear readers pertiton for a showing. However, it contains scatalogical expletives (Greg) so I don't want to upset anyone. Let me know if you want to see it and I'll add it when next on line. The views are great. In the meantime, I will post a panoramic view from the top of Chukhung Ri (about 5500m) used as a warm up for Island Peak.

Thanks go to Tim Mosedale our Mr. Fix-it, who we sorted out climbing logistics for Island peak months before we left UK. Check out his website and B&B in Keswick.

Yaks

Yaks are cool! Or rather I should write, yaks really like the cool and if you bring them down lower than about 3500m they start to overheat, pant and might collapse. All this was explained to us by a yak herder from Khumjung on our way down to Namache. Evidently, dzos (half yak/cow infertile cross) are much more versitile as they can withstand cold (althought I don't know how as they're defo not so woolly) and they can go lower as well - bargin. However, a good yak will set you back for about 3000 pounds, and you might have to pay as much as 26,000 pounds for a dzo. So, next time you are considering a new second hand car, think, you can only afford a yak!

Yaks have very very broad foreheads (sort of cute), very hairy legs, and the occassional one looks like it would gladly flip you off the path with it's horns. Always pass a yak on it's uphill side as there is a history of dead trekkers being accidently barged off the path into the ravine below by trying to squeeze through on the downhill (I kid not). What else, yak babies seem to live in Phortse and they are definitely very cute.

Yaks are made to wear bells and sound like cows in Alpine Meadows. White yaks are considered very special and go for a wing and a (Buddhist) prayer.

Oh yes, and a female yak is called a nak and therefore there is no such thing as yak cheese - get it?

Apologies as yak video downloaded onto it's side. Please adjust your screens.

People



Our William (nephew aged 5) asked a really good question the other day. He asked me on our Skype connection, whether we had made any new friends - which I thought was a very good question.



The answe is yes we have. We met loads of interesting people on the Jiri to NB stretch. mostly independant trekkers like ourselves. Reassuringly, we have also met quite a few other couples who were doing exactly a similar sort of thing to us in taking some time out from work, renting (and even letting go of) their homes and squandering their savings! So hi to all you guys out there. Let's keep in touch! Only thing is, most of them are about 15 - 20 years younger than us, so I guess it's more of a pre-kids sort of thing. Quite right too, you should have a history with someone before making babies otherwise there would be no stories to tell them at bedtime etc.



We have also met some interesting locals. Whilst staying at the Panorama Lodge, Chukhung, they were having their annual lodge Puja. A Puja is a Buddhist ceremony of cleansing and purification/blessing ie it is done every morning in each household and in the monastery at Tengboche it takes about 3 hrs every morning and 3hrs every evening. So, in-situ in the dining room for two whole days running were two monks (Lama) from the monastery surrounded by all their paraphanalia (drums, symbols, scriptures, insence burners). Buddhist prayer involves a lot os chanting whuch might sound like mumbling, but it can also be quite soothing. Whulst all this was going on, normal lodge life carried on with people coming in and out, chatting, cups of tea in comfort breaks etc. Whuch gets me to the point, in those comfort breaks, we got the chance to talk to one of the monks, Thelea Sherpa. We asked him what they were doing, how do the symbols help and just general questions about his faith. It's really complicated and I couldn't possibly pretend to understand it all, but on the whole it's all really sound stuff. they are praying for every sentient being alive, spend years before they are competent to know all the prayers sufficiently to be accomplished, spend hours in meditation or group prayer and provide a service for the local community. There seemed to be a lot of isolated meditation going on, which I do have some problems with in terms of how beneficial it all is, but the deep respect for live and peaceful resolution is something we can only aspire to. The monks left really early after their two days, so I didn't get the chance to say thankyou for our conversation, so it was nice when we bumped into Thelea on our way down to NB, as he was huffing and puffing on his way up to Pangboche for some scripture study.



Two other cool dudes we met were Tsewang Paljon Sherpa (3 yrs) and his kid brother, Tsering Wangchup Sherpa (2 years) see above. These kids were so bright. We spent hours looking at animal pictures in a copy of National Geographic as they were trying to teach me the Sherpa (not Nepali) word and I was teaching the English. Their pronouncination was excellent. I really want to keep in touch with their family as they were really good people and we enjoyed our time in their company.




Mrs Tashi Sherpa - an old pal of Tim Mosedale. Tashi and her husband own the Ama Dablam Lodge in Kenjoma. Rick and I stayed there 6 years ago, but my how business has boomed. Anyhow, Tashi warmly welcomed us with lemon teas, excellent dal bhatt and scrumy cake as we were passing on our way down. I'm certain Tashi looks younger than 6 years ago, and pulled her leg about cosmetic surgery when she's in the States each year. She looks great. Probably the best shower in the Khumbu also.


Nepalis still can't close doors though!