Despite the warnings of other travelers, we initially looked into a two-night trip. One night would encompass the pure tourist attraction of staying in a fully-furnished tent or in a traditional mud hut while the last night would plop us in the middle of a secluded Rajasthani desert for an evening under the stars. The research, however, proved the two-night trip to be far more expensive than what we originally planned. So, to avoid the extra expense, we settled on one night of seclusion under the stars.

After a quick breakfast of curd and tea, we were whisked away, Indian fashion (like sardines), in a small jeep-like car. While the locals might have stuffed 10 or 12 people in this space, we only managed 8. That was still more than enough for the 6-person capacity vehicle we actually had. At least this allowed for a very ‘intimate’ (arms in face, feet on feet) atmosphere to get to know our fellow travelers….

Before going to meet and greet our camels, there were a couple of tourist sites to stop at along the way. The first site was a sort of cemetery for the Maharajahs of old. There was an entry fee of 50 rupees per person as well as a camera charge that caused everybody but G and I to stay in a safe fee-free zone. But we figured that’s what we were here for, so we paid and went to check it out.

[ngfilename filename='p1110106.jpg' float=left] G and I walked around the site, and while I fiddled with the GPS, G took some awesome pictures. The architecture and carvings around the epitaphs were absolutely stunning. It amazes me still how something so exquisite could be done with a chisel and hammer, and, in some instances, a chisel alone!

Unfortunately, the epitaphs were all in Hindi, so it left us wondering what they said.

The next couple of stops were a couple of Jain temples, a ghost town, and a painted village. Now, I must say that once you see one Jain temple in the middle of the desert, you’ve seen them all. However, the one G and I looked forward to most housed a famous BEARDED black cobra. This fabled cobra is said to be a reincarnated priest who continues to look after the temple.

We have heard that the cobra does indeed have a beard, and we have also heard that he actually has an oh-my-god-it’s-not-still-the-80s hairdo. [ngfilename filename='p1110135.jpg' float=right] Imagination going wild after hearing the stories, six of us huddled around a small hole in the side of a beautifully carved Jain temple, all trying to catch a glimpse.

For the first couple of minutes we all stood looking at the hole. After that, and for the next 10 minutes, we individually walked the complex, went back to the hole, walked the complex, and then checked one last time. We were all a little disappointed, but we hopped back in the jeep and were on the road to the ghost town, knowing that at least a bearded cobra exists. Rest assured, I’ll be keeping my eyes peeled for any type of hair-sprouting reptile for the remainder of our trip!

The ghost town was situated out in the middle of nowhere, and sat as a huge pile of rubble where houses once stood. It was a village long since deserted, but whose story is that of campfire legends:

It is said that long ago, there was a politician with an insatiable lust. He took a young girl every night for carnal pleasure, and, when the night was over, had the girl executed. As it had happened elsewhere many times before, the politician visited this village and found a particular female to fulfill his carnal desires. Fortunately for the girl, the family caught wind of the politician’s plans. They conspired with all the villagers to pick up and leave town before the politician returned to steal their daughter. Having to desert town on such little notice, the villagers left most of their belongs behind. However, before vacating the town, the villagers placed a curse on it. Anybody who removed an item would be dealt a sad ending.

[ngfilename filename='p1110166.jpg' float=left width='300'] As with all ghost stories, I took it with a grain of salt (but quietly hoped we’d find an interesting treasure). We were deposited at the surrounding wall of the now crumbled town, and walked among the rubble. Cactus, sandstone, goats, and sheep were all that could be seen, but a certain eeriness remained as we walked the village roads. It was like an echo from the past that bounced off the sandstone walls.

After searching a couple of would-be rooms and imagining the grandeur that once was, I started to head back. I was caught off guard by how far I had walked and was amazed at how far the town stretched. I could only begin to imagine how it must have looked when people filled the streets with fruit carts or craft shops. I climbed back into the jeep, and we were on our way to the last stop: the painted village.

The jeep stopped in the middle of a small “village” that contained about six mud huts. On the right, three of the mud huts were painted with floral designs, and surrounded by a three-foot tall, similarly painted, wall. On the left were some plain mud huts of equal design, but lacking the colorful exterior. At this point I think we were all a bit more excited about the camel part of our safari so we only spent a couple of minutes looking at the village from a distance before piling back into our vehicle.

After about 20 minutes of driving we stopped, and met our seven groaning camels.

Before you grab a hump and hop on, take a pre-camel desert tour through the cenotaphs, Lodhruva – home of the bearded cobra, and the abandoned village in the pre-camel safari tour photos.

Beep beep all aboard the fun jeep! is a post from: Backpacking Travel Stories from Asia

The last days in Nepal were an awesome whirlwind of more wonderful Kathmandu food, Ray getting our first care package from his parents, visiting beautiful Bhaktapur, having a fun lunch and hanging out in a HOUSE again with Heather and Maike, a great American and Fijian couple that Ray had met on the bus from Pokhara to Kathmandu, visiting the Monkey Temple, and sending our first package of souvenirs and unneeded items back home. I hate to crunch it all together like this, but time constraints necessitate it. Check out the album for some great pics of the last days in this great land!

Dear Nepal, you held all that we hoped and then even more! From visa headaches (put an ATM IN the airport if you’re going to demand foreign currency, maybe?), to meeting Luis, to the giantest stupa I ever did see, elephant bathtimes and rhino safaris, Buddha’s birthplace and evil long bus rides, driving as dodgy as India (or moreso!) which I never thought possible, a long cold that would not die, pedal boats across the lake in Pokhara, a fantastic 4-day kayak clinic and its accompanying heart attacks (of AWESOMENESS!), some great Nepali guides -Santosh, Sayas and Bhanja- and friends and other super helpful people – what what, Kelly from Canada at Paddle Nepal, the bunnies at Yeti Guest House, a long and beautiful bike ride racing with the local boy who RAN home to get his bike so he could pedal with us, finishing off with an amazing and wondrous rafting journey through gorges and jungles and past villages, then hangin with our cool new friends Heather and Maika and sight-seeing some beautiful things in Kathmandu, especially Bhaktapur square.

But let’s not forget the most important thing about you, Nepal. You eat cows. Thank you for everything…especially that. I thought we might have to go home about 2 1/2 years sooner than planned just for want of a Philly cheesesteak. But you have refilled our iron count, and now with steely determination…

ONWARDS, back to INDIA til January!!!!

Check out the photos of beautiful Bhaktapur and the photo album of lunch with Heather and Maike and the visit to the monkey temple.

So long, Nepal! It’s been a blast! is a post from: Backpacking Travel Stories from Asia

Now, finding an address to send the package to was a little tough. G and I weren’t going to be staying in any one place long enough to have it shipped to a guest house, so I decided the next best thing was to have my mom address the package to a business. The business was the same company we had booked our elephant safari with. Unfortunately, there was a bit of a communication breakdown when it came to informing the Ultimate Descents employees that I had a package arriving from overseas. There was much repeating of the phrase: “No I don’t want to BOOK a package” as well as an upper body charade illustrating what a package should look like with my hands.

A couple of weeks later, when I stopped by the Ultimate Descents’ Kathmandu office, I was informed that a package had arrived. After my last communication with the company, I was doubtful the package would ever make it into my hands. To my surprise, the package didn’t actually arrive at the business’ location, it was waiting at the post office. The next thing I knew I was in a rickshaw with an Ultimate Descents employee en route to pick up the aforementioned package.

After a hair-raising 30 minutes by bicycle rickshaw, a trip that involved more dodging than moving, we made it to a gated complex. It was something akin to a concentration camp, you know, something straight out of World War II. It stood as a mountain of cement, perfectly structured to house an ambush from all sides. Inside I was sure I was going to see the Third Reich’s armies flood me with a rain of fire.

We walked past some accident-battered buses painted a fading and putrid army green, and into a small building just within the walls of the complex. This building housed all of the smaller post office boxes. Since we were here, the Ultimate Descents employee took the opportunity to check the mail. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a slip saying that my package was waiting to be picked up. I was slightly crushed, knowing that some packages that go into the Asian postal systems are never to be seen again.

After the employee gathered the dusty mail and I had a chance to thoroughly inspect the poor excuses for locks on each of the individual boxes, we proceeded to another room. Here there was much Nepali spoken, my name butchered with each iteration, and an eventual “show me passport” which I did, hoping they would finally get my name right. It took a moment for them to figure out that I was from the USA, and then they proceeded to gather all the boxes from the US inside a tiny room. During the search they threw the boxes around much in the same fashion you’d throw trash into a bin: with little regard for whatever fragility the contents of the box contained. Unfortunately, no dice. The Ultimate Descents employee said “no to worry, we check someplace else” as we proceeded to walk out of this building and into another one.

Inside there was a reception area with an L-shaped desk about 10 feet long. The room was massive, making the desk look small. There was a clerk at this desk, who I will now refer to as #1. After explaining the situation to the clerk, the Ultimate Descents employee, clerk, and I went back to a room hidden just behind the reception desk. The Lonely Planet we had with us warned about the length of time it takes to receive packages in Nepal and after seeing this room I no longer had to wonder why it would take months at a time for anything to arrive.

The room was filled with packages stacked from floor to ceiling in a fashion I could not understand. The numbers on each of the boxes were not incrementing or decrementing, and, from what I could tell, were nothing more than just stacks of boxes lined up just enough so that the clerks wouldn’t be killed in an avalanche of cardboard. #1 continued to a small desk that seemed to be the most organized. On top of the desk was a manila folder that contained package receipts. #1 started looking through the receipts and found my name 2 or 3 papers in. I was relieved, since this meant the package had indeed arrived. I was handed this sheet of paper, and told to go back out into the reception. This is where the fun began.

At this point, #1 said he needed a copy of my passport to show that it was indeed me who received the package. The Ultimate Descents employee helped me out by getting that photo copy, and I was directed to another room off to the right, room #31 to be exact. Here I showed a copy of the package receipt to a group of 6 non-English speaking Nepalis. One of them, who I will refer to as #2, waved me over, saw the receipt, and handed me a carbon filled stack of papers while saying “25 rupees”. I think this was an application fee? Next he proceeded to charade me into filling out the form. When I looked down I noticed the entire form was in Nepalese. After asking for an English form, I was again presented with a charade to fill out the Nepali form. A blank look formed on my face, and an impatient look formed on #2′s. I’m not quite sure why, but I must have interrupted a very important discussion between this group of work-deprived employees.

Fortunately for me, the package receipt had all the needed information, so #2 proceeded to ‘connect the dots’, pointing to each boxed section and then to the information on the package receipt. After the second box I started to wonder why he didn’t just do it for me. The last thing needed was my signature, which he charaded with an ‘air signature’. Once this was complete he pointed out the door, and down the hallway to the next station with a decisive jabbing motion. Having no idea what he actually meant, I went out the door, looked around, pointed to the application form while looking at #1 and was told to go back into the room I just came from. After more blank looks, #2 pointed again in the direction I was supposed to go. I went out the door looking more confused than ever, checked with #1 again, and then went back into the room. The gentleman sitting right next to #2 waved me over, and took my application. Apparently I wasn’t supposed to go next door, I was supposed to go to the next person in the line who I will now call #3. From here #3 checked the form, wrote something in Nepalese, then pointed me to another clerk, #4, who sat no more than five feet in front of #3. I gave #4 the form, he glanced at it, gave it back and told me to see #3 again. Five. Feet. Away.

After looking over it a second time, #3 told me to go back outside and talk to #1. I went outside, and there was, by some grace of the organizational god, a package with my name on it. #1 then took my application and told me to go on the other side of the desk. I’m not entirely sure the purpose of this 5-foot walk since each side of this L-shaped desk had the same amount of space, but I obliged. Then #1 asked me if he could open it, and as I said yes, he pulled out this ridiculously over-sized, Crocodile Dundee knife and made a 1-inch incision, ripping the rest of the tape open. #1 then went to grab #3, who walked a whole 10 feet to inspect the contents of the box. After a whopping 3 seconds, he walked back into room 31. #1 then told me I needed to go back into room 31 to see #3.

I went back into the little room with 6 useless people, and went straight to #3 who said “60 rupees.” Now, I’m not entirely sure what this was for, but I’m thinking it had something to do with customs taxes, or a contribution to the sacred postal temple. After writing on the application a second time, #3 told me to go see #1 again. After seeing #1, I was told to sign the back of my package receipt with a name and address. Then, out of nowhere, a masculine woman appeared and with a gruff voice told me to sign a book. As I signed, she barked “10 rupees”. I have no idea what the hell this was for, though it seemed like I was paying for space for my signature… After this, #1 then handed me my box of goodies. I held on to that box like gold until I arrived back at the guest house…. where I grabbed G and rushed to the nearest bar.

Retrieving my first Care package from Home, or: “Don’t MAKE me go Postal on you” is a post from: Backpacking Travel Stories from Asia

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Interestingly, one unique feature about this temple (besides the holy man who was murmuring chants while wearing an iPod) is a an apparently very heavy rock that weighs much more than it looks like it should. Between my angry feet and now even angrier chafed nether regions, my body suggested to me in no uncertain terms that I ought not put it through any further undue stress, as the climb up the stairs to the temple had been offensive enough and that we would be having a little chit-chat later on about this whitewater rafting “fun” I’d subjected it to for the past week. So I didn’t try the rock. But watching the guys struggle to do their circumambulations with it was proof enough.

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It was the weirdest thing; as we exited the mountains that had cradled us for so many miles and so many days, the river getting bigger and bigger as a number of other rivers joined it, the mouth opened up so wide and into such desolation, it looked just like we were about to go out onto the ocean. Then, as the dusty Terai region channeled off bits of the river to dams or irrigation schemes, by the time we reached our end point, we were down to little more than a large canal. We got to the take-out and somehow wrangled our group together to get a group shot, then while the Nepalis packed up, they sent the whiteys off to the nearby town to get drinks and snacks for the ensuing 20-hour (for a few of us) bus journey home.

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I knew we’d been out in the sticks for awhile, but I wondered if maybe we’d missed more going on in the world than we’d thought?

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Just kidding – apparently Nepal is on a different year-schedule, though I never did quite get an explanation as to why or how it works. So, snacks in hand and bus loaded, we got on the bus and settled in for another long haul. We drove along the river for a little while longer, and it was amazing to think about how this

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and this

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had now become this:

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It had been quite an incredible trip indeed. Now just the long 20-hour ride home and a few last days to enjoy our now-beloved Nepal (and beef!) lay in store.

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There are – of COURSE! – albums of all the people and the trip in the gallery.

Awesome Rafting Trip, Days 8-9 of 9: Last Day on the Water and a Loooong Bus Ride Home is a post from: Backpacking Travel Stories from Asia

Omfg. I’ve gotten Ray’s foot thing and I’m afraid my toe is going to explode. It hurts SO f-ing bad and is getting worse. Ray just came and consoled me that my toe’s not going to explode, fall off, have to be cut off, infect my whole body, or kill me. But I dunno… :/

So I don’t want to say “I’m glad the trip is almost over” cuz I’m not, cuz I know I’ll miss it, but I think my body is. In addition to this toe BS that happened last night, I’ve got some massively painful chafeage going on on my thighs too. And my f-ing head cold is still going on. AGH!

On a brighter note, we just came from a cool little village walk (bought 2 packs of cheese balls for 7 Rs each on the way out) and saw some really cool houses, villagers, chickens with chicks, and even got to try Roxy, Nepali moonshine. I only had a tiny bit to try it because it tasted terrible and I was a little afraid of any local water being on the cup, as we have a looooong bus ride ahead of us to get back to Kathmandu – ~10 hours to Chitwan where most people will be getting off, then I think they said 8 hours to Kathmandu though I thought it only took us 5.5 hours when we went.

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Anyway today was pretty fun, all things considered. I had a terrible nightmare about Luis (random) being a weird stalker killer man, and got up at 6am so me, Maikke, Germaine and Chelsea could go canyoning. I looked around but no one else was there so went back to bed til Ray said “Aren’t you going on your hike?” and when I told him no one else was up he said he thought I was supposed to wake them up so I got back up and called Maikke and she said she still wanted to go. I didn’t know where Chelsea was, which tent, and we saw Germaine but she didn’t look ready or too fussed about going so it was just the two of us. It was fun, we only went as far as the pool. I climbed up the waterfall again because it’s fun and to see the view, but I stupidly got totally stuck.

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It was scary when I ran out of options and all I had left to do was slide down this wall and hope it didn’t F me up too bad.

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It was pretty scary, but to be honest not as bad as that same spot yesterday when I almost got pushed down by the force of the waterfall. That really could potentially have been catastrophic. I really can’t believe we climbed as high as we did the day before. But, since nothing ended worse than my hand being sore since I must have banged it up on my slide down and maybe the hiking aggravated my feet to where they are now…now it was just a fun, crazy adventurous experience (or two).

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At the lunch stop Ray found a HUGE lizard, we think maybe the same kind (only big) as the little copper ones from way back in Mcleod Ganj. Oh and on the hike I saw huge worms with blue…blood maybe?

Oh and yesterday I think I forgot to mention this HUGE wave we went past – it had to be at least 15 ft tall, maybe 20. It was unbelievable. Today, Kalu’s boat flipped in this comparably completely insignificant little wave/hole – they didn’t have enough momentum and after nearly dump-trucking – then recovering – got sucked BACK into it and flipped! It was great. The only bad thing was Dieter got a cut on his finger and was bleeding but he’s ok.

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So now I’m sitting with my feet in an iodine bath, hoping this f-ing thing goes away quickly. Getting our book signed and maybe gonna go drink our pains and troubles away. :)

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From the Personal (Hand-written!) Files: Awesome Rafting Trip, Day 7 of 9 is a post from: Backpacking Travel Stories from Asia

Wow I’m actually writing tonight! Today was cool, the highlight definitely being the “canyoning” that Dieter, Wouter and I all did up the waterfall in an impromptu, treacherous, slippery, and probably completely stupid journey we took to go as high up as we could. It was crazy and probably crazy-stupid but it sure was fun and challenging! Tomorrow Germaine, Maikke, Chelsea and I are going to do it again – this time with helmet, maybe even a lifejacket. Anyway plus volleyball was pretty fun. Ray’s foot will hopefully get better soon! :( (He’s gotten a painful fungus from the constant wetness they think).

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We did the “Continuous” rapid today, which it was, but not real technical, just big waves. The lunch stop was cool too, there was this huge waterfall that gave off such a wind from the pressure of the water coming down that it could almost blow you over.

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By some grace of the river gods, while the Nepalis were setting up lunch, all 19 of us foreign-folk managed to be in one place so I grabbed the opportunity for a shot of us.

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What a crazy life this is, rafting every day, camping every night! It’s been great, can’t believe tomorrow’s the last full day! :(

P.S. Dinner tonight was vegetarian lasagna and pork from the pig they butchered?, and last night was pineapple chicken and rice.

From the Personal (Hand-written!) Files: Awesome Rafting Trip, Day 6 of 9 is a post from: Backpacking Travel Stories from Asia

I’m finding it necessary to write these things the day following since the evenings are spent having so much fun. :) Last night was cool, Ray and I had a lot of fun just doing puppet shadows on the tent, and Dave’s piano was awesome to listen to.

Rafting-wise it was pretty cool. There was one we stopped to scout – Dead Man’s Eddy – but apparently it’s totally changed so was not a big deal, as long as you go right (left and you get pushed into a wall and whirlpool). We were worried for a moment though because Kalu’s boat of Belgians and a gear boat both got sucked left and I think we were all still kind of on edge from yesterday’s stretch, but they were able to eddy out and were ok, though they had to line the boats the rest of the way around the island. Meanwhile, the dead cow that had floated past us earlier that morning at camp seemed to be swirling around and around the whirlpool…

From the Personal (Hand-written!) Files: Awesome Rafting Trip, Day 5 of 9 is a post from: Backpacking Travel Stories from Asia

Today will be written in retrospect because yesterday/today was a party hardy day and I was too party-hardied to do much more than pass out. Since our tent had apparently been left open we had a ton of water in it when we did finally head for bed but I probably could have slept in standing water and not cared too much by that point. Pretty much the rest of the group was the same way, and I suspect it was consciously or subconsciously as an answer to a very contrasting mood of the rest of the day before that.

Anyway it was nice to have a big party night because the day had been extremely disturbing and I spent most of my day pretty preoccupied by it. And I wasn’t even there or know the guy!

We had known there was going to be a big rapid today, but it turns out we didn’t know the whole story then. Frankly I’m glad I didn’t know the whole trip or else it probably would have been on my mind the whole time. I’m really surprised it didn’t come up.

So as we were getting ready to head out in the morning, Kieran tells us that Sean had told him a buddy of his had died in the rapid we were doing this morning. This was disconcerting enough and I couldn’t stop thinking “now why the hell would you tell that story the morning of”, especially to someone who was already kinda nervous about the whole thing like Kieran was. He said then that the guy was also a guide. Hard to imagine, but then again lots of river people have friends-who-died stories, it’s a sad but unfortunately real part of this pursuit. Even I’ve seen it.

Well when we stopped to scout the (rather monstrous) rapid, we learned more. He wasn’t just Sean’s friend, or just a guide, from some obscure time and place far-removed from Here and Now. He was a Nepali guide and it just happened TWO WEEKS AGO.

The guides, I was told, had scouted the rapid on that trip, as is customary in the river rafting industry for large rapids, and didn’t want to do it. The customers were up for it though – and I found this to be an especially striking detail perhaps for members on both sides of the cultural fence to consider – and as one of the Nepali guides told us, it isn’t in the Nepali culture to really say no.

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The raft didn’t flip, but the guide and two customers fell out. The customers were picked up by the safety kayakers and the guide seemed to be ok, even shouting paddle commands from the side to the boat as it went down the second rapid. But he didn’t make it. The rapid hadn’t been run since, and though we looked at it for a long time, the water is still high and the guides ultimately elected not to run the rapid because of the second one soon after and if we (likely?) flipped, we’d be swimming it. It was just fine with all of us.

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What a terrible experience that had to have been, for everyone. I just can’t imagine the gruesome experience of having to bring a body with you, especially one you’d just been laughing and talking and enjoying the scenery with, as we had been for 3 days now. Even if it is something that comes with this territory, it’s still completely disturbing to me and I had a really hard time shaking it. I wonder if he was supposed to be on this trip with us; they said some of the younger guides who were on the trip with us, mostly as crew, had been on that trip. It was evident after that point, around that area until camp, that there were ghosts among them. After portaging the first and before running the second rapid, the guides had a small tribute to him, bought him a bottle of whiskey which they poured on the ground and passed around, and a portion of rice and an orange that they stuck a bunch of incense into. Such a strange thing, to imagine.

I don’t remember too much else, I’m sure the scenery was beautiful, as it has been. The river is getting ever-wider, as yesterday (today) the Dudh Kosi also joined us, plus with the TON of rain we got last night (tonight) the water has come up quite a lot. The party we had last night (that night) was pretty crazy, a ton of us white people and Nepalis all crowded under the kitchen tent away from the rain, drums and Nepali songs, beer, and Jason bringing in foil packets of goat from the rainy campfire, which the funny guy that the Nepalis were excited to meet up with and bring to the camp with us had gotten from across the river. I didn’t have any because it neither sounded nor looked good (I’ve had goat before so I wasn’t cheating myself of a try-new-things experience), so I made do on rice and fries – and beer – and, like everyone else, tried to move on from the haunting moments of that day and that stretch of the river.

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From the Personal (Hand-written!) Files: Awesome Rafting Trip, Day 4 of 9 is a post from: Backpacking Travel Stories from Asia

Word up. Just a short entry because I’m tired and want to go to bed and warding off a lame cold becoming a bad cold plus talking to Sean about my failings with WA and River Runners has put me into a bit of a funk.

I’m having a pretty good time, though there’s something about rafting and raft trips that make me feel like I just SHOULD be having a good time more than it being a genuine, legitimate sensation. It’s not that I’m not, it’s just that I feel obligated. (See, told you I was in a funk).

Anyway the cool thing of today was the hordes of kids that constantly come running – running! – out just to watch or wave or greet us as we float by. I swear sometimes it seems like maybe they’ve saved up their voices for weeks just for that moment, the 20 seconds that we’re in sight.

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The scenery was quite nice too. Lots of green mountains covered in jungle and the occasional small village with their brown wooden or bamboo villages and thatched roofs, or just a lone house overlooking the river and some small rice paddies.

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Goats or cows being herded along the banks by women or children, water buffaloes being…watered… I love the water buffaloes. People treading along small paths carved into the cliffs, weighted down with massive loads of grass or sticks or bricks or supplies that would probably require three Americans or, scratch that -a pickup truck- to carry, anchored to their backs by a strip of cloth wrapped around their foreheads, their heads and neck muscles bearing the brunt of the weight.

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And there was quicksand at lunch and finally enough camp time to kick back and read a book. Tomorrow apparently there’s a huge rapid just around the bend…

From the Personal (Hand-written!) Files: Awesome Rafting Trip, Day 3 of 9 is a post from: Backpacking Travel Stories from Asia

River time takes over! I have no idea what time it is – post dinner and fire time so = bed time! The neatest/weirdest thing we saw today was definitely the body wrapped in fabric being ready to be cremated into the water. That was strange. Also the kids all along the villages always SO excited run out to the banks or onto the bridge to get to wave to us passing by and to yell “Bye! Bye!” as loud as they can, as long as they can.

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We paddled a long time today so that we can try to have a layover day. Not sure if it’s worth it if it means not having much time in camp the rest of the time but we’ll see. Tonight for dinner had rice, dhal, chicken, veggie curry and spicy “pickle” stuff. And like 4 beers and Ray had rum punch and a beer. Used the pot too, it was quite civilized (they have a seat affixed to some metal bars that fold out to a normal height. Very nice.). And caught my first firefly.

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Oh and there’s monkeys across the river! LOTS of em!!

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From the Personal (Hand-written!) Files: Awesome Rafting Trip, Day 2 of 9 is a post from: Backpacking Travel Stories from Asia

Wow time flies. I had to stop writing there (arrival in Pokhara hand-written entry) because it started raining on me and now we’re already gone from Pokhara and on our big river journey! The Karnali trip that we’d waited with bated breath for 4 weeks to see if it was going to pan out (we needed 4 other participants) ended up not going, but it was just as well because we had decided by then that we wanted to do this Sun Kosi trip. Nim at Paddle Nepal in Pokhara had REALLY talked it up and Kelly echoed that it would be really awesome since there were a bunch of cool people going including other raft guides from the States and that Nim’s best friend Kalu, who was one of the coolest people in the world, was going to be guiding. I’m sure that whatever we ended up doing would be fun, but I’m glad it worked out this way if for no other reason than now we don’t have to wonder one way or the other about whether we chose the right one – it ended up choosing us.

So today was pretty cool, we met – all 29 of us! 19 “customers” (7 of us are or have guided, so it’s funny to be called customers) and the 10 crew – this morning in Kathmandu and drove 3 hours to the put-in.

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We spent about 2 hours loading up and eating lunch, paddle talks etc., then rafted on some chill 2-3 water for about 2.5-3 hours to the camp. It’s amazing how much less work (and stress!) this is than kayaking!

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So there are 3 rafts, 2 gear catamarafts, and 4 kayakers. The rafts have 8, 7 and 6 and the gear boats 2. Let’s see if I can remember the breakdown:
7 Belgians – Stijn, Steve,…
2 English – James and Emma
2 US – G and Ray
3Americans/1 Guatemalan – Sean, Jason, Chelsea, Roberto
1 Dutch – Maaike
1 Scottish – Kieran
2 Americans – Germaine, Bruce

There, not too bad for the first day! Nepalis though, ehh…just know Kalu and Indra. Today it was me and Ray, Indra, Germaine, Bruce and Kieran. It was pretty cool. In our boat, 4 of 6 of us (if you count me) are or have been guides; Ray likes that ratio. :) Germaine and I swam a little bit, and it wasn’t pretty but I did get myself into the boat. It wasn’t too terrible though either.

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We had steak, mashed potatoes, and boiled cauliflower, green beans, carrots etc. for dinner. And rum punch. I’m afraid I’m getting a cold again!! Nooo! Can’t tell yet if it’s a cold or just pollution from Kathmandu.

After dinner Ray and I caught some fireflies and talked with the Brits a bit more, then I heard Kalu speaking Dutch with the big Belgian group (a Nepali…speaking Dutch??) and sat to listen and we all talked Dutch for a while. Apparently he’s 33 and 4 years ago married a Belgian girl who had been on one of his trips 7 years ago. She’s 3 months pregnant now. So he splits his time between Belgium (hence the Belgian group – it’s his brother-in-law Steve and Steve’s friends), Colorado (hence the American/Guatemalan guy group who are a bunch of guides that know him from Colorado (Sean even knows Dan K and some others I worked with at River Runners)), and Nepal (hence this trip with all these people here). Additionally, Kieran’s boss knows Kalu and recommended he go on this, Germaine’s known Indra for a few years and spends a lot of time working in/near Nepal and Bruce is her dad who is visiting her, and then the rest of us all just kind of walked or fell into this trip.

Didn’t sleep much last night so I’m beat and going to bed!

From the Personal (Hand-written!) Files: Awesome Rafting Trip, Day 1 of 9 is a post from: Backpacking Travel Stories from Asia

We got back to awesome Kathmandu today and had our pre-trip meeting for the big rafting trip. They greeted us with rum and Cokes, which I thought was a nice touch. There are going to be 29 PEOPLE going! Wow! 19 of us, and 10 staff/crew.

There’s a group of 4 who guide in Colorado, and not surprisingly, owing to my (short) stint in CO as a “river guide”, we even have friends in common.

There’s a group of like 7 from Belgium, who were pleased when I asked “Nederlands or Francais?” and when they said Nederlands, they asked, do you speak Dutch? and when I said “Ja een beetje” they were very tickled.

There’s a Scottish guy on his own, a Dutch girl on her own – and not just Dutch but FRISIAN!, a couple from England, an American father and daughter, and me and Ray rounding it off.

Ray and I did some shopping for the trip – needed some waterbottles that could be attached to the raft and I needed a hat, plus sunscreen, TP, gummi bears – you know, the essentials.

Thanks to Lonely Planet, 7th edition (please don’t sue us, we’re plugging you here), for this description of the river:

SUN KOSI
Distance 270km
Duration Eight to nine days (seven days rafting)
Start Dolalghat
Finish Chatara
Brief description: A self-sufficient expedition through central Nepal from the Himalaya to the Gangetic Plain

This is the longest river trip offered in Nepal, traversing 270km through
the beautiful Mahabharat Range on its meandering way from the put-in
at Dolalghat to the take-out at Chatara in the far east of the country. It’s
quite an experience to begin a river trip just three hours out of Kath-
mandu, barely 60km from the Tibetan border, and end the trip looking
down the hot, dusty gun barrel of the north Indian plain just eight or
nine days later. Because it’s one of the easiest trips logistically, it’s also
one of the least expensive for the days you spend on a river.

The Sun Kosi (River of Gold) starts off fairly relaxed, with only class II
and small class III rapids to warm up on during the first couple of days.
Savvy guides will take this opportunity to get teams working together
with precision. The river volume increases with the air temperature as
several major tributaries join the river and from the third day the rapids
become more powerful and frequent. During high-water trips you may
well find yourselves astonished at just how big a river wave can get.
While the lower sections of large-volume rivers are usually rather flat,
the Sun Kosi reserves some of its biggest and best rapids for the last days,
and the last section is nonstop class IV before a final quiet float down the
Sapt Kosi. Some companies add on an extra day’s rafting on the lower
section of the Tamur, from Mulghat down.

At the right flow it’s an incredible combination of white water, scenery,
villages, and quiet and introspective evenings.

Thanks for not suing us, LP, you’re the best. Or if you’re going to sue us, please wait til we’re back from the river trip. Then you can just tell us nicely to take it down and we will.

We leave for rafting tomorrow! is a post from: Backpacking Travel Stories from Asia

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We went and took care of our visa extensions, which I would definitely recommend to any travelers headed to Nepal needing to do the same – do it in Pokhara, not Kathmandu. It took us about 15 minutes, and you don’t need US dollars after all (thanks once again, CUSTOMS). Ray still wasn’t up to it, but I took advantage of the legality of being able to walk around with a beer and got a cold one, since it was a long hot walk home.

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The following day, we rented bikes for a ridiculously cheap amount of 25 Rupees an hour (that’s about 30 cents) and took a cruise along the lake. It was beautiful, fun, good exercise, and we saw some great stuff – like this MASSIVELY overloaded tractor of hay – and people sitting on top! It was insane, especially when it had to squeak by a BUS on the one-lane road.

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The last day in Pokhara we spent finally taking the trek up the mountain to the Peace Pagoda, crossing the lake first by rowboat, then up the mountain, then down the backside down so many steps and such a decline that by the end of it, I felt ok (since it was downhill after all), but my leg muscles were shaking on their own. It was a great workout and we saw some beautiful stuff.

And finally the morning came to say goodbye to our pretty little town and head back to Kathmandu to meet up with our rafting trip. We got up just a little early so we could walk all the way over to the Yeti Guesthouse, just to say goodbye to our dear bunnies. They came out and let us pet them both at once with one hand, and I swear seemed to know it was goodbye, as they were more affectionate and didn’t hop into their cage as we left this time, instead just watched us go.

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The folks at Paddle Nepal once more came through for us, going above and beyond, as they had paid for our long bus trip and even came and picked us up at 7a at our hotel and dropped us off at the bus. Then it was on into a new day, ready for the next adventure…and it was gonna be a big’un!

Come see the last of Pokhara and go with us on the beautiful walk up to the World Peace Pagoda and back!

End of Days – in Pokhara is a post from: Backpacking Travel Stories from Asia

Lots of love and all the best to you both.

Love,
G and Ray

CONGRATULATIONS Tina and Matt!!! is a post from: Backpacking Travel Stories from Asia

A little closer up ;-)

Happy Birthday Grandma!! is a post from: Backpacking Travel Stories from Asia

The second and third day were a bit more challenging. Keeping balance was key, and was an exceptional skill once you had figured it out. Thankfully, the river was a tad more forgiving than I was imagining, since I had a forward motion and no longer needed to show the girls…err…girl my muscular biceps while attempting to thrust myself forward. I mean, my constant flailing of arms seemed to be more of a bird mating ritual than any productive forward movement.

After figuring out how to stay above water, we went to try some rolls which ultimately resulted in me popping myself out of my kayak ( a method not preferred in the middle of a river because it is a pain to get setup again ). Nervousness aside, I was starting to be a little more comfortable being capsized, at least as comfortable as you can be upside-down underwater! Oddly enough, the more it happened, the less the ‘freakout’ mode hit, and I was actually starting to make progress in learning the self-rescue techniques. The first day on the river was pretty exciting, and very exhausting so we were all welcoming camp as soon as we saw it. Each novice kayaker tried their roll skills again before we setup camp, had some dinner, drank 4 parts rum 1 part coke, and passed out as best we could in the intense heat of the night.

Exhausted, and slightly eaten alive, I started to wake up. My arms felt like jello. The second day on the river was sure to please as we were starting the first of many ‘rapids’. You know, the type that you see in a raft and figure ‘oh, I think I just crapped myself’. Well, in a kayak, those waves look awfully huge, and inevitably a novice kayaker, like myself, spent more time swimming than kayaking. At the end of the day, I threw in the towel, and as a good boyfriend, I left G fending for herself – and I escaped the last rapid by hopping in the gear raft. Our lead guide, Santosh, then held on to her kayak through some of the roughest rapids we’d seen (at least a class 3). G was slightly traumatized by the experience, so much so that she decided that enough was enough, and ‘tomorrow would be a raft day’…vengefully leaving her boyfriend to fend for the most tumultuous rapids of the trip. Joy.

So the next day, I held on for dear life as Santosh was shouting “yahoooooo!” while we were going through mile high waves at nosebleed speeds. My hands gripped the paddle as if there was no tomorrow, not knowing that the clutch position I held would render my fingers useless for multiple days to come.

G and Ray Learn to Kayak… Kind Of (Ray’s Take) is a post from: Backpacking Travel Stories from Asia

So they had us show up for Day 1 at the very reasonable hour of 10a. We spent the mid-morning and early afternoon learning how to abandon ship when it’s freak out time (aka you’ve managed to get yourself upside down – again), then when we had that part down, how to alert other people that it’s freak out time (against one’s greater sense of personal logic, this involves STAYING underwater and ATTACHED to your upside down vessel, then some series of banging on the side of your kayak and searching desperately for the nose of your T-rescuer), how to “FLICK!” your hips to right yourself once yove managed to grab on to the nose of your rescuer’s kayak, and then, eventually, dunking ourselves back underwater with paddle in hand and trying to right ourselves and eliminate all that muss and fuss.

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As you can imagine, we spent the greater portion of our day under the boat. Sometimes on purpose, most of the time because that was the best we could muster. I think I came away with ~4 successes out of 25 attempted rolls, Ray ~0 out of 4. On a flat lake. With the instructor standing there trying to help us finish it off. Perfect – sounds like we’re completely ready for Day 2: heading down the river and Grade 2 rapids!’

Learning to Kayak, Day 2 of 4 – Omg the water is moving, what do I do!??!

We definitely could have benefited from an additional day on the lake (or in a swimming pool, sucking our thumbs) before moving on to the put-in on the Seti river. But it should come as no surprise that in a country where a single 70-year-old man carries an ENTIRE RAFT down a 10-story cliff, you don’t do things the wussy way here. It didn’t help – or did help – that our two tourist counterparts, Nat from England and Lucas from the Netherlands, who were as inexperienced as us at kayaking were both surfers and so “used to being stuck under water for long periods of time”. Fabulous. Me and Ray, we’re desert rats. Water? Water, what’s that? I think I saw that once. Is that the stuff that falls from the sky one day a year and everyone in Phoenix suddenly freaks out and doesn’t know how to operate their moving vehicles rationally?

But the first day was pretty gentle. The water was great, the camp was beautiful, a white sand beach backed by the jungle, right on the water’s edge. It was the country’s biggest festival these few days (like Christmas big, maybe even bigger), and instead of being home with their families, our awesome guides were out there with us. But they made the best of it and after fixing us a fantastic meal, poured us some big Rum and Coke…and more Rum…drinks and sat by the campfire and chatted with us. Oddly, I swear sometimes it gets hotter here at night than it is during the day, so when it was crash time, Ray and I ended up sleeping outside under the stars out in FRONT of our tents. And spending LOTS of time chilling in the water.

Hey, somebody’s gotta do it!

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Learning to Kayak, Day 3 of 4 – G gets traumatized

Big…water…little…kayak. Skeered. Hominuh hominuh hominuh.’

Learning to Kayak, Day 4 of 4 – F this, I’m on the boat! I’m on the boat! I’m on the mutha-effin boat!

I did recover from my coronary sometime around the 2nd beer the night of the 3rd day, however I swore off kayaking for the rest of the time, since the guides were threatening “ok now we get to the FUN stuff!” and squealing with maniacal fits of glee. Given that these ARE, after all, members of the whitewater national team, to my already stressed out ticker, that means raft time.

Ray for his part, did stay in his little plastic friend for the whole day (though btw, he DID jump in the raft for the last part of the previous day, the part that had freaked me out), and was steered through the monstrous waves (no regrets on my part for being in the raft for them!) by our lead guide, Santosh – who had not quelled my already taxed anxieties when he did the same for me the previous day with his very enthusiastic, cool-as-a-cucumber “WHEEEEEE!!!!”s, but Ray says that he did have fun going down with Santosh holding his boat and wheee-ing all the way. More power to you, Ray. I feared for you from the raft. Mostly because Ray spent most of his time on flat water like this:

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But…all’s well that ends well, and as we all made it down in one piece (well, Ray down one contact), looking back now, it was one hell of a few days. We were really starting to bond with Nat and Lucas, and the chance to do a trip like this and learn something new in such a far-off, exotic, fabled land was definitely a bad-ass memory and life-experience. If we had the time, I’d totally do the whole thing all over again with this AWESOME company (www.paddlenepal.com – I’m just sayin…and no I wasn’t paid to say it, they really were fantastic paddlers and people).

Come along for a paddle and check out the album of our awesome Kayaking Clinic!

G and Ray Learn to Kayak… Kind Of (G’s Take) is a post from: Backpacking Travel Stories from Asia

“Kayaking
The opportunities for kayak expeditions are exceptional.

KAYAK CLINICS

Nepal is an ideal place to learn to kayak and several rafting companies offer learner kayak clinics. For the communication required to teach, the best instruction clinics tend to be staffed with both Western and Nepali instructors. Kayak clinics normally take about four days, which gives you time to get a good grounding in the basics of kayaking, safety
and river dynamics.

The clinics are a pretty laid-back intro to kayaking, with around four to six hours of paddling a day. On day one yoll learn self-rescue, T-rescue and Eskimo roll, which will help you to right yourself when you capsize.

Day two sees you on the river, learning to ferry glide (cross the river), eddy in and eddy out (entering and leaving currents), brace and perfect your strokes.

Day three is when you start really having fun on the river, running small (class II) rapids and journeying down the river, learning how to read the rapids. The key is to relax your upper body to move with the kayak, and not to panic underwater. Flexibility is a real plus. Expect one instructor for every three people.

Other companies…operate their four-day clinics on the gentle Seti River. The first day’s training takes place on Phewa Tal [the lake] and the remaining 2\xbd days are on the Seti, with two nights’ riverside camping. The kayak route follows the rafting route, putting in at Damauli and taking out at Ghaighat, at the junction with the Trisuli River. The advantage to learning on the Seti is that you get to journey down a real river.”

-Lonely Planet Nepal, 7th edition

How fun does that sound, right!? Right? Righ– RAY WAKE UP did you SERIOUSLY fall asleep while I was reading that??

So from sitting in a hotel room in Delhi, India, a few days eating our weight in beef (oh wondrous beef) in Kathmandu, a jungle walk, elephant bathtime and safari, pilgrimage to the birthplace of the Buddha, and a couple of nasty colds later, 2 weeks after first reading about it in a book, we found ourselves walking into a little shop with kayaks outside, whose brochure said they were in fact running these clinics. We didn’t think we were going to get to do the kayaking clinic because when we’d asked at another company a few days ago, they said due to the late monsoons this year, the river was very high and it was too unsafe. But when we saw the Paddle Nepal brochure that said they were going, we went in to ask about just how unsafe “unsafe” was. I mean, come on. Learning to kayak in Nepal? That’s only awesome!

To our surprise, a white, native-English-speaking woman greeted us (you don’t see too many white people working here – turns out she’s a Canadian who married the Nepali who had started the company with his two brothers, all three of whom are on the whitewater national team) and assailed our senses with such a fantastic description of the days that awaited – learning new and amazing things, white sand beaches, waterfalls and jungles, warm rivers, new friends, campfires…omg, we were sold. And we were starting the next morning. Yikes!’

Take me to the river… Roll me underwater!! is a post from: Backpacking Travel Stories from Asia

Pokhara apparently didn’t get the memo. The monsoon was still going on, and it rained for our first days there. A lot. Then again, it was just as well, because Ray had been carrying around this cold with him ever since the plane from Delhi and though I’d held out for a good two weeks, since it was rainy out anyway, just as he was getting over it, my body decided oh to hell with it and gave in. And a nasty cold it was! It knocked me out for a good three days, during which time we watched a lot of How I Met Your Mother and lounged around, venturing out only to enjoy some of the fantastic food in town.

I would have felt more guilty about it except during one break in the weather we’d had a nice day out on the lake when we rented a pedal boat and pedaled to the other shore, so we had at least done something and seen some of the pretty area. Plus, although we really liked the first hotel we went to, the Yeti Guest House with its pretty garden and awesomely sweet and adorable pet rabbits, we had spent a day out looking at other hotels that were less expensive and had moved to one that cost significantly less. So at least our sloth wasn’t costing us much more than rainy time anyway, and our bodies appreciated it. We did some small exploring, which you can see in the album. There was other bigger stuff we wanted to do around town, but it could wait.

Then as our bodies started to acclimate to the lazy life, just when they thought it was safe to feel better….we saw a brochure at dinner for a place called “Paddle Nepal”.

Come check out the album and go Explore Pokhara with us!

Chill Days in Pokhara is a post from: Backpacking Travel Stories from Asia

Happy Birthday Dad! is a post from: Backpacking Travel Stories from Asia