From Bill and Marcia:
Fourth Note October 10, 2011
Well, this is our last night in Nepal. We flew back from Pokhara yesterday afternoon. The paragliding was scary as heck for me at first. Then, after awhile, I actually got a little bored flying around in circles! If it had been a month later, we could have tried parahawking, which is the same thing, except you have either an Egyptian vulture or a black kite flying along and leading you to the thermals. Right now, their birds have just finished their molt for the season, and are getting back into flight condition.
Tomorrow, we fly to Delhi, where we'll have 2 1/2 days to see whatever we can. We plan on a day trip to the Taj Mahal on Monday. I'm sure that india will be prettycrazy, even after the chaos of Kathmandu. We're both actually looking forward to getting home. WE jsut need to click the ruby slippers together!
Third Note 10/16/2011
The trip to Everest Base Camp was spectacular. The sky was crystal clear for the whole Tibet trip. We stayed in tents about 2 miles from base camp. These were really comfortable tents, each sleeping 6 people on couches. We had a stove for heat and hot drinks, that was kept going until 11pm, so we never got cold. The stoves, of course, are fueled by yak poo. We've been eating yak meat, butter, milk, and cheese, and been kept warm by their skins and poo. What a great critter!
Most of us had varying degrees of problems with the altitude. We hiked to base camp as soon as we arrived at our tent camp, because the altitude hadn't affected us yet. I felt fine on the hike, but by the time we got back down, I had a massive headache, and didn't sleep at all that night. i culd not have hiked the next morning. The base camp is at 18,000 feet, and our tent camp around 17,500. I don't think I'll be in a hurry to go so high again.
Yesterday was a really good day. We went to the town of Bahktipur, which was about an hour from Kathmandu. Most of the town is a world heritage site. While we were taking pictures and wandering around, our Canadian friend struck up a conversation with one of the local taxi driver/guides. She made a deal to help him with his English in exchange for guide services. We ended up going to his village and meeting his family. He is also a rice farmer, and the harvest is in full swing right now. He wants to add a couple of rooms to his house, so he can offer home stays for tourists. We thought it was a great idea, because it's so much more peaceful than staying in Kathmandu.
Okay, so now I'm sitting in this internet cafe, and there's a black buffalo looking in the door at me! They're all over the streets and sidewalks her in Pokhara. The lake is really pretty, but it's really hazy, so we can't see the mountains. We did get some nice views of the Annapurna range flying in today. I guess the biggest news is that we're both going paragliding tomorrow. It's not something I've considered until now. I did pass up the bungy jumping, though.
We'll be here for 5 days, just enjoying the view and going on a few day hikes. We're just hoping for the sky to clear. It's looking like rain, so maybe the haze will get washed away. We've been lucky so far!
From Marcia and Bill in Nepal:
Second Note 10/7/2011
We've been in Lhasa for 3 days, and it's a beautiful place. Quite different from Kathmandu. The streets are wide, uncrowded, unpolluted, and clean. There's even a freeway from the airport to the city!
We visited the Potala Palace, historically the winter home of the Dalai Lama, as well as the center of government. It has 100 rooms, and is quite spectacular. We also visited the summer home of the Dalai Lama, which had beautiful gardens. There's also a zoo, but it's only open on Sunday. Seems the 13th Dalai Lama kept a few tigers on the grounds, and the 14th (the one we all know) kept pandas.
The people of Tibet are some of the friendliest I've ever met. A few have even joined in our group photos, just for fun. At one of the temples we went to, people took their children to cure them of illness, crankiness, or whatever their problem might be. The monk would put a black smudge on their noses, as a blessing. As we walked through, we all got smudged, too! Maybe we'll be less cranky!
Tomorrow we head west to the town of Gyantse, passing a couple of high lakes, and will get a chance to ride a yak. It's never been on my bucket list, but what the heck?
We've been here at 11,900 feet for a few days, and hiked around a monastery at 13,000 today. Only one person in our groupl had real difficulty, and that wasn't until after the hike. Only 4 days until Everest Base Camp!
First note 9/30/2011. Kathmandu is a totally chaotic city. The roads are clogged with cars, motorcycles, bicycles, cows, pedestrians, and dogs. It's hard to get anywhere and downright scary if on foot. Our hotel is in a rabbit warren-like area called Thamel. We're just starting to learn our way around, and will venture forth for some sight-seeing tomorrow.
We just spent 3 nights at Chitwan Jungle Lodge In Chitwan Natl. Park. We spent most of our time riding elephants through the jungle and grasslands, hoping to spot rhinos There are tigers, also, but they are rarely seen. We saw 3 species of deer, a leopard, and wild boar. Just going through the jungle on an elephant was awesome. The vegetation was up to 10 feet high, so you wouldn't even attempt it on foot. It would be great to have elephants here at home for clearing trails. They'll pull the small trees out by the roots, and just push over the big ones.
We've got some great pictures of us with the elephants at bath-time. We'd get in the water with them and splash them. Then, we took turns climbing on, and letting the elephants hose us down with their trunks. A great activity for a hot day.
I encountered leeches for the first time yesterday. We came back from a hike and I found a couple of them crawling on me. Apparently, there had been others that had fed, then fell off. They secrete a powerful anticoagulant. Most of the time, you don't know you've been bitten until you see blood running down from somewhere on your body.
We'll be here for a couple more days, before meeting up with our group for a trip to Tibet. We'll be there for 2 weeks. Time to dig out the cold-weather clothing!
