So This Is Christmas (Nepal Style)

24^th – 25^th of December

So after signing off yesterday afternoon, we pretty much spent most of the afternoon relaxing back at the hotel. KTP and I practically fell asleep… though I’m still currently claiming I was only resting my eyes!! We eventually dragged ourselves back out of bed and headed to the Northfield Café for dinner. They were holding some sort of Christmas Eve celebration, with a BBQ, live music and some traditional Nepalese dancing. “This was the last place I ever thought I’d spend Christmas!” - Alicia

We originally thought it would be a quiet, early one. We were just going to grab some dinner and go – but it ended up being quite an enjoyable night.

We quickly made friends with Mr. Photographer for the evening – who took a group shot of us, and proceeded to introduce him to us. He took a particular interest in me… giving me his card and telling me he would be awaiting my call at 12PM Christmas Day… unfortunately I was unable to get in contact with him… so our love has prematurely died :( “This was the last place I ever thought I’d spend Christmas!” - Alicia

We also made friends with the ‘big boss’ of the restaurant – Barga – who we’ve pretty much discovered is probably one of the richest men in Nepal. Anyways, he pretty much changed our quiet night into a much louder one by giving us a few rounds of the hot rum punch on the house… and let me tell you – there was more rum than punch in those glasses!! “This was the last place I ever thought I’d spend Christmas!” - Alicia

After being attacked by the Yak, the Yeti & the giant peacock… we finally decided that we had probably had enough rum and headed back to the hotel for a good solid sleep.

Awaking upon Christmas morn we were greeted with nothing particularly exciting… except for SANTA HATS!!! AND PRESENTS!!! AND TEAM T-SHIRTS!!! All in our lovely Christmas stocking!!! “This was the last place I ever thought I’d spend Christmas!” - Alicia

We headed back to the Northfield Café for breakfast, as we promised our new Barga we would meet up with him then. Another ‘Western’ type breakfast was had with KTP & Fangy having omelets and myself having the Quesadilla. All were quite yummy.

After meeting up with Barga, he then proceeded to show off his silver jewelery stock room – which was pretty amazing. There were a heap of different gems and minerals and some fantastic pieces of jeweler… unfortunately we are all pretty sure they are out of our bargain price range.

After breakfast, everyone got in touch with various relatives & significant other via phone, Skype or Google chat to wish everyone back home a Merry Christmas. After that we then decided we wanted to head into Kathmandu Valley to see Durbar Square and also the money temple. We had originally planned to grab a taxi to drive us for the whole day but after pursuing our oracle (aka the Lonely Planet Guide) we decided upon taking the walking tour from Thamel to the square. “This was the last place I ever thought I’d spend Christmas!” - Alicia

We made our way to Thamel Tole – close to where both KTP & I got conned yesterday – and then headed south. Our first major stop was Kathesimbhu Stupa. This is apparently the most popular Tibetan pilgrimage site in the Old Town and it’s not hard to realize why. They beautifully white Stupa is surrounded by brightly coloured Tibetan prayer flags, tucked away behind and tiny alley, it a truly wondrous site. The stupa is apparently a small copy of the great Swayambhunath (or ‘Monkey Temple’) complex dating from around 1650!

After spending some time trying to find the stone lion guarding to passageway to the Nag Bahal (hidden behind pashmina shawls) and the stone relief of Shiva (hidden behind a truck) we then came out into square with the Sikha Narayan Temple. NE of this square there is a small statue of Buddha framed by blue & white tiles that apparently dates from the 5^th or 6^th century. To our amazement it just sits there nondescriptly beneath a ‘Raj Dental Clinic Sign’. Further down in the SE corner of the square also lies a gigantic lump of wood, into which thousands of coins have been nailed into. These coins are offerings to the toothache god, which makes the score of Dental clinics in the surrounding streets, make much more sense!! “This was the last place I ever thought I’d spend Christmas!” - Alicia

From there we headed to Asan Tole – a bustling market place jammed with buyers, sellers and lots of fresh produce. There is also another temple – this time the Annapurna Temple which is apparently dedicated to the goddess of abundance. We then came across the Seto (White) Machhendranath Temple, which is apparently one of the most important temples in Kathmandu – however at this time it seemed to be currently being used as a fabric store!

We then took a quiet alleyway looking for the Itum Bahal – one of the oldest and largest bahals in the city. Apparently we had to find the sign saying ‘Jenisha Beauty Parlor’ – so we were searching for this giant sign and ended reaching the end of the alley without hide nor hair of this bahal. Eventually, after backtracking a few hundred meters, I found the TINY sign stuck on top a tiny entryway leading out to the bahal. The highlight of this was seeing the impossibly skinny (not even double bed width) building surround the courtyard. (I’m not sure I’d like to live in one of those!) “This was the last place I ever thought I’d spend Christmas!” - Alicia

The last major sight we saw on the tour with the Yatkha Bahal – though not without some help from some American tourists also attempting the same walking tour. After then battling the ever increasing traffic, we finally made our way to Durbar square!!

Unfortunately for us, access to Durbar square was closed as there we demonstrations happening at the time… not that this stopped various ‘guides’ offering their services, much to our increasing annoyance as they didn’t seem to know how to take NO as an answer.

We made our way across to a small marketplace just across the road – where KTP bought a few trinkets for what turned out to be relatively expensive prices (not that she knew it at the time!). After that we headed to the Snowman Café for a very light lunch of cake and tea. Alicia tried the coconut cake, while KTP & I had some of the chocolate cake this place is apparently famous for. I can say though that the chocolate cake was pretty delicious – nice and surprisingly moist! KTP thought it was good… but a lil bit different. “This was the last place I ever thought I’d spend Christmas!” - Alicia

After lunch, we then hired a taxi to take us to Swayambhunath, more commonly known as the ‘Monkey Temple’. We were driven to the top of the temple and spent about an hour making our way around the place. It was quite beautiful – even if the main stupa was currently under construction! – and, as could be determined by the name, there were lots of cheeky monkeys running all over the place. From the top there were amazing views of the Kathmandu Valley and we spent quite a bit of time taking photos of the panoramic views.

Tonight we’re heading out for some traditional Nepalese cuisine at one of the many other restaurants owned by our new friend Barga. While it hasn’t been the most Christmasy of days – we’ve all had a good time so far!! (“This was the last place I ever thought I’d spend Christmas!” – Alicia)

Our Everest Base Camp tour officially starts tomorrow – which is kind of exciting, if nerve wrecking (KTP & I were feeling the effects of walking up the stairs @ Swayambhunath!!) – though we don’t officially ‘leave’ till the 27^th!! Wish us luck!

Brennan (KTP & Fangy)

***

Things we learnt so far:

· Head down & ignore all strangers attempting to talk to you (unless they are rich restaurant owners)

· Shop in the morning – apparently its cheaper

· Wearing a Santa hat will make people stare at you… and also wish you a Merry Christmas

· Big temple sites are normally signified by lots of rubbish

When you hearing honking GET OUT OF THE WAY… or you will be run over.

Shopping Extravaganza

24^th of December

After a relatively restful night sleep on our lovely concrete like beds (only disturbed by our over flowing toilet dripping, the lights and TV being turned back on after a brown out & my lovely mobile phone alarm) we headed back out into the organized chaos of the street of Thamel for some tasty breakfast. We headed out into a food court opposite the hotel and all got the Country Breakfast – bacon, eggs, a garlic & potato frittata & toast (complete with jam and frozen butter).

After breaky we then headed in search for some of our last pieces of missing equipment for the trek. Top on the list of things to buy was a down jacket to help us combat this freezing cold. The first place we stopped off at was in some random alley where we all had a chance to try on one of the jacket and ensure it would fit underneath our gortex jacket for the trek. It made us all look very Michelin man like!! High-light of this stop though, would have to be KTP getting shatted on by one of the birds lounging on window still… needless to say she wasn’t very happy!! (I tired telling her it was good luck… but she didn’t seem to want to hear about it!!)

We managed to get everything we need for a relatively decent price. Alicia was our main bargainer and she was pretty good at putting on the hard sell while KTP and I giggled in the corner. Between the three of us we got 2x -20 sleeping bags, 3x down jackets, 2x gortex gloves, 3x beanies, a daypack, a litre water bottle, as well as a stack of postcards and other nick knacks.

After that we headed to Tibetan for lunch… where we purchased WAY TOO MUCH FOOD!! We got some steamed momos, cheese balls, momo in soup, Tibetan bread in honey, as well as two sort of noodle soup dishes… (yeah we’re pretty sure we’ll be the first tourists to come back from Nepal larger than when we got here :P) The food was awesome again… though it took a while for it all the come out… which really was probably a good thing! We also tried some Tibetan tea… which was an interesting experience. It’s made from milk, butter and salt & pretty much tastes like liquid butter with salt in it. Not something I think I would drink again… unless I was going to die of thirst (& even then KTP thinks urine may be the better option!)

We then headed back into the street of Thamel for the afternoon – wandering around with no real goal in mind and just exploring around. We got ourselves completely lost for a little bit but managed to find our way back to the hotel eventually!! Part way through both KTP and I got approached by some random Hindu guy in yellow who put flowers in our hair and gave us both a red dot on our forehead for good luck… before asking for a “donation”. While I sneakily pulled out a 10 rupee note out of my wallet, KTP pulled out a handful of 50s and of course he then requested a 200 rupee donation… so pretty much we kinda got conned… BUT at least we got a RED DOT out of it. (Alicia thinks we are idiots!)

Further along, we then got solicited by some random Nepalese “guide” who wanted to show us the temples around Kathmandu… he also wanted to show KTP a good time offering his hand in marriage!! He even offered to purchase her ‘beautiful Nepalese wedding sari’. For some reason, she declined! (We told her to hold out for more chickens as her dowry first!)

(Alicia: THESE IDIOTS JUST DON’T KNOW WHEN TO NOT TALK TO THESE PEOPLE!!)

Tonight we have something (relatively) special planned for Christmas Eve. There seems to be some sort of shin-ding on down the road with music, a BBQ and presents… so we’ll probably head down there. Our room is currently ‘decorated’ with a beautiful Christmas stocking… all ready for Santa’s arrival!! We are sure he will be able to find us where we are!! : )

On behalf of the three of us we wish anyone reading this a very Merry Christmas!! We’ll hopefully get a chance to update at least one more time before we start trekking up the mountain!!

Brennan (Alicia & KTP)

Welcome to Nepal

22^nd – 23^rd of December

So good news people – we finally made it to NEPAL!!

The trip over started well with KTP and Fangy being late before we had even left Sydney. We were meant to meet at about 4PM but as a result of traffic and the like I wasn’t joined by the other two till close to 4:30. KTP & I had already wisely checked-in online but of course Alicia had ignored KTP’s reminder message, so while KTP & I headed to the front of a very short baggage drop line, Alicia positioned herself at the very end of the check-in line. Lucky for her, the guy who was checking-in our luggage asked about the other person travelling with us so Alicia managed to by-pass the long queue. Alicia will tell you this demonstrates how intelligent/efficient she is… but I’ll leave that one for you to decide.

After saying goodbye to the various loved ones that had dropped us off, we headed through to customs and eventually boarded our flight. Alicia somehow managed to injure herself doing this by walking full steam ahead straight into the seat positioned directly in front of her… good work Fangy! Flight over was relatively unremarkable. We all watched a couple of movies and then tried to get some sleep… to varying degrees of success: Alicia slept like a log for the majority of flight, I managed to kip for a few hours while KTP cursed us all with her lack of sleep.

Upon arriving to Changi airport we decided to make use of the free internet available to us before discovering that KTP had left her small cache of drugs on the plane. We then had to locate the nearest pharmacist, which actually wasn’t too difficult in the end. Once that was done we then explored parts of the airport – making use of the free x-box games and seeking out the Transit Hotel… unfortunately the Transit Hotel was slightly pricey so we headed to our gate to find a quiet piece of floor to have a quick nap. Using our handy blankets (unknowingly provided by Singapore Airlines) we ended up settling down behind a travelator and tried to catch a few Zzzz’s – Alicia was again the best sleeper out of the three of us, but we all managed to get at least a few hours rest.

Upon waking up, (after managing to scare the be-jesus out of some poor people sitting outside our gate by our sudden appearance) we went & grabbed ourselves some toasted sandwiches for breakfast and did a lil window shopping before discovering that our flight had been “re-timed” (aka delayed) by 2 hours. After much groaning we went and had a look around a few other terminals before finally boarding our flight at around about 11:00AM.

The flight to Kathmandu was long and kinda boring… and I think we started going a lil stir-crazy by the end of it… culminating in Thumb Wars; Scissors, Paper, Rock; & finally Alphabetical Market where we were all going off to get….

“Artichoke, Beeswax, Carrot, Dog, Echidna, Frog, Gargoyle, Hairy Monkey, Igloo, Jam, Kite, Lumber, Matches, Nails, Orange , Porcupine, Quince Paste, Rabbit, String, Turtle, Umbrellas, Venison, Weed (*Alicia’s Suggestion), Xylophone, Yacht & Zucchini”

Though to be honest I’m glad we didn’t as there would definitely be no room in my bag for all of this! J

As we got closer to Kathmandu we did have great views of the Himalayas (unfortunately on the other side of the plane… so we did a lot of craning of necks to attempt to get a look.) After touching down, we headed through immigration and collected our bags and took our first few steps out of the airport… to... absolute chaos.

Of course, being white, western tourists we were bombarded with about 50 million people offering to take us to a million places for “cheap”. Eventually we settled on following the guy that the policeman said was okay (not that it stopped other various people trying to solicit us!) to a random looking car… once there someone with a clipboard from the Kathmandu Guest House (our hotel) double checked we had a booking and gave us the nod to get into this random car (which stalled straight away) to take us to our hotel.

The drive to our hotel was an experience in itself – like most developing Asian countries the best way to describe the road is organized chaos. It’s literally insane – I really don’t know how anyone gets anywhere in anytime and I’m not really sure how there aren’t more accidents or pedestrians run-over… but despite its craziness it seems to work.

Our hotel is situated in Thamel, which is kinda like the tourist mecca of Kathmandu. Our hotel, the Kathmandu Guest House, is pretty much smack bang in the middle of all the action. Our room is pretty simple and the bathroom a bit of a nightmare but it more than satisfies our requirements.

After dumping all our stuff, we resisted the urge to just SLEEEEPPP and headed out into the streets of Thamel on the search for some food. We discovered very quickly that is was JUST a little bit chiller than we expected and had to layer on a few more jumpers and shirts… this does have us slightly worried for the days ahead!!

We had dinner at a place called the Thalkali (?I may have to check the spelling on this) Kitchen which was about a 5-7 min walk away from KGH and provided traditional Nepali food. We all ordered some steamed momos (sort of dumpling type thing), Cheese Pakodas (kinda like fried holumi!) and some sort of set Thali dishes (which we really have no idea what was in them). Everything was fantastically tasty, the momos and the pakodas being the highlights.

After dinner we had a lil wander around the streets but nothing major. We were all pretty bushed so headed back to the hotel for some much need sleep!

Part-Way There....

So we've just arrived in Changi Airport... tired and a lil grumpy but still crazily excited! Despite the fact that all we had to do was sit down for 8 hours, one of us has STILL managed to injure themselves... walking straight into one of the seats.... I'll give you three guess who it is and the first two don't count *(aka ALICIA)*. She has a beautiful lump on her knee already but besides from that is OK

We have approx 8 - 9 hours to kill before our next flight to KATHMANDU... after abusing our free internet privledges I think we'll go and search some where to rest our weary heads for a couple of hours.

That's it for now. Next time we blog we will be in NEPAL!! :D

Brennan

Up up and away

OMG!!!!!!!!! Only 3 days to go!

So as the title may suggest, we only have 3 days left before we start our big adventure.

I really fear that i have not dont enough prep in the fitness department (though i did do the bay run the other morning in 80% humidity- its killed me!).

So the last few weeks have been mega busy with the school year finishing up, and christmas parties all round (which of course means over eating and drinking).

Not to mention that alicia screwed her ankle just 10 days before departure (fingers crossed in that department).

we can only hope that none of us suffers too much from altitude sickness, and all the horror stories people are telling us exaggerations.

But if something of an adverse nature does occur, Rachel has called dibs on my furniture!! but my car is up for grabs, also my great collection of Maths textbooks, which i'm sure must be worth something!!!

au revoir