Nepal

    Before leaving Thailand, I had a few things to take care of.  First, I went back to the doctor and found out that what on my armpit was "Seabather's Eruption" from larval cnidarian (jellyfish) creatures at the Thai beaches, which in turn had the start of a staph infection.  After that, I wrapped up Thailand with an incredible sushi buffet and checked off the last thing on my list: talk to a lady boy.  Korea's version of Justin Bieber arrived at the airport right when I did, and this ladyboy thought he was soooo cute.  By the way, here's how to tell a ladyboy from a girl with masculine features: the face, the shoulders, the wrists, the feet, the voice.  This "girl" had ogre feet, and then she talked and the cat was out of the bag.  Then I slept at the airport and waited for my 6 AM flight to glorious Nepal.

Trust me: dude.

    It’s going to be hard to talk about 3 weeks in Nepal in a few paragraphs, so I’ll start with the facts.  I got to Kathmandu, Nepal and immediately started looking for either trekking partners or a guide, eventually opting for a “guide/porter,” a local who speaks pretty good English and carries some of my stuff.  His name was Khadga (pronounced CAR-guh) and he was a good 4 inches shorter than me.  He actually reminded me a lot of Nick Freidberg, except Khadga didn’t have the chiseled jaw or mastery and confidence with the English language that Nick’s been blessed with.  Once I had the guide locked in, I went around to the hundreds of stores selling knock off NorthFace and the such and picked up everything I needed.

    We took a bus to Bhulbule, which up to that point in my life was the worse bus ride of my life.  All the buses in Nepal are made for Khadga-sized people, all have customized horns that they use constantly, play Nepali music continuously, and don't mind picking up locals and throwing them on the roof if need be.  Unlike Bollywood music which is bearable at times, this Nepallywood music was just bad, and each song was so long that I don't think I ever heard one end - the driver just got sick of it after 15 minutes and changed to the next, carbon copy song.  

    Then we started the trek, the Annapurna Circuit.  Every day we would wake up and leave at 7 AM, hike/walk for 4-7 hours, eat lunch at our guesthouse, sit around, then eat dinner and do it all again the next day.  We went through several villages a day and each of them had a few guesthouses that served meals, gave super cheap lodging ($1-2 USD a night), and had 0 insulation. They also had a pretty good selection of food and drinks, which got more and more expensive the further from the roads you got.  Each village was supplied by super hoss Nepalis carrying HUGE sacks on their backs that were strapped to their heads.  I saw crates of eggs, chickens, metal tubing, aluminum panels, and baskets literally full of rocks, some of which were being carried by 60-70 year old men and women, or 14 year old kids.

Corn field terraces

This dude was seriously at least 70 and was killin it

Tibetan prayer wheels.

    It rained the first 5 days on the trail, but Khadga and I got to our guesthouse before the late afternoon showers started each of those days and managed to stay dry.  People usually take a rest day in Manang after the first 5 days to acclimate to the altitude.  I took a rest day in Manang because I got hella sick, either from bad water or bad food.  Thankfully, Manang is the biggest and nicest villiage in the area, with a doctor, bakery, and even “movie theaters” where they pop in a dvd and give you popcorn and tea.  I watched Into the Wild during my sick day. 

    By this point I had also met most of the people doing the trek, since everybody does the Circuit going counter-clockwise.  I spent a few days with a French couple, but spent most of my time with Israelis, who dominated most guesthouses.  At one point I was in a guesthouse dining room with an old English lady and around 20 Israelis.  There was a middle aged couple and two 25 year old soldiers that I hung out with a lot and I really enjoyed learning about Israel: the lifestyle, customs, politics, influence of religion, and how they view America (one word: thankfulness).  

Smooth rock face that curved up into the clouds - cool

The same smooth rock face from before, but with the night's snow.

Tibetan prayer whatever

Surprise.

Everyone had their DSLRs out waiting for this guy to circle back around, but when he did, I was the only one with a camera, because mine fit in my pocket.

Booyah.  Call me nat geo.

I do shots for Patagonia too.

I called this place Israeli Base Camp.

    The biggest day was the day we reached the Thorung La Pass: start at 4 AM, climb 1100m to 17769 ft., then walk down 1700m to the next village.  The whole thing took about 7 hours and wasn’t as hard as it was talked up to be, but the downhill grind made me glad I bought my knock off walking sticks for $5 a piece.  That same day we took a bus down from Muktinath to Jomson to save a day’s hike.  Afterwords, however, I was bummed that I didn’t walk it – everything beyond the pass was in its rainshadow, which made some of the most beautiful desert landscape I’ve ever seen and the geology was fascinating.  So, wanting to carpe diem, Khadga and I hiked back to Muktinath the next day, then took the same jeep ride back to Jomson.  So worth it.  I felt like a nerd on a geology field trip.  Again, Khadga doesn’t have the knowledge of geology that Nick Freidberg is blessed with, but he definitely has the same patience that Nick has with me as I pointed out some real neato geo features. 

"Khadga, act like your skiing bro!"

Thorong La

The next few days felt like the middle east

Muktinath

    The bus ride a week before had been the worst of my life, until the bus ride from Jomson to Tatopani.  It was everything terrible that the first ride was, but we were on a dirt “road.”  I say “road” because I would have called it a “boulder field,” because that’s what it was.  And the rain had caused landslides, which forced us to get out, walk around, then wait around at what felt like a refugee camp full of a hundred angry Nepalese old people.   To redeem the day, I met my first Texas of this trip that afternoon at the Tatopani hot springs – a girl who went to UT and was working a month at a hospital in Pokhara for her medical residency. 

For the last hour, I was the facing the entire bus.  I sat down and went, "heyyyy" and they all went, "ehhh!"

    The next day was 8 hours of hiking with a 2000m ascent.  Oh and I had developed a problem with my right Achilles, so I was sporting chacos for the rest of the Circuit.  I was so exhausted and frustrated… it didn’t even matter that Khadga was behind me carrying my shit, I was ready to be done.  The whole way was through beautiful rhododendron forests that I was too pissed to enjoy.  The next morning we hiked an hour to Poon Hill to see the sunrise over the Annapurna range.  It was beautiful and all, but I’ve still never woken up early to see a sunrise and been like “that was worth it” – too cold, too long of a wait, and it’s like a JV sunset.  The next two days were all downhill I don’t even want to talk about them, except I ate a fried snickers bar along the way.  That was nice.

Poon Hill sunrise

Another victory for Asia

Cute guesthouse that turned us away in a thunderstorm.

    All in all, I really loved the Annapurna Circuit.  It was gorgeous, went through some old school villages, and had a wide range of environments to go through.  It was also nice not having to go back the way we came, like you do for the Everest Base Camp. 

    But Nepal?  Yeah I kind of hate this country.  Flies everywhere, mosquitos too, cities are hella polluted and the air tastes funny, wild dogs keep you awake all night, cows roam freely on the streets because their “sacred,” the entire country has tentative electricity, the local food is bland and their attempts at other food are blander, no ice, no milk, and no Dr. Pepper.  It’s also full of people from around the world who grow dreads, look more Hindu than the local Hindu population, and come here to seek enlightenment or whatever.  I heard two hippies talking about shamanism and I wanted to be like, “yeah I know tons about Shamanisn – I played WoW for 2 years.  Frost shock bro.” 

    I made that list of reasons to hate Nepal two nights ago, then went to sleep, only to wake up two hours later and throw up what was left of my dinner.  The next morning I walked 30 minutes to an American breakfast place and ate pancakes.  Did I say pancakes?  Because I meant feeling - I ate my feelings.  I did have a good time on the trail, and I've taken all of the annoyances in stride, but I leave for Germany in two days and can't wait.

Khadga and I say goodbye.

Note the little Shiva picture at the door.  Another reason to hate Nepal.