Annapurna Base Camp Trek, Paragliding

The 10 day trek up to Annapurna Base Camp (ABC) was terrific! We experienced all 4 seasons, winter being the most spectacular. On day 3 we woke up before sunset to hike up Poonhill to see an awesome 360 view (pic with the puffy jacket and wool hat). There was lots of snow up top, and much of it falling on us as we hiked up and down. It was cloudy at the summit, and after sleeping there overnight, but we did get a break in the clouds, nice sunshine, and a mostly-clear view for 15 minutes when we arrived at the Welcome sign. I met awesome people along the way: 2 gals from Quebec City, 2 gals from Spain, a Swede, Brits, Australians, a Brazilian, a couple Americans, etc. All awesome travel people. The day after getting back to Pokhara, I went paragliding with Nicole and Agathe, the Quebecers. That was also a big thrill, but the effortless, floating, relaxing kind :) Heading back to Kathmandu tomorrow, and to Bhutan on Tuesday the 30th!

Pokharna, Annapurna Nepal

Leaving Kathmandu was trying. The guesthouse charged me more than was posted on their website, claiming my tiny room with a cracked bed and broken taps was the deluxe room. Usually the best way to book onward transport, they sold me a bus ticket for a nice, shiney, A/C bus. It turned out to be a sideways bench seat up near the driver, with no A/C, and extra heat and noise from the engine. It's hot here. Too hot to wear socks and shoes. I wonder why I bought the recommended thermals and down jacket yesterday.

In addition, it looks like I got it all wrong, and am here at a bad time of year. The air is very dirty, for all 7 hours of the bus ride from Kathmandu, and at the base of the mountains. The lake and sunset were nice, but it's hard to ignore the thick brown haze and trash-lined lake shore. None of the trekking operators have groups leaving soon. Most people come in the fall, and book with an already-assembled group of friends from home. The recommended outfit I contacted in advanced proposed an expensive trek with a guide all to myself. I may not need a guide at all. The trail is marked, with hotels, food amd water all along the route. It sounds like a beaten path, Nepali Appalacian Trail. But, it seems foolish to go alone. I'll wait and try my luck finding partners from one of the online bulletins. I feel totally discouraged, dirty, lonely, and want to bag the whole thing. I can get gorgeous mountains with nice trees and clean air in Northern California.

Border crossing into Nepal

I read about the best way to travel imto Nepal from Varanasi, India amd followed the expert advice: The bus is loud and bumpy, so take the train to Gorakhpur which leaves at 00:40, amd arrives at 5:30 or 6am. Then a 3 hour bus to Sanauli (yucky border town) This way, there would be enough time to cross the border, and see the scenery on the 7 hour drive from Sonauli to Kathmandu, and not need to stay the night in no man's land.
In reality, I got shooed out of my hotel at 10pm. I maneuvred in the dark, shit-filled alleyways just fine with my trusty headlamp, passing several stubborn cows blocking the way. I took a slow bicycle rickshaw to the Varanasi train station, the hall is completely filled with sleeping homeless families. I sat in the cafe until it closed at midnight. It only had a couple insects crawling around, I didn't order anything. The train was delayed several times, and did not leave until 2:30am. I waited in the main hall, watching a policeman wake the families up with his stick, and see two mice come out of a hile in the wall to take food out of a sleeping man's bag.
I arrived in Gorakhpur at 8am, amd took a bicycle rickshaw a few blocks and caught a bus to Sonauli and befriended a young couple from Moscow. We walked across the border at 1:45, paid the $40 US for the 30 day visa. On the Nepal side, there was a bus to Kathmandu at 2pm which I thought I could run and still catch, but come to find out, time in Nepal is 15 minutes ahead of time in India. I missed the bus by 15 minutes, but there were enough people wanting to go that a shady border company was able to fill a van and leave at 3.
I did see a lot of beautiful mountain and river scenery, on par with the route to Yosemite or Lake Tahoe, but the river is much wider and more breathtaking. No snowy peaks yet, that will come later in Pokhara. I did see 20 or so very small forest fires. I don't know if they were very harmful to the land, but they created a lot of smoke on an already dusty road, but looked really cool at night. Men are very respectful, and I had to consciously let my guard down a bit. I'm happy I can ne nice to people again, and they're very nice back.
Kathmandu has similar air quality to Los Angeles, people wear thin breathing masks, but it's actually a really awesome city. The streets are paved in square stones and they wander all over, leading to public squares with odd shapes, and ornate temples. The scale of the roads and buildings is very pleasant. It's clean, there's no garbage or cow shit. There are many shops that sell outdoor gear and clothing, so a main task is to buy proper hiking boots, socks, thermals, a down jacket, wooly hat etc. so I can go trekking up to snowy peaks. The one name-brand store is The North Face (REI, why aren't you here?) And the prices are the same as at home. I'll try my luck with the knock off stuff in the local shops at a third of the price. River rafting is also popular in Nepal, so I'll see if I can fit that in, too. Another main task is to kick the latest bout of diarrhea/Delhi belly.
Nepal seems to be a poorer country than India, but I think they take care of eachother much better, clean up, are honest, and respect rules and police. I like it very much.
The power went out last night and never charged my phone. I'd like to post pictures of Durbar square from my kodak camera. Coming soon! I was able to capture photos of a local festival where boys carry a shrine with a twirling umbrella, dance, and play drums, symbols and flutes and wear littke hats in the street. Some groups do it in red, others blue. The guide book says it's Nawa Barsa, Nepali New Year.

Agra cadabra!

The Taj Mahal in Agra is awesome! So clean, and not too crowded before 10am. Missing only Lady Di.
The inside of the TM is very plain, dark, and remarkably umremarkable. The outside, on all sides, is stunning. They say it's "the most beautiful building in the world" and, "A teardrop on the cheek of eternity".

The high class section of the train from Delhi to Agra ($18 instead of the $6 cheap seats which were all booked up for the next 2 weeks) served a full breakfast which started with yummy British-style tea and brown bread with jam. Then, a tray for corn flakes in hot milk and a banana. Then a second tray with a full Indian breakfast: some kind of oily gravy, rice, and fried dough. I ate the cornflakes, dry.

I like the famous monuments a lot because they're very beautiful and well-maintained, becauae they really register in my head where I am on the globe, and also because many families and different kinds of people go there. I got to chatting with Jerry, a very old man from Anaheim, CA (near Disneyland/LA. He.mentioned his hockey team rivalry with our San Jose Sharks). A home appliance salesman in his day, he said the word "company" with only 2 syllables, the way my grandpa used to say. He and his wife have traveled to more than 50 countries, including a few in Southern Africa. He recommended I go to Victoria Falls. When I told him I quit my job to travel for this long, it sounded perfectly normal to him, saying: "you gotta do this stuff while you can still walk! Keep your body moving! Later when you get married and have kids, you'll be glad you did all this!"

Varanasi - horrible bus, filthy city

The two daily trains to Varanasi were all full for the next several days, and the Agra train station tourist official told me I could get a comfy, A/C tourist coach at the bus station 45 minutes outside of town. Once I got there, I teamed up with a chubby Korean tourist guy, Woong, and we boarded the most broken, dirty, uncomfortable bus yet, for the 16 hour journey-from-hell through mud, potholes, and dusty country roads to Varanasi. Woong probably saved me from a boatload of staring and male harrasment. I nicknamed him "The Korean Cowboy" and we both wore our bandanas to keep the dust out of our noses.

We rode through the poorest sections of India I have seen so far, and arrived in Varanasi at 8am. It's the most congested and filthy place so far, with monkeys, cows, goats and stray dogs walking and shitting in all the narrow alleys, inbetween piles of garbage, open sewage drains, and a high density of mosquitos, gnats, ants and *flies*. I've been a real trooper in India so far. Most cities have open sewers. Those in Jodhpur ran pink with Holi color... but I draw the line at bugs! Previous travelers have raved about how beautiful and spectacular Varanasi is. "The whole city is like one lovely temple... just watch out for the shit everywhere".

I found a place to eat breakfast, and contemplated leaving immediately, but then I met a very nice tourist called Lindsey, an ER nurse from Vancouver, Canada and her nurse friend Kim. They showed me the place where they're staying where I got a room (and a shower) quickly. They duste me off, and encouraged me to stay and give Varanasi a chance. We met up later, walked around and got some lunch. The Ghats and river front, Varanasi's claim to fame, where Hindus wash themselves in the Ganges river, and burn and dispose of dead family members, is also a place where water buffalo swim. The waterfront is filthy, a hodge podge of mis-matched steps, run-down temples, modern abandoned buildings where monkeys live and fight, and ugly hotels under construction. A restaurant recommended in the Lonely Planet was in the middle of tearing down its concrete roof, and was still open and serving food, with chunks of rubble literally falling on the tables. I stopped into an internet cafe, which was clean and air conditioned, but a little girl was able to peek into the toilet stall through a ventilation duct, and ask me in English "finished?", like she does that everytime someone goes to the toilet. I called her a naughty girl.

I will get to "appreciate" Varanasi for 1 more day, like it or not, waiting for the midnight train to Gorakhpur, the recommended place and time for taking a train (I got the last available sleeper ticket thanks to the "ladies quota"), and then a shared jeep or bicycle rickshaw, across the border and into Nepal. I decided to skip Darjeeling for now. Maybe I'll go there after Bhutan. I have 1 more entry on my Indian visa. I like India, but I'm also glad to be done with it! Nepali men are supposed to be more respestful, too. The Nepali men who are working in India have been very nice so far.

Delhi

Delhi is alright. Dirty and crowded at first, but more modern than elsewhere, with a good metro, huge monument mall, presidential palace, Red Fort, and curved white colonial buildings circling Connaught Place (with only a dozen children beggars, and only half of the pillars are smattered with red paan spit stains).

I found a rooftop cafe in the backpacker district, Pajar Ganj (near New Delhi train station) with an awesome view of crazy auto and bike rickshaw traffic, mixed with wheelbarrows, scooters, food carts, water buffalo-drawn carts, wandering cows, pedestrians, cars, and the occasional stray dog. I spent quite a long time watching the street from the balcony, absolutely delighted. I caught some of it on video, which I will upload to Facebook next time I'm at a real computer (FB can't take it from my smart phone).

Strange men come up to me, way too often either trying to sell something or simply to interrupt my day. It seems like each sleeze bag needs 5 no's, 2 go away's and 2 stop following me's before buzzing off. I even hear whistles and smooching noises directed at me, frumpy brown haired plain me. The smooch noisemakers get yelled at, I have no tollerance for that sh*t. Men try hard to bump into me, and brush against me a dozen times a day. They stare at my legs in my shorts that are quite long for American standards. I saw 3 women in all of Delhi wearing shorts just barely higher than the knees. Every platform and every metro train has a women-only section, which I find both outdated and safe. That's where I go.

6am train tomorrow for Agra (Taj Mahal)!

Too much hotel time

Being stuck in Jaipur with the nose stalactite, I got ample time to consider gender roles in the hotel business, which gives insight into the whole gender issue, the staring and groping of white female tourists, and the crappy treatment of women in India. I observed:

The owner of the hotel is a woman. I think her name was Reva. Reva's dad opened the hotel in 1980 with 5 rooms, and has built it up to 35 rooms, with a huge and lovely rooftop terrace with 300 some potted plants all around it, twinkly lights, a canopy and bench swing. The zoning of her street limits jer to 35 rooms. I suspect she does not have a brother since she is now running the hotel, together with her husband. At age 20 (1992) she had her wedding at the hotel, which had 1000 guests, lasted 4 days, and which she quickly admitted was a huge waste of money. 2 years later, she had her first kid. Reva is 40 and her parents are younger than mine. Her 18 year old daughter will start law school in the fall, and her son, 16, came home after private tennis lessons, and gave me a map of Jaipur, pointing out the major sites to visit and how much a tuktuk should cost (450 rupees all day, $9). The tuktuk driver who is permanently camped out in front of the hotel was a very good Nepalese guy whose only fault was spitting minty chewing tobacco.

I asked Reva why all the employees at her hotel, and every other hotel in India are men. She said that women stay home, or they work as domestics in a rich person's home. They don't work outside of actual homes, which is odd to me because even hotel housekeeping is done by men here and I see no difference by type of work, changing sheets in a house vs. in a hotel.
I made some simple but pivotal connections: Lower class women are the ones who would work in a hotel in India, assuming they could get hired in the first place. Reva is all for her daughter's law career, but lower class women may be considered by even Reva as sluts or undesireables. It would be aweful to hire the kind of woman who would sell herself to male coworkers or guests. Or, she assumes that her lower class male employees wouldn't be able to control their lust, and their workplace has bedrooms everywhere. Reva might assume that no woman would apply for a job outside of a house (I bet she would get a line of applicants down the block). If Reva did want to hire a woman, she would have to wait for a male employee to quit or get fired, providing one lone slot for a woman. Taking on a hotel full of all male coworkers is a daunting task.
Men here don't learn to respect women in a coworker setting, which is where we spend so much of our lives. There is very little platonic, professional interaction between the sexes in India. What our mothers in the US had to put up with in the 60s and 70s, gee wiz!

Speaking with Reva and her son on a second occasion, two British women were at the next table, and we got to talking about Dehli. Both women complained that they had been groped by men in a store, on the boobs and butt. I asked Reva why she thinks Indian men do that, and if it's just white women or does her daughter have to be careful, too? She didn't know why, said something about lower class men, and yes her daughter has to be careful, never going on a date, only going to the movies in a group of girls. The son said maybe those men watch sexy movies and have the wrong attitude. When his mother stepped out, I told the son that all the men in every hotel stare at me and every white woman. He asked if his hotel was like that too. I said yes. He asked which one employee had stared at me, and I said they all do, all the time. He was surprised, and said he would tell them not to do that amymore. I suggested to him that they hire some women employees, another surprising idea.

Reva's main concern was that everything was OK with my stay in her hotel. She must have asked me 30 times if everything was fine. She also insisted that I leave nice reviews for her hotel and restaurant on Trip Advisor while staring at my smart phone, reminding me that they have free and strong wifi everywhere and repeating the wifi password several times. I took her picture on the terrace and promised to post good comments, which I did, and she thanked me for it on our second interaction. She also said that every summer, all the plants on the terrace die with the heat and subsequent monsoon. She has to buy them all new each year. I told her how many locally-owned businesses in the US give money to local sports teams so poor children can afford the uniform, or as scholarships to students for college. She thought that was nice, and said they don't typically do that in India, making no connection to herself, but added that I'm a good-natured person. If anything, I'm a big hypocrit for blowing my savings on a trip to Asia instead of donating it to little league or a scholarship fund. Reva was a very nice lady, but the situation makes me very uncomfortable.
I am reminded that lower and middle income people in the US donate a larger portion of their income to charity than rich people do, and we really rely on taxes to recirculate money. When rich people hord money, it's not good for society. India, I hear, has lots of corruption and I suspect taxes on rich people are too low, or the money gets skimmed away or something.

A doctor did a housecall! Abscess in the nose

That painful bump in my nose got bigger and throbbing, waking me up at 11pm. WebMD said it's an abscess caused by dirty environments, irritation in the nasal lining, etc. The hotel called doctor Panicker (excellent name for an emergency on-call doc!), who came in under 30 minutes. 3 medications, some ice, and 4000 rupees later ($75), I'm back to bed in under an hour. No waiting in line at a confusing, germ-filled clinic where not everyone speaks English. Very civilized, and the doctor said that part of the system is for foreigners and is left over from the British model. Also, very ironic... This is the same country/city with sewage problems, rats, stray cow and stray dog problems, homeless children, etc. Dynamic India.
Dr. Panicker's daughter works for Google in Mountain View, CA and he'll go there in June to visit her.

The hotel employee (they're always all men) with a bad toupee carried a dust-covered ice bucket back to my room for me. He came all the way inside my tiny room, and looked all around. He noticed my clothes bag, which I had just packed with clean clothes I washed myself in the sink, and dried on my own clothes line I hang up make-shift like in hotel rooms. He offered the hotel laundry service, and akwardly would not leave my room. After breakfast the next morning, the waiter (who charged me 30 rupees to wash and half-fill the bucket with ice), also wanted to carry it back to my room, open the lock for me, come all inside, look around, offer laundry service and stare at me in the tiny entryway. No privacy, and they always want to sell something, even when you're ill and it's midnight. They need to hire some women employees!

Jaipur, the pink city

I took the only train that runs from Jaisalmer to Jaipur, at night, arriving in Jaipur at 5am. I had a nice chat with a single mom from Ireland and her two teenagers in the train. The 16 year old daughter was stared at by men every minute of their 6 week trip. The mom had visited India for the first time in 1985 and had interesting stories.
Once in Jaipur, I was hounded and stalked by moto rickshaw drivers, one followed me from the platform and down several blocks in the street. I ended up having to yell at him "leave me alone" and embarass him in front of other, more polite tuk tuk drivers. Nothing would shake this bastard. I walked away, and was able to walk no problem to a decent hotel within 5 or 10 minutes. Stray dogs are out in the morning and the dog to people ratio is much higher. I picked up a rock to carry the whole way and had no problems.
I woke up the front desk staff at the first hotel, and decided to come back at 8. I left my bag, and walked around the city. Although I was dirty and tired, the city was peaceful, no one tried to sell me anything, old people were walking for exercise in the park, and I saw the sun come up in India's pink city.
I checked in at a different hotel across the street from the first, for they were not smug and let me in a room right away. Shower and sleep until 2pm.
I've have a painful blister type thing on the inside of my nose. I may have gotten bit in the nostrel by a bug, or just gotten overzealous with picking dusty boogers every day (Booger update just for you, Amanda! I know it's your favorite!) It shoots pain on my face and teeth, so I took it easy yesterday. Lots of ibuprophen. I took an auto rickshaw around to Amber fort, where I had a nice chat with a Sihk family,and the dad unfolded his long beard to show me how he clips and tucks it in. I also got a henna tatoo on my foot! I've got a 6am train to Delhi tomorrow. Mega city here we come!

Camel Safari, Good Good

One Canadian girl and a bunch of French university students were staying in the same hotel in Jaisalmer. They're on study abroad for the semester in Dehli, and had all booked a camel safari, with one space left for me! We rode camels out into the desert, to a lovely and clean sand dune. We spent the night out under the stars, singing with our guides and telling jokes. We had a ball! I also visited the Fort, which is big like the one in Jodhpur, but also includes lots of housing for local families, in ancient stone homes. Udaipur is White, Jodhpur is Blue, and Jaisalmer is Yellow! Next up: the night train to Dehli (I will alight early, in Jaipur, the pink city).