Round the World

Yes, that's right - just pictures and short stories. No essays to read...
Easy

Dup, Jana and Francois at a tea plantation in the Cameron Highlands.

Workers collecting tea at one of the plantations in the Cameron Highlands.

Dup needs some alone time at a watch tower in the Cameron Highlands as he informs us that his Celebrity Televised Swim Gala with Gold Medalist Michael Phelps has been cancelled. Personally, I think he was lying.

Tea plantation. My favourite pic in Malaysia, I must admit.

Me beneath the Petronas Towers.

Dup, this time in business mode. He comes to this bar to razzle and dazzle the KL elite. There's actually a pool in the bar and this night he refrained from doing a few lengths at midnight.

Bird Park in KL. I swear these birds were trained to kill people! I couldn't shake them off my head! The one on the right attacked me only moments later.

Rickshaws in Malacca. Some of them have booming sound systems, which detracts from the historical significance of the place when it is only inches from your eardrum

Borobudur, an ancient Buddhist temple near Yogyakarta.

Very impressive. The top tier at Borobudur is really amazing - the surrounding views are truely awesome, and the structure itself is just huge.

Its hard to explain how unique my freckled skin is in some of these places. These guys thought I was taking a photo of them, so someone pointed at me and shouted something, and then they all started to pose. So I got them to do the model pose of pointing and looking like Derrick Zollander! The blue guy on the right needs to talk to someone though, he may have a problem...

Me on top of Mount Merapi. Fantastic climb, whjich began at midnight with torches, and had us watch the sun rise over the horizon. Thats sulphuric gas in the background.

The view from the top - this time with a couple of volcanoes in the background for good measure.

Javanese kids challenging me to a duel to the death at the base of Mt. Merapi. I was tired from the walk and in no mood for trouble, so I whipped their asses.

Prambanan - also in the Yogyakarta area. Its hard to believe but this structure has been completely rebuilt following a massive Mt Merapi eruption hundreds of years ago (can't remember date) that covered the whole thing in ash and rock.

Yogyakarta guys playing football outside my B&B. Love this pic.

The plateau from the top of Mount Bromo. What a view - totally surreal being here.

Mount Bromo - the jeeps take you right to the foot of the mountain and off you walk.

Sunrise reveals the Tengger Caldera crater in Eastern Java, with Bromo bullowing out steam constantly.

Great diving here at Menjengan Island off north-western Bali. Great walls and slopes filled with life. This was a little beach we docked at between the dives. Thats Bali in the background.

Balinese troops practising karate. Anti-terrorism is taken VERY seriously in Bali nowadays...

Paddies in Bali - really beautiful.

Kite flying is a great pastime for Indonesian kids. You see kites being flown anytime there is a mild breeze.

Father and son, and musician on my bike trip over the mountains in Bali.

There are little Hindu shrines everywhere in Bali. EVERYWHERE. They bless houses, shops, fields, roads, cars, everything. Perhaps thats why the drivers drive like they're invincible!

Boatmen cleaning their boats before the next tide I think - Bali.

More rice paddies.

On the way to Gili Trawangan, off the large island of Lombok.

Gili Trawangan. Every evening, I'd go to the west side of the island, beer in hand and watch the sun go down. There was quite a crowd of us gathering after a few days there. So so chilled.

The moon sets weren't too bad either...!

Divers horsing around on the way back from a dive. That was my instructor - as you can imagine, dives were good fun!

Hmmm.... my bar - Rudy's. I stayed here, and as it turned out this place had everything to offer, and plenty of big parties.
Awesome bar staff!

The dog and rooster - Bali's monsters. Roosters for waking me up at 4am everynight! and dogs for barking constantly!

The last place I stayed at: Amed in eastern Bali. Famous for the USS Liberty wreck dive - what a fantastic dive.

Cats rule Gili Trawangan and are ready to pounce on any restaurant plate!

OK, thats enough oics for now - more to come in a month or so...
Right now - I'm in Manila, Philippines... its a little dodgy I must say.
Adios.

Goodbye Java
So I left Yogyakarta and headed on a 2-day bus trip across the eastern half of Java, with an overnight stay at Mount Bromo. I am sorry to say it, because Mount Merapi was an exhilarating climb and the dawn was really something to remember, but... Mount Bromo beats the pants off Merapi. There are a lot more tourists, which sucks, but the volcano is incredible. You literally get dropped off in a jeep about 500 meters away, walk up some stairs to the rim, stand and watch as the smoke billows out and then survey the plateau all about you, which is devoid of any trees (just tufts of grass) and looks really surreal. You can walk around the entire volcano rim, and just snap away at all the amazing views.
Then it was back into the bus again, and Indonesian busing is something else. Put it this way, to do about 500km's took a solid 22 hours of busing over 2 lo-o-o-ong days. I eventually arrived in Bali, and what a place.

Bali
Once again, my expectations were a little different from what I saw - this time, when I arrived in Bali. The island is massive - over 100km's long, and the surfing that it's famous for can only be found in a few spots, all in the south. I first stayed on the north west coast in the town of Pemuteran, near the diving island of Pulau Menjangan, famous for its wall dives. Little did I know, but its pretty much the most expensive town in Bali, with a few awesome resorts filling its beaches (my dive book fails to mention that the town is also unaffordable to most people on earth). They even MAKE coral there, sticking little thermometers into the water's edge to encourage reef life. I managed to find a cheapish place ($20 a night) after arriving at 9pm on a scooter for 20km's through dense national park forest. The scooter driver wasn't a big fan of using headlights, which was a bit concerning, especially since he didn't understand any English, which made it difficult to get the flashlight signal across to him! Arriving at that time left me with little option but to accept the first place I came across. Ah, long bus journeys in Indonesia, I do love them.
Although it has amazing beaches, Bali also has some massive mountains - remnants of old volcanoes. I took it upon myself to hire a scooter (at excessive Pemuteran prices) and headed into the hills. I covered 200km's of the western tip of the island, and it took all day. The weather changed dramatically as I zipped up the twisting roads, going from a humid 30-odd degrees at the beach to a heavy forest rainfall and having to seek cover for half an hour up in the mountains. Hiring a bike in Bali is dangerous! Not because of other traffic or the animals - the roads are just perfect for rally cars!! You cant help but take the roads at pace, either up or down. It's an awesome day trip, and the locals up there don't regularly see foreigners, or Bule, as we're called, so they wave and greet you, and want to talk at any opportunity. The Balinese are good and easy-going people, they're rarely interested in you just for the money - they enjoying chatting to foreigners. Sometimes though, you get those trying to sell something. In those cases, the conversation is as follows:

Balinese: Salamat Pagi (Hello) / Hello Mister! (if 15 years or younger)
Me: Hi
B: What your name?
M: David (pronounced Daafid) [No Stuart, not Daffyd]
B: Where you from?
M: South Africa.
B: Ohhhh... (Nodding a lot, yet complete confusion).... But you WHITE!
M: Yes I know.
B: Ohhhh......(still the confusion).
Got girlfriend?
M: No
B: Got wife?
M: No
B: How old you?
M: 20- something...
B: Oh. Want girlfriend?
M: No.
B: Want cooldrink? Want bir? What can I do for you?
M: No, nothing. Thanks bud, cheers.

The Balinese also enjoy playing guitar and music all the time. You'll often be at a restaurant and the guy across the road will come out of his shop and start plugging away at some old tunes. Next thing you know, his neighbor is sitting down next to him with a drum and they're playing away. Awesome! They are very musical people.

Gili Trawangan

Lombok is famous for the three Gili islands on the north-west corner. I went there and once again found myself sweating like Dingaan's armpits after 4 midday stick-fights. Luckily the water was a cool 29 degrees and the beers weren't too expensive, so I managed to find some respite from the heat. I hooked up a few dives and saw the best visibility i have ever seen. Perhaps 45-50 meters. It was incredible! Swam with a number of white-tip reef sharks, countless large hawksbill turtles, some huge bumperhead parrotfish, and many other smaller fish. It was great diving. The island has probably changed a bit over the years - I compare it quite a bit to Ko Tau in Thailand, just smaller. So its quite developed now. Most of the younger tourists seem to spend their time either flexing their guns on the main beach or doing some serious bikini tanning. I guess its a good way to take a break for a while, but the place does have a bit of The O.C. feel to it I think. Actually met some awesome Californians/West Coast and German people while there and we had quite a few good nights out.
On the half-hour boat ride back to Lombok, not a word was said amongst the dozen people leaving Trawangan. Everyone was just staring back at the islands getting smaller, wishing they didn't have to go. It is a lovely island, I'll be back for more I'm sure. I'll always remember it for the song "Welcome to my Paradise" - all the bars play it, all the time. Perfect place for it.

Got to the port at Lombok and we were completely surrounded by ferry ticket touts...! Paradise was definitely behind us now! I was left shouting at some tout "I don't trust you! I don't trust you! I wouldn't give you one cent of my money!" The guy was the dodgiest b@stard I have ever come across. In the end though I had to buy as there was no government office around to sell decently-priced tickets. That's traveling - the good unfortunately comes with the bad.
So now I'm back in Bali and going to KL tomorrow to stay with Dr. Dup du Plessis. He isn't coming to Kota Kinabalu anymore, cos he says he has some international charity gala against Michael Phelps or something. Nice story Dup...

Finally, I have decided to introduce my travel tip section with each new entry from now on:

Travel tips for this entry:
Don't ride buses in Indonesia. Walk if you must.
Learn to accept roosters - they will cockodoodaldoo at midnight, or whenever they damn-well please.
Learn to love scruffy, scrawny, mangy Indonesian dogs - they will bark whenever there is a cockodoodaldoo and they don't know what you're shouting at them cos they don't speak English. Accept them.

Final Note: The Beautiful Beard
There have been some unnecessary comments of late about my immaculate and well-groomed beard that I have carefully grown over the last few months. These have not been taken very well. Gowar, Whitfield, Waterman... I have your numbers. In fact, I was considering grooming it, or, dare I say it, taken it all off, because during the last few dives I kept getting water in my mask and couldn't see anything. Hopefully my mask and 'rooibaard' can learn to live with one another.

PICTURES: Will update as soon as I can... sorry, I just cant find internet cafe's that allow me to either downsize the photos or read my portable hard-drive.

I've been trying to convince myself to eat something really local on this big ol' world trip at least once. Well, on my first night in Yogyakarta I had pigeon. It still had its head and beak on, so I left that bit. Actually, it wasn't too bad. And in all seriousness, there's way worse stuff to eat in Cambodia, I just never had the guts to try then (or perhaps it's just my hatred for pigeons after all those years of cleaning pigeon droppings from my old Honda's bonnet every morning before work). So for the last few days I have been in Indonesia. I'm in a little city called Yogyakarta. It's famous for one of the world's most famous Buddhist ruins - Borobudur - its monolithic. And also for some Hindu ruins - Prambanan - and lots of volcanoes. As I flew in, I could see a number of volcano's peaking out from above the clouds - just immense. After four days, I think it's safe to say that I will be enjoying Indonesia very much. It's pretty different from other south east Asian countries. One thing that stands out as soon as you get here are road crossings. It's something of a suicide mission attempting to cross main roads here - there are so many hordes of bikes flowing down main roads that the traffic simply doesnt stop flowing - you have to kind of find a small gap (very rare) and wander across into the lanes (very slowly) facing the oncoming traffic (very bravely) and start waving your hand around (a little desperately in my case) at the scooters and cars. You gradually get across. They don't always slow down very much, but a sort of slipstream develops in front of you and its possible to walk away unscathed!
A sight for sore eyes were 'scooter-guards.' They wave down motorcyclists, who pull over, hand the bike to the guard to park, tip the guard, and leave their helmet with him. There are literally legions of these uniformed guys guarding the many thousands of bikes all over the city's pavements.
Saturday nights are usually reserved for open-air music concerts by the look of things. So I enjoyed wandering the streets for a while, watching the shows. Tourists are not present in huge numbers here... so locals keep taking pictures of me. Maybe its the immaculate, designer beard.

Mount Merapi:
I signed up for a volcano walk....... some would see this as a silly thing to do, as Mount Merapi is one of the world's most active volcano's. Nonetheless, I joined a group to the volcano and off we trudged at 1am to get to the top. Nerves hadn't been made any better by continual commentery in our group along the lines of: "It hasn't blown in nearly two years... what's the worst that could happen?!" Walking in steep furrows and narrow water run-offs made for some adventurous muddy wipe-outs on the way up, but after nearly 4 hours the group arrived at the top of Merapi (2914 meters). Just in time too, my dodgy torch that I rented was busy spluttering to death and it was still pitch black. The smell of sulphur was incredibly strong.
So, what's at the top of a volcano??? I wasn't sure what to expect - a crater lake full of bright red lava perhaps?! No, instead there are lots of rocks, hot steam vents and some icy winds. The effects of previous eruptions was clear - for the top few hundred meters of the mountain there is nothing but lava rocks, and no life whatsoever. I sat on a vent for a while to keep warm - it was seriously chilly and I didnt want to risk the cold, regardless of how comical it may have looked!
The dawn broke and I must say, it nearly brought tears to my eyes. Well not quite, but it was very beautiful. Got lots of pics but will have to display them another time as I can't upload here (too sloooooooooooooooow).

KL and the Legend of Dup du Plessis:
So prior to arriving in Indonesia a few days ago, I spent ten days with Dr Don Juan "Dup" du Plessis, an old mate from school days and East London (South Africa), who has the nasty habit of always bragging about that swimming record he broke when he was 13, back in 1687. After arriving in Kuala Lumpur, we stayed on a mate's 20th floor balcony looking over the KL skyline, sipping ice cold Tiger beers til 5am, getting an hour's sleep and heading off to the Cameron Highlands for some forest exploring. The Cameron Highlands are stunning. The dense forest growth, the size of the trees, the size of the whole forest - its breathtaking. We stayed in a backpackers called Daniel's where the owners have a deep grudge against the Lonely Planet for comments made two years ago about 'Spartan" rooms and some other stuff in their 'On a Shoestring' issue. There's a big blunt sign at the door that between many four lettered words, seems to indicate that LP travel writers are not welcome. After asking about it, and being drawn into a long discussion on why the LP is a crock of bull, I made a mental note not to bring up the topic again. The entertainment and transport for the weekend was provided by Francois and Jana - two ex-pats living in KL, hailing from Cape Town. Ah, good times!

We headed back in Boesman (F&J's old Landcruiser) to KL where I spent the remainder of the week. There's enough to see in the city - the bird park, the Pretonas towers, the KL Tower, the National Museum, but it was great to just chill out in one place for a while, without packing my life into a bag again (backpacking quarter life crisis??!!) I must admit - sometimes you crave malls, big screens and McDonalds burgers. KL is certainly a step ahead of most of south east Asia - it is an advanced and heavily built-up city. I can't compare to Singapore yet, as I've spent no time there so far, but I imagine its the next biggest economy in the region. It has a number of advanced sky/overhead rail systems - it makes getting around the city quite easy. Its also not as massive a city as I thought - 40 minutes by rail to any destination is lengthy. Many people reside in high-rise apartments looking over the city.
I also spent a day in Melaka (ie. Straights of Malacca) - the old trade city of the east. Its immensely historic and well worth a visit. The Portuguese were there in 1511, then the Dutch, the Brits, Japanese - everyone seems to have had a piece of the pie.
Malays love food. There are food markets and stands EVERYWHERE. Food is a major part of the culture. The people are split into three major groups: Malays, Chinese and Indians - its amazing that they get on so well, there aren't many countries in the world with such diversity.

Anyway, tomorrow I'm off to Gunung Bromo and then Bali. Til next time, sampai jumpa...

Pics to come in the next week (i think).

I haven't a chance to add anything to the blog for a few weeks, so is turns out I've crossed borders three times and obviously seen quite a bit since then! Massively dissapointed in myself for booking flights so close to each other and as a result, I havent seen as much of Cambodia or Vietnam as I wanted. The biggest loss is not even making Laos, i have heard so many good things about the place. To be honest, Vietnam also should have received at least a month of my travel time. Big bugger - up on my part. Oh well...

So I thought the Nepalese were the friendliest people until I got to Cambodia. It was pretty easy to travel and enjoy Cambodia thanks to the great locals I met. First stop from Bangkok was the host town for the Angor ruins - Siem Reap. I managed to fall into a border crossing scam by buying Cambodian currency at a ridiculous rate. Lost about $50. Last time I try swopping any cash near a border (in my defence, I was scammed by the Thai bus tour guide, as he informed us all that Siem Reap was a wasteland of a town where the ATMS's rarely worked, and then he took us to a local exchange place - probably his uncle behind the counter.... b@stard! All the ATM's worked fine as it turned out!)
First morning at Angkor Wat and I met my scooter driver at 5.30am at my hotel - 20 minutes later and I was standing in front of the most unbelievable architectural wonder and photographing Angkor Wat with the sun rising behind it. "Angkor Wat" is a bit of a misnomer - in fact, Angkor Wat is simply one of many massive ruins in the Angkor area. These ruins take up a huge area - each was built to be a seperate city, each with its own massive moat (some with crocodiles) and a few large walls just for good measure. Since I have always enjoyed architecture and history, I had three awesome field days wandering around, although some could not be more bored by these old ruins, I would imagine. So the ruins were great for me - my favourite temple was Bayan - but the temperature was insane. Having been to a few hot places in Africa in my time, I was blown away by what must have been way more than 40 degree heat. The humidity was just unbearable at midday. I drank about 8-10 litres a day! I was physically exhausted from the heat before midday the entire time I was there. So I guess not the best time to be in Cambodia, but what the hell, its all part of the experience! Air conditioning was my best friend there.

I managed to drag myself from the ruins, and went on to Battambang, via the enormous Tonle Sap lake (largest in Asia). It was pretty cool seeing the river town along the way - at some stages of the boat-trip you can't see the shore at all - and then we proceeded (in terrific, humid, cramped heat again) to Battambang. This town isn't much of a tourist mecca, I must say, but for $9 I got a half-day scooter trip to some pretty remote hilltop temples, travelling along old dusty roads. It also happened to be the April New Year's water festival - locals LOVE giving those stupid foreigners/barang a good ol' mouthful of waterbombs - I got a few in the back from some demonic little kids running unforgivingly after my scooter. Luckily, I was traveling with an Irish dude on another bike, and just pointed at him to distract the kids and so that they could prepare properly for a full volley in his direction. I think he got it way worse. Another interesting chap to meet that day was a young Buddhist monk.... complete with business cards. I still have one, just to prove that I did in fact meet a monk with business cards.
So these temples were even older than the Angkor ruins, but not nearly as impressive. Its here that various locals started walking up to me and taking photos with me and randomly chatting in the local Khmer dialect.... foreigners are not that common, especially 6"4 redheads!

Phnom Penh, capital of Cambodia, just has to be done. This is where you see the unpleasant side of Cambodia. The city is busy and bustling, but I was more interested in seeing the Killing fields and S21 prison. I can't say I was looking forward to either, but... when in Phnom Penh...
So, obviously, Cambodia is famous for the Khmer Rouge and the resulting killing fields all over Cambodia. In 1975, an army called the Khmer Rouge took over the country after defeating the government army. They immedietely began to convert the entirte country into a communist agrarian society. Therefore, if you had an education or could speak another language, or wore glasses (all indicating that you are educated) - you were in trouble. An estimated 2 million people were killed in the next four or so years, either because they were seen as an educated threat to communism or because they didn't work hard enough in the fields (aptly named the killing fields).
So there are tours now to the Killing Fields outside the city. There are still bones and clothes sticking out of the ground. Everywhere. It is a very humbling experience.
S21 was a prison used by the Khmer Rouge for torture and interrogation and holding onto specific prisoners. It is also a very sombre experience, as only about a dozen of the nearly 20,000 prisoners survived the prison.
In fact, during my short stay in Cambodia, virtually every Cambodian I met had lost someone during the 4 years of the Khmer Rouge. So, that was a pretty melancholic end to Cambodia ;(

'Nam
I crossed Vietnam once again on water, and upon entry (I was the only person on the boat besides the skipper, so I could stretch out nicely) I was greeted by a bunch of smashed boatmen, who handed me my first Saigon beer and started yelling "Bottom's up! Bottom's up!"... what's a man to do? I was damn thirsty after that trip and downed that bad boy in record time (for me that's about a minute!) The Vietnamese guys weren't looking all that impressed but they offered me another. I declined. My first night was Chuc Doc - not much of a tourist mecca either, but it was awesome sitting under a big umbrella in a local town market later that evening, getting out of the rain, and soaking up some local Vietnamese cuisines with another cold Saigon.

Saigon is a terrific city. No one calls it Ho Chi Minh city, unless you're from north Vietnam. I can honestly admit that I would have no problem living there. It's modern, busy, and everyone seems to speak decent English. It's very Western, which is probably a result of all the American and French influence. Wandering around the city centre is a great night out, dropping into good coffee shops along the way, and sampling excellent local foods. The highlight of the night though, was coming to my hotel and finding one of the sports channels playing Super 14 rugby! What a pleasure!! AND it was the Stormers, my favourites! The Incredible Schalk took the team to victory and 3rd on the log! Yes, I have missed the weekend rugby matches...
So Vietam had to be a highlights package tour, due to my poor planning and flight schedule. The Cu Chi tunnels were next on the list. These were the tunnels that the Vietcong built back in the 60's, right outside Saigon, and they are well worth a visit. Russell Fish... thanks for the tip, it was a good day out!


Yes, that is an AK47...! (Cu Chi tunnels still have the sound of gunfire everywhere as this touristy firing range is right next to the main cafe. Leaves a bit of ringing sound in your ears for a while though...)

The highlight for me in Vietnam though, has been hooking up with a bunch of guys called the Easy Riders. These local guys head off into Vietnam's Central Highlands on their motorbikes, and with their excellent English, show you what Vietnam is really all about. I visited minority villages, matriarchal villages (women run the tribe, their husbands sitting quietly and meekly in the background), hill tribe villages, ex-Vietcong villages, rice paddies, coffee plantations, silk factories, incense workshops, wandered along the Ho Chi Minh trail, saw vast bomb craters, old battlefields, houses that decorate their garden gates with giant bombshells, all sorts. Seeing the Ho Chi Minh trail was fascinating. The most alarming thing about the trail is the complete devastation of the land on either side of the trail, perhaps 2 km's wide at some point. This is a result of the South Vietnamese and American air forces trying to destroy the jungle. Initially it began with normal bombs, and then progressed to chemical warfare - Agent Orange and DDT (banned now) were used, amongst other things. The effect is a complete wasteland in some areas of the trail - there is no more jungle or forest... 40 years later.
Everywhere you go, people greet you, and children wave non-stop. Everyone wants to know your name. I felt like a hero! It's totally incorrect to say that there is much animosity in southern Vietnam towards foreigners. It was the best money I've spent in three months of travel. The website for the Easy Riders is: http://dalat-easyrider.com.vn/
Check it out if you are heading to Vietnam. Not cheap at $60 pd, but well worth it, as I have heard from all of the other travellers who have done it.

I have spent the last two days in Hoi An, on the coast in the centre of the country. Its an old town with huge influences from the French, Chinese and Japanese. Not as great as its made out to be I think. The highlight for me here was the Marble Mountains - giant caverns which have been turned into a Buddhist temple.

Major dissapointments:
- missing Laos
- missing the crater lake at Boeng Yeak Laom in Cambodia (but since its mentioned in Lonely Planet, its probably very touristy now anyway)
- not seeing Ha Long Bay, the place I most wanted to see in Vietnam.

Soon I will be off to see Dr Juan "Dup" du Plessis in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for about a week. Dup - please don't go on and on again about your glory days in the U12A rugby team back in 1973, and that time you broke some lame swimming record, and that time you were nominated for Mr Dale 1994 either. See you soon boet!
(Yes, Colm that's "The Hand!!")

"Hello. We are Maoist. We want peace and sustainable development for Nepal. We are on campaign for election. We dont want to fight."
And thus I was introduced to my first Maoist. Contrary to popular opinion he didnt try to extort money from me. We even shook hands twice and I bid him the best of luck on his blazing campaign trail as he wandered down the path on his pony, teenage flag-bearer/hero-worshipper by his side. The conflict between the government and the Maoist's is currently on standstill, at least until the April election is over, and that means that the Maoist party is trying to gain favour with the Nepali population to get as many seats as possible in the upcoming elections. They're communist, so the red hammer and sickle flag is displayed all over the country. Nepali's take an interesting view on politics here. Communism seems to be popular here - partly because so much money is squandered by politicians, leading the population to want equal wealth distribution, and therefore a rise in communist sentiment. And strangely enough, people dont seem to harbour much of a grudge against the Maoist's despite the fact that many civilans have died over the years. Many Nepali's seem to understand their issues. Anyway, I never felt at risk of any danger, and neither do other tourists.

The Annapurna circuit is beautiful beyond comparison. There is a lot to it. Typically the hike takes 16-21 days. I organised a guide in Kathmandu and a day later was taking the bus to Besisahar - the first town on the trail. I know I've have had my fair share of ranting and raving about bus drivers in previous blog entries, but now I think I've seen it all. My guide, Bhuben, organised a trip on a public bus - a seven hour trip from hell! The bus was a classic - straight from the 60's - so you'd think the bus driver would take it easy. But no, this only increases his desire to push the limits. The most useful tool in a Nepali bus driver's arsenal is the horn/hooter. Every horn has an annoying, repetitive tune...! When you arrive at the bus station in Kathmandu you feel as if you're in the middle of a parade band! It is used almost without stopping for the entire journey. There is no need for braking as long as this tool still works. A gap always seems to appear as the vehicle/motorcyclist in front of the bus (usually) pulls over and lets the bus go forth. When the bus enters a mountainous region, you really start to worry. Suddenly you're driving alongside massive cliffs and the bus is showing no signs of slowing down. Overtaking on hairpin corners or blind rises is par for the course. I plugged in my mp3 player, this was just too much for me...
I'll never curse a Sowetan taxi driver again.

So the trek was incredible. To get an idea of the terrain, the Annapurna area has three of the world's ten highest peaks. You are almost always looking at a snowcapped mountain somewhere in the distance, and as you get closer to the pass, you are surrounded by enormous, snowy peaks. For much of the trek you are at what mountaineers call 'high altitude,' meaning you need to let your body adjust to the rate at which ascend. So you take it easier the higher you go.
I generally tried to hike for the morning and a couple of hours after lunch before settling at a guest house for the night, then departing again after breakfast the next morning. My days varied between 11km per day and a maximum of 22.5km. In total the trip is about 205km of hiking.
The teahouses and guesthouses are owned by Nepali's and are rustic, but this all adds to the trekking experience. The villages where you stay are usually in a scenic part of the trek alongside the Marsyagandi or Kali Kandaki rivers, and often include a temple or Tibetan Buddhist monestry. Many of the villages are completely mind-blowing... they resemble medievil towns complete with ancient stone walls and cobblestone streets. The environments change constantly as you scale up to higher and higher altitudes, going from sub-tropical bush, to pine forests, to arid and rocky desert landscapes, and finally to the snowy peaks of the Himalaya's. My backpack initially weighed a ton - so I left some old shirts behind after three days, meaning that by the time I got on the bus 16 days later (no chance to wash clothes before this) my few clothes and I must have smelt like a vast herd of unwashed desert camels.
The pass, Thorung La, was the toughest part. It took a solid 10 hours of heavy trekking to get through the day. The pass is one of the world's highest - 5416 meters - I think that's higher than some continents! I felt the effects of altitude mountain sickness (AMS) through a pretty severe headache, so couldn't hang around the peak for too long, and headed down the other side into the world's deepest valley. The effect in terms of your breathing is unbelievable - sometimes you are gasping for air just from walking a few meters. Hats off to Tenzing and ol' Ed Hillary!! The west side of Annapurna presented some amazing desert scenery, gale force winds, the best hot springs in the world (surely??!), and beautiful viewpoints. What a trek - and there are plenty of other options that I hope to do in Nepal again one day.

Met some classic fellow trekkers on the route as well, by the time I finished the trek, our party had extended to six: Bhuben my local guide, Wolf the German, Ed the Englishman, Kiwi's Jason and Pipp, and me. Good laughs, and what steaks we had upon getting to Pokhara! (16 days of Dal Bhat can kill you! - ie. lots of rice and potatoe). Apple pies, croissants and hot showers were a pleasure on that first day back!

Pokhara is something of an adventure capital, it offers paragliding, kayaking, white water rafting, all that sort of stuff. Its situated on a lake, and its beatiful. I've just completed rafting and paragliding. Awesome fun! See pics below.

The rafting was a bit of a letdown - I had hoped to do some big rapids, but there were only level 2 and 3's. Obviously, the water was freezing but that didn't stop inter-raft water battles. I found myself flung into the river on a few occasions, but got my own back! Was also a great experience camping under the stars on deserted river banks at night.

Nepali's are also amazing people. You can't compliment them enough. They are genuine and kind, and always willing to help a stranger out - no reward is expected. To be honest, it was refreshing meeting Nepali's after dealing with what I call 'The Land of Fake Smiles'... ie. Thailand - I always felt as if someone was trying to rip me off.

Kathmandu was amazing as well. It's not everyone's cup of tea, but I loved it. Without going into too much detail, you can see some pics below of the famous sites I got to see. There are incredible places in the city: Boudnanath Stupa and Pashupatinath Temple top the list. Seeing burning funeral pires (with the occasional limb sticking out) on the riverside was a very strange experience indeed.

Anyway, off to the World Peace Pagoda here in Pokhara now... must go.