Nepal: Hiking Closer to the Himalayas



view of Pokhara and Phewa lake from World Peace Pagoda

Before arriving in Nepal we played with the possibility and our ability to do the 21 day trek to Everest base camp which sits at a measly 5360 m above sea level. We opted instead for the beginner version in the form of two separate two day hikes. We booked our treks or hikes through the hotel’s travel agency, Global Adventure Trekking (P.) Ltd., which is one of hundreds of travel agencies in Thamel as every, and we mean EVERY, hotel, guesthouse and B&B has their own agency.  Global Adventure Trekking did a wonderful job and lived up to all their promises!

Our first trek started from a small village outside of Kathmandu (1337m) and climbed to the village of Nagarkot sitting at 2175m and overlooking the western Himalayas. After our five hour hike (a cold beer and a two hour nap) we enjoyed a beautiful sunset from the hotel’s rooftop viewpoint at 2194m. What a view! Our second trek started from the other side of Nepal in the beautiful mountain town of Pokhara (1025m). Our destination this time was Nagarkot’s sister city, Sarangkot, sitting at 1600m. Although lower than Nagarkot, this little village was much closer to the Annapurna range (the eastern Himalays) and therefore afforded magnificent mountain views not to mention the most amazing sunset and sunrise! Although this was a shorter trek, it was much warmer and MUCH steeper. It was not so much a trek as doing a stairmaster for three straight hours after a two hour hike to the World Peace Pagoda. S was kind enough to stop every 15 steps to take pictures of the breathtaking surroundings. 

boy with a Doko

On both hikes the views were unbelievable. Not only did we enjoy clear mountain views but our walk was through beautiful tiered farmland and many villages. Every possible piece of land on the mountain side is used for farming. It’s not laid out like the farmland that we are used to seeing at home. It is all on layered land that follows the contours of the mountains and is divided by mounds of earth. It reminded us of rice fields without the water. Quite amazing. Another quite amazing thing is the way the Nepali carry loads - they carry them in a basket called a Doko that sits on their back and is strapped to their forehead. The mind blowing thing is that they carry bricks, wood, and litres of water all at the same time. They seem to carry easily hundreds of kilos at once. Simply unbelievable. We heard that the trek porters also strap backpacks to their forehead to help carry the weight.

If we had to pick a winner between the two destinations it would definitely have to be Sarangot for it’s proximity to the Himalayas and it’s view of Pokhara’s Phewa-Lake and the valley surrounding it.

 Click here for more pictures (password: viewpoint).


farmland on the way to Nagarkot

view on the way up to Sarangkot

 

view of World Peace Pagoda from Sarangkot

view from our balcony in Sarangkot

getting ready for the sunrise, Sarangkot

sunrise, Sarangkot

sunrise over the Annapurina range (view from Sarangkot)



Our hotel in Sarangkot



Nepal: Relaxing Pokhara



Annapurna range at sunset from Pokhara

 Our favourite city in Nepal during our 18 days there was definitely Pokhara.  This town is perfectly nestled between Phewa lake and the Annapurna range (the western portion of the Himalayas in Nepal). Although a popular tourist destination it is a very tranquil town and the surroundings are just beautiful.  In terms of tourist attractions, there is not much to see here, which leaves you with plenty of time to enjoy the surrounding natural beauty.  And enjoy it we did. 



washing laundry along the river

 The main "tourist strip", which consists of shops and restaurants, runs along Phewa lake.  Here you will find the same merchandise you could find anywhere else in Nepal but in a much less hectic atmosphere.  We enjoyed an afternoon of boating on Phewa lake and around a Hindu temple on an island in the middle of the lake.  Another day was spent walking along the river to the waterfalls and caves a few kilometers away.  The waterfall is named "David's falls" after a tourist who was taking a bath in the river above the waterfall and got washed down and unfortunately killed.  Crazy to believe but there is a plaque there in Nepali English explaining the whole thing.  As we were there during the dry season, there was not much water falling to see but the walk there was fantastic.   All along the river people were bathing and washing their clothes - a beautiful kaleidoscope of colours. 



the view from M's paraglide



Another worthwhile walk for the breathtakking views is the three hour hike up to the World Peace Pagoda which sits on top of a hill on the other side of Phewa Lake.  But talking of breathtaking views, the best views we had of the Pokhara valley were from our paraglides.  Yes, you read that right, we went paragliding for the first time in our lives and can't wait to do it again.  Pokhara is one of the top spots in the world for paragliding as the weather is very consistent from September to about January.  We took off from Sarangkot and after an hour flight we landed by the lakeside.  We soared hight above Sarangkot mountain and the Pokhara valley with the vultures and eagles.  The experience was unforgettable!

For more pictures of Pokhara and our paragliding experience, click HERE (password: relax).

conquering Phewa lake



view from the World Peace Pagoda



the World Peace Pagoda



S flying over Sarangkot

traffic over Pokhara and Phewa lake

flying with the vultures

Beautiful Serbia: Part IV - Sports

In order to ensure that everyone doesn't think that ALL we did was eat while in Serbia, we decided to include a mini blog dedicated to all the sporting activities we participated in which limited our growth to only 10lbs each. 

First there was a bowling night in Zemun where we were introduced to the one they call "Jesus", aka S's cousin Ivan.  The best way to desribe this man's skills is to compare him to Fred Astaire with the only difference being that Fred dances and Ivan bowls.  This was a great night through and through.  No need to talk about the scores as when you are this good (not), scores don't matter.  The important thing is form and looking good when you bowl.  Keep that in mind kids.  Winning is not everything.  

Then we moved to the red clay courts of Jagodina and the surrounding villages.  Here we brushed up on our tennis skills which helped us help Nole beat Federer in the semi-final of the US Open.  A little known fact is that the only reason Nole lost to Nadal in the final is because S&M were half way across the Atlantic.  But this little known fact should stay between us ;)   The  doubles competition was stiff at the Jagodina City Open but the organizers fed us well and lent us pants and shoes to play in.  The rest will remain in the Open's history books for the local people to admire. 

Oh yeah, we also did some mountain trecking and some extreme street walking (caution: don't try this on the streets of your home town).

like we said earlier, it's all about form

this is known as the "crouhing tiger" techique...

this is the "dislocated shoulder" technique

The Depression Sets In

Day 5: rain, rain and more rain (more like a constant drizzle) :(

Well, no report on the mens final between our man Nole and Rafa as it never took place.  But we can report on the fact that it rained from the time we walked out of the train at Flushing Meadows to the time we got out of the train back in Manhattan.  THEN... the rain stopped!!!  So, the final has been rescheduled to 4 pm tomorrow.  Sadly, we are flying out of NYC at 3 pm.  We can't believe we won't get to see the match at all.* Unbelievable!!!   Anyone out there listening, if you could tape the match and email it to us so we can watch it later, we will be forever thankful :)  Is that even possible?

Too depressed to say anything else.  Speak to you again from the Netherlands ...

*by the way, we tried to change our flight to the following day but it would have cost us almost as much as our flights did combined.  Not happening.  Still so sad.  GO NOLE GO!!!!!!!!

NOLE MAJSTORE!!!!

Day 4 (Super Saturday) - Perfect day for tennis... finally!!!
After two cold and windy days we were blessed with a beautiful sunny day (and were terribly overdressed). On the menu for the day were two mens semi-finals and the ladies championship match.  It all started with the Nadal vs Youzhny snoozefest.  This match was over before it even started with Rafa winning in three straight sets.  It seamed that Youzhny never recovered from his marathon match from two days ago and decided to mail this one in.  Rafa was very impressive from the get go and ran his opponent off the court.

Match #2 was the highly anticipated rematch from the previous 3 US Open semis featuring Djokovic vs Federer (Federer had eliminated Djokovic in the last 4 US Open tournaments, once in the final and 3 times in the semis).  To call this match fantastic would be an understatement!  Federer showed flashes of brilliance throughout the five sets but never managed to take full control.  This was largely due to Nole's impeccable play.  You can say he gave the defending champ a run for his money and then some.  He served really well, controlled the baseline and returned serve to perfection.  He also managed to drastically improve on his net game as compared to his 1/4 final match.  The crowd was LOVING this match from start to finish (begging for action after the Rafa match).  We were on the edge of our seats throughout and nearly had a heart attack in the final 3 games.  Nole overcame two of Federer's match points on his serve and came back to break Roger and win in the end avoiding a dreaded tie-breaker.

The best part of this whole experience was cheering for a true underdog who everyone including the whole ESPN cast wrote off.  Listening to 90% of the people at the tourney already talking about a Federer/Nadal final before the Djokovic match even started was getting irritating!  However he who laughs last laughs the sweetest :)  AND believe us, we are still grinning ear to ear 7 hrs later!

Final Score:  5-7, 6-1, 5-7, 6-2, 7-5

Finally, the last match of the day was a vicious beating of Zvonareva at the hands of Clijsters.  This women's final was finished exactly 60 minutes after it began.  No joke!!!   Absolutely incredible or embarrassing, depending on where you sit.  For her troubles, Clijsters took home a measly $2.2 MILLION!!!!  WOW!!!  Make sure to say in ...  tennis school kids.

Tomorrow is the big final.  The mighty Serb (who us, biased? Never, it's just science :)) verses the #1 ranked player in the world.  To say that we are excited about having tickets to this once in a lifetime event would be a gross understatement.  We can't wait and we are pretty sure that Rafa is giggling at the thought of playing a worn out Djokovic.

NAPRED NOLE!!!!! .... GO NOLE GO!!!!

Welcome to the US Open

After killing our feet, legs and backs pounding the pavement in New York, we are now sitting and watching others pound the pavement at the US Open.   It's fantastic.  The US Open is one of four yearly grand slam tournaments and Arthur Ashe Stadium at the US Open is the largest stadium in the world.

Day 1: 32C and clear skies!  

You can't imagine a finer day for tennis AND somebody is celebrating a birthday:)   We get there and find out we are watching Djokovic vs Monfils at Arthur Ashe!  For those of you that didn't watch the match it was close in the first 10 games.  After that, Nole kicked some serious ass!  Not his greatest game but it helped that Monfils attempted to hit the ball through his legs while facing the net for no other reason than to showboat and missed miserably.

The grounds at Flushing Meadows are nice, well organized and nice to walk.  Everyone has access to the surrounding courts and practice courts, where you can find anything from a juniors or wheelchair games to the legends and pro's practicing.  Once inside the complex, anyone is free to go and watch a match at the Louis Armstrong Stadium. While walking around, we came across Monfils practicing for the Nole game (where he also played a bit of bball) and Nestor practicing with the legendary Todd Martin.  Very cool thing happened that night, we saw Daniel Nestor again: while at dinner at Les Halles, he came in and was seated right next to us!

Day 2: windy and cold ... very windy and very cold

We went from 32C and sunburns to 15C and 50 km winds.  We definitely did not dress for the occasion.  In the gusting wind, we watched the mixed doubles final where Bryan (USA) and Huber (USA) def. Peschke (CZE)  and Qureshi (PAK).  Bryan also won the men's doubles with his twin brother the following day, defeating Qureshi (PAK) and Bopanna (IND).  Following the mixed doubles, we watched a marathon match between Wawrinka (SUI) and Youzhny (RUS).  Youzhny won in five sets.  We shivered our way home and had an amazing $4 chicken shawarma.  

Day 3: sunny, then more wind and cold again

This time we came prepared in many warm layers and enjoyed another great day of tennis.  We watched the women's semi-finals where seventh seed Zvonareva (RUS) deaf first seed Wozniacki (DEN) in two straight sets and then second seed Kim Clijsters (BEL) battled and beat third seed Venus Williams in three great sets (and many aces from Venus).  

We are looking forward to a whole day of tennis tomorrow: Women's Finals and Mens Semi-Finals.  GO NOLE GO!!!!!  

To be continued ...