Capital City...Hanoi!

After a long and painful bus ride up north to the capital city, we spent the first day taking it easy and getting some sleep, since we didn't get any on the "sleeper" bus. Our bus attendant must have been having a bad day, and decided to take it out on the rest of the bus. Before we even left the station he was yelling at some other tourists for eating fruit on the bus, he said because it smelled. We let that slide, no food on the bus seems reasonable. Then after about 30 minutes, he starts yelling back and forth with another local lady on the bus. 4 hours later at about midnight, he is still screaming, and almost getting to the violent point with this lady. Of course most of the bus is full of tourist, who have no idea what they are screaming about, and just want him to shut up, which he didn't. I guess he had enough of this lady, and then decided he was so mad that it would be a good idea to start smoking cigarettes on the bus too. Fruit = too smelly, Chain smoking = Very pleasant....or at least I guess that is what he thought. The worst part was that 2 feet from him was a mother, an infant and its grandfather of about 80. They asked him not to smoke and pointed to the baby, and he responded with an angry wave in the grandfather's face, and went on smoking. Also, I think they were so mad that they didn't stop the entire trip. Which sometimes could be a blessing, since normally the buses stop every hour, and it can get old. Not this time though, 13 hours with no dinner and no bathroom breaks. Did I mention our driver was a maniac too! That's holiday cheer Vietnam style I guess.

Anyway, as I said we slept all day the first day in Hanoi. The second day we just walked around the old quarter where we are staying and saw a few sites and got a couple of bowls of Pho along the way. That night we went around and tried to book our boat tour in Halong Bay for my birthday and New Year's. Holding to our typical fashion we waited until the last minute, and most of the boats we wanted were full. We finally found one, but not as nice as the ones we wanted. Oh well, I have my rod and reel, and as long as it floats I will make due. We signed up for the 3 day, 2 night tour, with 1 night on the boat and one on Cat Ba Island for New Year's Eve.

The next morning we woke up to watch the first full football game I have seen UK vs. Clemson which we got on ESPN-Vietnam. It was nice to see some football and we actually caught a glimpse of Henry Gallivan in the stands. Of course the Cotton Bowl is the same time and day as the Gamecocks game so they are picking that up instead. Guess we will have to bribe another hotel owner to let us use the computer until 5 a.m. again to catch our game.

After the game, we of course got some Pho, and went shopping for a bit. Then we went to the other side of Hanoi and saw the War History and fine arts museum. On our way back to our hotel we were in our 5th wreck of the trip - our Taxi driver ran right into the back of a woman on a moto. Luckily we were at a red light; noone was hurt and there was no damage so we went on our merry way. That was about it for Hanoi. I think we are officially avoiding large cities at all costs. In the morning we head to our boat, for our cruise through Halong Bay!

BTW, new pics up on flickr, and for the first time since September we are caught up on this blog!

The Tailors of Hoi An

Hoi An is a really charming town full of tailors that are ready to make anything you want but they use mainly silk as the fabric. They are everywhere and all the people we met said be careful because it is so cheap it becomes addictive; especially when they can make it for you within 24 hours. We never thought of anything we needed/wanted, so never got anything made. All the buildings in the old town are the same size and color with wooden signs labeling the stores/restaurants. It has a river running along the side of it that is connected to two different islands by bridges and is small enough to just walk from one side to the other. Our first day there we relaxed a good bit just checking out to the town and local market - we didn't sleep much on the overnight bus since the sleeper seats are really short (even for me; Ben had a tougher time!). We took a cooking class from a place called Red Bridge that was awesome! They brought us to an organic garden to see how they grow all the veggies that are sold in the market. While we were there we sat at a family's house to have a drink that was just water, sugar, and lemon basil seeds. It was really good and we are going to have to find some lemon basil seeds to bring home (theirs' tastes very different than what we have found at home - more lemon flavour). During our break the grandma of the family hit Ben a couple times in the shoulder yelling something; our guide said she was crazy and didn't remember anything. It was hilarious! From there we went to the market to buy all the ingredients we needed for our food. An Aussie in our group tried the beetle nut we always see old women chewing. The old women's mouths are stained black and red from doing it so long, but luckily his just turned a little red after chewing for a couple minutes - he said it was horrible. The actual class was much more hands on than the one we took in India so we actually got to make the food we were going to eat. We learned how to make Pho Bo (a necessity for us by now), Shrimp in Banana Leaf, Fish Curry, Chicken with 5 spices, and Papaya Salad. Everything was great with the Fish being the biggest hit among our group. We left by boat to go back to town at about 3 pm and were completely stuffed! However, we did force ourselves to find a place to eat our Christmas dinner and found a restaurant that was serving a 6 course set meal with turkey; we were sold!

Most people here celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve at midnight like it was New Year's. So Christmas Eve night we decided to hit the town and take advantage of the drink specials at various places. We ended up spending a little more money than intended, shooting tons of pool, and playing the fishing game made for kids - where you fish while they spin around opening and closing their mouths (a service the bars here have included with darts and pool). We didn't feel that great when we woke up on Christmas so had our standard breakfast of Pho Bo and brought 2 sandwiches back to our room. Our Christmas dinner was amazing! It costs us $20 each for 6 courses and a free glass of some sparkling wine drink; plus we finally got our turkey! Tomorrow we leave early in the morning for Hanoi.

Nha Trang, Vietnam

Nha Trang is right on the beach but the sand is not as nice as we saw in Thailand; it is a bit more grainy and is surrounded by touts trying to sell you stuff while you hang out. We decided to get our Open Water Diving certification and spent the next 4 days learning. We scuba dived for 3 out of the 4 days - one day was learning in a pool that made your hair feel so bad that you had to wash it at least 4 times to feel somewhat normal - I don't want to know what they put in it! We had a German girl named Stef as an instructor who was from Berlin. When we were in Cambodia we met a couple that was from there but instead of saying they were from Berlin, they emphsasied they were from East Berlin - so we had to ask about the difference. Apparently the East feels that all good jobs go to people from West Berlin and West Berlin feels all their money is going to East Berlin. A vicous cycle that continues.

The diving here is nice but it made us a little upset we didn't dive in Dahab, Egypt because the visibility is so much better there. But we did see tons of different fish (thousands of puffer fish), a huge seaturtle eating at the bottom of the sea, a baracuda, etc. I was dying to see a seahourse but never got my wish. Overall the town is pretty relaxed. It rained almost everyday we were here - naturally except the day we leave. We are taking a night bus to Hoi An where we will spend the Christmas holiday.

Dalat - the Mtns of Vietnam

We arrived in Dalat fairly late - about 8 pm but got a room at the place we wanted (people in Saigon were raving about their breakfast in the morning so we had to check it out). Their breakfast lived up to the hype! The next day we walked around the lake that is in the center of town. Many people were fishing which made Ben jealous, but the lake was really green and had a lot of trash floating in it. Along the way we stopped at the Flower Gardens that had a ton of different flowers. It started raining a little bit when we left so we headed back towards our hotel. We did not make it far before we stopped to have a bowl of pho bo (noodle soup with beef) for lunch - something we crave every day here!

The next day we went with one of the Easy Rider's that are promoted all around town. They are a group of motorcyclists that can take you from Dalat to Hanoi (a 6 day trip) or just around town. We decided to take the one around town since they were asking for $65 a day for the long trips, and it was great!! They take you outside of town so you see more farm land, etc (Dalat was a French colony retreat in the mountains). We started by seeing the Dragon pagoda which had probably about 14 dragons throughout the architecture and gardens; then we went to view the town from a hill before seeing a local flower garden. Our guides were really nice and funny - one of them spent some time trying to find me the root they make Tiger Balm out of so I could see it. He found one and gave it to me as a souvenir - I did not have the heart to tell him I wasn't going to put it in my pack for the next 3 months so accepted gratefully. From there we went to see a coffee farm. Neither of us realized that Vietnam is the second largest exporter of coffee in the world but it is everywhere here and our guys told us how they grow the trees and the process of drying them out, etc. Then we moved on to see how they make rice wine. It is a pretty basic distillery process with fermented rice and we tried some that was just made. 65% alcohol - I thought my throat was on fire! There were 2 of the largest pigs I have ever seen in the same room squealing like crazy because they had not been fed. I guess they get any left over rice from the process - pretty happy pigs if you ask me.

We loaded back onto the motos to visit the silk factory and see that process from beginning to end. The patience you would need to do that day in day out is amazing and they had some really cheap things that we bought; $10 for a pair of 100% silk pants. Then we went to the Elephant Falls which is about 25 meters high. We were able to climb into a cave behind the waterfall to see if rushing over us which was really cool but you got a bit wet. Right next to the falls is a pagoda that has the biggest and happiest Buddha (see the pic above with Ben in front of it). The Buddha is surrounded be various other statues and hydrangeas along with other depictions of Buddha. By the time we were done with all this we were starving and ate at a local place that was just a set meal of $1.50 each. They brought out more food than any of us could eat. Probably about 12 different dishes from Whole fried fish, chicken and veggies, to bitter melon soup and stir fried snails. It was probably the best lunch we have had for the least amount of money! To end the tour they brought us to the Crazy House in Dalat. Apparently the lady created it to be one with nature. We thought it was pretty cheesy and wouldn't really recommend it, especially if you had to pay the extra entrance fee. It is really just a lot of high narrow bridges winding to connect different bedrooms. Overall we enjoyed the highlands; next we are off to the beach!

Good Morning Vietnam!

Ho Chi Minh City (many locals still call it Saigon) is pretty out of control! There are thousands of motorbikes on the streets driving like crazy and crossing the street reminded us a little of Cairo - except here people do stop at red lights most of the time. There are tons of shops and restaurants as well as historical sites from the Vietnam War - or 'American War'. The first day here we went to the market, the Independence Museum, and the War Remnants Museum. The Independence Museum is more like an office building from the 70's with really bad colored carpet. It is odd to see the word 'enemy' associated with your country, and it is everywhere in the War Remnants Museum. There are old tanks, air crafts, etc in the front yard of the War Museum. Inside it has pictures from the war; many are fairly disturbing, especially the ones related to the effects of Agent Orange and the birth defects it caused. It takes you through the history of the War, has excerpts from political speeches and documents, but mainly relates to the war crimes America committed in Vietnam. When we left there it was time for a beer, so we got two cyclos to take us back towards our hotel. They totally ripped us off since we did not understand how much they were asking for originally, so we decided not to take another cyclo in Saigon. We took a break from the war sites the next day and went to tour the many pagodas and Herb Market in the Cholon area . The carvings in some are incredible while others look more like a fair with all the colors and brightly clothed statues. The Herb market was kind of a bust but they did have weasel coffee - this is coffee they feed weasels and then take the beans from their poop before drying them. Never tried any but apparently it is supposed to be very good but really expensive.

Naturally we had to go see the Cu Chi Tunnels and decided to go with a guided tour because it was actually cheaper than trying to get there on your own. On the way to the tunnels we stopped at the Cao Dai Great Temple. Cao Dai is an interesting religion that combines aspects of Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Christianity, and Islam; the base of which is to escape the cycle of reincarnation. We made it in time to see the noon prayers which looked like meditation with some chanting and music playing in the background. The Cu Chi tunnels had presentations of the different guerrilla traps used, spider holes, B-52 bomb craters, and we were able to actually go through one of the tunnels. The tunnel you go through is tiny: you have to crouch and walk since it is about 1.2m high and 80cm across. And that is the one they expanded for tourists! It was so hot and humid in the tunnel Ben and I bailed out just before the exit and were sweating bullets. Don't know how they were able to stay in those things for months at a time - our guide said he was stationed in one for 6 months. Next we head to the mountains and see Dalat!

Sihanoukville

After Phnom Penh we headed down to Siahnoukville at the beach. There is really not much to say about this area, since we didn't do anything at all. We stayed for about 6 days, and just took it easy by the beach. We were so lazy we really didn't even take any pictures. I did finally shave for the first time in about a month, as my "beard" was pretty gross and out of control. We also found a "Cinema" where you could rent a private room and choose from about 2000 movies they had to watch. We watched some very new movies like "2012" that haven't even come out yet. We also found an Ipod store that would upload movies and music to your ipod for very cheap.
We got 4 new movies and about 6 albums put on our ipod for about $9, and it only took an hour. That would have taken days to download and cost about $100 from itunes. That was about it for Cambodia, next we took the bus to Vietnam!


We uploaded about 1000 new pics to
our Flickr page, so check those out, and have a good holiday!

Turkey day Cambodian Style!

We arrived in Phnom Penh on Thanksgiving Day around 2:00 pm and made it our mission to find a good Western restaurant for dinner. We ended up at a place called FCC to have dinner. It is apparently really popular with expats and had a ton of Western food, but still no turkey. We got a bottle of wine to celebrate, a Caesar salad, a steak with vegetables, a side of mashed potatoes and gravy (we were very excited to see this on the menu!), and chicken with a chorizo and white bean ragu. It was not the most traditional meal and the most expensive one we have had on our trip so far, but it did give us a little taste of home. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and the holidays are going well!

Phnom Penh, Killing fields,

After Siem Reap, which was one of our favorite cities so far on the trip, we headed down to the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh. We were a little freaked out when we first arrived on the bus, because someone had a sign with Kristin's name on it waiting at the bus stop. We later found out that our hotel from Siem Reap had called their sister hotel to pick us up. Phnom Penh is a large city located between a river and a lake. We decided to stay by the lake for the first couple of days. Our hostel was right on the lake, literally. It was a nice cheap place for about $6 a night, with a great staff, who even helped me find a place to listen to the Carolina vs. Clemson game that started at midnight here. Bye the way, 34-17!!!!! The hostel had a very nice deck facing sunset, and a free pool table. The first night was thanksgiving, which we have another blog about. The first day in Phnom Penh we walked around the city, and visited the Wat (Temple), Park, and the Royal Palace. The park had a huge grass clock that was pretty cool, and the Royal Palace was very nice as well.

The next day we headed to the Killing fields, and the prison called S-21. The Killing Fields were a number of sites in Cambodia where large numbers of people were killed and buried by the Khmer Rouge regime, during its rule of the country from 1975 to 1979, immediately after the end of the Vietnam War. At least 200,000 people were executed by the Khmer Rouge (while estimates of the total number of deaths resulting from Khmer Rouge policies, including disease and starvation, range from 1.4 to 2.2 million out of a population of around 7 million. We had both recently read the book "The Killing fields" and seen the movie. Both are good, but the book is great. The killing fields are a crazy site. There is a huge tower right when you walk in that is about 100 feet tall, and filled with 8000 skulls of the victims who were buried in the mass graves at that site.

Around the site you could also see the mass graves all over the place, as well as the torture areas, and the trees where people would be hung, or babies smashed against. It is a very creepy site. After that we went to S-21, a former school, that the Khmer Rouge turned into a prison. Each room would have a picture of torture or dead bodies. This is the site where many of the people in the mass graves were tortured or killed. It was very depressing. After that, we went back to the hostel, picked up some drinks, and started tailgating for the game that night. It was a good night, not sure if I mentioned this or not, but 34-17, and a great birthday present for my mom!!!

The next day we moved hotels, to a place with some A/C that was by the river. During the day we went to check out the market, which was one of the best we have seen. They had a huge selection of meats, and seafood. Kristin got some soup in the market that had just about every internal organ you can name in it. We tried them all, but were not impressed. The broth was great though! The next two days we just took it easy, since we had to wait until the Embassy was open, because we needed extra pages in our passports, and a Vietnam Visa. That was about it for Phnom Penh, next we headed to the beach!

Angkor Wat, Siem Reap

Our bus ride into Cambodia was only about 6 hours. We did have to change buses/cars 3 times during the trip, but overall uneventful. Siem Reap is a great little town. There are tons of food stalls, a big market, hundreds of bars on Pub Street (many serving drinks called TombRaider or claiming that Angelina Jolie was there during filming) and real friendly people. We went to the temples and got a 3 days pass. They are really impressive with the detailed carvings still preserved in the stones with four different faces carved at the top of them, and there are a LOT of them (Ankgor Wat just being the most famous). The first day we spent 6 hours total there and saw sunset over Angkor Wat - we think sunrise might be better for those that are interested in getting up at 3 am to catch it. Ta Prohm (which the locals now call the TombRaider temple) has tress growing up through the temple and the limbs intertwine with the stones - pretty cool to see; Nature taking ahold of an ancient structure. Afterwards we decided to Pub crawl from one $0.50 beer place to the next and there are many. We ended up meeting a couple from Australia and going around with them until very early the next morning. We got a couple frNeedless to say, we did not make it to the temples the next day and bummed around town recovering instead. The last day of our pass we did the big circuit around the temples and saw many of the smaller ones that are a little bit different than Angkor Thom and Angkor Wat. We caught on that most of the beggers or children selling items for $1 (everything is $1 here) will ask where you are from so they can tell you all the facts they know about your country. One girl was pretty impressive and knew that Joe Biden was the VP, Obama has 2 daughters, as well as the population of the US. So instead of egging on those long winded conversations, we started telling them we were from Iceland - they have no clue how to respond and walk away pretty quick.
After seeing all the temples, except for a couple that are further away and more expensive to get to, we took a boat around the floating village. It is a group of fishing families that live on their boats on Tonle Sap Lake all tied up next to each other. You can see the fishermen wacking the fish out of the nets using what looks like a tennis racket without strings. They also have a floating market, school, and basketball court. While we were on the boat we saw quite a few little girls with big snakes around their necks - we assumed trying to get money for a picture - and kids playing in the lake using big plastic bowls as floats (not that I would really want to swim in this lake). We were probably ripped off on the price of hiring the boat, but it is definately worth checking out. Next we are off the Phnom Pehn!

The Beach

Our flight to Bangkok from Kathmandu was weird; we flew from Kathmandu to Bahrain then from Bahrain to Bangkok - a nice 5 hour detour. Luckily we were bumped to First Class from Bahrain to Bangkok so that leg was pretty nice! We spent just a couple days in Bangkok sending some stuff home and buying a few small things for the beach (frisbee, etc); then we headed to an island called Koh Chang which is the second largest island in Thailand. It was great to just sit on a white sand beach after being above 10,000 feet and we did nothing but relax for a couple days. The first place we stayed, Lonely Beach, was pretty crowded and the beach was not very big - mainly a huge bar scene- so we decided to move further down the island and found a deserted resort, the Grand Lagoona, to stay in for about $70/night. Unfortunately the first night there we dropped our camera into the sand and it busted completely, so we don't have too many pictures of the island. But it really is beautiful with white sand, huge leaning palm tress, signs warning you of coconuts falling, great sunsets, etc. After splurging at the resort for a couple days we went to the West side of the island which is not developed with too many resorts yet. There we rented a scooter, which we wrecked the second day of having it; Ben got scraped up and my knee twisted the complete wrong way. So we spent a lot of time in our little isolated area of the island just eating at the local stalls and fishing off their pier trying to give my knee a rest until I could walk instead of hobble. The food is great, as I am sure you can imagine, and we have fallen in love with papaya salad and Tom Yam. Since we were isolated from everything we moved to White Sand Beach for the last 2 days since my knee was still swollen and fairly handicapped from walking really far. White Sand Beach is full of tourist resorts, etc so we choose to eat Western a couple times. Once we found a great Irsh Pub that was awesome but the other was a horrible dinner at a Western Steakhouse; serves us right when we have so much great Thai food around us! All and all we spent about 10 days on Koh Chang just relaxing before getting a bus ride to Cambodia; it was great!

Kayaking

After 20 days of hiking we decided that it was time for a little relaxation. Luckily, at the end of the trail we caught a "bus ride" to a very nice city called Pokhra that was right on a lake, and had very nice mountain views. The bus ride, as we have come to expect in Nepal was not the best, and by that I mean it was completely overcrowded and full. So we decided to ride with the locals on top of the bus for about 4 hours to Pokhra. It was not the most comfortableride, as you can imagine, but an experience anyway.
Once in Pokhra, we went out for steak dinners at the Everest steak house, and got our first taste of actual "medium rare" meat since the start of the trip....it was great! We stayed in Pokhra for about 4 or 5 days. One day we rented a rowboat and a fishing rod and gearand paddled around the lake and fished. No Luck! After that we decided to go on a river kayaking trip. We did one day of training on the lake to teach us how to do rescues and rolls. Me and Kristin both could roll on our own, which alot of the others could not.Our group was very mixed, and a very fun group. Other than us, there were 2 Israelis, 2 Canadians, 2 Austrailians, and a solo Israeli girl.The next morning we headed out to the river for the first of our 3 days of river kayaking. The first day was relitively easy going, with a few small rapids, but mainly just teaching us how to get into and out of the river eddies(currents). At night we camped on the beaches by the river, and had a good meal of vegetablecurries, and pasta. The next day we hit some bigger rapids, up to class 2+. I think just about everybody wiped out at least once, and Kristin got very upset thatshe wiped out right out the beggining of the big rapid, and had to swim down. That night, which was Halloween, we had dinner again, compared old Halloween stories, and some locals from the nearby village came down and had a little party with dancing and music. The next day we hit the biggest rapids, getting up to 3+. There were about 5 sets of rapids, and we both made it down the first couple of sets with no problems. The last big rapid we both made it down almost until the end, and then at the last huge wave Kritin crashed and got stuck with her kayak on the wave. I was right behind her and her kayak which caused me to wipe out when I hit them. I am still holding that one against her!Anyway, after that day, we caught the bus back to Kathmandu, and stayed there again for 2 days until our flight out to Bangkok on Nov. 4th. After all this, we are headed to the beach for some R & R!!!!

Hiking in the Himalayas

After spending a couple days in Kathmandu getting some supplies, we headed to the starting point of the Annapurna Circuit which was Besisahar. Since all the ATM's in Nepal have a limit on the amount of money you can withdraw (and we needed enough for 21 days) we had to spend 2 days withdrawing money out of various machines. This made us spend one night in Besisahar which was interesting since the teahouse we stayed had mice and one evidently sat on our bed and ate 1/2 an apple we had - a great beginning to the trip! Once we had enough money we headed out. The beginning of the trail is actually on the road, but after about an hour or so it turns off into a foot path which weaves through rice fields and follows a river. Some of the bridges were a bit scary but after crossing the fourth one we felt more comfortable. We stayed at a little teahouse in Ngadi and it was much nicer than our mice infested teahouse in Besisahar which was a good sign. The teahouses are pretty basic: two small twin beds with thin matresses in the rooms and a community shower and toilet (mainly squatter toilets). For dinner we had the standard Nepali meal Dal Bhat; lentil soup, rice, and curried vegetables. Apparently this is what the locals eat twice a day everyday with very limited exceptions. It is pretty good and is all you can eat, so you know Ben could not turn it down and he decided he was going to eat it every night of the trip. It poured down rain all night and was still raining in the morning. We tried to wait around thinking it would let up, but at about 11 am we decided that we would have to continue in the rain. The rain did not stop for 2 days!! As we hiked we could see where some recent landslides had covered the path and we had to walk carefully over them. Luckily it was a little lighter on the 3rd day when we made our stairmaster climb to Tal - literally just stone stairs going straight up. It made us very thankful that we left some stuff at our hotel in Kathmandu before heading out for the hike. Unfortunately our room in Tal was right next to the bathroom - a mistake we vowed not to make again (you can imagine why it was a long sleepless night). The rain cleared up enough the next day so we could hang our wet clothes to the outside of our packs to help them dry. We were able to take in the views around us - an amazing sight of waterfalls surrounded by Annapurna II (26,040 ft) and Annapurna IV (24,688 ft). We stopped often for tea and met a ton of fellow trekkers - many were from Israel - who seemed to be hiking at the same speed as us. Some were headed the opposite way and had to cut their trip short. Apparently the rain storm closed the Thorong Pass (highest pass on the circuit) for 4 days and people had to turn around and start walking back because they would not finish the trek in time. Glad we don't have a time frame!

The scenery changes from rice fields, to wild marijuana plants growing by the river, to rhododendrum forests that reminded us a bit of the Carolinas. But by the time we reached Upper Pisang on the sixth day we graduated to the bare mountains. We ended up going from subtropical to artic in ten days! It started raining about ten minutes after we got a room in our teahouse at Upper Pisang which was great timing but it was freezing cold!! Ben was worse off them me because he had a summer sleeping bag and had to wear just about ever piece of clothing he had to bed. Instead of taking the higher elevation route to Manang we decided to go back through Lower Pisang and take the low route (we were not feeling to steep climb in the morning) and it was a pleasant walk that was relatively flat. When we arrived in Manang at lunch time almost all the teahouses were already full, but we found one that had a couple rooms left. As you climb to higher elevations, everything increases in price because they have to carry everything up to the villages. The loads the sherpas carry are huge and we could not understand how some of the older guys who were lugging the huge baskets did not just buckle under them. Apparently if you hire a porter to carry your bags they are not supposed to carry more than 40 kl, but we did not see that it really applied and definitely not to those carrying village supplies up the mountain. Manang is the first point of the hike that is above 10,000 feet so we stayed there 2 nights to help acclimatize. Neither one of us have had any trouble so far with the elevation, but we figured to be on the safe side we would hang out a day. We took a hike up to the Gompa that sits above the town and read for a bit. You can see Annapurna II, III, IV, and Gangapurna from where we sat and we didn't leave for about an hour just taking it all in. One would think that seeing the mountains would be the same but after we walked for 2 hours the next day we saw a teahouse in Gungsang that had such a good view of the same mountains we decided to stay the night - it really just doesn't get old and the sunrise was awesome! There was an older New Zealand couple that we met in Upper Pisang that felt the same way and stayed there as well. A French woman was there helping run the teahouse and she told us where we should stay to avoid the big groups. Since she had already done the circuit and was staying there for a few months we easily took her advice (including the New Zealanders). So we ended up meeting them at each teahouse stop almost the rest of the trip which really helped for book trades:) We stayed at the Thorong La Pass High Camp which every guide book will tell you not to do - don't believe it! The High Camp was just as nice as all the other teahouses even if it is at a higher elevation and it was well worth getting the brutal hour and a half hike straight up out of the way before making for the Pass.

We tend to always be the last people to leave the teahouses and the day of crossing the Pass was no exception - we thought we were doing pretty good leaving by 8:30 am but we were still the dead last people to hit the trail! The ascent to Thorong La (17,769 ft) was very white and some parts of the trail were still a bit slippery with ice but the sun was shining and it was actually hot. Getting to the highest point took about 3 1/2 and we both accomplished something we never thought we would; going to the bathroom above 17,000 feet! Since the landscape is just white surrounded by mountains we kept thinking we were at the highest point a couple times by the small stupas with prayer flags, but you really can not miss the actual highest point; one because it has a sign and two there are thousands of prayer flags. It was not too difficult getting to the highest point, but the 4 hour hike down was really tough on the knees and very icy in parts (which made us glad we brought trekking poles). It was almost harder getting down than it was getting up so we were happy to get to Muktinath and drop our packs at a teahouse. Muktinath is the second most holy place in Nepal for Hindus and a famous spot for both Hindu and Buddhist pilgrimages. We saved seeing the temples, etc for the next day and just took it easy after making the Pass :) From there we made our way down to Jomson which was about a 2 day hike (well, we made it two days and stayed in Kagbeni) that followed the road for some parts and was not very interesting. We decided to take a bus from Jomson to Ghasa which cut out about 3 days of hiking. But the trail was the same as the road and it just did not sound very appealing so we decided to skip it. During our bus ride, which was a bit sketchy, we saw the biggest bird either of us have ever seen. It was the size of a baby yak and swooped down to the river bed to feed on something - we guess it must have been a vulture of some kind but it was enormous! When we reached Ghasa it was back to humidity for the next few days as we finished up our trek. The scenery was great and instead of rice fields we saw more buckwheat than we did on the way up. There was also a hot springs in a village, Tadopani, that felt great to soak in after walking for 20 days. The last 2 days were nothing but stone stairs, luckily we were going down so it wasn't as bad but I can not imagine going the other way. Not only for the 2 days of stairs going up but doing the Pass the other way would be brutal with how steep the trail is!! Anyway, we ended our 20 day hike waiting on a bus to Pokhra and drinking a beer. Check out all of our pictures on our Flikr page (there are tons!): http://www.flickr.com/photos/99157019@N00/

Crossing the border

Our day of travel from Darjeeling to Nepal was fairly interesting. First we had to take a jeep from Darjeeling to Sigulri which took about 3 hours (much less time then when we took the bus there). Then we had to get another taxi to the border of Nepal which is really just a bridge going from India to Nepal. The Taxi driver had to point out the immigration office or we would have just started walking across the border - the officer was watching us the entire time with a look like he did not want to do anything and would prefer we just walked across. After he took down our Passport information, etc we walked across the bridge towards Nepal - no security search or security questions asked. There was a crazy man walking towards India kicking, shouting, and punching the air. When he walked by us he punched both of us in the stomachs (not very hard) and then started his kicking and screaming routine over agian. As weirded out as we were, we laughed with everyone walking with us about how crazy he was. The immigration office on the other side of the bridge was also hard to find - just a small shack. They took our passport information and we paid for our Visas in American dollars. Not once were we asked what was in our bags or go through any sort of security.

From there we caught a local night bus to Kathmandu - it was awful!! They would not put our bags on top of the bus so we had to keep them in the aisle where people were stepping on them and using them as seats since it was completely overbooked. The seats in front of us did not work and reclined so far that the seats were in our laps. The guys behind my always pulled my seat down and pulled my hair while I was splattered with bugs and dirt from the window being open. Ben was a pillow for about 3 people and had no where to put his legs because of the reclining seats. This went on for 15 hours before we arrived in Kathmandu & the roads in Nepal are even worse than India! We were frustrated, dirty, tired from being awake for 30 hours; so we splurged on a hotel in Kathmandu that had hot showers, a tub, TV, a huge comfortable bed, and did nothing for the rest of the day. It was a long trip but we finally made it!

Darjeeling

Sorry for the delayed update - we will try to catch up! Our trip from New Delhi to Darjeeling included a 22 hour train ride, where they fed us almost every 2 hours, and a 4 1/2 hour bus ride. The train was uneventful and easy going; however, the bus ride was quite painful since the road to Darjeeling is not only very windy but full of pot holes. We finally arrived at about 6 pm and since it was raining we jumped into the first hotel we found. It was extremely noisy so we immediately changed hotels the next morning and moved closer to the central square, Chowasta. The atmosphere of Darjeeling is so much more relaxed and does not feel like a part of India; but it was great to see the various celebrations for Dwalai. It is influenced by Hinduism and Buddhism, and there is a place called Observatory Hill that is sacred to both religions. There are shrines for Hindu gods as well as monks walking around giving blessings and the hill is littered with monkeys - we took a video of them playing in the prayer flags that you can check out on our Flickr page - very cute. After so much hustle and bustle we took it easy in Darjeeling just taking in the beautiful views of the mountains. We went to the zoo, visited a tea plantation, the Tibetan Refugee Center (both were mainly shut down for Dwalai so we could not see anyone actually working), and went to Tiger Hill. Tiger Hill is a viewing spot for sunrise where you can see 4 of the 5 highest peaks in the world. We had to wake up at 3 am to catch a taxi there and it was very crowded but well worth it!! We walked half way back to Darjeeling to visit some Buddhist Temples on the way and when we stopped at one they were just sitting down to breakfast to celebrate the festival and invited us to join them for a cup of tea. Super friendly people and very willing to explain the things we were seeing around the temple and the festival.
The food of Darjeeling because it is a bit different than the rest of India and includes many more Tibetan dishes like Momos which are awsome - like fried or steamed dumplings and very addicitive; Thukpa - a soup with homemade noodle and rich broth; Tibetan Bread - more like a pie crust than bread it is flaky, full of butter and delicious! They also serve and drink tea everywhere as you can imagine from all the tea plantations around. Most of the shops sold the standard pashmina shawls, fans, Hindu paintings but also a lot of Tibetan artifacts. We were told that you could buy all of them in Nepal for cheaper so we did not buy anything except for some tea. We upgraded our hotel room for our last night and decided to have a bottle of wine (or 2) and watch the dance performances being put on by the local schools for the festival. It was hard to leave and a really nice relaxing few days before we left for Nepal.