A Week in Marrakesh

Tonight is sadly the last night of our trip as tomorrow night we leave from Casablanca just after midnight. We've been in Marrakesh, Morocco for about a week now relaxing, exploring, and, of course, shopping. It's a beautiful city and the hotels (or better the riads) are by far the best part. Last night and tonight we decided to go out with a bang and took out the big suite at Riad Akka. Though you couldn't tell from the number of tourists here, July and August are the low season apparently for riad accommodation so we got a bit of a deal. It's a really great place, only 5 rooms, and structured around a very charming courtyard complete with plunge pool. Last night we ate in and had a beautiful meal prepared for us. Far better than anything we ate in the supposedly nice restaurants (just tourist traps) around Djemaa El-Fna.

A quick story: As we're in a Muslim country, getting a glass of wine can be both a challenge and expensive (if you want something imported). We managed to find a liquor store with a few imported bottles of wine. After a little deliberation, we settled on a bottle from Argentina. Imagine our surprise when the strong red wine came out of the bottle a medium to dark brown and smelling rather like a port!

Djemaa El-Fna itself is a mind-boggling mix of people. At night it gets so packed that it is difficult to move. The orange juice vendors are experts at deception and quickly turn your 10 Dirham into 5 (minus 3 more for the OJ). Otherwise, the hightlights are definitely the food stalls with good, quick, cheap food and the date vendors selling dates of various quality. It's nice to be in a place that is a mixture of tourists and locals. It seems everyone in the city must venture out there each night.

I'll catch up on all the pictures from home in Boston and make a link here later. With no little sorrow I must say goodbye for now. Thanks for reading if you've made it this far!  Hopefully I'll see you soon back in the US!

Wormholed to the Sahara Desert

In keeping with my last post, I'm going to gloss over a few things for now (like uploading any pictures from Egypt for the time being) as I wanted to write a little about our last adventure: a 4x4 into the Sahara Desert.

We arrived in Ouarzazate two days ago looking to hire a 4x4 to self-drive into the desert near M'Hamid (no Wikipedia page). Apparently this is not something that happens often (driving without a guide) as it took near 5 hours and visits to around 10 agencies to find an available car with 4-wheel drive. Anyways, we got it done and showed up the next morning to collect our ride. 7 hours later and after driving straight to the end of the paved road in Morocco, we arrived in M'Hamid.

To describe the village it helps to keep in mind that it really is at the very, very end of the road, 250 kilometers from Ouarzazate (a town that most people have probably never heard of to begin with). If you accidentally drive off the paved road at the end of the town, well, you are in the Sahara Desert.

To help with visualization, here's a map (the big grey line is Algeria theoretically, the light yellow means that the road is just one lane total for both directions of traffic / playing lots of chicken):

Agrandir le plan

Now before you get all upset as to us driving out into the desert without a guide keep in mind that I'm writing this now so I'm obviously OK. Also, we really only intended to drive as far as M'Hamid and then pick up a guide there to take us the additional 60 kilometers out into the desert to Erg Chigaga, a massive sand dune field 40 kilometers long and up to 100 meters high. Cause really we didn't want to drive out into the desert alone anyways.

Now, most of the people that head out into the desert here have a guide (and a driver) and sleep in an organized camp. We decided to try and find a guide that would just sleep next to (or in) the car with us and buy our own food. Luckily it worked out that the first place we stopped at in M'Hamid guide shopping simply said we could forget the guide and just follow them as they drove out to their camp. A few minutes later and after agreeing to give the musicians a ride to the camp, we arranged to follow the car for free.

The camp was basically a circle of tents near the start of the dune field. After a couple of stops along the way, we arrived just at sunset. After a quick trot to the top of a dune, we slept a little ways away on the ground next to our car so as to be alone and also to not impose on the camp that the others had paid a substantial amount to stay in. Dinner consisted of canned corn and chickpeas, bread and strawberry jelly, processed cheese, and water. Lots of water...

It was all a really spectacular adventure. The driving, sleeping, and just being among massive dunes was a great experience. In my bliss, I've uploaded just a few quick pictures so you can have a look at the trip.

By the way, trying to sleep in the Sahara in August is like trying to sleep inside a hair dryer... That blows sand all over you...

Je Ne Blog Pas Maintenant

Bonjour from Morocco. We've done and seen quite a bit so far, and I hope to write all about it very shortly. For the eager: Fes and the Todra Gorge. One might be surprised how far my Franglais goes in this country of Arabic and French speakers.

So Close to Saudi Arabia

All done here in Dahab, Egypt.  I've spent our four days here diving with the nice people from Fantasea.  Here's a site if you're interested that lists some of the dives around here.  The best dive for me was the dive from "The Bells" to the "Blue Hole".  After going under water, you drop down a crack about 2-3 persons wide and descend to 30 meters or so.  Around there is a little arch you swim under.  Then it's around a corner to the right and you're along a huge 90 meter vertical wall of reef.  The deepest I'm able to go is 30 meters though, but we passed over a few technical divers quite a bit lower down.  I also dove "The Canyon" twice, once really early in the morning before any one else was even near the site as well as another dive near there simply called "Canyon Right."  "Um Sid" is also mentioned on that page above, and we did the "Golden Blocks" near that location as well.

I spent 3 dives on the training reef "Lighthouse" to get my advanced certification.  It's a little boring there, but one was a night dive.  Being down there when it's completely dark is amazing!  There are little plankton in the sea that glow in the dark when you wave your hands back and forth very much like a special effect.  It's really something to see when you shut off your flashlight and hard to believe it's not a cartoon.

Otherwise it was pretty crowded at the really popular sites, but the less well-known spots were nearly empty.  Of course, they're not as spectacular but neither are the popular sites when you can barely swim for fear of running into another diver.  Oh, and I also have to mention the "Canyon Right" dive...  After swimming out in water about 15 meters deep or so, you come to a reef cliff that you more or less launch yourself over and free descend to 30 meters.  That is definitely the closest thing to flying I've experienced.

And of course, we end each day watching the sun cast a red glow on the shore of Saudi Arabia, just 20 or so kilometers away.

Greetings from the Deep.

We're off to Morocco tomorrow!  First person to guess what this is (if you can even make it out) wins a prize.

The Sights and Sounds of Egypt

We've been here in Egypt for a little over a week now.  About half of our time was spent in Cairo and the other, slightly larger half here in Luxor.  The heat this time of the year is stupendous and some monuments we've visited are listed among the hottest places in the world!  Egypt itself has a very well developed tourist infrastructure.  In fact it's so well developed that it's hard to catch much else going on in the country other than in Cairo.  

The Pyramids of Giza are located just outside of Cairo, and it's hard to believe just how close the suburbs of the city have come.  It's also hard to believe that you're there when you're there, and they are truly amazing to see.  The other big stop in Cairo is the Egyptian Museum which is more of a stock pile of unlabeled and fascinating ancient artifacts.  The best thing to see there (and the only thing actually cared for) are the mummies.  Well worth the extra US$ 20.

Luxor is the ancient capital of Egypt (or at least for a while) and there are truly spectacular ruins and tombs to see here.  The Valley of the Kings is probably #1 on the travel site list but I found Deir el-Bahri to be nearly as amazing as the pyramids themselves.  Medinat Habu was another very interesting stop and our last on the West Bank here was the Colossi of Menmom (spelling?) that I can't seem to find the link to at the moment.

We were lucky to find a good taxi driver that took us to see the exact places we requested.  Of course, this wasn't without some hassle from a guide and a bunch of people claiming to be our driver's brother (also happened to be filling in for him).  Sure enough, our driver was always exactly where he said he would be.

Not much else to report other than I've made friends with the guys at the local internet cafe playing Fifa (a soccer video game).  Off to Sinai tonight to start some more diving tomorrow!  I'm hoping to complete an advanced course so I will be able to have guided dives to 30 meters (100 feet).  Hurray!

Adios.

Conflict Zone Flyover and Pictures

Greetings from Zurich! I can't believe I'm here either. En route to our 3 hour layover, we had a short tour of some of the worst conflict zones in Africa. As we departed Tanzania, we may have been able to see small Rwanda just on the left of the horizon. A little past that, and you're in the Congo. As we flew north, we entered (and stopped over in) Kenya which has had recent turbulence. Departing Nairobi carried us north just past the edge of bordering Somalia and into Sudan. Happy times!

In other news, I've taken the time here to upload pictures from India through Tanzania.

And we're back in Dar for a couple of days. A short flight from Zanzibar carried us to the Selous Game Reserve in southeastern Tanzania. What an experience it was... I'm not sure what was better, animals in the wild (of which we intimately saw many) or having an espresso while overlooking the Rufiji River at our spectacularly rustic (yet elegant) camp.

Day #1

Depart Zanzibar at about 8 AM and arrive to the camp (after a few stopovers) around 9:30 AM. From there, we had a guide and driver pick us and one other couple up and proceed to take us into the wild of the reserve. Unfortunately, we didn't see much that first trip, and I was beginning to worry a little about the extravagant cost vs. lack of sight of any other living things... The morning ended as we pulled to our camp and had a personal greeting from one of the managers. We arrived into tent #2, a good ways from the main dining and reception area. Inside we found all the luxuries you would never expect to have in "the bush:" a huge bed, running water, flush toilet, hot (kind of) shower, and 24-hour electricity. As we settled in, we watched an elephant eating in the river about 50 feet away. Things were definitely starting to look much more positive!

After what I swear is the best meal I've had in the country (ingredients arrive 1 time a week after an 8-hour drive from Dar by the way), pork skewers with a light peanut sauce, we headed out for our afternoon activity: a boat safari on the Rufiji. Along the way, we had our first real experience of the wildlife as giraffes, elephants, impalas, and birds of all sorts congregated around the river. We floated past dozens of hippos and crocodile and wrapped it up watching the sun set over the wilderness.

Dinner was nearly as good as the lunch. Champagne was available FYI, though we passed on it.

Day #2

The day started around 7 AM with a wake up "call" which is a camp staffer personally waking you up in your tent and bringing tea, coffee, or whatever it is you've asked for the night before. We had arranged for a walking safari, not possible in the Serengeti mind you, which had to start early because of the heat. In total our camp had 6 or so tents, and all the safaris are capped at 6 guests total. As it happened, this was our only safari that actually had a full group of 6! On top of that, we had our guide and the armed ranger along for the walk.

We were fortunate to happen upon a family of elephants that didn't seem to see us for a good while. Otherwise, we had a relatively uneventful walk. You do get to experience a different side of the wilderness though, just taking it easy. We emerged after a few hours to a surprise breakfast setup under the trees, a really nice touch.

After lunch and a nap, we headed out for another game drive around 4 PM. We hadn't seen many of the big animals like lions, etc. so we were a bit discouraged on that front though lots of free espresso helps. As it happened, we had the driver and guide all to ourselves for our final afternoon safari. We just finished hanging out with a pride of hippos when we got a radio call informing us of a pride of lions. Though the site was quite a ways away and it was starting to get a little late, our guides decided we couldn't leave without seeing at least something more exciting than giraffes and sped off without much further consideration.

We were lucky to have such accommodating guides. Along the way, we spotted a 2-week old giraffe where you could still see the umbilical cord hanging from it's stomach. After that, we stopped to watch a few wild dogs napping in the bush. They're limited to about 4000 in the wild worldwide, much rarer than lions, so that was a great treat. The guides mentioned seeing them only 1 or 2 times a month. Finally, we arrived at the lion site where a dead wildebeest was a long way gone into the stomachs of the pride. It's amazing how close you can come to the lions without them moving or even acknowledging you, even while they are eating. At most, we were 10 feet away in our open-sided car. After sitting mesmerized for a while, we had to race back to the camp as we had only 2 minutes to beat the park-wide vehicle curfew... This against a 45 minute, bumpy drive back! Needless to say, we made it back well after dark but extremely grateful that the staff had gone out of the way to help us see really rare animals.

Day #3
After the excitement of the last day, I didn't think anything else would really compare. As I made my way back to our tent to pick up Emilie after breakfast, I came around a bend in the bush to see her standing perfectly still but with her eyes quite wide in shock. She squeaked out to me and pointed... As I peeked around the last tree, I noticed the camp's resident hippo, Andrea, standing just under the tent next to ours.

You see, hippos are quite dangerous. Apparently, they can run up to 35 km/h and like to charge you when you get too close. We called our resident Masai guard over, and he was even kind enough to let us play for just a bit with the hippo. By play, I mean walk close enough until it started to get upset at which point he raised his stick (not gun or even a knife) to discourage the 2 ton hippo from attacking us... It was a great, exhilarating few minutes! Surprisingly the stick was quite effective.

We left the camp a few minutes later and caught our flight back to Dar Es Salaam.

Alive and Now Able to Breath Underwater

Dear blog: Yes, it's been almost a month since I wrote to you, but we had a long detour from our "rough" travels to relax in South Africa. If I told you how many days we spent lazing at a nice cafe or just hiking up Table Mountain (well I did do it one day) in Cape Town, you'd be embarrassed for us I think. Nonetheless, we packed our bags regretfully and made it all the way up to Tanzania. And I'm glad that we did. Zanzibar is our home at the moment. We've just returned to the main city from 5 nights on the beach at Matemwe. For those interested we stayed at Nyota Beach Bungalows, which is actually a little nicer than they manage to make it look on their website. The beachfront room is definitely worth a little extra though Emilie successfully negotiated a small discount. Unfortunately, something of similar quality is much further out of our price range here in Zanzibar Town.

Now the job is to organize a safari on short notice and hopefully fly directly out of Zanzibar rather than needing to return to Dar Es Salaam. We spent two nights there and managed to see pretty much everything that I think there is to see in one afternoon. Not really, but we were mightily hassled trying to buy ferry tickets to Zanzibar and we were stopped by the police since apparently a known thief was following us. He seemed like a nice guy to me... Anyways, we're hoping to check out the Selous Game Reserve as we hear that it's very uncrowded but still amazing as opposed to the Serengeti. Unfortunately that means we'll miss Kilimanjaro and obviously the Serengeti itself, but I think I can safely say that I'd like to visit Tanzania again at some point.

Matemwe was an amazing beach. The sand was nearly white and really felt like powder... When you walked on the wet part as the waves came in and out it was really like walking on a sponge. The water was crystal clear, turquoise and warm. I was a bit amazed to see that a beach you might find in pictures really existed without a touch of digital enhancing. It's a bit upmarket, not a backpacker party beach as well which made our time even more relaxing and enjoyable. In the morning, you can walk along the beach and watch local women collecting seaweed that has collected near the shore. At night, you can see almost every star in the sky. The tide swallows all of the beach around dinner time, perfectly cleaning it up for the next day.

I spent almost all of my time at the beach learning to scuba dive. I am officially a PADI open water diver now, which means I've got 4 whole dives under my belt and about 10 hours of reading, video watching, and exams... This compared to my instructor that mentioned in passing an old piece of equipment that held up for his first 3000 dives or so. Anyways, it's a different universe underwater, and I'm glad that I can check it out now. It's a bit like flying and a bit like just being one of the fish, especially when you float a foot from a school of 100 or so. The diving at the beach was great I believe, and I'm told that the fish life here is among the best in the world. The second day even included a very brief snorkel with some dolphins that passed near our boat. Luckily our next stop is Egypt which supposedly is even better along the Red Sea.

Internet is slow and expensive here, so I'll keep "getting around" to uploading pictures... Baadaye!

Goin' for Broke in Africa

Greetings from the great, massive land of Africa! We're currently in Cape Town, and I'm busy catching up on some blog posts from an ultra-chic cafe on Kloof St. The area here and much of Cape Town is predominantly white, a remnant from apartheid (which only ended with the start of the '90s I might remind you). It's strange to be here, the city feels wealthy and European almost, not what I expected of Africa. The coastal areas are really nice as well, almost a copy of Marin in the Bay Area.

We've explored the coast and made it down to Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope and back. Tomorrow we're heading out for about a week into the eastern part of the Western Cape. Of course, that's not before we have a chance to do some wine tasting! We haven't yet made it to the top of Table Mountain, which dominates the city here, because of the weather. It's been quite San Francisco like, in fact... Cool but not cold and cloudy in the mornings.

We came into town through Jo'burg, and there wasn't too much going on there other than malls. Houses are built like fortresses, but I didn't at any point feel threatened. That's likely because we spent so much time in said malls. The Apartheid Museum was a very moving experience. The Steve Biko temporary exhibition was great as well. It was all just too much to move through in the 3 hours that we had to explore it.

Well, the clouds are breaking, off to Table Mountain!

Doin' It Bollywood, Mumbai

We've completed our month long, hopping tour of India and arrived in Jo'burg, South Africa on the 8th of June. Mumbai was a blast, and we really lived it up... It's kind of a funny story, or maybe sad, but we went from looking at any budget hotel we could find to living it up on the shoreline in a 5-star luxury hotel. Hey, it was only two nights... Our logic was something like this: Well, it's quite expensive just to stay in these "budget" places, and they really aren't very nice. So, we might as well go for the best... I'm not sure what was better, the free breakfast buffet or the rooftop swimming pool with a view of the bay.

Mumbai was mind blowing, a total mish-mash of people, poverty, and glamour. Walking the street at night to dinner you might be followed by the cutest children begging just for a few rupees until you cross the threshold into the restaurant. Then, just a bit further north into the city, you can browse books in a frostily air-conditioned bookstore with a great cafe just after passing the local Porsche dealer. You might see a Mercedes driving past the shanty towns on the way from the airport. There were contrasts everywhere. Hopefully Emilie will type up our incident with the guide and the rip-off scheme on the way from the airport, or else I'll have to tell you about it in person.

We also had our first real taste of the monsoon in Mumbai. As we were selling some books to a street vendor, it started to rain. A few minutes later, it started to really rain, about as strong as a good thunderstorm in the US. And then... Just a bit longer and it was like a fog of rain had covered the city. People either scrambled for cover or just walked right through it. The street turned into a full on river. We were stranded with a sugar cane juice seller (basically under a tarp). I wasn't sure if I should laugh with amazement or cry at getting soaked. It's funny, the Indian women can look very calm and graceful walking through what must have been the hardest rain I've ever seen. Amazingly, once the rain finally stopped, Mumbai drained out into the bay extremely effectively.

We set out in the rain to make it to a gallery displaying a retrospective of photographs from Raghu Rai, an India photojournalist. He has some really amazing stuff. Unfortunately, the exhibit was closed due to the rain. Great! And the gallery was closed the next day, our last day in the city. Great! We ended up at the Jenaghir gallery instead for a taste of some Indian modern art (all for sale), but I was mightily disappointed at missing the photography exhibit.

We also visited the Gateway of India in the rain and made a walk through the super-fancy Taj Palace Hotel before heading off to the airport for our flight to Africa. We didn't take in any of the newest flicks so I guess we weren't really all that Bollywood after all.

Waiting for the Monsoon!

According to the paper today, the monsoon has officially started here in Kerala. That seems a bit off to me as the sky is bright blue and there are but a few clouds off in the distance. True when we arrived here there was a fierce thunderstorm the first night, but it's been near perfect weather since. As to where we are... We've made our way down from the hill station of Munnar, to the sandy beaches and (back to the) heat of Varkala. It's the off season here at the moment, so the beach and town is somewhat deserted. Almost all of the businesses and restaurants are closed but there are a few, with great views over the beach cliffs, that are still open.

Munnar was a nice, refreshingly cool place to be for a few days. We ran out of things to do and see after a day or so, and the little city itself isn't that interesting. The area around makes for great viewing as it's mountainous and covered with tea plantations. Most of the area is owned by Tata, who also makes cars, sells cell phone service, provides satellite TV, and much, much more. Oh, and they just bought the Jaguar and Land Rover brands... A little game we've taken up is pointing out all the new things of everyday life we see that have a Tata branded offering.

As for Varkala, there's not much to do other than be at the beach, and I'm fine with that at the moment. It's quite the beautiful place, with the beach nestled and protected from development by cliffs. A nice town is perched at the top of the cliffs, and there are even police that patrol the beach to keep hawkers and gawkers moving along... Trash is cleaned up regularly off the beach too, so it's really nice and sandy. A few more nights here reading and swimming, and we'll head off to Cochin for one last night and then to Mumbai. I'm excited to see it, especially so since I just cracked Shantaram (soon to be a movie featuring none other than the demon barber of fleet street, Johnny Depp).

Off to the beach!

Super Train, Super Change: Varanasi to Kerala

We've just arrived today into Kochi, Kerala in nearly the very south of India. I think that the southernmost point of India is in this state, so we're pretty far down there. I haven't written about it much, but we were last in Varanasi in pretty much the very north east of the country. So... Long story short, we just rode a train for 54 hours to get here! We slept 3 nights on the train, leaving Varanasi around 1 AM on the 21st and arrived this morning at about 7 AM (7 and a half hours late). Luckily our compartment had AC and we opted for the nicer 2-bunk seating instead of 3 which can be a little more crowded, or at least it was when we rode non-AC sleeper. The people were much friendlier too. I'll just say that it was an experience, and I'm a bit tired of the curry and chapati that I ate lunch and dinner for the past 2 days. Also... It wasn't smart to walk around Varanasi all day in 110 degree heat and then not have the option to shower before boarding. Oh well!

Kochi here really is a contrast from what I've seen in the rest of India. The streets are relatively clean, nearly every one can read, a lot of people are Christians (not that that is better), the health care is miles ahead of the rest of the country and overall wealth of the population is comparable to the US (in India terms, not real $ comparison) according to some things I've read. And, well, the government is an elected communist government. Our hotelier claims that you still must contribute to the party's programs if you want to get anything done but that seems to be much preferable to the outright bribes you have to give in the rest of India (which go straight to the officials' pockets). I'm really surprised at the corruption in the country... Anyways, Kerala is a fine place, really beautiful, doing relatively well, and it's all really interesting conversation with the locals. There's even an economic model (Kerala model) named after the advancement/development here which has happened really without industrialization.

We've explored the city here a bit today, and we're planning a backwater boat ride tomorrow and then perhaps a motorcycle trip up the coast a bit to a beach (if I can find a reasonable bike to ride). Who knows what after that... We'd like to head to Munnar in a few days and after to Varkala, both in Kerala. I'd like to see Mysore as well, but we also want to spend a couple days in Mumbai before our flight on the 8th to South Africa.

Varanasi was really an interesting, hot, and sometimes frustrating place. It is the low season around most of the country now, and Varanasi has a reputation for really giving travelers a tough time with touts, begging, and all other kinds of annoyances. It really did not disappoint. The burning ghats were really astounding though only if you could manage more than 3 minutes of quiet to soak in the scene. Many, many people come to the city for the cremation which is supposed to release the souls body straight to Nirvana rather than risking another rebirth. There are constantly burnings happening, throughout the day and night, so it is impossible to miss them. Women are not allowed to attend because they believe crying (which is attributed only to women) will trap the bodies soul in this world rather than releasing it. Emilie noticed a man break down crying and his friends rushed him away as quickly as possible...

Unfortunately, there are "guides" that want to tell you all about it all (and are amazingly persistent) and end up either asking for money on false pretenses (like it will go to buy wood for poor families) or really trying hard to get you into their shop. Furthermore there are boat men that want to take you out on the river... Masseuses that act like they just want to shake your hand and talk but then won't let go... And a host of other annoyances that make the city very tough to deal with and truly appreciate. Very sad, it's an amazing place and some of those things I would definitely do were it not for the desire to discourage the touts. Yet you have to feel guilty as well because you can afford to spare the rupees and their situation can be desparate. The people don't hesistate to exploit that feeling either; it can get really disheartening at times. We're planning to look into NGOs or charities rather than giving out on the street. Hopefully a larger donation to a good organization will go further and help more people, especially some of the really sweet children that we met.

Overall, it's relieving to be here in Kerala though I wish I could have had more appreciation of the beauty of Varanasi without the distractions. I haven't posted pictures at all recently as the internet is pretty slow. I'll get around to it soon, promise.

Coffee, Chai, and Chillin' in Kolkata

We've been in Kolkata, India (Calcutta, old spelling) for a few days. It's a little like New York, crowded, exciting, and with yellow taxis everywhere. Enjoying the city despite the fact that we're not doing much sightseeing, more shopping and AC hunting. You can pick up a cup of Chai tea here from a street vendor for 2 or 3 rupees which is about 5 cents. Today we tried juice that I swear is made from bamboo; really good in the heat. And a koti roll which is like roti French toast with veggies and paneer inside... Overall, the food has been quite tasty though pricier, 4 bucks for dinner instead of 2. The weather is really hot... Today it was about 40 degrees Celcius, or a bit over 100 Fahrenheit. Our hotel does not have AC so sleeping is a little bit of a challenge.

The big news is that Emilie finally uttered the words I've been waiting to hear for nearly 6 years: "Yeah, I could go for Dominos Pizza in Kolkata." Great! Perhaps tonight is the night, or maybe tomorrow... Believe it or not, the Dominos Pizza here is on Russell St. We're taking the overnight train to Varanasi tomorrow night, so there's not much time left!

I had my first auto-rickshaw (surprisingly detailed Wikipedia article) ride on the way to the airport in Bagdogra, near Darjeeling. Basically, an auto-rickshaw is a mash-up of a motorcycle, golf cart, lawn mower, taxi, and tin can. The steering wheel is really a handle bar and there is only one front wheel. Behind the driver seat up front there is a bench which the passengers ride. The advantage of a rickshaw versus a taxi is that you can weave through pretty much all oncoming traffic or just drive on the sidewalk and they are cheaper. The disadvantage is that should you run into said traffic... Unfortunately, the auto-rickshaws in Kolkata can only go around in small neighborhood areas. Since the city is pretty big (over 14 million here), we have to take a taxi pretty much everywhere. Too bad!

I left my camera battery charger and an extra battery in Darjeeling... There don't seem to be any chargers available here for my model, and I'm doubting they'll have them in Varanasi either. Perhaps when we get to Mumbai...

Queen of the Hills, Darjeeling, India

We made it into Darjeeling, India last night after a turboprop flight across Nepal, nearly 2 hours at the border crossing, and a 4 hour jeep ride up the magnificent hills here. The flight, the first I've ever taken that actually departed early, was fine until we coasted into the coming monsoon-esque thunderstorm about 15 minutes before landing. Needless to say, it was a bumpy ride on the way down... After the airport, it was about an hour ride in a minivan to the border crossing. From there, we took a jeep straight to Darjeeling, with necessary stops for snacks and momos.

It's been raining quite a bit around here in the afternoon, but the mornings have been nice. Today we visited the Darjeeling zoo and the Himilayan Mountaineering Institute which houses the Everest Museum. The museum is a cool though small place containing some gear and pictures from some of the first attempts to reach the summit. You may think it's a strange place for the museum as I did, but Tenzig Norgay, who was first to reach the top with Sir Edmund Hillary spent much of his life in Darjeeling. The main road here is even named after him.

We also toured a tea plantation which was quick, interesting, and very pleasant smelling. I caved at the end and had to purchase the rather expensive tourist tea. Supposedly it's the best in the world, really! On the way back from the tea stop and the zoo, we happened upon a view point for Kangchenjunga, the third highest mountain in the world. On a clear day you can see it easily and today we could just make out the peak through the clouds. Sunrise views from Tiger Hill are supposed to be especially inspiring.

I'm slowing uploading pictures from Nepal as well, but I have to abort again since it's shower time and the hot water only works for 90 minutes per day and the power is finally back on. Perhaps I'll finish tonight.

Back to Reality in Pokhara, Nepal

Hardly the kind of reality that we were used to in the US, but it's a nice city and very tourist oriented. The people here are not quite as pushy as those in Kathmandu, but neither is apparently close to the level to come in India (or so everyone keeps telling me).

The trek was quite amazing, everything I dreamed of really. We tend to separate it into the two sides of the pass... The first side, the good side, consisted mainly of small stone villages in precarious positions on mountains as we ascended to the top. The people were friendly and somewhat unbelievable in the things that they could carry on their backs up steep, steep hills. Once I have the pictures uploaded, you'll see exactly what I mean (example: metal telephone poles). Oh, and they do this in flip-flops... Views were quite amazing in the morning but it was a bit hazy in the afternoon and some of the most spectacular mountains were a little obscured. Every town from Chamje or so on is stunning, medieval, but with plenty of decent lodges.

The pass itself was an extremely trying day but certainly not impossible. I highly recommend the experience, though I do wish we had spent more time on the first side. For the pass... We woke around 4 AM after sleeping very, very little due to the altitude (about 4500 meters). It was probably around 20 to 30 degrees F outside at the time. Our plan was to stay even higher the next night but we decided at the last minute to do it all in one day. It ended up being a good choice as the people we met from the high camp (about 5000 meters) all got sick from the food. After about 4 or 5 hours of walking through mud and snow, we made it to the pass (5416 meters) and crossed over after a few cold cups of tea at the tiny tea house. The scenery, being eye-level with mountain peaks, along the way was amazing.

The descent is an even harder 1500 meters roughly to Muktinath. There are not really any options to stay higher, so everything must be done in a day. We arrived in the town around 3 PM if I recall correctly and stayed at the properly named Bob Marley Hotel. It was a sign of things to come on the way down as it had great food, great sleeping, and a hot shower. From there things were slightly less fun as the valley on the second side is extremely windy and the dust really kicks up this time of year obscuring the view. Furthermore, the road extends all the way to Muktinath, so you can simply take a Jeep from there (with a few changes) if you wish or fly out of Jomsom. I would definitely not say that the second side was boring, just not quite the same as staying in small villages accessible only by walking for several days! I did get to ride through the mountains on the roof of a Jeep despite Emilie's wishes. And we passed an overturned bus on the way...

We head back to Kathmandu in the morning and then on to Darjeeling, India as soon as possible!

Farewell (For Now) Kathmandu Pinball

It's been a nice four days here in Kathmandu despite nightly power cuts, we've had nearly perfect weather every day. I think I was glued to the window of the taxi we took to Thamel from the airport as I've never been any where quite like it. Tiny mixed dirt and paved roads packed with people, rickshaws and taxis. Walking around is quite like playing pinball. There is pretty much constantly a car horn blowing somewhere...

We haven't done much touristy other than visiting a few sites in the city and Durbar Square. Most of the time we have spent preparing for our 18 or so day trek around the Annapurna range. We've finally arranged all of our gear, opted not to hire a porter (yet), and we embark from the city tomorrow on a 6 hour bus ride to the starting point. From there, we'll hike around the range, staying with local people or in lodges that are setup for trekkers. The highest point on the hike is Thorung La pass at 5416 meters (nearly 18,000 feet). We'll be spending a few days up above 3000 meters and a couple above 4000 meters acclimatizing to make the hike over the pass. After we finish, we'll have a few days in Pokhara and then back here for a day to collect our stuff before heading to India.

It's been a great time to be here with the recent elections for the Constituent Assembly which will decide much of the future of the country. One night we watched a quite large Maoist victory procession through the town (as they've taken a huge lead in the vote). Everyone is eager to discuss the elections which has been truly interesting, sometimes inspirational, and sometimes just scary. Hopefully things will remain peaceful in Nepal and the Maoists truly committed to a multi-party system.

Will write again in a few weeks.

Catching up #2: Teahouses in Chengdu, with Pandas

We unintentionally, but certainly not disappointed-ly, spent the last 8 days in Chengdu, China. For backpackers, it is the main entrance point from China to Tibet. Since that's not really happening right now, for us, it was several days spent exploring and sampling the famously spicy hot pot food, tea house lifestyle, and checking out the pandas.

The city itself is very spread out and there aren't many sights to see as far as temples, etc. We did find the Wenshu Temple to be pretty cool mainly though because of the tea garden on the inside. In Chengdu it is completely normal apparently to spend all day (or a good part of the day) at a tea house hanging out with your friends and family. That seemed to be especially true on the weekend when all the tea places were very, very crowded with locals. As it happened, the best and friendliest tea house that Emilie and I found was almost next door to our hostel. In fact, our hostel turned out to be in our favorite part of the city.

As for the food... I wouldn't really call it spicy as much as mouth numbing. Especially in the hot pots, there is a special spice that supposedly is used by dentists to numb patients before operating in old times or remote regions. The first few bites were deceptively mild maybe as a result from that spice, I'm not sure. Soon enough, my mouth was fully on fire and it really was more power than flavor spice. I think I blew my nose about 25 times the first night we tried it. Another local specialty was the old staple from the Pacific Avenue apartment: Ma-po Tofu.

Definitely the most fun activity in Chengdu is visiting the giant panda research center where they study panda breeding with some success. We were lucky enough to be there around feeding time (early in the morning) and it was simply hilarious. I never realized how human the pandas can appear. Also, you can hold a baby giant panda for 1000 RMB which is about US $140. This consists of a baby panda sitting on your lap for about 30 seconds while photos are taken. The fee is a little much we thought, but the guy we watched do it was truly awestruck when he came out. So maybe it's worth it after all...

I have to agree for once with the Chinese media that Chengdu is a pretty livable place in China. Personally, I couldn't take the thick smog and layer of dust covering everything, but as for lifestyle, food, and location, it was a great place to visit. We didn't get into the country side too much, but it also looks beautiful.

More from Kathmandu later.

Pictures from Chengdu.

Catching up #1: Hong Kong

It's been a while... We were fairly busy in Hong Kong, seeing the sites and just exploring the really interesting town. I posted on Beijing when we got there, but I didn't realize that once we left and returned to mainland China, blogger.com and blogspot.com would be 100% blocked (I assume by the Chinese firewall / censor). Interestingly I was able to keep up just barely on news of Nepal's elections and also the Tibet stuff through Google News. So some stuff (English at least) does get through. All the other news sites (major aggregators at least) were totally blocked. I could have read China Daily, but I mean...

Anyways, Hong Kong was a great, fun city. It is truly a crossroads of a lot of different cultures. We spent the first night in a laughably dingy hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui, the main tourist district. If for some reason you ever end up in Hong Kong, the Chungking Mansions and Mirador Mansions are the best deal in town but you probably don't really want to stay there even though they're mentioned in Lonely Planet. We moved a little further north from that area the next night and found a very nice, newly renovated place near the Jordan metro stop. It's nice to be just outside the chaos of Tsim Sha Tsui. We settled in there on the 30th and stayed in Hong Kong until the 4th of April.

It was 80 degrees when we landed, but most of the rest of the time we were there it was foggy though it didn't really rain. Our trip to Victoria Peak was a little of a let down because you couldn't see the famous panorama of the city, but the ride up at least was fun (and that is actually where we found Bubba Gump's).

We spent the vast majority of our time exploring the few little blocks that make up SoHo in Central Hong Kong. We celebrated Emilie's 26th birthday at a nice vegetarian place there the first night. SoHo is a really cool area near the mid-levels escalator (which is basically an escalator running up a steep - not like San Francisco - next to the street). Best of all there are a bunch of camera stores in the area, and I finally sucked it up and bought a tripod to take trekking out with us in Nepal and hopefully around in Africa. As Emilie can tell you, I pined for my tripod ever since I decided to leave it at home. I saved about 80 bucks by buying it in Hong Kong, and I'm 60% sure that it's not a fake... Just kidding, it's real. I think.

We wasted some time exploring other areas of the city including the really nice Victoria Park. Other than that, we took in a lot of happy hours (that run until 10 PM in Hong Kong at some places) and ate a lot of well... Gelato.

We did a day trip to Macau as well. It was actually a really cool city to see the Portuguese influenced architecture of the old city and visit the museum and St. Paul's ruins. We went into the Casino Lisboa, but despite severe desire to do otherwise, I didn't gamble. Other than the old sites we weren't interested in seeing much else and took the ferry back to Hong Kong around 5 PM.

Overall, I would say Hong Kong reminds me most of New York City in the US but with better public transportation. The subway there is unbelievable, especially the airport express service. We were definitely settling down into a routine of things to do by the time we left.

You can see some of our pictures of Hong Kong.

And pictures from Macau too.

Out of Beijing...

We spent a couple of days in Beijing, a place I can't really say should be high on a priority list of things to do... The first night started off great. We had a great hot pot dinner at a local fast food place called Xiabu Xiabu. Amazingly to me, most places in Beijing have an English menu as compared to Tokyo where English menus were few and far between. The weather was nice, and we walked around the town a little at night before turning in.

After that, things didn't go quite as smoothly... When we had planned our trip, I insisted that we come to Beijing for at least a few days. The first day, we made our way to the Forbidden City in the center of town. Unfortunately for me, the halls were all closed for fixing-up pre-Olympics. So, I could walk around the plazas but not even get any worthwhile pictures since they were surrounded by a huge, ugly fence and covered in scaffolding... Certainly didn't get the feeling of awe that I was expecting. To top it off, the memorial museum where you can view Mao Zedong's body was closed. Tian'anmen Square was quite impressive at least.

The next day, we headed for the Great Wall of China, parts of which are fairly close to Beijing. The further we got from Beijing, the worse the weather. It was already cold to begin with, and as we drove further out, it began to rain quite heavily. When we got to the chair lift site that takes you up to the top, it was raining, bitterly cold, and some snow was mixed in. Emilie understandably hung back at the base to have some tea while I headed to the lift. As I got higher up, the fog settled in until I couldn't see more than 10 feet. At the top, the wall itself was covered in about 1 inch of new snow. I made the best of it trying to get some foggy, disturbing pictures, but you can imagine it wasn't very impressive... That's what I get I guess!

We left for Hong Kong the next day. If it can be believed it was actually colder that morning. As we landed, they announced that it was 80 degrees outside. Even with the 100% humidity, we were more than happy to sweat and be warm for the first time in days.

So... Beijing was not the best stop on our trip as of yet. It did seem to be full of excitement though as nearly everything was either being built, just finished (roads, etc.) or being torn down. It wasn't possible to walk 1 block without seeing construction on a massive scale. Terminal 3 at the airport is just insanely huge. The ceiling is so high that you feel as if you are outside to a degree.

One last thing... An awkward point was going to travel agents to talk about going to Tibet, them having huge calendars portraying Lhasa as a great destination to visit, asking about getting in and getting a very frank "No." So much for that part of the trip.

Here are our pictures from Beijing.

Last Stop in Japan: Hiroshima

Emilie's out jogging this morning, so I took the opportunity to sneak over to the manga / internet cafe. They're great, and I'm lazy! You get your own little cubicle with a PC, free drinks, and sometimes free ice cream. If you happen to be in Hiroshima, don't bother with Media Cafe Popeye, its all about Chai Garden. If you're really a budget traveler, you can sleep here as well (there are showers).

Anyways, the city has been interesting. We were able to meet up with Joe and Netsue our first night, and they were very gracious hosts. Netsue was kind enough to do all the ordering at dinner. The second night, Sunday, we tried okonomiyaki for dinner, Hiroshima style. According to Netsue, and I'm probably forgetting some details, okonomiyaki roughly translates to "all of your favorites cooked together." The dinner itself was good, you can even get mochi embedded in yours, but I spent the next day somewhat sick. I guess that gives a somewhat negative outlook for how my stomach will handle India...

Sunday afternoon was a rainy day which was fitting as we visited the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, located right where the atomic bomb was dropped. It was a very difficult place to visit. The Atomic Bomb Dome, Children's Peace Monument, and the Cenotaph were all moving experiences. The Peace Flame may have been the most saddening. We went back briefly on Monday to enjoy the sunshine. It was nice to see lots of children enjoying the park and just having fun compared to the dreariness of a rainy day. The museum was interesting as well especially as it pointed out how little we learn in American schools about what actually happened leading up to the bombing, good and bad.

I think I will miss Hiroshima. It's got all the good qualities of the big Japan cities with a little less hustle and bustle. Regardless, we're off to Beijing this afternoon!

Pictures from Hiroshima.

Nara Rocks

We spent a half-day today in Nara, and I had a blast. There are deer everywhere just wandering around. Cakes to feed them are 150 Yen, and the deer basically attack you right after you buy a packet. The temples were cool as well, but kind of a different thing than playing with 1200 deer... It was finally a nice day here which made it all the better.

We spent the morning at a flea market at the To-ji temple in Kyoto. Its a thing that happens once a month, and we were lucky to be here. You could really get some interesting things there like Japanese antiques, clothes, etc. All I bought was mochi though.

Pictures of the day.

Off to find more great food... Looking like donburi on the cheap.

Mochi, mochi, mochi

Mochi here in Japan is the greatest thing ever... My personal favorite so far are the big balls rather than the folded over whatnots. I have personally consumed at least 5 pounds of the stuff, and we stop for free samples as much as possible!

Against the Rain, Kind of...

It rained pretty heavily here in Kyoto all day yesterday. Although we brought good clothes for the weather, we were stubborn and didn't take enough out with us (something we remedied today). Our plan was to head over to Higashiyama, the main sight seeing area in Kyoto, and check out the temples / views of the city. We made it all the way to the first temple on the tour with about 5 stops for tea and warming along the way. Luckily, we made the short side trip into Tainai-meguri at the entrance. Hard to describe, and I'll leave it to you to make the trip to Kyoto to check it out. We more or less gave up due to weather after that and headed back to our favorite spot: Nishiki Market.

Other than that, the highlight of the day was our hunt for a good dinner place in downtown. According to Lonely Planet, there was a 300 year old soba noodle place near our Ryokan. Unfortunately, as we've strangely experienced with a bunch of eateries in the book so far, we weren't able to find it (nor the one we looked for next). Our best guess is that it used to be where they were doing construction on a parking lot.

It all turned out OK though, we settled on a small yakitori restaurant in the neighborhood. They had basically zero vegetarian options, but the chef was kind enough to whip up something custom for Emilie. It was a truly great experience, the place was very small and packed with Japanese business people either celebrating a going-away or a birthday or something else entirely... Anyways, the food ended up being amazing with a great sauce on the dishes. Amazingly there were only two guys running the entire thing!

Today, well bundled up, we bussed it out to Sagano to tour the bamboo grove and Tenryu-ji. We actually had just as much fun there as in the little town around the Arashiyama district. I'm sure it is probably like Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco for the Japanese, but we are tourists after all... Back in the city now after a great yudofu lunch and catching up on our internet addiction.

See the latest pictures at the end of this set.

Ryokan it in Kyoto

We made it down to Kyoto yesterday afternoon on the Shinkansen from Tokyo. I'm not sure, but I think we briefly saw Mt. Fuji in the background through a hazy sky. We have the good fortune to stay in a nice Ryokan in downtown Kyoto. The host is a very nice woman, and she even gave us a present upon arrival (nail clippers that double as an ad for her inn).

We didn't do much last night other than try to arrange accommodation for Hiroshima and plan our day today. We happened upon the Nishiki Market in downtown and spent some time wandering around there before it closed. Today the plan is to head to Higashimaya.

I'm constantly impressed by the cleanliness of everything here and the market was no exception. The side streets are definitely the place to find the best of everything. The main roads seem to only have chain stores and don't seem drastically different than Tokyo, perhaps a little less crowded (but not much).

Initial pictures in the Kyoto set.

Few Days in Tokyo

We managed to meet up with Jan yesterday, a friend I met in Austria who lives here in Tokyo, and he was kind enough to take us around town. That was after we found an internet cafe in the Shibuya district and figured out how to call him on a pay phone. We saw a good amount of the city: lunch in the Tsukiji fish market, dropped by for a walk through a park near the edge of town, to a temple, went back to Shibuya and to Harajuku for dinner at Fujimama's. The final stop of the night was the Park Hyatt in the Shinjuku district.

Even though the drink we had at the hotel was a little pricey with the cover charge, it was well worth it. The views of the city from the bar (apparently from the movie Lost in Translation) were amazing. It seems that Tokyo goes on and on in all directions... There must have been a million red blinking lights on top of the skyscrapers.

Our hotel is nice, and relatively cheap I think. We're shooting to stay at a more traditional Ryokan when we get to Kyoto on the Shinkansen bullet train tomorrow. Any where that is cheap and clean will work though I think.

Oh... And the highlight of today, for me at least, was the Yodobashi Camera (click for Japanese) store in Shinjuku today. They have every piece of camera gear that you could ever want... Unfortunately, I only wanted to buy a bag but could have spent hours just poking around. Lunch at a small noddle stand in an alley was a really great experience too. I later found out that it made me a little sick, ha.

Pictures if you're interested...

Check the pictures of Emilie being bald too if you haven't seen them.