Week 21 – 31/12/09 Delhi + Agra

Week 21 – 31/12/09 Delhi + Agra

We arrived in Dehli around midday, but not in the train station that we’d expected. After a quick panic we established where we were and got an idea of the costs of a tuk tuk. Surprisingly, the tuk tuk driver did not rip us off, however he did try and take us to a different hotel which is the norm in India. We checked into Rak International hotel in the backpacker district of New Delhi. Looked very nice in reception but the rooms were filthy, but then again we were just glad to get a room on new years eve. Did a quick bag dump and headed off to another one of lonely planets recommendations, again a complete disappointment. In the evening we found a much better restaurant for dinner but I was not feeling any better as my chest was completed blocked up and Delhi isn’t the cleanest of places to breath. Like our Christmas, our new years eve party consisted of Mariana looking after me, but this time she was really annoyed since I feel asleep around 9pm.

For some unknown reason, when I booked all the train tickets, I decided 01st January would be a good day to visit Agra. Forget the potential hangovers and tiredness from the previous days travelling, there we were catching a 6.30am train from New Delhi station. The train itself was great, good seats, breakfast, the works, and in little over 2 hours we arrived in Agra. However, upon arriving we soon found out that the Taj Mahal was closed and could only be viewed from outside. This was disappointing for two reasons. Firstly, because we really wanted to go in and see it, secondly, because our return train was not until 8pm which meant we had lots of time to kill and only Agra Fort in which to do it. Stuff that, we went to the ticket office and booked an earlier 2nd class train ticket for 2pm.

We then took a tuk tuk for 4 hours, visited Agra Fort, went to a restaurant for a roof top view of the Taj, visited an awful park and was harassed by six separate child beggars, each with varying disabilities, before headin back to the train station an hour early.

The train journey back to Delhi was most interesting. Our 2nd class ticket did not guarantee us a seat, it was a first come if you are lucky status. However, we did manage to squeeze on a bench with three others and sat there patiently while the train chugged its way back to delhi. There was a constant flow of different passengers boarding the train, sitting above us on the racks eating dinner, constantly spitting out of the window and generally moving around as if they had ants in their pants. The train reached the outskirts of Delhi in about 2 hours, which was pretty good considering the state of the train, but then took a further 2 hours to crawl along at snails pace before terminating early. Again we looked in the book to establish where we were before agreeing a price to get us back top New Delhi in a taxi. The traffic was bad at 5pm and it took over an hour to get back, but we were so happy to be out of Agra and back to Delhi this early. We spent the rest of the evening chilling out, eating and generally reflecting on the day just passed. I deceided that the chest infection was not going to disappear so took some drugs from a local pharmacist and started popping pills.

The next day my chest was much better and decided to go out and find a post office, Mariana thinks I have some sort of fetish about posting things home, I have been doing our whole trip, and I just don’t know where we get all this stuff from. Anyway, headed off to post office in order to get shot of more stuff (2 pairs of trekking poles, and Marianas clothes that she bought in Singapore 10 weeks ago!). The post office in India is an experience as it is so confusing. There was hardly anyone in there but it still took me almost 2 hours to send 2 parcels. This is how the procedure goes….

1) Hello mister, letter or parcel?, which country?
2) Fill in forms in duplicate
3) Find the package man, who lives in a shoe box in a road eating coal, working 23 hours per day, 8 days a week, to get parcels wrapped and stitched.
4) Go back to post office and glue on one form to parcel.
5) Go back to package man and he stitches the second form to the parcel
6) Go get copy of driving license or passport from a man in a alley with a Xerox machine (I wonder if he drags it home each night?)
7) Go back to post office and pay teller, and then remind him about the change due.
8) Smile, leave building and go and play with the traffic.

I then receive a text from Mariana as I have accidentally locked her in the room, but she managed to escape with the help of the hotel staff. She had already eaten lunch so I settled for more McDonalds. Got back to hotel late afternoon and we went for early dinner at the same café (good food and nice people). Packed our stuff and had an early night in front of the tv.

Our taxi was booked for 7am, and showed up around 7.20 which was fine. The taxi chief tried a little scam to double up our taxi, but seeing as we had paid for a taxi I wasn’t about to let someone make money from out discomfort. I had had enough of India and it’s people and was starting to kick back. I told the guy in a polite way to got lost and wasn’t having none of it. He came back a few minutes later to say that there was a shortage of taxis, I could believe this guy, I told him that if he tried to put someone else in our taxi I want my money back. With that remark, he closed the door and we set off for the airport.

Seeing as this is typically the busiest day of the year (the Sunday before people re-start work in January) I wasn’t too surprised to see the airport overwhelmed with passengers. They were everywhere but we did manage to find a seat seeing as we arrived at the airport a Swedishly 4 hours before the flight, you can never be too early. We then started the ridiculous airport security check in, and 90 minutes later we were through to the departure lounge. We found a spot, hooked up to the wi-fi and googled until our flight was boarding. Luckily our flight was not delayed or cancelled as were many others, there were passengers sleeping on every square inch of available floor. We boarded our Thai Airways flight, found our seat and finally left India and all it’s diseases behind us.

Week 20 – 27/12/09 Jaipur + Tilonia

Week 20 – 27/12/09 Jaipur + Tilonia

We arrived at Jaipur Junction station around 11am and were soon on our way to our guesthouse which was a delightful villa with a courtyard filled with birds, pets and fish ponds. Checked in our stuff and had some lunch before setting out on a stroll to see a bit of the city. Found a real coffee house and could resist the urge for caffeine and a cake. I was still feeling weak, so to build up my protein I actually went to McDonalds and ordered some fillet o fish burgers to help me through india. They tasted awful, but I had little other choice in India as I certainly wasn’t going to eat any meat or fish in a restaurant as hygiene is the last thing on their minds when preparing food.

The next day we decided to do some sightseeing and after about 3-4 hours we had seen enough. It is weird when you travel for so long since you expect yourself to see everything in everything town or city, but after 3 months you really don’t give a sh!t anymore. So what if we don’t have any photos of that town, I been there and have a mental photo of it, and that is all we need. So we took a few snaps but didn’t go ape. In the evening we decided to venture out to an Italian restaurant recommended in lonely planet. There was nothing Italian about it, the food was rubbish and it was expensive. One good thing came out of the evening, as our tuk tuk driver had an uncle whom could drive us to Tilonia the following day, so we agreed a price and made a few calls to Barefoot College whom said we were most welcome.

Our day at Barefoot College, Tilonia was the highlight of our india trip. The college has been around since 1978 when Bunker Roy set it up. The theme of the college is to educate less fortunate people from surround rural towns to help them survive without the help from the government. I first visited Barefoot College as part of my studies in 2007 with the Duke of Edinburgh Commonwealth Development Conference in India and since then have never stopped talking about it. The college itself is completely self sufficient, providing 45kW of electricity through solar panels, has rainwater harvesting and stores 700,000 litres of water which is enough for 100 people to live on for 10 months during the dry season. They have their own radio station, all food is cooked using solar cookers, and have a puppet show and theatre which is truly amazing. The best part about Tilonia is that all the people there really care about others and commit their entire lives to help others less fortunate. The college also brings over women from third world countries such as Ethiopia, Afghanistan and Bolivia to train semi illiterate women into solar engineers. After six months they return to their respective villages to install solar panels and provide much needed electricity for their everyday lives.

It was sad to leave Tilonia, Mariana could have stayed there for weeks, but our time was now limited in Jaipur since we had cancelled our volunteering and changed our flights to get back to Thailand asap. If, and I mean if we do return to India, Tilonia is number one on our list of things to do, and we will certainly not be visiting any cities, purely sticking to urban areas where they don’t see you as walking atm machines….

Our last day in Jaipur was spent chilling out since we were both very tired from our Tilonia trip and my chesty cough seemed to be getting worse, to the point where I was downing a bottle of cough syrup every 24 hours.

Early the next morning, we took a tuk tuk to the bus station, not sure why, but the driver didn’t seem to understand the word train. Anyhow, we eventually got there, boarded our train and headed off in the direction of Delhi.

Week 19 – 21/12/09 Gorakphur + Varanasi

Week 19 – 21/12/09 Gorakphur + Varanasi

Crossing the border into India was a strange feeling since there was no real border control, just a few guys sitting at a desk in uniform. They could have been selling hash and chess sets for all we knew. Well we managed to get in and caught a bus around 11am headed for Gorakphur. The previous evening we had purchases some sleeper train tickets from Gorakphur to Varanasi, so all we needed do was get to Gorakphur. Our bus was local and full when we boarded. Mariana sat with Susan and I sat next to an elderly chap in cloth. The journey was quite fun seeing all the locals getting on and off, arguing about money and making OAPs stand so that men and children could sit down. In India, there are no rules or courtesey, that doesn’t exist. The order of rights is as follows, men, boys, girls, old men then lastly women and goats. The cast system is not a pretty sight to see, and I know it was really annoying for Mariana to watch, womens rights and all that stuff….

Arriving in Gorakphur, was like getting to work on Monday morning, you knew you had to do it, but really didn’t want to be there. We had lunch at a little hut which was really good and about 60 pence for a large feed. Then we had about 8 hours to kill in a place that was really one very long dirt track road and a few hotels and restaurants. We found a café and had some tea for a few hours, and finally found an internet café which was such a welcome sight. Around 8pm we headed for the train station to collect our bags and sit around for our train. Our train, had one first class carriage at the front, the rest were second or third. It was a relief to get on the sleeper train since it seemed ok and we could finally relax. Our train left around 11.30pm headed from Varanasi.

It was hard to sleep on the train fro fear of being robbed, but we were assured that first class is safe and our bags were chained to our beds, armed guards at the door and motion sensors in the train corridor. We did sleep on and off all night, but managed to rest as best we could. Our train arrived in Varanasi around 7am and we were greeted by our hotel rep on the train who swiftly took us to a tuk tuk. 30 minutes later we arrived in old town, the place seemed very dusty and dirty for so early in the morning but thought nothing of it. Finally managed to check into our room at 12.30am after sitting on the terrace overlooking the Ganges taking in the morning atmosphere. Our hotel has a great location for the sights but not so sure on the surrounding areas as there are signs warning us not to go out after dark. In the afternoon we took a trip out to Sarangot, the first place Buddha preached to his followers. Really nice historical site with a deer park adjacent. We arrived back in town around 6pm and Susan went back to her hotel in a cheaper part of town. Since we had eaten both breakfast and lunch at our hotel we decided to venture out as far as the next hotel where we had dinner on the rooftop restaurant. The food was fantastic but I was not sure about the bottled water, something didn’t seem to taste right so left it after just one sip.

The following day we took an early morning boat trip along the ganges to watch people ‘bring out ya dead’ (sorry but it did seem like a scene from Monty Python). Really nice trip that ended with me stubbing my toe on a rock and bleeding everywhere, catching diseases and all sorts from the dirt on the ground. Lesson one, do not wear flip flops in Varanasi. Headed back to hotel and get cleaned up, had some breakfast and then went out Christmas shopping. Mariana was feeling a little ill (stomach) so decided to rest whilst I went out. Susan and I came back mid afternoon and Mariana was much better, we had a late lunch together before Susan took off to catch her train back to Delhi. In the evening we decided to stay in the hotel and relax, and this is when I started to feel sick in my stomach.

The following morning all was well, went to yoga at 8.30am, but managed to nearly pass out 30 minutes into the class since I hadn’t drunk any water. Had a rest and continued with the class and felt really good afterwards. However, in the afternoon I became very ill, first with Delhi Belly, then a fever and exhaustion. The night was no better, it was if I had attached myself to a large bungey cord int eh bathroom since I was in and out of there every 15 minutes for the entire evening. At one point I did actually collapse and pass out which kind of scared Mariana, but I mentioned that this use to happen to me all the time (Ask Ben about the flight to Cyprus).

In the morning we decided I needed to go to hospital as I wasn’t getting any better and there was a good chance I had Malaria. We went to apparently the best hospital in Varanasi which was as clean as a dog kennel. After about 10 minutes I was seen by Dr Facebook (this guy actually had the cheek to update his status online whilst diagnosing my condition). He put me down for about 20 tests together with a shed load of drugs and said that I needed to go downstairs to pay before this could happen. We picked up the medicine from the pharmacy and enquired about the cost of the tests. They wanted almost £200 for these blood, stool and urine tests so we waited until speaking with AXA for approval. We then left the hospital and went back to the hotel so I could continue being sick.

Christmas eve was no different and my stomach condition had progressed into dysentery. Went back to hospital, paid the cash, had the tests and picked up more drugs to stop the bleeding. Mariana had now also started to feel sick and was worried that she too had the same stomach bacteria. She also went to see Dr Facebook, but he gave here completely different drugs to me, seems like a complete cowboy. Mariana was so pissed off that she was spending her Christmas looking after me and not being home in Sweden with all the snow and nice food. Our Christmas dinner was a toasted cheese sandwich…..

Christmas day I felt much better and we decided to get out of the room since fresh (well not really fresh, just fumes and dust) air should do me good. We took a tuk tuk over to Cantonment area (5 star hotel suburb) and headed straight for Pizza Hut. I know it is sad, but at least we could eat at will and not worry about any infections. We ate as much as we could before returning to our room which now seemed so depressing, only one more night to go before we get out of this rotten filthy city and onto pastures new.

Boxing day was a bit of a rush, had to go to hospital in the morning to pick up results from tests then get back to check out. Mariana stayed at the hotel and sorted out the room, I returned around midday and we headed to the station. Our train wasn’t until 5pm, but I just want to get away from that area. We dropped our bags at the train station and headed back to pizza hut for a second feeding. The food was such a nice changed to our diet of rice, vegetable curry and fried lentils. We boarded our 3AC sleeper to Jaipur, settled down and tried to rest. However, the 3AC trains are quite cramped and I became claustrophobic and struggled breathing properly. This went on all night and caused a minor asthma attack. Couldn’t wait to get off the train in Jaipur.

Week 18 – 14/12/09 Kathmandu + Pokhara

Week 18 – 14/12/09 Kathmandu + Pokhara

Flying back to Kathmandu was a relief since we had bad weather and there were no planes coming in a one point. However, once back in all the dust and noise, this relief was soon replaced with stress.

We spent a further 2 more days in Kathmandu to sort out our gear to be shipped back to the UK since we had accumulated a ton of trekking gear for our time in the Himalayas.

Our bus for Pokhara left Kathmandu around 7am from a rotten part of town. Graham managed to fall over under the weight of his backpack which made me laugh since I enjoy seeing him in distress. Our bus (a tourist bus) was ok, we had seat numbers and were told the journey was around 5-6 hours. After 2 hours we managed to get out of Kathmandu borders and headed along a half tarmac, half rubble road. At around 10am we stopped in a small village, not sure why, but we grinded to a halt. There was a local dispute where a villager was upset by someone who had short changed him over something, so he wanted a police resolution.

In Nepal, there isn’t really a legal system so people do whatever they can to get some interest from the authorities. A good way of doing this is by forming a blockade in the main highway between Kathmandu and Pokhara. For 3 hours we waited until eventually the army turned up to get things moving. We arrived in Pokhara around 5pm, still light thankfully, and a mere 4 hours late. We found a small quiet guesthouse, checked in and went for a feeding.

Over the next few days in Pokhara we did plan to do a long trek, however graham was still very weak from malnutrition so we skipped that and relaxed for two days. We did however, climb a high to the World Peace Stuppa which gave clear views of the smog over the city. The lake in Pokhara is huge, mainly because of the hydro-electrical dam that provides 20 hours of electricity. Yes, twice a day there are scheduled 2-hour power cuts. It is strange that everyone accepts this and does nothing about it even though it affects business, solar panels would be the solution but these people do not seem to see the wood through the trees on some things.
We left Pokhara on 19/12/09 heading for the border with India. On the bus we met a dutch girl (Susan) whom was going the same way as us so we became aquainted and started discussing the travels. Our bus was a local bus this time and the journey was hell since we passed so many smashed up vehicles in the ditches including a local bus. Our driver was a maniac and determined to break the world bus speed limit on a windy road with a shear cliff face to one side. To our relief we changed buses after 3 hours at the lunch stop. This change was just the first of four, not sure why but kept changing into smaller buses all the way to the border town. We finally ended up stacked high on a unicycle for the final 200 metres. We arrived at the border town at dusk, found a cheap very basis room and went out for dinner. There was no point crossing into India tonight since we were all tired and had had enough travelling for one day. The next day we planned to visit Lumbini (Buddha birth place) but there had been some Moaist activity in Nepal so the entire country was going on strike for 3 days. We had been very lucky to get to the border when we did, that’s for sure, but it did scupper our plans for Lumbini since there was no way of getting there unless we walked for 4 hours each way.

Week 16 + 17 – 30/11/09 Everest Base Camp Trek

Week 16 + 17 – 30/11/09 Everest Base Camp Trek

Left the city at 6.30am this morning bound for the airport once again. However, this time we were flying to Lukla only 35 mins away. I had managed to keep a lid on the type of plane we were going in until we sit in the departure hall. Our plane a 16-seater propeller effort was the smallest plane either of us had ever flown. I was quite excited by the flight, whereas Mariana seemed to hide her emotions.

The next two weeks consisted of hard treks, amazing wildlife and lush alpine scenery. Viewing everest became an everyday norm, but it was only when you started to get close that you started to understand the shear size of the Himalayan giants.

Upon arrival to Lukla, we took three days to get to our first acclimatisation stop, Namche Bazaar. A strange place filled with Tibetan (basically Chinese) traders selling all sorts of goods made with babies tears. Namche at +3460m is the first place most people get ill, but we were fine and enjoyed the time to relax. From there we headed to Tengboche +3970m and passed about a hundred or so mentally insane people taking part in the Everest marathon. Following on we made it as far as Lebouche +4920m, then the following day we started heading up to Gora Shep +5160m which is the last town on the trek, when Mariana became very weak and dizzy. We returned to the tea house to relax for the day and to acclimatise. However, Mariana got progressively worse over the day and by the afternoon her breathing was irregular and her heart was pounding intensely. Noticing these signs of AMS I immediately discussed the situation with our guide and we were on our way down the mountain within 10 minutes. We stayed the evening in Dugla which is 300m lower to enable recovery. This did help and by the morning the guide was again asking if we were ready to go back up, but Mariana was not 100% so we decided to take it easy and descend further. There was simply no point risking the remainder of our trip to get a clearer view of a mountain which we had seen numerous times en-route. We had achieved reaching +5000m within 9 days of landing at +2600m covering about 40km of rugged terrain.

The way down was a lot easier I must say and it gave you more chances to look at the wildlife rather than worry about the amount ascended and energy to keep you going. Of the wildlife observed our favourites in no particular order were Vultures from Tibet, Golden Eagles, Yak, Mak (female yaks, the ones that make the cheese), goats, and stray mountain dogs which follow you for days on end if you show them the slightest affection or a scrap of food.

Our guide and porter were local sherpas which is a big plus for anyone trekking in Nepal, however it is more than easy to get by on your own since most trek routes are well grained into the mountains, just as long as you don’t mind carrying your own pack. The Khumbu valley is real Nepal and is quite amazing, a world apart from Kathmandu.