Traveling with my Sister

I have been traveling with my little sister for a month. That's 30 days of togetherness for the first time ever.  And it has gone SO well!

While eating dinner on our last night in Nepal, two men asked to join us. Oh umm no thanks!  (We responded politely.) You'd think, after so much Mollie-Bridget time, we'd want some new faces in the mix. But we don't. We really just enjoy each other. Which got us thinking about how much togetherness it's been...

Me: Well there was one time I went to an internet cafe and left you at the guest house...

Sister2: Yeah, but I think that's all? We have literally been in the same room as each other this whole time!?

Because when I say we've just spent a month together, I don't mean one month of seeing each other every day. I mean one month of being literally next to one another 24/7.

We share hotel rooms and bus benches of course. All our meals are together (and since it's the off season, we're almost always the only two customers in the restaurant -- private restaurant, candle-lit dinner for two?). And for meals we usually get two things and go halfsies to maximize the things we can try. Our activities are together -- we just finished a private yoga class (again, no other tourists!). And we've also done a number of spa treatments (so cheap here!), which are always couple-style haha -- massages, mani-pedis, facials, and waxing, all done on tables next to one another (I guess we could request some separation in that situation, but neither of us actually care).

Sister2: Yeah, I was surprised that they put us in separate rooms just now for my haircut!

Me: True, but then  you did come join me for the end of my leg wax. I guess it would have been normal for you to have waited in the waiting room instead...

We're both kind of surprised by this awesome turn of events. From our India experience two years ago, we know we travel well together, but we each expected to get annoyed with the other at some point over the course of a month. The nice thing about traveling with family is that we can get mad and then easily get over it...but it just hasn't happened! 

Bridget: Soooo we're awesome and win at traveling together?

Me: Yup. High-five, go team!

Some people can tell we're sisters, but a shocking number don't see it! We tell people (usually it comes up when explaining that we're from the same place, Where from? being the first question everyone asks.), and the interaction  goes something like this:

Sisters? Really? Same mother?

Yep! Same mother same father! 

Ohhhh hmm I see now. Same same but different!

That's us!

"Same same but different" is a phrase used all over Asia to explain, well, everything. And it very accurately describes Sister2 and me. She's three years younger than me and graduate college just over a year ago. We're equally silly and serious, so we have deep conversations, but also will sing enthusiastically in public and laugh over random movie quotes for hours (i.e. Muppet Treasure Island). Siblings are great because you get the same obscure references!

After Nepal, Sister2 is heading back home to join the real world (she's been in Asia since last October!), and I will go on to Thailand to meet up with Andy. I'm excited for the rest of my trip, but so sad to see her go!

Chitwan National Park: Elephant Baths! Wild Rhinos! Crocodiles!

I'm hesitant to indiscriminately throw around the phrase Best day ever! but well, ELEPHANT BATH! Aka we did so many awesome things today and I'm super-psyched to tell you all about it!

We're in Chitwan National Park, which is about a 6-hour bus ride from Kathmandu and (after trekking) one of the main things tourists do in Nepal.

Per usual we had nothing pre-booked, and only a vague sense of how things work. We got off the bus yesterday and a guide approached us "Come with me! This taxi will take you to the center of the town and you can pick out your hotel there yourself! Yes! Yes please, good!" Ummm yes that is exactly what we want. So we found a nice, clean, well-lit room (three of our main criteria) at Hotel Orchid (if you go to Chitwan, I recommend it).

Apparently during tourist season all the hotels here are FULL, but as it has been for our entire Nepal experience, we're pretty much the only ones here.

That same guide became our fixer for the trip. And I will take this moment to strongly recommend him -- Binda of Binda's Animal Adventure, whose office is across from Sweet Memories Restaurant (get the organic coffee - french press! - and a banana honey pancake. You're welcome). Binda's office is under construction now and Sister2 and I just came up with that name for it upon request. So if you DO go to Chitwan and see it, please report back? I would be SUPER excited!

Anywho, we started this morning with a canoe ride down a river in the park. Of course there's no guarantees when seeing wildlife (recall our Bardiya experience), but even though it was raining we saw four crocodiles along our 30-minute way!

The canoe ride ended at the Elephant Breeding Center. I should pause right now to tell you that elephants are, and always have been, my favorite animals. They're big and kinda dinosaur-ish, but also super-smart and graceful. They have families and a matriarchal society and they mourn their dead. And have you seen their trunks up close? So cool!

So we watched baby elephants for a while. The mothers are used for elephant safaris and owned by the government, the fathers are wild jungle elephants, and any male babies born are given to the Nepalese army for patrolling.

AND THEN WE TOOK A BATH WITH AN ELEPHANT.

It's something they do every day at another part of the river. Trainers wash their elephants, and let tourists watch and/or join in for tips. So much fun!!! Our elephant kept sitting down, i.e. throwing us into the river, like the largest bronco ride ever.

In the afternoon the awesomeness continued with an elephant safari. We sat in a saddle/platform this time and meandered through the jungle and across a few rivers. AND WE SAW A WILD ONE-HORNED RHINO 10 FEET AWAY. (I am fully aware of my excessive use of all-caps in this post but I feel the situation deems it reasonable.)

First we saw the rhino across an open field and were pretty excited about that. Then the elephant driver kicked us into gear and we followed the rhino into the jungle. We got up parallel to it, then two other elephants (with drivers and tourists) helped us surround it. We had our doubts about the safety of this situation, as cornering an very large animal with one giant horn does not strike me as particularly advisable, but I guess an elephant trumps everything, so we were safe on it's back?

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Day 2

Today was much less activity-filled than yesterday, and involved a lovely quantity of reading and eating and card-playing and countryside walking.  But we did the most important thing -- i.e took ANOTHER elephant bath. Because we could and therefore we should.

This time Mohammad, our elephant's driver, had us stand up on our elephant's back! Second time was just as awesome as the first well duh. I could do this every day.

The elephant bath sounds like a tourist stunt, but it's mostly not. The drivers do this regardless of audience and we sat and watched them scrub and play with their elephants for a while. (A driver is paired with his elephant for life.) 

Binda explained that for about $5,000 you can own a Nepali elephant. I won't pretend I haven't considered it and/or becoming the first and only white/female elephant driver in Chitwan...

Getting to Bardiya National Park, Western Nepal

For the second time this trip, we bought tickets for what we thought was a tourist bus, only to learn upon arrival at the bus station (i.e. dirt parking lot full of buses and tea stalls) that it was, in fact, a local death-trap bus. (I'm not exaggerating, google "bus crash Nepal" if you deem to doubt.)
 

Sister2 and I looked at one another, skeptical. Should we do this? Or should we cut our losses and walk away? We want to get to Bardiya National Park, in FAR western Nepal, because we've been told that it's tiger season and we're almost guaranteed to see tigers and rhinoceros in the wild.

So we weighed the pros and cons as locals pushed past us onto the bus... Death trap bus? But tigers. No a/c, no reclining seats? But tigers. Sixteen hours? Rhinos too!? This is going to be incredibly miserable? RHINOS AND TIGERS!!!

Needless to say, here we sit, bracing ourselves around hairpin turns on rocky pot-holed roads through the mountains at break-neck speed, perched on a bus that may have been built in the '70s and has absolutely no suspension. The horn sounds constantly as we careen around curves, warning (?) anyone coming around the other way.

In the first three hours we got a major flat (I could hear the sharp hisssss of deflating dreams). But instead of stopping, the solution was for everyone to get back on the bus QUICK to speed to the next town (so we could fix it before it completely deflated? I have no idea...the logic on that one is beyond me). [Oh and that happened two more times throughout the night.]

On the bus with us is a young Nepali  visiting home from university in Canada, who gleefully pointed out, "When I saw you two I was so surprised! I thought, wow! Caucasians?! That is unexpected on this bus!"

Yup, two of these things are not like the others. Which is fine, except that these two things are praying particularly HARD that ourselves, the bus, and everyone on it, reaches Bardiya in one piece.

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At 5am were shaken awake and practically throw off the bus, "Abachar Town! Go now please! Abachar NOW!" Dazed and half-asleep we jumped off of the slowed (but still moving) vehicle. Alright here we are.

The trekker who recommended this trip to us said that there would be people waiting at the bus station to take you to their guest houses, but since we arrived 5 am on a local bus, we had our doubts...

Turns out (God bless desperate guest house proprietors) that part was 100% true! Within 5 minutes of being so rudely awoken, we were on the back of a kid's motor bike (him, Sister2, me, backpack) puttsing our way along a dirt road to his family's guest house. A little questionable...but actually not. 

We arrived 30 minutes (!) later at a very nice "resort" of cottages that is, in fact, Lonely Planet-listed. He made us "welcome tea" and we sat outside amidst papaya trees learning about him (just graduated high school, works for his aunt and uncle), about the park, hotel, and all the animals we can see.

So we're here! And staying until we see tigers and rhinos because there is no way that 16-hour transportation experience is ok otherwise!

Trekking the Annapurna Circuit: Last (Lost) Day!!!

This is the last (6th) of a few blog posts that are after-the-fact transcribed from my trekking notes. Some are more complete posts, some are more thoughts along the road as Sister2 and I take on Nepal for a month!

Day 10

We spent our last day trekking completely lost. A last lost day that included going up and over a pass, through a canyon, down a rock scree cliff face, Oregon Trail-style across a river, through gale-force winds and sandstorms, and A LOT of rage.

The view made it worth it.

It started out nice enough. We breakfasted on delicious Tibetan fried bread and honey and milk coffee on the roof of our hotel in Mukinath, and around 9:15 started what we expected to be a nice gradually downhill leisurely final hike.

On our way out of the town, we caught up with another group of trekkers and fell into line with them -- our first mistake. Because when you're cruising along in a group, collective wisdom (or lack thereof) kicks in, and people (me and Sister2) stop looking closely at road signs.

The view from our window in Mukinath.

We started up a pretty steep hill, groaning all the way (still SO SORE), but we accepted it, assuming that this was just an uncomfortable blip in the net-downhill trail.
We soon reached a spectacular pass and took some pictures that were totally worth the climb.

Leaving Mukinath.

Then down down down we went, our quads and calfs screaming from remnants of yesterday's (and the day before's and the day before's) exertions.  Sister2 and I have concluded that jogging (baby steps) downhill is equally as hard as walking but twice as fast, so we left the other white people in the dust and skittered our way down the mountain.

We were following signs to Lubra, and reached it around lunchtime. And after lunch is where true disaster struck. We left the town and started walking along the river, but we didn't see any blue trail markings, so I scampered back to ask directions to Jomsom, our day's (and trek's) destination. "Yes yes Jomsom, river." Alright, if she says so. 

Damnit Lubra!!!

We walked along the riverbed for 15 minutes or so, still no markings, until we saw a suspension bridge waaaaaay up above us. (This was especially odd because the way into the town was SO well-marked. We realized after the fact that Lubra wasn't supposed to be on the trek at all, and clever entrepreneurial villagers marked the way into their town super-well so that people like us would come. And clearly they didn't care to mark the way out...)

Uh oh, I think we're supposed to be up there? Damnit we got wrong directions!!! (This happened in India sometimes too...for inexplicable cultural reasons people would rather give wrong directions than say they don't know. And us unsuspecting tourists get screwed.)

So we backtracked to the village to ask again. This time we were pointed along a hillside trail. A trail that took us through thorn bushes, and eventually petered out into nothing. NOT AGAIN!!! At this point we were frustrated, hot, tired, had spent an hour trying to get out of this stupid village, and were threatening to punt a chicken and drop-kick a wrong-direction-giving villager at the soonest opportunity.

We saw what appeared to be the correct trail about 50 meters below us, and unwilling to backtrack again, we started slip-sliding down the steep rocky scree face.

That trail was A trail...though not really the RIGHT trail. We stood looking across the bridge and saw something that looked like the correct trail on the other side of the river far below, with our fellow trekker friends making their way along it. I'm not going to lie, at this point obscenities may or may not have been screamed into the Himalayan wind...

Riverbed of death

"What's the easiest way to Jomsom? Oh cool well we're bad-ass so clearly we're taking this completely different and way harder way on purpose -- no big deal," we joked to each other to keep our rage in check.

We followed our trail along the cliff for a ways, and eventually made it to the river. Phew. Home free! But soooooo not.
The river's erosion cut off the trail, so we had to take off our boots and Oregon Trail-style ford the rocky current. Final obstacle? Kind of...

And then, joy of joys, we were on the jeep road to Jomsom! And it was an epic wind tunnel! Along a sandy and rocky river between cliffs! Whose legs and faces and any and all exposed skin don't need an arduous hour of natural exfoliation?!?!

We put our heads down and hiked as fast as humanly possible through the desolate landscape, dreaming of the Snickers bars we'd splurge and treat ourselves to upon arrival in Jomsom.

We are now at our final Annapurna Circuit Trek guest house, showered, wind-burned, and ready for our early-morning flight to Pokara tomorrow.

Though the last day was far more epic than expected, trekking the Annapurna Circuit was such a fun and beautiful and amazing experience! I will blog a detailed how-to-do-it-like-we-did post soon because I now have so much wisdom to share on the trekking front, and I think everyone should try this!

 

Trekking the Annapurna Circuit: The Highest Pass in the World! (Day 9)

This is the fifth of a few blog posts that are after-the-fact transcribed from my trekking notes. Some are more complete posts, some are more thoughts along the road as Sister2 and I take on Nepal for a month!

I can't say that I particularly enjoyed today, but I am glad it happened. 

Going up. Slowly slowly.

We started our day's trek from High Camp for a brutal 2-hour 60-meter climb to Thorong La Pass -- the highest pass in the world at 5416 meters. We slowly slowly hiked through a Mars-sequences rocky landscape, with the occasional mountain peeping through the clouds.

The past two days of major elevation gain + super-thin air + burning quads + general exhaustion (we couldn't sleep last night because we were so sore/tight that our muscles see all twitchy and unable to get comfortable) made for a veeeeery slow and arduous ascent.

But at 9 am we made it to the top! Congratulations to us! We celebrated with crackers and peanut butter, basking in the glory of our own awesomeness. I'm kind of kidding, but kind of not...if trekking were a competition we would have dominated, for serious. Turns out, trekking is my (and Sister2's) jam!

On top of Thorong Pass.

After the pass, we still had a ways to go, down down down the long and differently difficult descent.

Heading down from the pass.

 After two hours of excruciatingly steep rocky downhill trail, fueled only by the aforementioned crackers and some very watery and unsatisfying oatmeal (I'm sorry to report that the food at High Camp is NOT GOOD), we finally made it to a tea house they encouraged us to "thinks of your nutrition." ON IT. Instead of our usual shared plate of momos or pizza, we went big and got "spring rolls" that came more like Nepali empanadas, and a very large plate of "fried potato egg cheese," four of Sister2's favorite things.

Oh I AM thinksing of my nutrition! Aka HUNGRY.

Now we're in our destination town of  Mukinath, and we smell BAD. (We long ago reached the point at which everything smells at least a little but funky, and "clean" just means you haven't worn it in the last 24 hours.) So now it's shower time, then food time. Yaaaaay!!!

On the way into Mukinath.

Trekking the Annapurna Circuit: Ice Lake and High Camp (Days 7-8)

This is the fourth of a few blog posts that are after-the-fact transcribed from my trekking notes. Some are more complete posts, some are more thoughts along the road as Sister2 and I take on Nepal for a month!

On the way to Ice Lake.

Day 7

Everyone says you should spend two nights in Manang to adjust to the altitude (the town is at 3540 meters -- 11,614 feet -- and we're about to go A LOT higher), so that's what we're doing. We opted for a day hike (no packs woooohooo!!!) to the Ice Lake, which is at 4600 meters (15,091 feet) and QUITE the vertical climb. (How do you climb the Himalayas? Slowly slowly!) 

View from our window in Manang. That is a glacier to your right, with a cloud-covered Annapurna behind it.

We passed through a herd of yak on our way up.

Ice Lake!

It took us 3 hours up and 1.5 hours down (because we're so fast/or we just chug along slowly with few stops), not including a Beautiful Nap on the way down. The hike was supposed to have amazing views of the Annapuras, but sadly it was a cloudy day, so we saw some mountains but not the whole sweeping range. Oh well, at least it's not raining on us!

Coming down from Ice Lake.

Annapurnas, leaving Manang.

Leaving Manang, looking back.

Day 8

I'm sipping milk coffee (a generous description of this hot sweet beverage, but I'm not complaining) in the windowed dining room at High Camp (elevation: 4833 meters/15,856 feet), about two hours from Thorong La, the highest pass in the world. We hiked a lot today (to make tomorrow a bit easier), leaving all vegetation behind and trekking along through a moon-surface-ish landscape, if the moon had mountains.

High Camp is COLD! And not particularly nice (no running water, terrible shared toilet, dark stone room), but I can't really complain...we ARE on top of the world.

High Camp!

Oh and we made a friend today! His name is Tyson and he's delightfully Canadian (from Toronto). He abandoned his less-awesome companions and hiked with us all day today up to High Camp, and we're planning to do the pass together tomorrow. Go us and being social!

We were going to climb the Himalayas, but then we though, huh, might as well just go to Mars.

And in other news, after the hike up and down from Ice Lake yesterday, and a vertical final hour today, my quads and calfs are burning like they've never burned before. I think a foam roller would make me cry right now.

It's 8:30 pm and I'm freezing. Aka bed time. Pass day tomorrow!

Trekking the Annapurna Circuit: Up Through the Rain Forest (Days 3-4)

This is the second of a few blog posts that are after-the-fact transcribed from my trekking notes. Some are more complete posts, some are more thoughts along the road as Sister2 and I take on Nepal for a month!

Day 3

The trek so far is nothing like either of us expected.  It's warm, humid, and we're walking on a jeep road through what looks like a rain forest, cleared in places for terraced fields of unidentified crops. We're here in the off season, so we have yet to encounter another trekker. It's a bit odd and deserted, but definitely nice to have the guest houses (and bathrooms!) to ourselves. I can't imagine what it's like in high season when every guest house is full and the road is packed with trekkers -- it would be a totally different experience and I'm pretty sure I prefer it our way.

View from our guest house room (Day 3)

We hiked SO FAR today! After a bowl of apple porridge (with milk and sugar yum!), we started walking at 7:20, took about 2 hours total of rest throughout the day, and finally stopped around 3:40. We've gotten into the habit of a mid-morning cookie break, followed by lunch and tea. Other than that we pretty much just chug along, chatting about everything and nothing, "namaste"-ing passing Nepalis, or hiking in silence.

Our last hour was pretty unnecessarily challenging, but ultimately totally worth it. We accidentally turned up a hill trail (ok so there were misleading signs -- clearly these people wanted to make their village on top of a freaking mountain a tourist attraction), and walked up stone stairs for about 45 minutes straight. Oof. 

Soooo many stairs.

 It was a grueling plod -- one foot in front of the other -- but the farm village built into cliffs, surrounded by terraced wheat fields, was totally worth it. 

Terraced wheat fields

We took some pictures then descended, exhausted, into Bagarchamp, agreeing that our little accidental detour was the most beautiful thing we've seen so far.

Day 4

Before coming here, we heard so much about how nice and friendly Nepali people are ("Come for the scenery, return for the people!"). And they are nice, but so far in our experience the most applicable adjective is "indifferent." They "namaste" us back when we greet them, and point us in the right direction when we look lost, but they're not over-the-top in any way. The Annapurna Circuit is Nepal's most popular trek, so maybe people along this road are just kind of over tourists? We walk through their towns and they barely notice us. I don't mind at all though. I prefer subdued-friendly over aggressive-friendly any day.

Oh and on a completely different note, I'm happy to report that the most threatening thing we've encountered so far is a baby goat. Sister2 (panic voice): "Oh he's coming at me! Ohmygod! Ohmygod! He's nibbling on my things!!!"

GET THE GEAR

I'm happy to report that I received an email from Mollie this morning.  They're in Manang!!  In what, though it hasn't been confirmed, is probably world record time!

Manang.  Not so bad.

YUM!

Hooray friends!

GET THE GEAR!

When the rain let up, we left the shop with our gear to go pack our packs -- ready to go!
This will be my last blog post for a couple weeks as we head out on our trek. Next time you hear from me I will have peaked a 17,800-foot mountain pass!
This will be my last blog post for a couple weeks as we head out on our trek. Next time you hear from me I will have peaked a 17,800-foot mountain pass!

Without further ado, news from Mollie (which she wrote just before she set out on her trek):

Where do I even start? I’m halfway through day two in Kathmandu, and so far so good!

After that first night alone, I woke up early, went for a second walk around the Thamel neighborhood (the main touristy shopping area in Kathmandu), and got myself what may have been the best cup of coffee I’ve ever had. Himalayan coffee is my new favorite thing – it’s super strong and rich and not acidic at all, and I may have to move here just so I can have it every morning!

Sister2, whom I haven't seen in 8 months (!), arrived later in the morning and we met up at the hostel. She just flew in from Sri Lanka and has been in Asia for 7 1/2 months -- such the world traveler.

First we went to the beautiful Garden of Dreams, sat on various benches, and caught up on all of the things.

Then we explored the city, aka walked around and got lost and then found ourselves a couple times, and then ate street food, because that's what traveling is all about. We met up with my friends Tracy and Mike in the evening for a trip to Durbar Square, which has the Royal Palace and a number of hindu and Buddhist temples.

Then on to an authentic Nepali dinner (Tracy has been here for over 2 months, so she knows where to go). We got flattened rice with curry, which is apparently the main dish in Nepal. I can't say that I loved it -- the rice was kind of like eating uncooked unmoistened oatmeal. BUT we got snickers momos for dessert! Momos are dumplings, so we’re talking about mini snickers dumplings dipped in local honey (which is everywhere here). Yummmm!

Last night was a bit rough -- I need to get out of this city so I can breathe again. I read before coming that Kathmandu is the third most polluted city in the world. The pollution isn’t visible, and Kathmandu is actually one of the cleaner looking Asian cities I’ve experienced (ok so the others are all in India), but I feel a constant burn in the back of my throat and down my windpipe combined with a runny nose. Definitely not ideal!

Today is all about getting the logistics set for our 9-day trek in the Annapurna Area. There are a million very legit and very cheap gear stores here. I know it sounds scary, but seriously, don’t buy any gear before coming to Nepal. It is SO CHEAP here. We're talking fancy Mammut hiking socks for $3, gloves for $1.50, and a brand new North Face fleece/windbreaker jacket for $40!!!

Clearly we got all the gear, and we made some friends along the way. The morning’s sprinkle increased to a downpour as we started our shopping venture, just as Sister2 tested out rain pants. (We are here at the beginning of the rainy season, so the rain is inconvenient but no surprise.) It was pretty bad out and the narrow street gutters were flooding, so when the shop owner offered us milk tea and a couple seats, we settled in for a long chat about trekking and Nepal and tourism. Nepalis are so friendly and welcoming and now we have a friend in Kathmandu!