Final Phase!

This shot is a little out of order,
but let me tell you, we are just laughing our way through  India.  We went on a short rafting trip down the Ganges today from the city of Rishikesh.  Our guide made sure that we bathed in its holy (and very cold!) waters. 

So Kathmandu is a really interesting city.  With lots of very small doors.  We wondered at the medieval dating of many of the buildings.  They don't put up historic plaques on homes in Nepal.

Sometimes the walls even have eyes.  You have the eerie feeling of always being watched!

This shot of Kira is a commemoration of the royal wedding in England.  Actually, this is the top of a pagoda that overlooks the city of Kathmandu.  This is also as far as we got because we had no money with us and it cost a few dollars to get in. 

Kira modeling her new look!  It actually helped her blend in with the locals.  The air in Kathmandu needs a little cleaning.  It's a real throat tenderizer. 

So we spent a brief time in a primary school classroom "volunteering".  We tried to review a lesson the teacher had led earlier, but it went more like this - as this picture displays.  Note the kid standing on his desk.  I'm not sure what the kids learned, but we learned to stay out of Nepalese classrooms.  We barely escaped with our lives!

The colors of the Kathmandu marketplace.  Nepali's need to tie there shoes, too.

In Nepal, anything can be hauled, by any means.  This guy isn't all business, though.  I noticed that he still  had a little time to check out the ladies!

After Kathmandu, we decided to give our lungs a break and head for Pokhara, a nice traveler friendly town on a beautiful lake.  Only 120 miles from Kathmandu, the bus ride is 7 hours.  Well worth it as this was the view from our rooftop room.  One of our best rooms of the trip!

Our rooftop room looking the other way.

We hiked up to the "Peace Pagoda" one afternoon.  It is a shrine overlooking the lake that offers great views of the Annapurna Range.  This sign made it easy to find our way.

Instead of great views of the Annapurna Range, we got nailed with hail in a huge rain storm.  Yes, that is a chunk of hail in Kira's hand. The monsoon arrived early this year.  For those following along, you may remember this lilac colored poncho from Cambodia.  Presently, you might recognize it if you go to the Pokhara city dump.  This storm shredded that poor poncho!

Little pony with a big bell!  Once you hit the trails you see a lot of pack mules and ponies carrying heavy loads. You can always hear them coming.

We did a short trek in the lower Annapurna zone.  Despite not getting too high, we still had steep climbs and descents and were well over 7000 feet (the highest village we stayed in was over 9,000 ft.).  Along the way, we got to cross over some sweet suspension bridges.  Remember, all the equipment was hauled up with ponies or people.

I like this shot because it shows the narrow streets of the teahouse towns, way up in the mountains.  Also, you can notice the expert stone work that the Nepali's make use of to create their homes.  I don't think they have any mortar in there.  Maybe a little mud, but a lot of that stonework is seamless.

So we saw people carrying some amazing loads.  People of all ages.  Old and young.  Usually the load was rested on their head, with a strap around their forehead.  This shot looks like a walking bundle of corn sheaths. 

This was our host at the first teahouse we stayed at in the town of Banthanti.  Not to be confused with the town of Banthani. We were pretty tired upon arrival after a grueling day of hiking about 1200 meters uphill.  On slate steps.  The beds were surprisingly comfortable and the guesthouse was very tidy and had beautiful views.  A high country oasis!   I'm pointing to our location on the map.

An example of the rock work used for the local houses. 

On our second morning, as Kira lay in bed recovering from stomach issues of the previous night, I climbed to a great lookout spot for the sunrise.  Following are some shots of the views I saw, all of the Annapurna range.  All are 7000+ meters tall. 

Mountain peaks veiled with a thin cloud cover.

Kira was very happy to be able to sleep and be near a toilet as I summitted the mountain.  She also didn't have to feel like she missed out too much because this was the view from her bed!

This is for all you Von Trapp lovers.  Some edelweiss, I think.  Or a Himalayan lookalike.

Kira back in action and getting her stride back!

On our last day, we refueled for our final push with some homemade apple cider.  We were served by the little daughters of the man that made it. 

The suspension bridges on our trail were crazy.  If you look close, you can get a sense of scale with the tiny dot that is Kira.  Just down the road to our final destination, Tatopani (not to be confused -verbally- with Tadopani).  Hot springs and a delicious dinner await!  Our knees really needed it after a 8 hour descent on more slate steps.  Thousands of slate steps...

Being 76ers, we know a little something about dragons.  This stylish motorcoach was our ticket back to our rooftop penthouse in Pokhara.

Hey, we all understand, it's hard to give up that favorite old chair! This was at the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu, where we got our Indian visas. 

If these bowls could talk, the stories they could tell.  Actually, they all sing.  Kira tested about half the stock.

We made it to India!  Or did we.  Upon arrival, Kira's passport was NOT stamped.  This proved to be a problem the next day as we tried to buy train tickets.  Long story short, we spent most of our first full day in India going to the airport, not once, but twice to find the Immigration officer that neglected his duty.  We met some nice folks in the process, and when it was all worked out, the absent-minded officer bought us chai.

Ah, the Taj Mahal!

It's floating!

It kind of looks like we photoshopped Kira into this one.

A little perspective to the grand scale of the Taj.

So you might be wondering why I was absent from all the stunning Taj shots.  Well, that's because I was in the hotel room turning my intestines inside out.  Welcome to India!  So I missed going, mostly because I didn't feel like standing up.  Fortunately, our hotel had a great rooftop view that Kira helped me hobble to just before sundown.  It was almost like I was there.  For the record, Kira was a great nurse.  She really took great care of me.

The Taj at sundown

Feeling better in Rishikesh.  I'm wondering if I stick out because of the yellow shirt or because I'm walking next to a cow?  Below is the swift and clean flowing Ganges.

The Ganges had never been cannonballed.  Not anymore!  This was a little stop from our rafting trip today. 

A little backtrack to Nepal.  To anyone that has been before, the Maoists are still making a presence.  The people have no constitution and the government was balking at their duty to create one while we were there.  Our first day there saw a city wide strike city wide in Kathmandu.  For us it was nice - no cars!

Our rafting crew - two really nice married couples from Delhi and us.









So for those of you that made it down this far, let me tell you that we are having fun, still enjoying ourselves and each other's company (99% of the time) but are looking forward to our return to the USA.  We are ready for a lot of things that we normally take for granted back home.  Anyhow, we just wanted to let you know that we think of you all often and look forward to seeing all of you soon.

Love,
Kira and Peter 

If You Think It's A Leech...

6 month honeymoon suite or prison cell?  You decide...

Laos makes good use of their horrible past.  A stark reminder of wartime.

One of the most uncomfortable, dusty, exhaust filled rides we have been on.  Some travel buddies in the background.  This was in the back of a super sized pick-up with benches running the length of the bed along the sides and then one in the middle, as well.  Packed 'em in, though!  The more the merrier.

Our dusty "bus" ride brought us to southern Laos and an area called the 4000 Islands.  Sand protuberances in the Mekong delta.  Some no bigger than a car, but others, like the island we stayed on were quite big - miles long.  It was great to do fresh water island chillin'.

From Laos to Siem Reap.  The Angkor Wat ruins were quite amazing.

Prom shot!  We met up in Siem Reap with our friends Bryce and Nikki, who flew in for a long weekend from Hong Kong.  This was a really cool temple called the Bayon.  Lots of faces, watching our every move...

Nature has had it's way with this famous temple - Tha Phrom (?)

A little rewind to our Mekong island life chillin'.  In full effect, here.

Wow-ee!  This Cambodian was not alone.  Another guy was right behind him.  The back is a bed and the front wooden piece was a piano or something.  We frequently see 5 people on a moped. 

These little boys near Siem Reap (we did a day trip bike ride to the country with Bryce and Nikki) were stoked to show off their masks. 

No pregnant women, please!

My favorite brand.

Those are mopeds! 

This was a really nice high school senior that took us to a Buddhist temple that was in a cave that was under this limestone rock formation.  He took me up and over to this sweet lookout.  The interesting part of the cave was that in the middle of the formation, the roof had fallen in and it opened up to the sky.  Really cool spot in southern Cambodia near the town of Kompot.

Life in Buddhist hell (with a strong Hindu influence).  This was in one of the temples by the cave.  Lots of pictures for illiterate lay people.  Very similar to the pictography found in cathedrals.

The next few shots were taken at the haunting remains of an old French Provincial hotel/casino/town that is called Bokor Hill Station.  Built in 1925, this foggy complex was a getaway spot to escape the heat of Phnom Pehn for the rich French colonialists.  An amazing view of the ocean with the jungle dropping sharply behind the casino from a sheer cliff.  This same cliff was were the Khmer Rouge dumped bodies of execution victims in the late 1970's.  The hotel became a prison.  It's latest fame was the site of the final scene of a movie called "City of Ghosts".  Now the Chinese have big plans to redevelop the spot.  A new casino is in the works and a proposal for a 1000 building town.  But it's a National Park.  No problem, the Chinese investment firm is pay rolling the park rangers and bribing their way to owning as much of Cambodia as possible. 

The debonair look in the old casino.

Watch out for that last step, it's a real lulu!

Kira modelling her new lilac colored poncho on an old guestroom balcony.

The French planned the town with a casino, a church (seen here) and a post office.

Khmer grafitti.

A door in the old French colonial town of Kampot.  The fading, sagging provincial architecture is very interesting.  The good news is that Kampot is rebuilding as a backpackers site, so if the Chinese don't destroy the trekking options, the town should continue to rebuild. 

Almost grabbed ahold of this one for balance jumping a puddle.

Nice water buffalo!

We arrived in the one road town of Chi Phat after a long day of travel.  We had only slept 5 hours the night before and were getting up at 6 to prepare for a 3 day mountain bike trek.  We expected to be in bed early and sleep like babies as the sounds of small town Cambodia lulled us into slumber.  A community organization that plans the treks assigned us to our guesthouse.  Several minutes after unloading our stuff in the room, the woman running the place came and told us to please join her and the village to celebrate the Khmer New Year.  We were shocked because the new year was over 3 days before.  We were even more shocked when we saw the wall of sound.  Even more shocked when they kept blasting the same 5 songs over and over again.  Good thing the whole village lost power at 11:00.

Our mountain bike trek crossed a bunch of great swimming holes and beautiful waterfalls. 

Kira blazing down the trail with our guide Peng slowly taking the lead.  I don't know how he did it, but I have never seen anyone ride a mountain bike as slow as Peng could.  Hard work biking that slow.

Kira on a homemade ladder to a recently discovered burial site from an ancient Khmer civilization.  The bodies were buried in jars or small tree hollowed coffins and then placed up in the cliffs of the jungle.

Kira cooling off at lunch.  We ate breakfast at 8 and then slogged over some really overgrown and grueling terrain.  By 1:30 or two we were wiped out and starving!  This water spot was just what we needed.  We just wish we knew that lunch was a place, not a time.  If Peng would have biked faster...

The coffins, some still holding the remains.

Kira raging through the bamboo forest of the Cardamom Mountains.

This beautiful butterfly flew in for some of my lunch leftovers.

Our second night - tarp up due to impending rain.  We weren't totally sure of our guides tarp hanging skills.  It looked a little shaky, so fortunately it didn't rain for long.

Kira and Peng in our military hammocks - complete with mosquito nets.

O'Malu falls - this great spot was what we looked at from our tarp covered camp spot.  Curious of the Khmer origins of the name O'Malu.

Chi Phat traffic jam.

Our final group shot with our two leaders.  It was a real challenge to get this shot done by our guide, Sok's (the guide on the left) little brother.  He got the job done, though. 

Hello from Bangkok!

We are here for a third time, wrapping things up and getting ready to switch gears to the Himalayan wonderland of Nepal.  We are really excited to move on after some great travels around SE Asia.  From Nepal we will move into India for our final month.  Increased difficulty level to close things out.  And we thought it was hot in Cambodia!

So here are some pictures that I thought everyone might enjoy.  Check them out.  The pictures and captions will tell the story. 

P.S. The title came from our new found forest friends.  Leeches!  We both got lots and lots of leeches.  My philosophy was that if you felt something and your brain told you, "I think that might be a leech..." then 98% chance that it was a leech.  They are pretty gross parasites.  Days later they still itch.  And the open sore thing is a little gross.  But the sound of Kira squealing like a little girl each time she had a leech was really worth it.  Plus, with my botfly exposure of the past (32 and counting), having external parasites is no big whoop.