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| 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. |
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| Sometimes the walls even have eyes. You have the eerie feeling of always being watched! |
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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| 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! |
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| The colors of the Kathmandu marketplace. Nepali's need to tie there shoes, too. |
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| 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! |
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| 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! |
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| Our rooftop room looking the other way. |
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| 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. |
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| 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! |
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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| An example of the rock work used for the local houses. |
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| 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. |
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| Mountain peaks veiled with a thin cloud cover. |
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| 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! |
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| This is for all you Von Trapp lovers. Some edelweiss, I think. Or a Himalayan lookalike. |
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| Kira back in action and getting her stride back! |
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| 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. |
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| 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... |
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| Being 76ers, we know a little something about dragons. This stylish motorcoach was our ticket back to our rooftop penthouse in Pokhara. |
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| 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. |
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| If these bowls could talk, the stories they could tell. Actually, they all sing. Kira tested about half the stock. |
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| 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. |
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| Ah, the Taj Mahal! |
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| It's floating! |
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| It kind of looks like we photoshopped Kira into this one. |
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| A little perspective to the grand scale of the Taj. |
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| 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. |
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| The Taj at sundown |
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| 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. |
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| The Ganges had never been cannonballed. Not anymore! This was a little stop from our rafting trip today. |
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| 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! |
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| 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 |
