Koh Samui & Christmas!

Getting there
We took the Seatran ferry which is larger and slower than the catamaran,  but it is cheaper and still only took around 1 hour. We were met the other side by a minivan. That took us to our hotel.

Accomodation
We stayed at the new Novotel on the island. It has recently been taken over by Novotel,  it used to be owned by the Kata group and was known as kandaburi resort and spa.

The hotel was in a great location at the quieter end of Chaweng Beach,  the rooms were large and clean,  and had everything you could want from a hotel room. The staff and service were good here!

Chaweng Beach is known as the prettiest beach in Koh Samui,  and it is gorgeous.  shallow blue water,  5km long,  and an island to gaze at just off the beach. The beach also has many hotels,  bars and restaurants along it and if you were searching for a party I am sure you would be able to find one.

We had rain a few of the days we were here,  and nearly every night in the early hours., this wasn't a huge problem,  but did limit you on what you could do. The film channels in the hotel made this easier.

We celebrated Christmas at the hotel on the 24th,  (apparently it is celebrated on the 24th here) we had a Christmas buffet, with Turkey and Brussel Sprouts! This was what was desired and we were pleased we found turkey in Thailand.

On Christmas day we had a meal at treetops restaurant which was amazing. Some truly brilliant food, with wine pairing.  The location of the restaurant is in levels in a treehouse,  so your table is private.

Another place on Koh Samui we would highly recomend was a restaurant called The Larder. It was fantastic, any foodies heaven!  It was essentially a British gastro pub with some Thai flair and the food was so good we went there twice. The prices were similar to what you would pay in the UK for a meal,  but the standard of food and service was exceptional. And they have Cheese!  And it's amazing!  The best cheese since leaving the UK. 

Besides eating and drinking and chilling by the pool we didn't do too much in Koh Samui, so off we went to Phuket.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Koh Tao

Hua Hin to Koh Tao - Getting there

This was relatively easy, although it was an early start to get to the ferry office in Hua Hin before 7.30am where we had to check in with the ferry company and confirm all of our bookings etc. We then had to wait around for 45 minutes for the bus to arrive, it was an AC bus with reclining seats. The Journey from Hua Hin to Chumpon took around 4.5 hours. and got us to the ferry port around 2pm. We boarded the Lomprayah High Speed Catamaran for a nice smooth ride to Koh Tao (Mae Haad Pier). The water was crystal blue and very flat making it a relaxing journey.

 At the port we were collected by the hotel and taken to one of the nicest hotels we had stayed in, the Haad Tien Beach Resort (Check it out, this was the view from our room). The location was stunning, the rooms were stunning, the private beach was stunning. The service was ok. We were here for a couple of nights, and the food was pretty good, although they had just changed the menu and this caused a few mistakes, however we addressed this and management seemed to be sorting the problems, and had taken it seriously.  

We had a nice time staying here, but didn't have much time to get a feel for Koh Tao as we were a bit limited due to rain! It appeared to be a diving hotspot with more diving schools than anything else filling the streets around the harbour. 

We did manage a couple of quick trips to the local town (Mae Haad) via the free shuttle provided by the hotel and ate at a little local restaurant called Nana's on the main street. On another night we found a beautiful little coffee shop called the lounge, which was just like somebodies front room, but with tasty cocktails. (It even had a cat that liked sitting on laps, Abi loved it!)

The following day it was off to Koh Samui!

*****photos to follow****

A fleeting visit to Hua Hin

Transport
We had a transfer arranged by taxi as part of the tour and the drive was around 3-4 hrs from kanchanaburi.

Accommodation
We stayed in a mall boutique hotel - The Rock Hua Hin. It was a gorgeous little place with lots of little touches. We were very impressed by the rooms and hotel generally.
Breakfast was lovely with a very good selection and with nice little touches such as yoghurt in jars and juices in glass milk bottles!
After the long drive, we had food in the hotel on our first night and were pleasantly surprised  by the quality of the food especially as we were the only ones in there!
The infinity pool was gorgeous however the beach which the hotel backed onto had a very small amount of sand so no use for sunbathing, the tide was right in a lot of the time. But It was lovely and warm for a dip and actually was very shallow.

The night Market
On our second night we ventured into the night market which was very busy, brimming with tourist's looking for their holiday bargains!!! It was much the same as most night markets in Thailand, but the family were able to pick up a few bargains to take home with them!

We ended up eating in a fish restaurant called KO seafood, along the way which actually was fine, but I certainly wouldn't rush to go back!!

Then we headed back to the hotel for a G&T in the lovely bar before heading to bed in preparation for the early morning pick up the next day!!

The Gorgeous Pool & Sea

Our Lovely Room!

Kanchanaburi & The river kwai

Transport
So we had an early taxi from Bangkok (around 4 hr drive) which took us to an area close to the bridge over the river kwai. Here we could take a speedboat to the bridge to get a good view of it from below. This was great fun, the boat was very speedy!!!

Once arriving at The bridge over the River Kwai, we had time to walk over it and take pictures as well as read signs that explained different parts of the bridge. There were also some of the old original trains on display. It was very interesting and just the start of a day learning about the bridge and the prisoners of war.

After the bridge we went to the. Museum & Cemetery. The museum is great and explains all of the history in detail with some impressive displays and artefacts.

We really could have spent over an hour in the museum alone but had to do both the museum and cemetery in an hour which felt rushed really. The cemetery was very eerie but beautifully kept and a lovely place to come and pay your respects to all of the brave individuals that lost their lives during the building of the railway.

Once back on the bus we made our way to our hotel for the night...somewhere we were very excited about...The River Kwai jungle rafts. We were going to be spending the next 24hr on a floating hotel!
We obviously had to take a boat to the hotel which was great fun, winding down the river at quite some speed! On arrival we were given lunch which was a mixture of Thai dishes with rice and were told everything we needed to know about the stay and what we would be doing.

As soon as we could we had our swimsuits on and were jumping into the river! It wad lots of fun and once in it was literally a giant lazy river where you could be carried by the current from one end of the hotel to another! It was certainly fun trying to grab onto the hotel at the last minute before being swept away!

In the early evening we walked onto the land and to a village next to the rafts which is home to the Mon people. A lot of them are employed on the rafts, but otherwise they run elephant trekking and make handicrafts to sell as a means of making a living.  It was interesting walking round, meeting some locals and seeing how they live. It was amazing that despite the village being small, there was still a rather large and beautifully adorned temple!
Once back to the rafts we had dinner before watching a traditional Mon performance. It was again interesting and the dancing was great, but we did find the music very noisy and were unable to understand the rhythm!

The next day after breakfast we were taken to the Hellfire pass & museum. This was one of the areas that was most difficult to build the railway and lots of PoW lost their lives here. We were able to walk on where the railway once was -there are actually quite a few sleepers remaining. And see the memorial there before heading into the museum. Again this was incredibly interesting (despite there being some repetition from the previous museum). We left, well informed and feeling incredibly grateful to all of those who lost their lives. Also thankful to live in a peaceful world without wars on this scale.

After the museum we had lunch and were able to take a ride on a small amount of the railway line that is remaining. This included one part that is on a rickety looking wooden bridge over the water!

From the railway we were met by a driver who was to take us to our next destination; Hua Hin! 

The bridge over the River Kwai

Alone on the Bridge

A lone tree in the path of the death railway

A gorge cut out from the hillside for the railway to pass through

Stilted bridges for the trains to cross.

A Temple in the middle of the forest at the Mon Village

Entertaining but noisy Mon Performance

The craziness of Bangkok part 1

From Chiang Mai to Bangkok,

On the family trip we decided that if our parents were going to go on a sleeper train it would need to be first class. So we were on the train, with only two to a room (a small booth with bunk beds, a basin, and a very small table. We were supposed to be on an AC train, however the AC was broken, and in first class you cannot open the windows, so despite the added luxury (including a free water, and orange juice) nobody slept very well as the bedroom compartments were like ovens. Our train arrived 1 hour late at around 8 am and we were met at the station by our guide for the day, taken to the hotel to drop off our things and shower. Then we were whisked off on a whistlestop tour of the main attraction of Bangkok, THE GRAND PALACE, and grand it was. See info on the palace here. There were lots of buildings, every one coated in mosaic glass patterns, and statues and stupa's everywhere you looked, each having a different focal point to catch your eye. In the palace grounds is also the Wat Phra Keo which houses the original Emerald Buddha which was once in the temple at Chiang Rai, Chiang Mai as well as several other places! This was a fascinating venue, but it was very crowded, the temperatures were extremely high and we were rushed along as we had other activities to do that day. A visit to the royal masterpieces gallery in a former residence of the King. This place had some beautiful pieces in, paintings, teak sculptures, gold leaf covered models, but again was too busy, filled with other tourist's to stop and completely appreciate the art (also we were flagging by this point due to our lack of sleep and so struggled to appreciate all of the details!).

We did however manage to get back to the hotel in time for a beer by the pool and watch the sunset behind the skyscraper filled skyline. Then with a bit of research on Tripadvisor, we realised the restaurant at the roof of our hotel was not to be missed, it was an Indian restaurant called the Rang Mahal which had won many awards. We were not disappointed the food was exceptional, the service was even better. The hotel and restaurant info is the Rembrandt hotel.

The next morning was a very early start for a trip to Damnoen Sudak floating markets, these were quite far outside Bangkok and they had little to offer except the uniqueness of buying your souvenirs from a floating market. However, the tour didn't stop here for too long and we were taken on a longtail boat through the local villages and along the Mae Klong River to a temple with a hand carved teak panelling interior telling the story of Buddha and also a smaller temple encased in a Banyan Tree. Then we started a 27km bike ride along the through villages, banana and coconut farms, over streams and rivers. This tour was being led by Spiceroads, they run tours all over Asia and we wouldn't hesitate to use them again, the pace was relaxed the food was very good, the guide was informative and easygoing. Then after our busy day it was a minivan journey back to the hotel, an a rest before we took a stroll to the EM district night market on a weekend, it was a place for very fashionable people, there were clothes stands and food stands but they were all selling unique products to them, not like some markets which all have the same products on offer. It was lit up nicely and looked very festive, and was a nice way of spending the evening.

This was our first 2 days in Bangkok, and we will be coming back after the tour for some more time here as there is plenty to see and do and we only just scratched the surface.

Beautiful buildings at the Royal Palace

Unbelievable detail - even on the roof!!!

Floating Markets - Its Crazy what they manage to do from a boat!

Us looking incredibly fetching on our bike ride!!!

These are family pagoda's - where family ashes will be kept...we spotted a few of these along our bike ride

Chiang Mai

Transport
We took the Green bus from Chiang Rai to Chiang Mai. It cost us 169 Baht each and took about 3.5hr. We were given some water and biscuits while on the bus too! We then took a blue/red van into town to the night market area as we knew our accommodation was close to there.

Accommodation
We had a few nights before the official tour started where we had planned our own thing.
Our first night we stayed in The small hotel. Which is a small boutique hotel centrally located. It was a lovely little place with great breakfast and only cost us. $40 p/night including a very good buffet breakfast.

We then moved onto the Elephant Nature Park for one night (more below) where we stayed in beautiful wooden huts! Before then going onto the first hotel included in our tour, The empress where we stayed 4 nights. It was a very big upmarket hotel, but it had great facilities and the staff were excellent.

While in Chiang Mai we visited the night markets and did lots of shopping and tried lots of yummy fish, meat, noodle and rice dishes there! They're pretty crazy..as are all night markets in Thailand, but good fun! A particular food favourite was the local dish of khao sao - a noodle soup.

Tour
On our first night we were taken to a traditional Khantoke style dinner with live traditional thai dance. The food was yum and the dancing was very interesting, it was certainly very touristy but a great thing to get you in the mood for Thailand.

We spent some time wandering around the indoor markets and flower markets which were very interesting especially with the guide as she could explain what the

Tiger Kingdom
This was an interesting experience. Not dissimilar to a zoo, with the big cats being brought up in captivity in small enclosures. However, here you can get in the enclosures and pet the cats and have your photo taken.
We were all a little dubious as surely normal behaviour would be for them to tear our heads off, but the place did insist that the animals were in no way drugged to make them sleepy.
Myself and Gary chose to go and see the baby tigers and the rest of the family went to see a 'small' adult tiger.
We definitely had the better end of the deal as we had a baby white and orange tiger and both were very playful and jumping & moving around a lot

We also went to an Orchid Farm....other than learning about the flowers and how they grow etc the men were pretty bored! But mum and I enjoyed walking through the rows of orchids admiring the array of colours and different types.

Temples - cave temple - wat umong, wat phrathap doi suthep (on mountain),  wat chedi luang (brick temple), wat phra singh (20b entry)
We went to the Riverside restaurant on recommendation due to its beautiful riverside location and good food. However, it was very touristy, the food was okay but the service was shocking..so I would not recomend it myself!

Elephant Nature Park 
for more info click here. This place is amazing!

This was something that we know we wanted to do right from the start. We did lots of research to find somewhere that looked after the elephants and ticked all the right boxes, allowing us to be up close and personal with the elephants while at the same time not harming them in any way.
We did a 2 day 1 night package costing £115 per person
I actually cannot recommend this place enough. It was fabulous. The place was well organised despute the throngs of tourists visiting and it manages to remain personal allowing you to get your own experience. Elephants really are gorgeous animals and some of the poor ladies that have ended up in the sanctuary after years of abuse in the logging, trekking, circus industries etc have just been through so much and it's so nice to see them in such a relaxed environment.

The Pictures of the Elephants are at the bottom!!!

a replica of the emerald Buddha in Chiang Mai, the original is now in Bangkok!

A butterfly in the Orchid Farm!

This Elephant was cruelly blinded in her past, but was given another chance by the ENP 

Little boy loved playing football, would chase his ball all day!

This is our little white tiger cub playing with his coconut! he was chasing it everywhere!!

Quick...get the photo before she runs off!

Nana, Our tour guide on our tri-shaw ride through Chiang Mai

Thailand! The beautiful north - Chiang Rai

Transport
So our plane from Kathmandu to Thailand was pretty long.....to save some money we had booked a flight via Mumbai which had a 7 hr layover time. In the end due to the fuel crisis we first had to do a quick stop in Varanasi just over the boarder in India to refuel before then flying onto Mumbai which added a few hours. On top of that our flight on to thailand was delayed by an hour and then our consequent flight onto Chiang Rai was also delayed by another hour. So in total, door to door it took us 29 hours! Needless to say we were pretty pooped by the time we reached our guesthouse.

Accommodation
For our first 2 nights in Chiang Rai we stayed in a nicer guesthouse at (650 bhat per night) it was called Baan Rub Aroon. Its a 5 minute walk to the centre and very peaceful. The building is an old colonial house which is beautiful and the gardens are lovely. It felt like a real home there, nong and her staff took good care of us showing us good rhings to do and cooking us a yummy breakfast each morning.
We then left the city for 2 nights and stayed in the Jungle (see below) which was in basic bamboo hut accomodation before returning to the city for one night and staying in boon bun dan guesthouse which is a steal at 200bhat a night with good clean twin rooms including hot water and fresh towels.

What we did

The city
On the first day, pretty exhausted we wandered the streets trying to get our bearings- it was quite simple as the central roads are grid like. We stumbled upon a cat cafe cat n cup where we obviously had to stop for a drink and a cuddle! We then walked around the town, taking in everything before stumbling upon the night bazaar. Here we had our first taste of thai street food. It was a great place with a fab atmosphere. We then dragged ourselves backto our comfy bed for a well deserved nights rest!

Day 2
We had a leisurely morning, waking up late, doing yoga in the garden before then having breakfast and heading out. We decided to go and see the White temple which is a big tourist attraction to the south of the city. We took a blue rickshaw type van that picks up lots of people and drives south (unlike the green which go north) it took us about 20mins and on the way there we paid 40 for both of us(on the way back it was 75!). On arrival we were in shock!!! Having seen lots of beautiful ancient temples in Sri lanka India and Nepal we had an image in our head of what it may look like which was very wrong! Its important to note that the temple had become extremely run down and was sold to an artist who has been working hard to 'restore it'. He has been using his own interpretation to share what he feels about the world and Buddhism.  Needless to say the temple is a bit 'out there' Gary and I thought we had stumbled upon a disney castle! It was very white and shiny.....heaven hell....

Then inside is a vast array of colour, with buddha and the dalai lama on one side and then on the other wall a wierd mix of modern day characters/images. Sorry to say there was a no photo policy inside so we cant share this! But it included elvis, jigsaw, hello kitty, ben10 and the twin towers for example! It was incredibly confusing, but apprently it means.....

Day 3
We had another gentle morning, chatting with the other hotel residents before checking out at 12. We went to have a yummy lunch at a local restaurant which was a steal at 40bhat each, before heading onto the Hilltribe museum - here we saw a video about each of the different tribes, uses of bamboo, traditional costumes, opium through the ages,  do's and donts in hilltribe villages, agriculture, fishing and hunting, overview of each tribe type.

We then got a lift to the jungle! It was about an hours ride out of the city.

The Jungle

So walking around Chiang Rai you soon realise that the area is surrounded by forest and that your stay would not be complete without visiting a local tribe. There are a few tribes in the area and plenty of day tours visit the long necked Karon tribe. Whilst we were interested in the day tour we also wanted to do our own thing and the day tour only offered a small amount of time with the tribe. a bit of googling later and we came across the Akha Hill House tribe residence which allowed us to stay in the same village as the tribe without having to do the other activities.

So we went to their other hotel in Chiang Rai city and got the shuttle they offer to the village.....it was up a steep steep hill, that we realised would make getting around a problem. On the way the hotel manager was saying he was going to be very busy as a large party of 15 were coming that evening. So we arrived and the party behaved itself. Despite the fact this is about as remote as you could ask for, the price of food and drinks was good, we had the procedure explained to us and set about having dinner as it was now around 7pm, and in the jungle it was very very dark. The rooms were basic bamboo shacks on stilts, each had their own balcony to look over the mountains, but there was no entertainment (besides the giant spider in the bathroom, that was about the size of my hand)

After dinner we were told there would be some tribal dancing, so we were watching a group of the tribes women dancing in a circle hitting a pipe on the floor this repeated for a while, we stayed long enough to be respectful but strolled back to the fire pit to make sure it had stayed lit the whole performance. We stayed around the campfire chatting to a few people as a stay in a bamboo hut in a hilltribe apparently appeals to a wide variety of people. so around 11 we went to bed. And the next morning saw the view the balcont had to offer in all its glory. Abi woke up and was doing yoga on the balcony whilst I drank a coffee with some stunning views of the jungle on the other side of the valley. After a breakfast of a banana pancake (It was more like an upside down cake, but who's complaining) we took the hand drawn map and tried to walk a big loop through to another hill tribe, through the jungle down the steep hill one side, to a hot spring, and up the steep hill the other side via a waterfall. We guessed it would take around 4 hours. The walk through the jungle was very peaceful with only the odd local tribesman crossing our path. We got to the next village and it was still very peaceful. We continued through the jungle and had been on our feet for a while, when we were looking forward to our hot spring to rest in. We got to the spring, and it was closed for cleaning!!! The spring was made into a tiled bath filled by the spring and they had closed it to clean the tiles! We had a little laugh at our misfortune, as this is very infrequent before stopping for some lunch at the restaurants surrounding the attraction. Then it was a long walk back up the other side of the steep hill with a quick stop of for a photo at the waterfall.

That evening we were treated, we arrived back at camp quite tired, but the hotel manager showed us how to make cups and chiopsticks from bamboo, and let us have a go, as well as how to cook using bamboo as the pan, so we managed an omelette, lucky the kitchen was on hand to do the side dish of banana flower salad, and banana tree soup. Another fun evening by the campfire before heading to bed in our charming little bamboo hut!!!

The White Temple 

The gold toilets at the White Temple

A big golden Stupa at Wat Phra Singh

The Cat Cafe

The Chinag Rai Clock Tower

Bamboo omelette, and Banana tree soup!

Our new friends at Akha Hill village jungle Tribe!

How we are travelling Thailand differently..a quick note

So unlike our whole trip thus far, our December in Thailand will be very different! Prior to leaving the UK we arranged with my family a month tour of Thailand, to tie in with Christmas & New Years. Its a place my parents had always wanted to travel so it made sense that they would come while we were here!

We organised & paid for a tour with a company called 'Destination Asia' . The tour is to start in the North of the Country (Chiang Mai) and take us through central areas, to the south and ending in the Islands in the Gulf of Thailand in time for Christmas. We then booked an additional 8 Nights over on Phuket for New Years before the family would then need to depart.

The tour is a luxury tour which all accommodation being 4/5 star. This is something we definitely are not used to, but will be a very welcomed break and i'm sure will feel more like a honeymoon....we do have to remind ourselves that's what we're here for...its easy to forgot we got married after the craziness of the past few months!! 

This means...no googling for accommodation or things to do,,,as pretty much its all sorted for us! All we have to do is relax...it'll be lovely.

So the posts are likely to be less lengthy (maybe) and also will probably contain much less 'budget' travel tips...although we will try! But we will show you lots of tourist sights and give you some insights into the more luxurious travel in Thailand!

So shortly our little group of 2 will expand and become 5 for the whole of December...then 6 for Phuket, as my brothers girlfriend will arrive!! It'll be wierd, but I am so excited to see them and spend quality time with them in this beautiful country 

But prior to their arrival, we have a few days exploring Chiang Rai which is the province North of Chiang Mai...we'll be sticking to our usual budget for this...So watch this space for the upcoming post!

Ciao!

Ashram Life at Sadhana yoga Pokhara

So this was my thing...Gary wanted to do everest and I wanted to do Yoga. I found a place rated very highly on tripadvisor and read about the programmes they offered and decided it was perfect for me. It was called Sadhana Yoga, in a secluded spot above Pokhara lake. It claimed to offer an ashram style routine with multiple daily meditation and yoga session's steeped in Yogi tradition but not affiliated to any particular religion.

The routine
5.30 - wake up
5.45 - pre meditation practice
6.00 - morning meditation
7.00 - Tea break
7.25 - Neti Kriya (nasal cleansing)
8.00 - Reflexology
8.15 - Morning Yoga
9.45 - Morning Nature Walk
10.00 - Breakfast
10.30 - Steam / Mud bath
12.00 - Pre meditation
12.15 - Afternoon meditation
13.00 - Lunch
15.30 - Karma Yoga
16.00 - Tea and Popcorn
16.30 - Chanting
17.45 - Evening Yoga
19.00 - Dinner
20.00 - Candlelight Meditation
21.00 - Retire

So as you can see the routine is pretty intense. Waking up early and going to bed early with lots of activities but also there is sufficient rest/self-study time too.

The meditation
- Morning -  Breath work followed by a mixture of different meditation styles including; body scan, mental or actual chanting, prayer bead counting etc. This was then followed by a (mostly) gentle body warm up.
- Lunchtime - Yoga Nidra (psychic sleep) trying to keep your mind active but your body sleep. It was a very challenging meditation and I very much struggled to keep my mind awake! I definitely fell asleep in more sessions than I didn't!

The yoga
Mixture of difderent flows - routines e.g moon/sun salutation, then some more static postures which would include a mixture of balancing postures as well as those which are more intense and provide really deep stretching. The morning yoga was always more energetic with more dynamic flowing yoga and then the evening we focused more on pushing ourselves a bit harder! This sometimes included couple yoga, where you were put with someone else of equal height to then work together to get into a variety of different postures. I really enjoyed these sessions!

The food
The food here is lovely and there really is always more than enough (except when fasting!). Due to the fuel crisis it was all cooked on a wood fire giving it even more of a delicious taste! Mostly the lunch was a variety of the traditional Nepali Dhal Bat (dhal rice and veggies). Dinner would vary more with a soup and then a carb option with veggies.

Cleansing
While here I completeing a digestion cleanse. This included 3 days of fasting -eating only apples or boiled veg - which gradually got less until the last day where we only had lemon, honey ginger water. On day 4 we completed a salt water 'flossing' of the digestive tract. I wont give you any details...... It certainly was an interesting experience but I did feel great afterwards.

Sunrise yoga at the world peace pagoda
One morning we left the centre very early, took a boat accross the lake and hiked to the top of the hill to see the Peace Pagoda. It really is beautiful and we felt incredibly lucky to be able to practice yoga in such a beautifully peaceful place. The weather wasn't on our side and there was a lot of cloud which meant we didnt really see the sunrise and the view of the mountains was pretty hidden. But we still had a lovely morning which really is an experience I will never forget.

The overal experience
I really enjoyed my time here and honestly felt part of the family. Despite the difficulties caused by the ongoing fuel crisis, this place still ran pretty well. There were some times when things couldn't happen (e.g steam bath due to it being run by gas) and also due to a festival the teachers had to switch around a bit but otherwise it was great. The location is fab and so peaceful. It felt amazing to have a routine again and the yogi lifestyle seems to really suit me. I felt incredibly content and healthy the whole time I was there.

**pics to follow**

Everest, its cold up there

My BIG Trek

So on the 5th November we were met at our hotel at 5am and taken to the airport for one of the most dangerous flights on earth. We were lucky the weather was good and in our small plane we didn't suffer any major turbulence and our flight was delayed by around an hour in the morning due to bad weather at Lukla airport. But we had landed and started trekking by 10am.

Our first day was some easy downhill trekking from Lukla to a small village called Phakding, this took about 3-4 hours. It was here where we found how cold it can get in the valleys of the Himalayas. Due to the fuel crisis, the guesthouse didn't fire up the heaters and we were freezing.

The following day we headed to the largest town on the trek, Namche Bazaar. It was a long day of walking the first 2 hours were relatively flat, but then the next 3 hours were pretty steep uphill. It was on this day we had our first viewpoint of Everest. It was quite a small mountain in a landscape full of snow capped peaks. We also experienced a rather enjoyable rope suspension bridge around 200m above the ground, surrounded by flapping Buddhist prayer flags. It was a special moment and one we would get more used to as the trek went on. We arrived at our accommodation in Namche Bazaar and were told by Kiran (our guide) that the following day was an acclimatisation day. 

During this day we would walk for about 1 hour up to the Everest view hotel and relax on the veranda with a great viewpoint. Little did I know that the acclimatisation treks were not easy, I was unfortunately having some stomach issues which started the day before the trek and I was feeling quite weak by this point. This day is steep and sapped my energy very quickly.

None of the teahouses had any heating in the rooms but we were supplied some good sleeping bags by the trekking company. They were cold at first but warmed quickly and you were warm enough to sleep in a bedroom where it was cold enough to can see your own breath. Often the teahouses were where you spent most your afternoon and evening refueling on the super high carb menu of pasta, rice, or pizza.  The food was generally ok,  but nothing fantastic. however they were cooking on open fires due to the fuel shortage so we can excuse them for not whipping up Michelin star style grub.

After 8 days(some harder some easier) we arrived at Lebouche around lunchtime and this was when we first had a symptom of altitude sickness.  We had stayed well hydrated the whole trip and suffered no symptoms until in the middle of the night I woke up with an excruciating headache,  my friend was also suffering the same. We stuck it out and reported it to our guide, and kept tabs on it for the rest of the day where it slowly reduced. 

Then the day arrived where we would make it to Base Camp.  It started early, we were on the trail at 7.30am. We had a two hour walk that was quite challenging to Gorakshep, the highest place we would stay on the entire trek.  We left as much of our stuff as possible at our accommodation after lunch,  because at 5100m the reduced oxygen made it hard enough without carrying unnecessary weight.  The trip to Base Camp took around an hour and a half.  It was quite an easy ridge walk most the way until within a few hundred metres of the Base Camp where the khumbu icefall turns the ground into a mix of slippery shingle and ice. I had been suffering a bad back and this day was pretty tough but we made it had some stunning views of everest, we briefly stopped for a few photos then began the trek back asap.

The next leg of the trek would have involved starting at 4am the following day.  I was unsure whether my back would be any worse or any better the following day so we decided it would be worth attempting it that evening.  It was an evening walk up the mountain called Kallapatta. At an altitude of 5500m the air was very thin, and this was very tough to get up to the top.  We made it just before sunset and saw the everest pink in the last of the sunlight. It was stunning and it was at that moment we realised how harsh the mountains can be. The temperature dropped from +3 degrees to -11in less than 10 minutes. The cold got into our bodies very quickly as we gloved up and put our jackets. It was black very quickly and with our headtorches on we began the descent as quickly as possible.  We were basically jogging (yes it was painful for my back,  but was warming me up)  the descent took around 45mins in darkness and freezing temperatures. As well as a nice gusty wind whipping dust in our eyes whenever it could. We stumbled back into the teahouse and were disorientated by the heat. The fire was on full blast and the change of temperature made both of us dizzy,  but relieved. We'd made it, about 10 hours trekking at the highest altitude of the journey.  We were exhausted....I have never felt anything like it! Struggling to force down our food before sitting as close to the fire as we could before an early night to rest.

The efforts of the day before meant no more early starts and we could start the descent. This was news to my ears. I knew the quicker we got to lower altitudes, the quicker I could take painkillers for my back (you can't take a course of painkillers at high altitude, as this will mask symptoms of altitude sickness which if untreated can be fatal). Deep heat got me to the Base Camp, but the desire for painkillers got me down at quite a rate.

We trekked hard for 7 hours to Tangboche/pangboche /damboche. This altitude was 4000m. We had managed over 1000m descent in one day. The extra oxygen made such a big difference.  Another carby meal before bed....trust me the food was so repetitive...I was dying for some steamed Veg!

Then the next day,  a 5 hour trek to Namche Bazaar again. The place we had stayed on the way up was full, we were lucky as this allowed us to stay in the same hotel as some Dutch people we had met at various times throughout trekking and have a few beers and a few games of cards.

The next day we took rest, Watched into thin air (pretty terrible film, but does show the dangers of the mountain) Played a bit of pool,  visited the museum in Namche bazaar. Watched some champions league highlights. Saved some energy for the final push the following day back to Lukla where we would stay one night, before our early morning flight the next day.

We were on the flight,  nice and early. Heading back to the warmth of Kathmandu and a Long HOT shower!!!

We made it!!!

Everest in the last of the days sunlight!

the view from Kallapattar- 5565m

Swinging rope bridges with added prayer flags!

Our Casual Guide Kiron

Face of Exhaustion

The Lukla flight, in a 12 seater plane!

Stunning weather!!