Ok, so we're all in Chame, a town on the Annapurna circuit trek, and with a population almost reaching 2000 its virtually a city up here. However, its remoteness means everything is bloomin' expensive (as everything is carried up here on little Nepali guys backs), and the internet costs a bomb so we have to be fast.
We left Kathmandu on Monday with a suprsingly comfortable coach journey up to Besi Sahar where the trek started at 800m (above sea). The pace has been pretty steady as there is a substantial reange in the group, with us three being the babies. Its a fantatstic bunch of people, Swiss, Swedes, Brazilian, German and Aussies, and us three flying the Union Jack. Everyone has warmed to everyone, and it makes for a perfect trip.
We're on day 5 now, at 2670m, and the views are already out of this world! We set our eyes on Annapurna II today and yesterday, standing at over 7900m its the second highest we've seen so far, but arguably the most dominating, with sharp knife edge ridges and an incredible pyramidal (???) peak. As we started the trek we worked our way up farmlands and rice patties through the foothills, getting occasional glimpses of the Mansulu range at +8000m.. Awesome. Since then the scenery has greatly changed to thick forrests and steep ridges 360 degrees around, scattered with Rhododendrons (photos will have to follow another time).
Basically its brilliant, and we can't wait to get to Thorung La Pass (5400m) and see some even bigger beauties.
Signing off ... Johnny and Christano (not present, John)
Friday, 30 October 2009
Wednesday, 21 October 2009
Tuesday, 20 October 2009
Chang my oH MY
Chang Mai is a fantastic place, 1 hour plane journey north of Bangkok in the Thai mountains. This place is my kind of place, fully of outdoor adventure. I booked through the TAT a 3 day treck in the mountains seeing the little villages there and the beautiful rice fields and a days down hill mountain biking.
The treck included nelly the elephant action and bamboo rafting (how random) The walking was challenging in the extreme heat of Thailands sun and the terrain was slippy in parts and required good balance. Many a waterfall to swim in and jump off rocks, locals who sold instruments with two notes to create a limited tune, hehe. The tour guide Chang looked like Bob Marley, and i was in a group with two other couples, one engaged andf the other on honey moon, soo funny with me in the middle taking pictures of them for there honey moon photo album... great ppl though...
my hotel is really nice, and made good friends with the Thai ppl who run the show, lots of big gold fish, football on the TV and a nice pool.
Went mountain biking yesterday, soo good, wow!!!! 1km of down hill on a full suspension bike with a group and guide who was much faster than any of us.The track was completely single track and very slippery with lots of technical sections a few jumps and trees to dodge.... i survived, however one didn't and ended up in hospital, its a dangerour sport hey..
last two days to enjoy Chang Mai and its beauty, a moat around the centre and many night market stalls, the ppl are just so friendly. Been a fab week, glad i went off on my own here for a Johnny Craven adventure.. God is Gooood
Nepal next, i look forward to future development and finacual reducions...
JC over and out... Chang Mai
The treck included nelly the elephant action and bamboo rafting (how random) The walking was challenging in the extreme heat of Thailands sun and the terrain was slippy in parts and required good balance. Many a waterfall to swim in and jump off rocks, locals who sold instruments with two notes to create a limited tune, hehe. The tour guide Chang looked like Bob Marley, and i was in a group with two other couples, one engaged andf the other on honey moon, soo funny with me in the middle taking pictures of them for there honey moon photo album... great ppl though...
my hotel is really nice, and made good friends with the Thai ppl who run the show, lots of big gold fish, football on the TV and a nice pool.
Went mountain biking yesterday, soo good, wow!!!! 1km of down hill on a full suspension bike with a group and guide who was much faster than any of us.The track was completely single track and very slippery with lots of technical sections a few jumps and trees to dodge.... i survived, however one didn't and ended up in hospital, its a dangerour sport hey..
last two days to enjoy Chang Mai and its beauty, a moat around the centre and many night market stalls, the ppl are just so friendly. Been a fab week, glad i went off on my own here for a Johnny Craven adventure.. God is Gooood
Nepal next, i look forward to future development and finacual reducions...
JC over and out... Chang Mai
Monday, 19 October 2009
Koh Phangan!
Well dear Readers, what can I say, we have stumbled upon a small piece of paradise here!
Ths small island of Koh Phangan in the Gulf of Thailand consists of incredible white sand beaches sandwiched between imposing granite headlands with densly foested mountains falling away into the sea. The coral which les 80m off most of the beaches is incredible, snorkelling is amazing giving a true visual feast, that could be transfered into a real east if you had a net to catch the copious numbers of fish!
Jonny and myself had a torrid journey overhere, 18 hrs of busses, abandonment and boats, it was a struggle and particularly as I was sufferring with our friend Thai Tummy. We arrived very tired and torrid into our little beach house (25m from the waters edge) and promptly fell asleep for a nap for 4hrs! Since that day of fatiguew have maxxed out ou time here. Its been class, swimming in the warm sea, snorkelling across the coral, climbing and getting lost in the mountain jungles and today we Kyaked around one of the small neighburing islands having to pow our way through the choppy seas, yes please!
Its a great little rest stop before we hit the slopes of the Himilaya, big time!
Ths small island of Koh Phangan in the Gulf of Thailand consists of incredible white sand beaches sandwiched between imposing granite headlands with densly foested mountains falling away into the sea. The coral which les 80m off most of the beaches is incredible, snorkelling is amazing giving a true visual feast, that could be transfered into a real east if you had a net to catch the copious numbers of fish!
Jonny and myself had a torrid journey overhere, 18 hrs of busses, abandonment and boats, it was a struggle and particularly as I was sufferring with our friend Thai Tummy. We arrived very tired and torrid into our little beach house (25m from the waters edge) and promptly fell asleep for a nap for 4hrs! Since that day of fatiguew have maxxed out ou time here. Its been class, swimming in the warm sea, snorkelling across the coral, climbing and getting lost in the mountain jungles and today we Kyaked around one of the small neighburing islands having to pow our way through the choppy seas, yes please!
Its a great little rest stop before we hit the slopes of the Himilaya, big time!
Wednesday, 14 October 2009
’Ｈｅｙ Ｍｉｓｔｅｒ， ｙｏｕ ｗａｎｔ ｍａｓｓａａａａａｇｅ？’
Hello world!
In response to Chris's justified dig at my (lack of) frequency reporting on here, I'm going to give my version of events of the last month or so. Its good to hear lots of people are following the blog, and its also reassuring now that we've ventured into Asia and phones are becoming more of a problem.
Bali really was quite crazy, and not exactly what we'd expected. After we got used to all the hawkers on the streets, on the beaches, in the mountains and in the restaurants/shops, it was pretty easy to live with. Every day really was just a holiday, doing whatever we fancied but with the pressure for us to spend as little amount of money as possible, and the occasional battles with Bali-belly, of which nobody was excused. We mainly situated ourselves around the South in Uluwatu, close to the surf for Chris and John (they've already told you plenty about that) and away from the crazy madness of Kuta/Legian. The locals there were slightly more laid back than further north, but there's no escaping the Tshirt, sarong, jewellery and tattoo sellers to which the beaches belong. But we faced them with quite a jovial attitude, and ended up only being openly cursed once on Padang Padang, but thats another story.
Yarni joined us on the 14th (i think??) from Melbourne which was brilliant! After loads of time spent exploring the southern peninsular, known as Bukit, we also ventured up north to Ubud and Lovina, each for two nights. Ubud, a little town in the thick of the Balinese rain forest, was the quint-essential subtropical SE Asian experience. The Elephant adventure park was a particular highlight, absolutely brilliant, and it wasn't complete until we'd been soaked to the bone by an Elephant who would no doubt argue he was just performing for us. Check out facebook, theres pictures to prove it. Lovina wasn't quite so enjoyable... its abit less visited, which seems to make the locals far more persistant(desperate. And although it was incredibly cheap, the food was pretty bad sometimes. We also took a scooter right up into the mountains in search of a Budhist Monastery Yarni found on a map; basically we didn't find it, but we did see pretty much exactly what Bali is like without all the pesky tourists. The first night in Lovina we also stayed in the cheapest place we've found so far - Rp50,000 for a double room, which is the eqivalent of just over GBP 3 between two people!! Amazing!
We stayed in Seminyak with Richard and Tanya (+2) for a few nights before we flew out to Bangkok on the 23rd October. Seminyak was just north of Legian, quite alot quieter, but still just as much of a buzz. We found JP's, a German owned bar/restaurant, which was brilliant, the staff loved us and we kept going back!
Bangkok, so far, is brilliant! We're staying in a place, recommended by the aforementioned Rich and Tanya, called D + D Inn on KhaoSan Road, probably the heart of the touristy bit, but its still really really amazing. Its largely how I imagined Bangkok to be, but better. Only a few problems; we cant seem to catch a Tuk Tuk without being taken to a shop and pressured into buying something (normally a suit, which we don't really mind because Chris and I would really love a suit if it weren't for the money, and we like playing the 'intending to buy' game with them). Also, there's alot of talk on the sly about these 'Ping Pong' shows. I expected abit of this, but nowhere near this much, its mental! We have had a couple of Tuk Tuk rides, once to get our debit cards from the GPO (thanks Mandy, Geoff, Julie and Steve), so we've seen lots of the city at a glance. But later today we're heading south to Ko Pha Ngan on a bus and boat, so we'll just have to see how that goes! Its all paid for, but we're slightly dubiou about the A/C overnight bus... the picture we were shown looks far far far too good to be true. Miracles do happen...
See you all soon
In response to Chris's justified dig at my (lack of) frequency reporting on here, I'm going to give my version of events of the last month or so. Its good to hear lots of people are following the blog, and its also reassuring now that we've ventured into Asia and phones are becoming more of a problem.
Bali really was quite crazy, and not exactly what we'd expected. After we got used to all the hawkers on the streets, on the beaches, in the mountains and in the restaurants/shops, it was pretty easy to live with. Every day really was just a holiday, doing whatever we fancied but with the pressure for us to spend as little amount of money as possible, and the occasional battles with Bali-belly, of which nobody was excused. We mainly situated ourselves around the South in Uluwatu, close to the surf for Chris and John (they've already told you plenty about that) and away from the crazy madness of Kuta/Legian. The locals there were slightly more laid back than further north, but there's no escaping the Tshirt, sarong, jewellery and tattoo sellers to which the beaches belong. But we faced them with quite a jovial attitude, and ended up only being openly cursed once on Padang Padang, but thats another story.
Yarni joined us on the 14th (i think??) from Melbourne which was brilliant! After loads of time spent exploring the southern peninsular, known as Bukit, we also ventured up north to Ubud and Lovina, each for two nights. Ubud, a little town in the thick of the Balinese rain forest, was the quint-essential subtropical SE Asian experience. The Elephant adventure park was a particular highlight, absolutely brilliant, and it wasn't complete until we'd been soaked to the bone by an Elephant who would no doubt argue he was just performing for us. Check out facebook, theres pictures to prove it. Lovina wasn't quite so enjoyable... its abit less visited, which seems to make the locals far more persistant(desperate. And although it was incredibly cheap, the food was pretty bad sometimes. We also took a scooter right up into the mountains in search of a Budhist Monastery Yarni found on a map; basically we didn't find it, but we did see pretty much exactly what Bali is like without all the pesky tourists. The first night in Lovina we also stayed in the cheapest place we've found so far - Rp50,000 for a double room, which is the eqivalent of just over GBP 3 between two people!! Amazing!
We stayed in Seminyak with Richard and Tanya (+2) for a few nights before we flew out to Bangkok on the 23rd October. Seminyak was just north of Legian, quite alot quieter, but still just as much of a buzz. We found JP's, a German owned bar/restaurant, which was brilliant, the staff loved us and we kept going back!
Bangkok, so far, is brilliant! We're staying in a place, recommended by the aforementioned Rich and Tanya, called D + D Inn on KhaoSan Road, probably the heart of the touristy bit, but its still really really amazing. Its largely how I imagined Bangkok to be, but better. Only a few problems; we cant seem to catch a Tuk Tuk without being taken to a shop and pressured into buying something (normally a suit, which we don't really mind because Chris and I would really love a suit if it weren't for the money, and we like playing the 'intending to buy' game with them). Also, there's alot of talk on the sly about these 'Ping Pong' shows. I expected abit of this, but nowhere near this much, its mental! We have had a couple of Tuk Tuk rides, once to get our debit cards from the GPO (thanks Mandy, Geoff, Julie and Steve), so we've seen lots of the city at a glance. But later today we're heading south to Ko Pha Ngan on a bus and boat, so we'll just have to see how that goes! Its all paid for, but we're slightly dubiou about the A/C overnight bus... the picture we were shown looks far far far too good to be true. Miracles do happen...
See you all soon
Friday, 9 October 2009
Yep
Well yeeees,
Here we (John and myself) are, only 4 days left in Bali, we have bassically surfed for a whole month. Last week we manged to pull ourselves away and head to the north seeing some pretty mad stuff, monkey forests, temples, markets and volcanoes. All with our expert and crazy balinese neighbour Tete. You shoulld see his epic dance moves, he really can make some wild shapes, HA!
We spent a few days in Seminyak near the busy tourist area of Kuta chilling with some friends from oz before we snapped and came back to Uluwatu, the epic waves continued! Jonny and Yarni have gone north somewhere, i tell you you may hear about such things but jonny is so bad at writing here that you had better wait til he gets home.
Last day in the waves tomorrow before we sell our boards and make ready for some thai life :)
Here we (John and myself) are, only 4 days left in Bali, we have bassically surfed for a whole month. Last week we manged to pull ourselves away and head to the north seeing some pretty mad stuff, monkey forests, temples, markets and volcanoes. All with our expert and crazy balinese neighbour Tete. You shoulld see his epic dance moves, he really can make some wild shapes, HA!
We spent a few days in Seminyak near the busy tourist area of Kuta chilling with some friends from oz before we snapped and came back to Uluwatu, the epic waves continued! Jonny and Yarni have gone north somewhere, i tell you you may hear about such things but jonny is so bad at writing here that you had better wait til he gets home.
Last day in the waves tomorrow before we sell our boards and make ready for some thai life :)
Saturday, 3 October 2009
Just a few pictures of northeren Queensland;
1 - cape tribulation
2 + 3 - sailing the whitsundays
4 - driving from the dry to the rainforrest
5 - eungella national park and one of the many swimming holes
We are still working on our farms in bowen and loving it, Im doing everything from driving the tractors to picking water melons, nic is now picking pumpkins, we have made some good friends here and having some good times, also forgot to say we jumped out of a plane at 14,000ft.
bye for now
1 - cape tribulation
2 + 3 - sailing the whitsundays
4 - driving from the dry to the rainforrest
5 - eungella national park and one of the many swimming holes
We are still working on our farms in bowen and loving it, Im doing everything from driving the tractors to picking water melons, nic is now picking pumpkins, we have made some good friends here and having some good times, also forgot to say we jumped out of a plane at 14,000ft.
bye for now
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