It’s a new day and the strike in Nepal has ended. What does this mean to us? Christmas Cookies! (I’ve also stopped drawing fat Christmas ornaments, so things are looking up) Our landlord brought us a huge bag of butter this morning (before the strike was called off – we’re not sure how he [...]
The strike is still on. The stores are still closed. We still have no butter, therefore we have no holiday cookies. What did all this make me? Well, a bit sad. I’m the type that loves all things Christmas. So in an effort to cheer myself up, I’ve improvised a Christmas, um, House [...]
Yesterday, we went out to buy some butter for baking Xmas cookies. It took us about five minutes to realize that something was not quite normal here in Kathmandu. It took us another minute to realize what it was: everything’s closed, and there are no cars or motorbikes anywhere. In short: there’s a general strike [...]
Between general strikes, rolling power outs and a pretty unstable telecom infrastructure, we find ourselves without internet a lot of the time. If it isn’t a power out affecting our router, it is a power out affecting the ADSL station a few blocks away. The troubles only continue down the line. For example, all internet [...]
Our route for our last two days retraced our steps through Chhomrong, then branched into new territory along the Modi Khola river. As Martin mentioned in Day 10′s post, by the time day 11 and 12 rolled around we were looking forward to returning to some of Pokhara’s luxuries (hot showers in something other than [...]
Despite his complete absence in our daily trek accounts, Bacon was with us on our Jomsom/Annapurna Sanctuary trek. For the most part he stayed in my backpack. His plan was simple. He didn’t want to see anything until we made it to the top, figuring that would be the best way to experience the Annapurna [...]
The night wasn’t especially nice to us up at the ABC. We both slept fitfully, waking up frequently and wondering whether or not we were coming down with altitude sickness. A room temperature of 30 F/ -1 C didn’t help much, but thanks to our thick sleeping bags we still managed to get a few [...]
Our ninth day was our pinnacle day – the day we would reach the Annapurna Base Camp (aka as far as you can trek before you start walking on pretty dangerous ground). Knowing this, we were up early and out walking before many people had finished their breakfasts. A steady five hour climb [...]
I first came to know Bill Bryson as a fellow travel writer, though putting myself in the same category is stretching it a bit. As I only write for this little website, which we can safely say won’t be my last job, Bryson has been incredibly prolific> He has written books that cover everything from [...]
The morning of day eight offered brief glimpses of the mountains ahead of us, until a thick layer of clouds rolled in. Trekking wise the day was to be a good test of our capacity, having us go up and down in altitude like no other day before. We started the day with a great [...]
Our seventh day walking was an easy one, relatively speaking. The day began bathed in sunlight, a welcome change to the previous night which we spent avoiding the misty cold. Our morning view helped us realize just how close we were getting to some of the impending giants (notably Annapurna III and Machhapuchare in the [...]
Yes. It’s yet another note on the copy business – but one I found particularly impressive. This movie came out in the States, what? three weeks ago? We found this obviously pirated version for sale at a local CD/DVD store yesterday. I had no idea they moved so quickly on these things. The movie hasn’t [...]
The day started early, because this was the morning when our plan was to greet the sunrise from a nearby hilltop, Poon Hill. This hill is somewhat of a trekking target in itself – it is the climax of a popular four-day itinerary from Pokhara and it is often included in other treks in the [...]
This is a Mars bar we bought in the quaint town of Ban Tanthi (one of two Ban Tanthi’s, confusingly located three kilometers apart from each other). As you can tell from the image, it doesn’t look exactly fresh. Ban Tanthi is far away from any road, so everything has to be carried in by [...]
Day five of our trek can be summed up in one word: climb (or, alternatively: pain). The day started in Tatopani, a little trekker’s village that sits in a river valley at 1,190 meters/3,904 feet. From an early morning start at 7:30, we climbed for seven hours, gaining 1,670 altitude meters/5,479 feet to reach our [...]
You know the saying, “to fly by the seat of your pants?” Well, that's been our philosophy for most of our adult lives – before and after meeting, falling in love and marrying. We're now taking that idea on an extended round-the-world trip. Follow us as we share the good, the bad and the downright nasty of life on the road.
