Shrouded in mist we celebrated summiting with a photo session and lunch.

Lunch was followed by a short tour of the summit’s two craters. Though we’d opted out, many of the westerners who’d been there had written their names in rock on the crater floor. I’m usually up for a challenge, but I guess it just didn’t feel right. I don’t know – something about being near a volcano crater is a bit unnerving. Being next to it, yes fine, but in the crater? Not my thing.

I write this post because we just received word that Gunung Sinabung, the (theoretically docile and extinct) volcano is now erupting. Local residents are being evacuated, though it’s still too early to tell what is going on.

Photo: Jakarta post: Antara/Irsan Mulyadi

For now, our hearts go out to the people affected by the eruption. May life return to normal as soon as possible.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

If buying two Iphones isn’t a sign of us being back in the 21^st century, I don’t know what is. The other day, Jaime flew up to San Francisco for a bit of business and came back with not one, but two of these bad boys. Needless to say we’ve had our noses pointed into our phones for a couple of days, and I’m just barely beginning to feel that the app feeding frenzy is over. Are 30 apps enough? Am I missing that one vital app that could really change our lives?

Having problems like these is another sign that we’re no longer on the road. This will not remain the case for much longer though – in a couple of days we’ll be making a move again. This time, we’ll exchange sunny Southern California for Mariposa: an old gold mining town nested in the Sierra Nevada foothills.

So, stay tuned for some mountain adventures: hikes, climbs and possibly a Mariposa beer review.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Again, there was that one hitch: we’re in the wrong season.

Instead of Ark-hunting, we ended up spending a couple of days taking it fairly easy. We caught up on website development, figured out our immediate travel plans and we’ve formed an addiction to hyper-sweet Baklava with our afternoon tea. All in all a nice little break.

Next up: Kars, famous for its honey and Russian architecture. No Arks there though, not that we know of.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Turkey is great. In fact, it is our new favorite destination. The one thing that hasn’t worked out for us is the trekking. We’re here way too early. In just two months from now, the weather will be much warmer and drier, the skies will be fair and all the interesting destinations open for business.

Like the other day, when we decided to try a light trek. Nemrut Dagi (not to be confused to the other Nemrut Dagi west of here), 3,050 meters/10,006ft – a nice little volcano on the shore of Lake Van. The trek itself wouldn’t be much to brag about, as there is a road all the way up to the caldera. We felt that it would be a nice leg-stretcher at least, and probably present some nice photo opportunities.

Well at the mountain, we realized that we could hardly walk upright because of the wind. It was literally blowing so hard that the snot was forced back into the back of my nose, choking me. While that may sound like a lot of fun, it didn’t inspire us to go on. Instead, we found shelter in this dilapidated Byzantine church, where we had a picnic of bread and cheese. After that, we found a spot with no wind where we whiled the afternoon away, petting turtles, hanging out with shepherds and taking a nap.

One of Many Moving Rocks on the Mountain

Next time, Nemrut Dagi.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Again, it was the wrong time of year, well, century for that matter, to take this trek. Just fifty years ago these bone-dry hills were covered in forest. And not just any ol’ forest, but one that was home to Bengal tigers, Asian bears and oh so many (now very unfortunate) creatures.

As it were, red dust and monasteries were this trek’s theme – as you can see in the photo gallery below.

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

After a short taxi ride from Kalaw, we arrived at the trailhead – a dusty ox-cart track in a remote-ish Pao village. It soon became evident that we were doing the trek in the wrong season. Dust, dry heat and a persistent wind all conspired to turn the walk into a hot sand-in-between-the-teeth kind of affair. The day was made interesting by our guide, a guy that definitely knows a lot about a lot of things. As we walked he gave us a run-down on the customs of the local tribespeople, about local medicinal plants and about the agriculture of the area.

At the end of the day, we arrived at a Buddhist monastery, where the Abbot graciously allows trekkers and other wanderers to spend the night (donation greatly appreciated). After dinner, we retired early to mattresses spread out in the main prayer hall. We awoke at five thirty to the chants of little novice monks calling down the blessings on the land and the village. For us, this was probably the most memorable moment of the whole outing.

Day two saw us plod through more dust and dirt, as we descended from a low ridge towards the Inle Lake. It took us about four hours to reach the boat dock, where we boarded a riverboat to Nyangshwe.

I guess that any trek we’d do after the outrageously good trekking we had in Nepal was bound to be a letdown. One thing is certain: the trek must be far better in October, after the rains make the land green and lush again. Credit also goes to Robin the guide, without whom the walk would have been far less interesting.

Conclusion: Research your treks before you go to Myanmar and have your permits ready. The best trekking is in the restricted parts.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Not so. In fact, we just learned that the Annapurna trails were visited by almost 77,000 people in 2009 alone. That’s 1,000 times the population of my home town. The numbers have almost doubled since the dark days of the insurgency in 2005. So while this is good news for Nepal, which is in dire need of tourism revenue, it also means that there’s a lot of pressure on the trails.

Let’s hope that the Conservation Project manages to keep up with the increase. It is truly a magical place.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Fine, I’m a nerd.

But that’s neither here, nor there. As a throw-back to my accounting days, I put together a spreadsheet that details the cost of our Jomsom area and Annapurna Sanctuary trek. The costs listed are for two people on a self-guided trek (which, by the way, is the way to go on a trek in that area – guides really aren’t necessary).  The total time trekking was 12 days.

You can check out my fine rainbow spreadsheet by clicking  here.

To learn more about the trek, you can check out our posts for Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, Day 7, Day 8, Day 9, Day 10, Day 11 & 12.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

We’re not the fastest travelers around. Our philosophy for this trip has been simple. Get somewhere and settle in for at least two nights. If the place has a good vibe, neat things to do or is just plain ol’ stunning, we’ll stay a while. This accounts for our relatively low country count (16 countries in 14 months) for this trip.

One of the perks of exploring at our own pace are the photo opportunities. We’re not professional photographers – that much is obvious – but the country has offered up some stunning scenery and we’d like to share it with you. I’ve put together some of my favorite photos from Kathmandu and our Annapurna Sanctuary trek. Check them out in the gallery below. If you dig any of them, send me an email and I will send you the full size image, no strings attached. Consider it a New Year present from us.

Happy hunting!

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

12►

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Day 11 took us from Bamboo to Landruk, a seven hour walk equally divided between ascent and descent. After a nasty climb past Chhomrong, we descended to the Modi Khola river. Waiting for us was one heck of a river crossing, which I caught in the video below.

Once across, we were held up for half an hour due to local traffic, as the below video shows.

We spent the night in Landruk, a beautiful stone-house village nestled on a hillside. We woke on day 12 with smiles on our faces. Today we would be returning to Pokhara – and had been talking about our celebration dinner for the past five days. To get to this fabulous dinner, though, we had to walk – so walk we did, for six hours. We caught a taxi in Phedi and rode a very smelly (us) and fast (I’m sure the driver was none too pleased with us) 45 minutes back to Pokhara.

Once back in civilization, we scrubbed ourselves pink, had a barber deal with Martin’s face and were finally able to enjoy a (very) well deserved feast.

All in all, this trek was one of the best things we’ve done on this trip, and if you’ve been following this site, you know that that is saying a lot. It just doesn’t get any better than Nepal for a trekker. Period.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.