Korea bound

I sit here in a small internet place , waiting for 4:30 to roll around so I can get in a taxi and head to the airport. The last couple of days have been truly hectic...last minute flight from Kathmandu, mobbed by touts India style once again, last minute touring around and shopping, more touts, a final goodbye India fight with a rickshaw driver...did I mention the touts? It was really hard to come back to Delhi from Nepal into a swarm of pushy people and the worst air quality I have ever had the privilige of breathing. I have many thoughts on my trip, most of them great, some bad, but they're good too I think, if you know what I mean. It was phenomenal. Soon I'll be out in the streets again, dodging rickshaws and shit, snarling dogs and people grabbing me for money, oh how I'll miss this place!

Ben

The Annapurna Trek

For those of you reading this wondering where to take your next vacation, read my words in earnest (that was for you Adam) Nepal is where you should be. We should be. Try to imagine the purest version of nature that you can, peppered with people that you never knew existed, cultures so far from your own that you'd swear that you were in another world, sounds and radical groove that make you high, pregnant with everything good, in short, the world through retrospective goggles. My trek started as stated with a bus from Pokhara to the base of the mountain. We walked through meadows, streams, waterfalls, valleys, mules, forests, villages and everything else that nature can present. We stayed at teahouses and lodges along the way which was good because above 2000m it gets pretty damn cold from December on. Every night I would curl up to a hot pot of mint or ginger tea, hover over the fireplace with the other travellers chatting about the day and guessing about the next. By the third day we were in and above the clouds which is a pretty amazing thing. It had snowed the night before we arrived, 2900m high, miles from nowhere, the whole time hoping that I didn't really have to go back.

Altitude affects everyone differently, for myself, it affected me particularly harshly. They say that AMS, or altitude sickness, can be fatal at 3000m. I woke up at Ghorepani at about 2 a.m, confused, dizzy, with an extreme headache and with a heart rate like Lance Armstrong doing the tour on cocaine. I managed to get a guy to track down my sherpa and they assured me that everything was okay. I eventually fell asleep and woke up feeling fine. After breakfast we went up about another 300m to max out at 3200m followed by a short descent when it just smacked me like Cochrane when he caught people trying to sneak a smoke outside after gym class. My heart basically failed which caused weakness that I have never felt before. The scariest thing is that we were 2 days walk from anywhere with a phone. We stumbled into Tadapani and a friendly couple fed me garlic soup and gave me a spot next to the kitchen fire. Not even 20 minutes after I got into bed an Australian doctor came into my room and took my pulse, asked some questions and assured me that the worst had passed. The next night when I had regained my strength we drank beer together and mocked the sickness. When you travel through nature you think that nothing can go wrong. The mountains and trees are our friends. In fact, what happened to me is quite rare at such altitudes, but it happens.

These words cannot possibly describe what I have been through over the past 5 days, good and bad, but rest assured that I have recovered and will be heading back to India in the next couple of days and then on to Korea. We finished off the trek in style with a hair-raising ride ON TOP of the bus luggage rack, screaming down the mountain back to Pokhara. Trekking, travelling, Nepal, India and the whole tour has been king. The Himalayas are one of the things that you have got to see for yourself. Trust me on this one friends.

NEPAL

I arrived in Kathmandu yesterday and quickly arranged a trek. I fell in with an Aussie on the trip so we crashed together, he's doing the Everest Base Camp trek next week. I've decided to do a section of the Annapurna trek which is northwest of Kathmandu. Kathmandu is a huge change from India. High altitude, cooler and a lot moe relaxed. I boarded a bus this morning which was supposed to be 6-7 hours. Before leaving we heard reports that Maoists were seizing buses on the highway to Pokhara, where I am now. We passed the checkpoint no problem but instead got held up for 3 hours by a student demonstration. Despite the roadblock the trip was without a doubt the most beautiful ride I have ever taken. I leave for the trek tomorrow and won't be in contact for at least 5 days. peace.