just_meandering

A final, and slightly pointless post, just to say that I made it home alive (despite the joy of enduring a long haul flight and night in Heathrow airport with a slight fever).
Where to next? Not sure yet, might well stay at home next year and save money for once. I don't get much of a summer next year, and I have an elective to save for as well! But I've done 11 out of 24 time zones in the world... I'm doing well :)

It is our last night in Nepal, and we are sad to leave. This is a great country :)
Today was spent sorting out our last bits and pieces- shopping, admin with the hospital for Fi and so forth. Plus Fi got Henna done on her hands, which she's been wanting to do the whole time we've been here.
And as celebration we spent our last meal in the highly recommended Third Eye restaurant. It certainly lives up to its reputation- the Tom Collins alone would be enough for me to say that. And as we left, sated and tipsy, the band in the bar across the street was playing our song (Cocaine by Clapton if you don't know). Perfect.
Next stop home!

The Last Resort- close to the Tibetan border hides this little paradise of a place. Beautiful surroundings, quiet luxuary tents... oh and a rather high bridge over a rather big gorge. Here be the world's highest canyon swing and the 2nd highest bungee (160m). I did both the swing and the bungee twice- including doing the bungee backwards (the scariest and yet best thing I have ever done!). Almost perfect, if it wasn't for the hike back up every time!
Thrill seeking over, we relaxed in the resort itself. But this morning there was a problem- numerous landslides had shut the road back to Kathmandu. We waited most of the day, but with no word of the road being clear we started off on our own way. Several hitchhikes, truck rides, hikes across landslide debris and even a lift from a Buddhist pilgramage bus and we made it back! Wahoo!
We noted as we neared Kathmandu that we never used the sauna at the Last Resort. It seems "I'd rather jump of a bridge, and [Fi]'d rather hitchhike across landslides..."
Which gives us tomorrow to get the last few things done before we fly back to Britain. Rule Britannia...

Back to Kathmandu, and the last of our tourism and shopping. This a very brief post to mention Pashupatinath- the sacred Hindu temple and cremation site by the river. A fascinating place to visit. Plus, some men came up to us and gave us candy floss in exchange for having their photo taken with Fi! The allures of being a white lass... albeit with lurid pink teeth/tongue/lips for the rest of the day!

Our ambitious goal was to descend in half the time it took us going up. Possible, but a long way.
It certainly looked a bit unlikely on the first day down. It rained... and I mean really REALLY rained. Rained enough to bring down the hillsides, requiring us to skip across landslides and wade through raging rivers at the edges of massive waterfalls where the bridges had been smashed away. We were soaked to the skin as well. Hairy stuff. We made it as far as Sinuwa, one stop (and about an hour and a half) short of our goal for the day.
So we started the next day playing catch up, feeling a bit ill (both of us with tummy bugs for the latter part of the trip and fairly doped up on self prescribed local pills) and with Fi limping on a badly bruised ankle. We had a long way to go. But the weather was kind (indeed it was almost too hot in the afternoon) and the views beautiful. We walked for a very long time, and made it to Naya Pul quite late. One 2 hour journey on the top of another bus in the dark later and we'd made it back to Pokhara. Hoorah!
The great advantage of making it back early is that we had another chance to try and go paragliding today. And we did! Another awesome experience, paragliding in the Himalayas is something quite special :)
Less than a week of Nepal left!

After a bit of a disorganised start, we got hiking on our trek up to the Annapurna Base Camp (aka the Annapurna Sanctuary). Our route from Phedi (800m) to ABC (4130m) to Naya Pul (1040m) was meant to take 7-8 days. We did it in 6.
4 of those days were spent on the way up. I won't bore you with the details of every day- suffice to say there were a lot of steps and a lot of uphill. It was good though, and there was good (if increasingly expensive) food in the lodges along the way. The weather was okay as well. Generally speaking it would be clear in the early morning (enough to see the mountains) and then clearish (enough to see the valley but not the mountains beyond). By mid morning you might be walking in a cloud, and in the afternoon it usually rained at least for a bit. It usually cleared up a bit in the evening.
Oh yeah, and there were a lot of leeches in the first couple of days. Horrible things.
But with our guide Ram leading us on we reached the Annapurna Basecamp in thick cloud on the 4th day.
And then we got really lucky. The skies cleared almost completely, giving us an hour of glorious sunshine and amazing views of the 7000m and 8000m peaks that surrounded us. In monsoon season we couldn't have asked for more. It was beautiful, and worth every moment of the ascent.

I didn't expect to spent so long in Pokhara. Much of our time has been spent trying to go paragliding, but the weather conditions on the mountains have prevented us every time. It's a real bummer, but Pokhara is nice and we have managed to do plenty of other stuff while here.
For instance, along with Peter and Roseanna, we hired a boat and went out for a paddle and swim on the nice sunny lake. In fact we decided to explore right to the far side of the lake. Of course, the sun then disappeared and a rare wind whipped across the lake towards us- overpowering our attempts to return to Lakeside. As we headed for shore instead it started to rain, and we found ourselves blown into the bamboo nets of a local fishfarm. Fortunately some locals came out to guide us ashore where they gave us a cup of tea and told us to wait an hour or so for the wind and rain to stop- which it duly did. Not something your average tourist can say!
Not to be put off water, Fi and I spent the next day rafting along the Seti river (minus Peter and Roseanna this time, as Peter was ill). We did get rained on again, but not before we'd all gotten royally sunburnt :)
In the between times we've been cycling, shopping, chilling... the usual. And the usual enjoying of fine food and happy hour drinks!
But tomorrow we head to the mountains on the Annapurna Basecamp trek. We have 8 days to spare, which is long enough but doesn't give us much leeway- so here's hoping we make it all the way. It should be amazing either way. I just hope the weather is nice for us. I'll let you know in 8 days or so!

We spent the last 3 days in the jungle flatlands of the Terai, in the Chitwan national park staying in a wee hut on an island. It was awesome.
Yes, there were loads of mosquitos and a leech did get me and cause me to blood impressively through my white tshirt before I noticed. And yes we didn't see any tigers and we only saw one rhino. But it doesn't really matter, because of the elephants.
Actually, I think the true highlight- probably of this whole trip- was the moment of madness that took Fi and I into the river in the torrential monsoon rain. The image of being in a jungle river in the warm deluge will always stick with me :)
But shortly after that, when the sun came back out, we got to bathe the elephants. Now we'd ridden the elephants through the jungle already, but they fix little box things to their backs for that so you're quite secure. This was more getting soaked and mucking about, and climbing up on them. Turns out the best way up is to grab their ears (you can't hurt them) and put a foot on their trunk and let them lift you up over their head onto their back. Once you're up they like sucking water up in their trunks and firing it over their backs to soak you. All in all it was great!
And now we're in Pokhara, by a lake in the Himalayas near the bottom of the Annapurna range. It's very nice, it's very peaceful (certainly compared to Kathmandu) and we're chilling out waiting for Peter and Rosanna (fellow elective students of Fi from Kanti) to join us once they finish their trek. They should be here today, and hopefully we can get out rafting etc. And at some point Fi and I will choose and hike a trek in the mountains ourselves. But for now, I think we will stay here and enjoy the peace!

We finished the murals at the orphanage, and had a lovely dinner/party with the hyperactive kids who I don't think have seen so many balloons, cameras and people they can climb on in one room before!
Been continuing to enjoy Kathmandu- spend the day exploring nearby temples (like Swayambhunath stupa- aka the monkey temple), then good food in Thamel followed (and sometimes preceded) by local beer and ridiculously strong cocktails. We even found Guinness. It is always amusing to observe that a drink costs the same as a 2 course meal, in other words about 1pound50! The local bars have various bands that circle round playing truly excellent renditions of classic songs, it's fantastic.
Today we went to Bhaktapur, which is about 40mins ride on a local bus away from Kathmandu. It's a world heritage site, full of fantastic temples etc. Best of all, it allows no cars in- so none of the mayhem and constant cacophony of horns!
Unfortunately, on our return we ran into heavy traffic- the main road virtually blocked by the lengthy queues for petrol stretching back for days. And, of course, noone knows how to reverse or driving in a sensible, blockage-minimising manner! So we sat on the top of our bus chatting to locals and other tourists for 3 hours as darkness fell.
Eventually we got fed up, climbed down and started walking past the chaos. But we timed it wrong, we'd nearly made it past in the jam and it was clearing- and shortly after we were overtaken by our bus! This is nepal though, and the locals spotted us and hollered for the driver to pick us up :) All is well.
Tomorrow the jungle of Chitwan national park!

I feel I should convey a little of the chaos of this country. You don't know mayhem until you've walked down a street where every truck, bus, bike, rickshaw, taxi and pedestrian are all trying to go into the same space at the same time to the constant beeping of horns and with noone knowing what reverse gear does. Now imagine that same road also paying host to a 3 DAY LONG queue for petrol!
That said, another glimpse of chaos is to stick your head into the outpatients of a local hospital. The last couple of mornings I've gone in with Fi to Kanti paediatric hospital. It is another world, where you duck through the washing lines of the parents camping in the corridors to reach the usually filthy wards, where parents fight desperately to NOT give their children the medicine they need in order to keep the money. It is perversely comforting however to know that hospital administrators are incapable of rational thought the world over. Where should I put this kid with mumps? Oh look- there's a bed free with all the immunocompromised kids in oncology intensive care...
Aside from learning a little about the state of global medicine, I've been enjoying Kathmandu. Local temples and sights are well worth visiting, as are the bars and restaurants in nearby tourist central Tharmel. We also spent an afternoon enjoying a local climbing wall. So it's pretty good here, all in all.
Tomorrow Fi and I are planning to get our plans sorted for next week- looking to hit some white water rafting and visit the Chitwan national park to see some elephants :)

Made it to Kathmandu.
It was a horrible journey: problems with the train, problems with the inflight entertainment, generally far too much time to kill in airports due to rubbish connections. Horrible.
But I made it and it was worth it. Found Fi and got settled in, and promptly went off to help paint murals at a local orphanage. Today been checking out local temples and cuisine and getting soaked by the odd monsoon showers. We're keeping busy, and we have much more planned!

Sod it, I may as well keep this filled in (as best as I am able) for a 3rd year. It gives me something to look back on, even if noone else is.
This year I am off to Nepal for a month travelling with my friend Fiona. I leave today, and will meet Fi when I arrive in Kathmandu- she having been out there working in a local hospital for a few weeks already.
Two hours to finish packing!

It was a long journey home, and yet it went quite fast and without real incident. Celebrated Rachael's birthday the night before we left and then in the airports... dished out our makeshift "awards" for the trip... and I even managed to get a little sleep on the plane.
So now we have the task of writing up our paper(s)... but not just yet. Time to take a couple of days off and enjoy the fact that clubs shut at 5am during the Edinburgh Festival (I have barely slept since my return). It was an excellent trip overall, but now it is time to enjoy being home!
Photos will start appearing on Facebook and a few on Bebo before long :)

Last days of Peru, and the desire to return home gets stronger. We`ve had an awful lot of time together and the need for a little space is growing!
We`re taking it easy in Lima, and our flight leaves tonight. Lima is pleasant enough, but there`s nothing much special here. We`re just spending the last of our soles and sorting our packing. The two couples in our group treated themselves to a night in the Marriot hotel down the road- very fancy! I was tempted, but only because in Britain I won`t be able to afford a place like that for many, many years.
Last dinner together unfortunately went a bit wrong, with poor service and a few screwed up meals. We paid for what we felt we should and left, and were chased down the road for the items they`d forgotten to put on the bill (after all that already happened!). But we cheered ourselves up in a little ice cream place that was simply gorgeous... orgasmic ice cream!
Back to Britain and it`s prices and delights soon :)

The Inca Trail is amazing. There is no other way to describe it.
Under the patient guidance of our guide Freddy, and with amazing support and food from the porters (who carried all our tents etc.) it really is an awesome experience. Not even heavy packs, stopping every few hours (and getting up extra early) to do physiological measurements and having to piss in jugs the whole time could spoil the incredible mountain scenery and constant banter of the hike. Admittedly Day 2 was tough going for some of us, who suffered from Altitude Sickness over the highest mountain pass. But Day 3 stands out as making it all worthwhile. And then there´s Machu Picchu:
Machu Picchu is definitely worth seeing, is far more impressive than the postcards suggest and is not too badly swamped by tourists if you were on the hike and made it there a couple of hours before the first buses. Unfortunately we couldn´t make it up Huanu Picchu (an overlooking mountain limited to 400 climbers a day) because we were beaten by tourists who ran straight from the buses while we were having a tour (cheats!). But considering the sights we´ve seen along the trail we didn´t really mind.
And now we are clean and refreshed again, enjoying being able to not piss in jugs and not get up at 4 every morning. Even better- we are officially now on holiday! We´re in Lima, enjoying beer and food and we just went to watch the Simpson´s movie. Currently we´re split between two hostels because our booking was screwed up (of course) but it means we can have a bit of a guys night.
Home soon!

We're so nearly at the end of our trip already, it´s scary. But one last thing to go... the Inca Trail!
For those not in the know the Inca Trail is a four day, high altitude mountain hike that finishes at Machu Picchu AKA the lost city of the Incas. I cannot wait. We´re packing at the moment and generally getting ready. We´ve picked up a lot of souvenirs... it´s going to be a struggle getting them all home and it´s been a challenge sorting everything into two bags (one for storage, one for the hike). But we´ve managed it, and soon it´ll be an early night before the first of many early starts.
Nothing else to report really, other than the fact that Gordon had his wallet nicked. It was very professional and done by 3 people in a very slick manner. Luckily they took his muggers wallet with merely a few soles in it (of course the police report says several hundred soles for insurance purposes). In fact we were lucky in another way... any other pocket on any of the four of us present at the time would´ve contained a lot more value... money, cameras, MP3s... But we got away with it.
Next report from the other side of the Inca Trail!

It´s been a long time since my last post, but in one sense there´s little to report. Research continued well, and we´ve finished this part of it with over 300 participitants... an excellent achievement. The rest of our time has been spent enjoying the sun, the shopping, the surroundings and the wonderful combination of alcohol and altitude. We´ve had a proper night out a couple of days ago, and today is both a celebration of Peruvian Independence and the anniversary of our hostel´s opening... so we´re getting happily tipsy on free drinks :)
What else? Well plenty of shopping for Gringo tat. The only real outing we´ve had is to go horse riding for a morning amongst the nearby hills and Inca ruins... a worthy way to spend a few hours.
And our latest amusement? Iain, Rob and I went our for lunch today and finally tried the local delicacy... guinea pig. It´s fiddly, quite tasty and hugely entertaining. Best bit was stealing one of the heads, wrapping it in paper and taking it home to the girls telling them it was a piece of cake they just had to try...

Research is going well! I should explain that four canadians recently did a similar study to ours in that it involved surveying trekkers on the Inca Trail. However, in a month they only surveyed 100 people. We beat that in 3 days!
The research is keeping us busy, but there´s plenty of time for other things. There´s the joys of Cusco- sights to see, markets to browse, strange Peruvian night clubs to invade and of course the Hemp Cafe. And we´ve also travelled further abroad. We went white water rafting for a day, which was awesome in every way. And today we went to nearby Pisac for a hike through some impressive Incan ruins and a huge market. Not to mention the general banter of the group, from rowdy card games to the joys of cooking. It´s all great!

The 4th years are here, and research is underway! It turns out they only just made it here though. The infamous bus that took them to the Bolivian border was the last to escape Arequipa, a city now completely shut down by riots and strikes. Their detour to the border was due to protesters planting rocks to block the roads.
The situation isn´t really improving here, but Cusco is fairly safe with the sheer number of tourists. That said, we saw huge protests through town today and apparently even the train to Machu Picchu was blocked at the start of the trouble. No signs of violence or riots like in Arequipa or Lima though.
The whole situation is a mixture of various grievances against the government, from raised food and fuel costs to privatisation of the electricity supply. These protests and strikes have all kicked off because of an unpopular new education law affecting teachers, which the teacher´s union took offence to. A solution to the whole picture is far from clearly in sight.
Meanwhile though, we´re quite happy and we´ve started our research. We have a nearly comprehensive plan of meetings for the next couple of weeks and the first results are already in! Much feeling of success! And hopefully still plenty of time off around Cusco :)

No sign of the 4th years yet, but they now intend to arrive later today. Apparently they caught a bus to Puno and 19 hours later found themselves at the Bolivian border, and had to catch a taxi back. We suspect they may have slept through their stop...
Nevertheless, we´re settling in in Cusco. The guys have been fixing up our room- plugging holes in the ceiling, stopping the doors squeaking, jerry-rigging a contraption that pulls the door shut automatically (or it sits wide open with the communal area outside) and blocking up the amusing window that allows us to look directly from my bed into the girls' shower on the floor below. The last one was rather demanded of us, for some reason!
We´ve also sorted out our get-fit morning route up the steep steps to Jesus at the top of the hill we´re on. We´ve found the supermarket, sussed out some local bars, found the live music. Indeed, last night as we watched a local band play Iain was alarmed to find himself invited onto the stage to play along on a set of bongo drums. He performed excellently at both rising to the occasion and ensuring it was clear to all watching that he had no idea what he was doing :)
Today is more of the same, chilling and exploring. Lisa, Claire and I attended Mass this morning (singing along from the Spanish hymn sheets, as best we could) and we´ve been walking around finding Inca ruins in the hill above us. Until the 4th years settle and research starts to kick off it´ll be more of the same from a couple more days I suspect.
Oh, and I finally feel healthy again! Yay!