Last Days in Kathmandu

We arrived back in Kathmandu Saturday afternoon November 7^th.  For our last few days we had splurged and booked a suite at the Hotel Tibet International. We had a big and comfortable room at the rear of the hotel, so nice and quiet. Since we arrived in the afternoon we decided to just hang out in the hotel, relax and have a massage.

The next day we met Urgen and walked to his house, which was only 20 minutes away. We spent several hours at his house and had the pleasure of meeting his wife and daughter Tsering. After obtaining her bachelor's and master's degrees in America Tsering had returned to Nepal to help develop the country for future generations. She is an amazing young lady and very sweet and smart. She helps train leadership and business development skills to public officials and entrepreneurs. Check out their Web site: http://daayitwa.org/.  Tshering cooked a fabulous Nepali lunch for us and after lunch Urgen took us to the local shops for some shopping. It was very helpful to have him come with us since he could help negotiate the price, and also knew the best places to take us. 

After shopping we met up with Tsering and the four of us went to a place where she used to volunteer. It was a home for young homeless boys who had become addicted to the euphoria of glue sniffing. The owner of the organization provided them a place to stay and helped them break their addiction and get a new start in life, he was obviously a wonderful compassionate person. It was a joy to meet him and some of the boys who lived there.

When we got back to the hotel we went across the street to the prayer flag shop. Since we were buying from the shop that actually makes the flags the cost was great so we ended up buying enough for about 4 or 5 years. We like to have a strand of prayer flags which we string across our back yard and we also added a new flag set that runs vertically up a pole which we now have installed in our back yard. Buddhist prayer flags are brightly colored - the first time we put some up in our backyard many years ago one of our neighbors saw them and asked us if we were having a party!

The next day we wanted to go to Swayambhunath which is referred to as the monkey temple since of course there are a lot of monkeys living there! We had been there 20 years ago and wanted to see it again, so we found a taxi driver who still had fuel (remember the fuel shortage) and he took us over there. On the way we stopped at another stupa that looked like a smaller version of Boudhanath. Boudhanath is a very large well known stupa not too far from our hotel, unfortunately it was damaged in the earthquake and was being repaired. After our visits to the stupas we had lunch and started the process of packing our bags since we had to be ready to go early in the morning and start the journey home.

Urgen picked us up the next morning and took us to the airport. It was sad to say good bye to Urgen. We had really bonded with him since we spent the entire time with him in the Khumbu. Hopefully we will see him again either in Nepal or when he comes to Maine every summer. We had an easy flight to New Delhi and Sara made the smart decision to get a hotel right inside the airport. The hotel was perfect, we had already cleared security and it was close to our gate so it was very comfortable and convenient. We had to get up at 2 AM to catch our flight to London. Once again, Sara who I am sure was a tour director in another life, managed to get us in first class on the night flight to London. The British Airways flight was a new 787 Dreamliner. It was awesome, the service was very good with great food and the flight attendants even made our beds for us so we could get some sleep.

When we arrived in London we had a fairly short layover and hung out in the lounge which was right next to our gate. Comfortable chairs, free Wi-Fi, and free food and drinks- not bad. The British Airways flight back was business class and we were in the section which was the humpback bubble on the top of the plane, we’d never been in the top section before which was fun. This trip was the best use of airlines miles ever!  We managed to lie down and get some more sleep, but with 20 hours of flying were very keen to get home. 

Since we are back home now and have had time to reflect on this trip there have been a number of times I’ve said to Sara "I can't believe we pulled this trip off ".  It was long and a hard five weeks. Many many miles of walking and hiking. I am not sure I would try anything as ambitious again but we did it and it was fabulous! Every time we go on a trip like this we always say it was the trip of a lifetime but of course I think we say that about all our trips. What's next? Haines Alaska for the eagle festival next November, then Santorini the Greek island and maybe Iceland has our attention for the future. Who knows what adventure awaits. 

Click here for the Kathmandu photos

Check out these photos from our trip in 1995!

Off to Pokhara and Paragliding

We returned to Kathmandu on November 3^rd, and we were pretty worn out from 13 days of hiking, so we spent the day taking it easy and enjoying a warm hotel room and a hot shower. Kathmandu and the rest of Nepal were in crisis due to a fuel shortage.  Due to a tough political situation fuel was (and still is) being blocked from entering via India, causing extreme shortages of fuel for cooking and driving.  Many restaurants in Kathmandu were closed because they didn’t have propane for cooking, and prices for taxis’ were at least double. Luckily we were staying in a larger hotel which had the ability to keep a generator and the kitchens running.

After a day and a half of relaxing we flew to Pokhara which was an easy hour and twenty minute flight in a Beech King Air. Again we decided to treat ourselves to a nice hotel and Hotel Pokhara Grande was exactly that. The room, restaurant, and the hotel grounds were all excellent and the service was very good. When we checked in we had mentioned it was our 20^th wedding anniversary and out of nowhere, we were told they were making an anniversary cake for us. A few hours later a cake with Happy 20^th Anniversary inscribed on the top and a bottle of wine showed up at our room! Can't beat that for service. It was great tasting cake too!  We took it easy the first day, had a massage and arranged our paragliding flights.

Our friend Jim Bennett, who lives in Pokhara put us in touch with Bella from Karma Flights an organization of paragliding pilots who help raise money for children’s in education in Nepal. After the tragic earthquake in April they immediately used their network of volunteers to assist victims of the earthquake to rebuild. We had hoped to meet up with Jim, but he was still in Mongolia at the end of an epic 3,500km bike ride across the country, check out his fabulous blog here: The Transglobalist.

When I talked to Bella I explained that even though I had thousands of jumps and canopy flights I have a lot of injuries which prevent me from being able to run well. Depending on the winds at take off sometimes you have to run to launch your flight. She said she would see if Yann was available as a tandem pilot. Yann was from France and was the 2010 world champion and has made thousands of tandem flights. Bella arranged our paragliding flights with a company called Open Air and scheduled two great pilots to take us on our flight. There are at least 35 paragliding companies in Pokhara, it is a big tourist business and Pokhara is one of the best paragliding locations in the world.

The next day (November 5^th) the weather was good and in the morning someone from Open Air drove over to our hotel and picked us up. We went to their store location to sign up and pay for our flights. Next we loaded up in the back of a big jeep and drove the bumpy winding road to the top of Sarangkot Mountain. We hiked a short distance to the side of the mountain where they lay the canopies out and got them ready to hook to your harness and launch. There was a good stiff breeze coming up the mountain which makes it a lot easier to launch and the side of the mountain was pretty steep so you could be off and in the air quickly. Sara went before I did, she was flying with with Tomaz from Slovenia. He was a good pilot and a super nice guy. Yann and I were launching higher up on a steeper part of the mountain where we waited for good winds. Once we got situated we were off and in the air with just a couple of steps, very much a piece of cake.

As we flew along Yann gave me the selfie stick with his GoPro camera to video us in flight, unfortunately the battery failed and we only got about 30 seconds of video, good thing I had a camera with me!  Yann was an absolute master at finding lift and thermals, we continued to go up and up. At one point Yann said “we will go up and touch the clouds” and we did. It was easy to see why he was a world champion.

We flew cross country for about 50 minutes and I am sure we could have stayed up a lot longer if we wanted to. Slowly we started to descend and finally landed down at the lake where everybody else had already landed. The landing was also a piece of cake. We had enough wind that Yann just had me pull my legs up and we came to a complete stop and soft landing. Sara had a great flight with Tomaz as well. The whole experience was a big highlight during our time in Pokhara.

The next day we went to the Gurkha museum which was interesting. The Gurkha's are very famous soldiers from Nepal and are part of the British army. They are well known as very fierce fighters. We rarely visit museums, but this made a nice change.

Pokhara is on the shore of  a very big lake called Fishtale and there are a lot of shops and restaurants along the lakeside so we went there for a late lunch and a walk along the lakeside. The next morning we had a little time in the morning before our afternoon flight back to Kathmandu so we went to the International Mountain museum. When we were trekking in the Khumbu we had met one of the Sherpas who helped start the museum so he highly recommended we check it out. It was excellent and pretty big with a ton of pictures and information about not only the Nepali Himalayas but also famous mountains from around the world. It was enjoyable and very informative.  We sadly said goodbye to Pokhara  and flew back to Kathmandu that afternoon to enjoy a few more days of our holiday.

Click here for the Pokhara Slide show

Trekking in the Khumbu on the way to see Lama Geshe

First of all just to explain, the Khumbu is the Nepali word for the Everest region. As we explained in a previous post our main intention for going to the Khumbu was to hike up to the village of Pangboche to visit Lama Geshe who married us twenty years ago. On October 22^nd we flew from Kathmandu to the little mountain town of Lukla (9,400 ft) where all trekking and climbing expeditions in the Everest region start. We flew in a Twin Otter which was a thrill for Sara and I since we have made thousands of jumps out of that type of airplane. 

After arriving in Lukla, Urgen our guide took us to Paradise Lodge for a quick lunch; this was the same lodge we started our trek from twenty years ago. Urgen was our agent twenty years ago who arranged our hike. This trip he was again our agent, and also joined us as our guide, which was a special treat. Our porter was Pemba, the poor chap who had to carry our heavy load up and back.

Our plan was to go a short distance to the village of Cheplung and stay at a lodge owned by the brother of Pemba Sherpa who we met in September in Colorado. Even though we only hiked for about an hour, right away we were immediately reminded that two weeks hiking on the Khumbu trails was going to be very difficult.

The trails in the Khumbu are almost all up or down. There are probably about 10% of the trails that are level or smooth. The trails are almost all made of rocks. They have to be to stop the trail from being washed out and eroded during the Monsoon season. So you have to be extremely careful and aware of how you place your feet and make each step. A fall on one of those rocky trails would definitely result in an injury. Being seventy years old with a hip replacement, two marginal knees, and recent back surgery the hike  created a pretty high anxiety level for me. Going uphill was no problem other than it was exhausting and required numerous stops to catch my breath. Going downhill on the other hand was downright scary at times. There were a bunch of times when I thought to myself as my old friend Tinker Hillman would say “this is another fine mess I have gotten myself in”.

In the Khumbu everything including all supplies and even building materials goes up to the villages on the trails by Sherpa porters, yaks, zo’s ( a cross between a yak and a cow ), mules, or horses. There are no roads or any motor vehicles of any sort. The Sherpa porters have to be the strongest, heartiest people on earth. These small men can carry loads at least double their body weight. We saw numerous porters carrying over two hundred pounds of plywood on their back. They only use a head strap, no shoulder straps or hip belt. I saw one porter with a half size refrigerator on his back. They are absolutely amazing!

During the two weeks we stayed in lodges run by local Sherpa families. The lodges typically have rooms with two single beds and a foam pad. They provide a blanket and pillow but since none of the rooms have heat we used our sleeping bags. Pretty basic, but an huge upgrade from twenty years ago when we either slept in our tent or the communal bunk rooms. Having a private room was quite a change!

Most of the lodges have a community bathroom with a toilet and sink, although we had a couple of occasions where we had our own bathroom. In the two week period we were in the Khumbu we had three showers which was considered a luxury. There is always a common dining area and kitchen. The dining area has one wood stove for heat so this is a hang out area for trekkers since this is the only source of heat in the lodge. When we were in Tengboche (13,000 ft) our room got down to 36F degrees at night- pretty frosty.

We were pretty lucky to have good weather. It was sunny every day except for the day and a half of snow we got at Tengboche. We would always start out in the morning with a couple of layers of warm clothes but it would not take long before we had to take those off because of the physical exercise and heat generated from the strenuous hiking. Urgen wisely picked locations for us to stop each day so the trek was divided to ensure a more comfortable pace and duration.

Twenty years ago we had a lot of eight and nine hour hiking days. This time it was more in the four to seven hour days. Our second day from Cheplung to Monju covering 12 miles was tough but the third day was probably the hardest day of the trek. Going from Monju to Namche Bazar we had a vertical gain of 3,000 feet over 6 ½ miles. Needless to say that is a lot of steep uphill hiking, according to Sara’s Fitbit we climbed 142 floors that day! As I mentioned before it is all uphill then downhill over and over again. There is a huge river running through the Khumbu valley called the Dudh Koshi River. Because of the terrain sometimes you are hiking on one side and sometimes you have to cross a long cable bridge to hike on the other side. We probably crossed the river at least a dozen times.  We were very glad when we arrived in Namche; we were at a nice lodge and got our first shower.

Most people spend two nights in Namache Bazzar which is at 11,300 feet to help acclimatize to the altitude; it is important to go slowly to prevent altitude sickness. Most people then hike from Namche to Tengboche in one day, but Urgen elected to do a shorter hike to Kyangjuma instead of staying two days in Namache.  This split a 14 mile really tough uphill hike to Tengboche into two days, which was a great idea!  After a night at Kyangjuma we made the hike up to Tengboche. Good thing we only had to cover 8 miles, because it was a really tough up and down hike again. The mountain views were majestic, and the trail was through spruce and fir trees; at least when we stopped to rest we had something to distract us from the suffering!  By now we had a couple of days under our belts and we were starting to feel a little more confident we could pull this trek off. Plus we had been at 11,000 feet for two days so we were adjusting to the altitude.

Tengboche is an interesting place because there is a large monastery which is the main monastery in the Khumbu. The monastery has two Lamas, one is older and the other is quite a bit younger. The younger Lama is considered to be the reincarnation of a previous Lama. That afternoon when we arrived in Tengboche I suggested to Sara we go over to the monastery just to look around. When we got over to the monastery and went into the area where the monks have their big prayer room all the Lamas and about thirty monks were having their afternoon prayer session. We were allowed to come in a quiet and respectful manner and sit and observe and listen. All the monks were chanting from their Buddhist scriptures and ringing bells, playing a variety of horns and drums. I had heard this sort of thing on a CD before but never live and in person. It was absolutely fascinating. As I closed my eyes, the chanting became almost hypnotic. You easily lose yourself in the Tibetan tones coming from the monks and the bells, horns and drums. It was truly a once in a lifetime experience.

The next day (October 27^th) we got up and made the three to four hour hike to Pangboche, our final destination. We stayed at a lodge owned and operated by Tashi who is Lama Geshe daughter. She is also the sister of Jigme who is the man who works for Sara’s company KPMG. He works in the New York office and was actually in our wedding twenty years ago when he was eight years old! After lunch, we went to Lama Geshe’s house for a visit and a blessing.

Realizing Lama Geshe would not remember our wedding from twenty years ago, we had printed several pictures of the wedding to show him. He seemed very excited to see we had returned after twenty years to see him again. He gave us several blessings and some special printed cards that he signed for us.  Lama Geshe said we had a blessing of health and happiness for another twenty years, and he suggested maybe we would all see each other again in another twenty years.

We had brought a new pair of Rockport shoes for Lama Geshe and two sweaters for his wife. Jigme had suggested these gifts and told us what sizes to get, so luckily everything fit correctly. Lama Geshe and his wife seemed thrilled with their gifts. They were very kind and sent food over to the lodge that evening to thank us for the gifts.

When we arrived at Lama Geshe’s house there were two ladies who there introduced themselves as Jenny and  Dr. LuLu. Jenny was working in Periche which is a village higher up in the Khumbu, teaching mountain rescue to some of the Sherpas. Dr. LuLu was working as an emergency doctor in Everest base camp. After chatting for a bit we realized we were talking to Jenny Lowe Anker who is the wife of Conrad Anker one of America’s most famous climbers. Conrad was currently on a climbing expedition in Nepal. We had recently seen a great  documentary called Meru about Conrad and some friends climbing a very difficult mountain. Jenny had also been interviewed in the documentation. You never know who you will bump into hiking in Nepal!

After our visit with Lama Geshe and his wife we went outside and with Urgen and Pemba’s help found the same spot where we took a photo after our wedding twenty years ago.  Sara had brought her original wedding dress purchased in Kathmandu for 100 rupees and I had my original white shirt.  We managed to recreate the shot just for the fun of it!  We spent a lovely evening in Tashi’s lodge chatting to her and the rest of the hikers and climbers.

Sara and I had brought a separate bag of over 40 lbs of gifts for the Nepali Sherpa people. It was mostly warm hats, gloves, socks, shirts and school supplies along with the gifts for Lama Geshe and his wife. We had dropped off some of the gifts in Cheplung on the way up but left the last of the gifts with Tashi at her lodge and asked her to distribute them. Our porter, Pemba I am sure was happy to not to have to carry that extra 40 lbs any more. My guess is he was carrying 80-100 lbs for us and every day we would ask him if he was doing alright and his standard answer was “ No Problem ”. That became kind of a joke between our little group of four. Anytime somebody asked about how things were going the answer was “No Problem “.

So after hiking up for five days we turned around and started the trip back. We hiked back Tengboche so we could take part in an annual festival, including a Buddhist blessing and a day of Lama dancing!. This wasn’t on our original schedule, but it is very special to see these events so we jumped at the opportunity to participate. We arrived in Tengboche in time to participate in blessing, which is a big deal for all the local Sherpa people, and also for Urgen and Pemba since they had never attended this annual festival.

The blessing was an outside event and all the monks and Lamas came down from the monastery. With the local people and trekkers we had at least a hundred or more people. During the blessing the weather was starting to get a little harsh with a little bit of sleet. After we went back to the lodge sure enough it started to snow. It snowed some that night and the next day which cancelled the festival of Lama dancing. We started to freak out a bit since the weather forecast was bad for about a week. We started to think we could get snowed in for awhile and not make it back to Lukla to catch our flight back to Kathmandu – it’s dangerous to hike on the trails when they are covered in snow. 

Fortunately, the next morning the weather cleared and we went to the monastery for the festival. The festival was very interesting and colorful. The monks dressed up in brightly colored costumes and came out in the courtyard of the monastery and did some ceremonial dancing. We were able to stay and see three different groups of monks do their dances but had to leave after a few hours to start the hike back to our next location which was Kyangjuma. The festival was an unexpected treat, so it was icing on the cake to be able to observe and photograph something so unique. I felt like I was opening a page of National Geographic and seeing this beautiful Buddhist festival unfold in front of me. Again, a once in a lifetime event.

We spent the night in Kyangjuma (October 30^th) and then the next day hiked to Namche and stopped for lunch. After lunch we hiked on to Monju. This was the hardest day of hiking we had on the way up but now we were going in the reverse direction. Instead of 3,000 feet of vertical going up we were doing 3,000 feet going down. Of course, as usual it really was up and down but we would go from 11,500 feet to 8,500 feet and there were some very steep parts. Fortunately, we made it to Monju after 11 miles without any problems but we were pretty whipped.

The next two days were hard but not like the hike from Namche to Monju but still long hard days. According to Sara’s FitBit for the time in the Khumbu we walked 100 miles, and climbed 1,048 floors!  We did bump into Pemba Sherpa our friend from Colorado on our last day of hiking. He was in Nepal for his Sherpa Foundation and helping to rebuild Sherpa homes damaged during the earthquake. We made it to Lukla on November 2^nd as planned and the next morning the weather was clear enough for the Twin Otters to fly back to Kathmandu.The airport and surrounding mountains make it very difficult to fly into and out of Lukla, and there are frequently days where no flights can arrive or depart. As we flew back to Kathmandu we had very mixed emotions. We were very glad to be done with all the hiking but very sad to leave the Khumbu knowing we might not see those beautiful mountains again, at least up close and personal.  

Click here for a Slide Show of our Trekking Adventure

Holy Varanasi and the River Ganges

The plan for Friday October 16th was to take the overnight train to Varanasi, this turned out to be another adventure!  Thanks to help from Shridhar (a work friend of Sara's) we had several different train reservations, one in first class AC and one in third class AC, the idea being we would wait to see which bunks were confirmed the day of travel, and hopefully get the 1st class, but with 3rd class as a backup. That afternoon the plan was to take the train with the 3rd class bunks as those were confirmed, however the train was abut 4 hours delayed, and we were concerned it would be canceled, leaving us no way to get to Varanasi. We have learned the key to traveling in India is to be flexible and to have a backup plan!  The staff at our hotel were amazing, they let us stay in the room until 7pm, and spent a lot of time checking the train schedule and advising us on the best options.

Finally we decided to get on the later train, where we only had one fist class bunk confirmed, with the advice we could pay the extra fare on the train to the conductor and share the bunk.  So off we went to the train station. Thankfully our driver helped communicate with the porters at the train station (called Coolies) to carry our bags, and Gian also helped us buy the general ticket we needed to get on the train, as we only had the one confirmed seat.  Good thing we had these folks to help us as it was a bit chaotic, and very dark.  

We sat on the platform waiting for our train, and 15 minutes before it arrived the Coolie suddenly got excited and said quick come with me. So Sara went back to the ticket office and after providing several tips to different people got the money back for the general ticket.  We are still not sure what happened and since the ticket only cost $3 would have been happy to keep it, especially as when we tried to get on the train the ticket man needed some persuading, and for a horrible moment we thought the train would leave without us! 

Anyway we were on the train, and survived scrutiny by the train conductor who did not look amused to find both of us there. Our cabin mate Sabuj helped explain what was happening and told us we would need to pay a penalty later, which we expected. We have found everyone in India to be very friendly and helpful, which made an amazing difference.  So we slept together on the pretty hard narrow bed and were happy to get to Varanasi the next morning.

Varanasi is a fairly big ancient city which is very crowded and noisy. The guide book says Varanasi “ takes no prisoners “ so we knew it was going to be complete sensory overload. Varanasi in on the Ganges river and is considered to be one of the holiest cities in India. Many people come to Varanasi to pray, bath or cremate their dead family members. Having your ashes sent down the Ganges is considered to be very special. There is a long strip of ghats along the Ganges. The ghats are long stone steps on the banks of the Ganges. We spent the first afternoon (Saturday 17th) walking along the river Ganges and just taking in the scenes. It was still very hot, and after walking several hours up the river we negotiated a boat ride back to our hotel, which was right on the river Ganges.  That evening boat ride was amazingly peaceful, which we needed after such a busy day.

Sunday 18th we got up at 5:30am and took a two hour dawn boat ride. It was wonderful to see the sunrise over the River Ganges, and the bank was busy with people praying, bathing and generally going about their daily lives. We rested for the rest of the day, as the temperatures were in the upper 90Fs, and it was very humid. That evening we walked to Dashashwamedh Ghat to see a special Hindu ceremony called the Ganga Aarti which is performed by 7 Brahman priests. Another amazing experience.

The next few days were travel back to New Delhi and then to Kathmandu, where we spent a few relaxing days before starting our trek in the Himalayan mountains.  It is currently Sunday October 25th and we are in Namache Bazzar at 11,400 feet after three difficult days of hiking.  Our next post will be about our trek in the mountains!

Click here for a slideshow of Varanasi

Getting to Agra and the Taj Mahal

OK, before we talk about our time in Agra I have to comment on the car ride we took from Dharamsala to New Delhi. We were supposed to fly on Wednesday October 14^th, but due to bad weather the flight was canceled so we ended up renting a car and a driver. Our taxi driver who took us to the airport said the drive was a 10-11 hour drive but our driver who took us to New Delhi said 9 hours. That should have been a clue to how the ride was going to go. Highway 1 is a small narrow mountain road until it gets close to New Delhi. Holy Molly driving in India is completely crazy. It is basically jungle rules. It is the art of the car horn and at night the horn and the dimmer switch. It is constant horn beeping. They beep the horn and it means I am behind you so look out I am coming around you. There is absolutely no lane discipline. It is British driving rules so the driver is on the right side of the car. 

I was sitting directly behind the driver so I saw all the oncoming traffic. Sara had the more scenic side with a view of the countryside. I can’t count the number of times I thought we were going to be killed in a head on collision. They sometimes have a white line in the middle of the road but I never saw any yellow no pass lines.  We saw a number of trucks and vehicles with no tail lights at night and even the occasional bus or truck going the wrong direction on the highway. All in all, without question it was the scariest car ride I have ever been on. I will have to say our driver was very good but the drive was like being in a NASCAR race or a scene from the Fast and Furious movie.  I looked over at Sara who was napping and tried, but just couldn’t do it.  Sara said her approach was to look out of the widow to the dark countryside; clearly it wasn’t as scary on her side where the imminent head on collisions were hidden.

We arrived in New Delhi around midnight, and our previously arranged driver was waiting for us at a gas station for the hand off.  The push to get to Agra was we really wanted to see the Taj Mahal, and the only day we had was Thursday (Oct 15^th) as the Taj is closed on Fridays.  So Gian who was our driver for the next two days drove us the 3-4 hours to Agra. This experience was quite different, as the new expressway was almost empty.  We did notice after a while our Gian was starting to weave a bit, could have been sleepy, so we started talking to him to ensure we arrived alive!

We finally arrived at out hotel at 4am, and slept until around 11am!  The afternoon of Thursday Oct 15^th we visited the Taj Mahal. Very very impressive, and we were glad we made the effort to visit. We spent about 3 hours wandering the large complex taking pictures and enjoying the peace.  There were a lot of people visiting, but not many tourists. A lot of Indian people wanted their photos taken with us, our guide explained it was because they had never seen a foreigner before and would go back to their village with a photo of us.  We enjoyed a nice dinner and chatted to the couple next to us who were from Portsmouth England, Sara’s home town.

Friday (Oct 16^th) we got up early and visited Agra Fort, a huge red fortress complex with some magnificent white palaces inside.  The architecture was amazing.  It was a really hot day again so after spending a few hours we went back to the hotel for a lunch and to prepare for our overnight train to Varanasi.

Click here for a slide show of the Taj Mahal and Agra

Bustling New Delhi and McLeod Ganj - Home of the Dalia Lama

Our journey to India started by flying back to London and then taking an all night flight to New Delhi. Once again we arrived in New Delhi completed smashed, it was Saturday October 10th.  Fortunately we booked a really nice hotel in New Delhi so we had a chance to clean up and rest up in a really nice and comfortable environment. 

Once we had a slight recovery we launched out that afternoon and went to a place called India Gate. This is a big park which is a memorial for all the Indian soldiers who lost their life in wars. It was an interesting and enjoyable place to go in the evening. India is very crowded, noisy, and chaotic but we knew that before we got there so we were prepared to embrace the people and the culture. This way the chaos doesn’t really bother you that much. So far we have found the people to be very nice and friendly, as interested in taking pictures of us as we are of them.

The next day (Sunday 11^th) was the only full day we had in Delhi. Both days in Delhi we had a driver who would take us to our locations and let us out and wait for us. Trying to use public transportation would have been a disaster and the cost of a driver for the day was around $35 which we considered a bargain. The streets of Delhi are total madness. Only people used to driving in that kind of traffic should try it. We decided we wanted to launch right into the lion’s den of Old Delhi’s medieval bazaars and little shops. This is the nitty gritty of Delhi, no upscale markets or restaurants, just little shops and street food on the streets and back alleys. It could have been sensory overload if we were not prepared but we knew what we were getting into, and we went early before it got very busy! Sara wanted to find some real Indian clothing which she managed to accomplish, heading up the small stairs in several shops to be shown the many choices. 

Our driver took us away from old Delhi to a really good small and authentic restaurant for lunch. For most of the day we didn’t see many tourists, just a lot of Indian locals enjoying their Sunday. After lunch we headed to the Red Fort which is a massive fort containing many marble temples and monuments built around 400 years ago.  The area was packed with locals and just a few tourists. We stood in line to buy our ticket and then realized a security guard was blowing his whistle at us. No we weren’t trouble, he was directing us to the foreigners ticket window – joy no line. We spent the afternoon at the fort and really enjoyed it, although the heat was getting to us by the end.  We typically walk five to six miles a day, good exercise!

Sara’s blond hair is quite a novelty and many people ask to have their picture taken with her, which John finds amusing and Sara is a little uncomfortable about!  It is mostly younger people that ask, both men and women.  

 On Monday 12^th we left New Delhi and flew to Dharamsala. It was a hour and half flight from Delhi. We had to take a taxi from Dharamsala to McLeod Ganj which is the little town where the Dalai Lama lives. McLeod Ganj is a busy narrow streeted town in the mountains. We elected to stay at Hotel Tibet which only cost $15 a night but is in a perfect location in town. The hotel room has two fairly comfortable beds and a toilet and a shower so we happy campers, although the fumes from a recent painting in the room are a little disconcerting.  The room instructions included good advice about keeping the windows closed "to prevent the mishandling of our goods by the monkeys"!

That afternoon when we arrived we mostly walked around trying to figure out where everything was. The next day was our full day and we started by walking up to the Dalai Lama’s residence and temple. We thoroughly enjoyed it and found it to be somewhat emotional realizing the plight and peril the Tibetan people have endured. There are about 60,000 Tibetan people in the surrounding area. In the afternoon we walked up to a Hindu temple in another little town. Tomorrow we fly back to New Delhi and meet our new driver who will drive us to Agra to visit the Taj Mahal.

Click here for photos of Delhi, India   

     

Click here for photos of McLeod Ganj

Wandering the Streets of Rome

We left Dallas on Saturday October 3rd night and arrived in Rome Sunday afternoon. That included an all night flight from Dallas to London and then spending the next day and another flight to get to Rome. Needless to say, after all that we were pretty whipped by the time we got to Rome.

Sara had a business conference in Rome, Italy so we decided we would go to her conference and then fly on to India afterwards from London. Since we’re traveling on air miles, we could get to India, and decided to spend some time in India since we had never visited that country.  We then have another flight to the neighboring country of Nepal.  

But first Rome!  Our time in Rome gave me a chance to tour the city and do lots of photography while Sara was sadly working. Rome is a beautiful city with lots of ancient structures and of course the Vatican and all its beauty and facilities. I mainly used public transportation which worked well once I got the hang of all the routes and how it all worked.  On the first day (Monday 5th), Sara and I went to St Peters Square, the Pantheon and some of the other Piazzas. Rome is very busy with traffic and crowds and a huge line to get into the Vatican.

On Tuesday 7^th, John got up early to join a special tour which allowed entry into the Vatican before the general public, making photography much easier.  He toured the Sistine Chapel, the Vatican museums and St Peters Basilica, which is the largest church in the world.  All of these were fabulous and stunning.

One of the highlights of our time in Rome was getting to attend a Rheinhold Messner talk the last day of Sara’s conference. He was the keynote speaker and was very inspiring. He started mountain climbing at age eight. He was the first person to solo summit Mt. Everest without supplemental oxygen. He was a very humble man and claimed not to be any different than most ordinary people but if you look at all his climbing successes it is very clear he was a very special person.

After the conference ended we had one last afternoon in Rome.  We took the metro to the Coliseum, which is architecturally stunning.  However both of us commented it had a really bad vibe because of the brutality that occurred there.  Ok it was over 2,000 years ago that the gladiators fought there, but it was easy to imagine when looking down on the main arena. After the Coliseum we walked through the “Forum” which is large area full of old temples and the area where the Roman Senate met.  This was really interesting and peaceful.

Click here for photos of Rome

India & Nepal 2015

 Today we leave on our 20th wedding anniversary celebration trip! We are returning to Nepal to hike to the village of Pangboche where we were married by Lama Geshe 20 years ago. In an amazing coincidence Lama Geshe's son Jigme Sherpa works for KPMG in the New York office (the same firm as Sara), and was actually at our wedding helping his father. Pretty amazing.

Before we get to Nepal we will spend a week in Rome, where Sara has to work and John will be taking photos. On October 9th we fly to India for 10 days to visit Dharamsala (home of the Dalai Lama), the Taj Mahal and Varanasi - city on the Ganges. Should be an adventure.

Finally on October 20th we fly to Nepal and after a few days rest will fly to the village of Lukla to start our 14 day hike in the Everest region.  We are so excited to return to the mountains and have planned a fairly relaxed trek to Pangoche at 13,000ft, with plenty of time to stop and explore on the way.

After our trek in the mountains we will spend a few days in the lake town of Pokhara before starting the long journey home. Should be a fabulous way to celebrate 20 years of adventure together.