A Letter from Khoa San

Here we are in Bangkok. It's (in my opinion) much better than the quiet slow villages we've been to and through in the last month. I've been longing for some extravagance. There are lights everywhere, vendors left and right. So good. They have such good street vendor food too. Banana pancakes and pad thai everywhere. I may or may not go get some after I'm done writing this. You cant throw a stick in the street without hitting some sort of knock off merch; which I also love. We took a trip to the Grand Palace today. It's this enormous square with golden buildings with exquisite detail where the king of Thailand lives. It was also a tourist trap haha. We took a tuk-tuk to get there which are the local taxis. They're basically a golf car with four seats that can go 50 km/hr. Needless to say, I'd like to get one.We're taking a night bus tomorrow for Phuket; where a sandy beach with crystal clear water awaits me. I can't wait to get some diving done as well. Internet here is the best I've tried in Asia so far. Nearly like home. I'm quite impressed. That's all for now. Updates as soon as I get more internet.

Sincerely your sports racer,
Kai

ps, Image of mountains is Everest when we flew from Kathmandu to Bangkok (it's the middle one)

One night in Bangkok

Back in Kahtmandu now. I had forgotten how bustling and hectic the streets were here. I was rudely reminded the minute we got out of the bus. Ugh the bus. Road hell. Nearly 7 hours of constant bumps and and zero leg room. My knees will have bruises in the morning for sure. We leave for Bangkok tomorrow morning though. Waking up at 6 a.m. has become some what of a constant on this trip; but I don't think I'll ever get use to it. It should be an 'interesting' flight. We booked with "Royal Nepal Airlines" who has a reputation of booking tickets for people to a non existent flight. How fun would that be. I'm particularly excited about Bangkok though. I can't wait for all the knock off merch haha. Apparently there is an abundance of internet in Thailand that is supposed to be 'faster' what ever that is. Kathmandu internet is a dream compared to Pokhara. Since finishing my trek, I've rediscovered reading. For those of you not savvy with the term, it's that thing you do with books and words and such. After Bangkok, we plan to head south and either visit Phuket or Krabi for some diving. I can't wait to get to a beach. Just to dip my feet into some water. But for now, I'm lying on a bed in the Blue Horizons Hotel in Thamel, Kathmandu; which will have to do. I'll post more as things happen to me

Your super pal,
Kai

Updates??

HEY! Look who's finally posting on this blog again. The trek was amazing!! I couldn't believe it. I experienced every season in the last two weeks. Starting in Bhule Bhule, it was hot and humid summer weather; feeling more like a jungle. As we continued up the trek, it slowly got dryer and started feeling like fall. Leaves were changing colour in some areas, and a breeze would make for wearing your fleece. Finally we got to a village called Yak Kharka and it was winter time. There was a wet snow on the ground and you needed a few layers to keep warm. What a wonderful hotel that was. It was raining all day and of course we stayed in the top floor of the guest house, but we ere rudely awoken in the night to the sounds of drips. Well, I wasn't. I probably would have slept through a flood. But we moved all our gear to the grounds rooms and finally got back to sleep. We complained about the incident in the morning and got the room for free. A whole 3 dollars was saved hahaha. We made it to the pass finally and it was spectacular. Snow on the ground, and a slight wind made for a clear day with full mountain and sun views. A total of 5416 meters above sea level or 18,000 feet. I wasn't low. We continued walking down the trek, which was all of sudden more tiresome. Something about reaching the pass drains every ounce of energy from you. Back in Pokhara again, sipping beer in 32 degrees weather. We booked our tickets to Bangkok for the 29th, so we should leave back for Kathmandu in 2 days. More posts to come as soon as interesting things happen to me.

Your partner in crime,
Kai

Still in Pokhara

So apparently, we don't leave for the trek today. Which I'm actually relieved about, since i have one more day connected with the world. Spent the day in Pokhara walking around from restaurant to restaurant. It was a sweltering 32 degrees celsius. How was dauphin? heh. I finally manned up and got a straight shave today. Best thing I've done in my life. I don't think I'll ever shave regularly again. It was exhillerating. Nothing else really to report. We booked our bus tickets to the village we stay in before starting the hike which we leave for at 6 am tomorrow. ugh. whyyyyyy. We also payed our sherpa for the trek today which was a heaping 11,000 rupees. or 140 dollars. haha. Took a couple pictures today, but i don't think I'll be able to post them. The bandwidth here is so slow. I can barely chat without it trying to catch up every 30 seconds. I'll try and get more posts in, but no promises though. Trek should take 17-20 days. So send a search party if don't hear from me. really.
Best regards,
Your technology deprived traveler,
Kai

I think I'm going slightly mad

Made it into Pokhara about an hour ago after an 8 hour, bumpy bus ride. so good. The views were absolutely spectacular coming here though. Seeing the snow capped Himalayas in the distance was pretty astounding. Checked into our guest house in Pokhara, the Rustika, and low and behold, there's no internet. Seems like the only place in the city without it. Ridiculous. I'm really hoping there's some signals along this trek I;m about to start tomorrow. This trip has already enlghtened me that the next vacation I take should always have me connected in some way. I think I'll go crazy if there's no internet actually. So yeah, we start the annapurna circuit tomorrow. We start off taking a bus to another little town, and then start the circuit. We get into the colder weather about 3 days into the trek, which I'm actually looking forward to. This hot, muggy, sticky sweat inducing weather is nice in moderation, but overall not my cup of tea. It'll be a nice change to have a nice cool, dry breeze. So now we're at The Moondance, a restaurant semi-near our guest house talking to an autralian hippie named Jack about politics, the weather, and hair. what. Updates will irregular now, since i dont know where I'll be able to.
Your mountaineering updater,
Kai

Ps, the title is a Queen song, I thought it was suiting.
pps Pictures are from yesterday since i have a decent signal right now.

Pokhara? I barely know hara.

Last day in the Kat. Started the day off with breakfast at the guest house. Lemon sugar pancakes for myself. We headed to Dunbar square which is a historic site There's a museum there as well, but of course it was closed the one day we went. So we looked around and took some photos before leaving for the Boudha, which is the largest Buddhist shrine in Nepal. at like 43 metres tall? I think? We stayed there for an hour or so. Then we headed back to Themal (the street we're staying on) for a little shopping. I bartered some trekking poles from 1000 to 650. heh. so good. Then we went back to the guest house. Exhausted. I fell asleep at like 8 pm, and woke up in a daze at around 9:45. Tomorrow we leave for Pokhara at like 7 am. We're taking a bus and it's around 6 hours give or take. It's going to be terrible but I'll just listen to music and sleep the whole way. ha. The internet is especially slow today because of a storm that's happening outside right now so no pictures. Hopefully there's internet in Pokhara. I'll update then if there is.

Kai

Hamburgers?!

Day 2 in Kathmandu. It rhymes. deal with it. Preetty hot day today even with overcast. I'd say around 30 or so. We took a trip down to this holy river site where they do all the cremations when people die. The ritual is when someone dies, they have to cremate them the same day. So we seen around 5 or 6 cremations in the hour we were there. Insane. The temples surrounding the area were stunning. After that, we took a break and went for a beer down to 'The New Orleans'. I also had a cheeseburger which I was astounded I could order. The bun was a little stale, but hey. what can you do right. After our lunch, we taxi'd it to an enormous Buddhist temple known more commonly as "The Monkey Temple" because of the large number of monkeys that reside around it. That was neat. I bought some prayers flags for home that i bartered for. haha that's the thing you have to do here the most; barter. It's pretty fun actually. You get used to it pretty quickly. You get in a cab, and ask how much to your destination, the guy will say something like "300 rupees" and then you act all shocked like "what?! nononono, that's too much, 50 rupees". Then he'll decline your offer, in which you pretend to exit the cab so he thinks he's losing a sale, then he'll offer like 150 or something. So fun. TRY IT NEXT TIME YOU'RE AT COOP OR SOMETHING. Pictures above from the day. enjoy.

Kai

Finally in Kathmandu

Just just got into Nepal. Took our taxi from the airport after being greeted by someone with a sign that said "KAI". The flight was gorgeous. We flew with an airliner called "Kingfisher Airlines". All their Stewardesses wore matching uniforms and they started the flight off with a face wipe and bottle of water for you. Feet are aching for some reason today. It's like an inside kind of pain too. gah. Oh well. I have a couple days before we start the actual trek. We start it on the 10th apparently. Which means we'll leave Kathmandu around the 7th and bus it to a city named Pokhara where we'll stay until the trek. So now I'm in the Red Planet Guest House, and its actually not too bad. I'll make another post some time later. or maybe tomorrow. I don't know. I'll see how i feel. Pictures after the jump.

Nepal Bound!

Day one of being in India. Unless you count last night. It's a muggy, hot day in New Delhi. We landed last night around 9:30 pm new delhi time. And the time difference is 10 hours and 30 minutes. so figure it out. I'm not a mathematician. Had a nice Indian breakfast this morning consisting of eggs, hash brown, and toast. So western of me. We leave for Nepal today at 1:30 delhi time, and get into Kathmandu at 4 or so. Flights were all good. I think i had the most turbulent flight of my life from Chicago to Newark though. Talking to Laressa at the moment, so I'm a little side tracked. I'll update again if i get internet in our hotel in Kathmandu. The Red Planet Hotel. look it up! or don't. I'm not your dad.

Excellent

What a way to start the ol' trip off. So we get to the airport right? And we casually stroll up to the counter to check in as one usually would. But you wouldn't believe the message we get. Apparently, we're told from them, that we missed our flight. Wait. What? Our itinerary, says that our flight isn't for another 2 hours. Nope we missed it. Expedia made a mistake. Hurray.
So now we need to find some other way to get from one side of the planet to the other. We decide tomorrow is our only alternative. So I'll be sleeping in Winnicrap for the night. I'm not too happy how things turned out, but such is life. Updates will be irregular.

-Kai