The Beach

Ao Patong, Phuket, Thailand

Sorry for the lack of blogging in the past week but:
1- we were in paradise and felt guilty bragging
2- we couldn't bear to get off of the beach
3- we spent most of our internet time transfixed by pictures of our new niece


As the pictures show the beaches and islands of Thailand are amazing. From Krabi we took the ferry to Koh Lanta. This was a great pick by Noah. We stayed in a bamboo bungalow on "Long Beach" which was a very long white sand beach (although surprisingly full of pine needles and acorns). The atmosphere was extremely relaxed and we basically had the beach to ourselves. We spent most of the day relaxing, reading and some swimming when I could convince Noah (he hates reapplying sunscreen). At night we were mesmerized by the sunsets over the water, hot air balloons being launched, and the heat lightning over the water.







It was hard to pry ourselves away, but we eventually left for Koh Phi Phi which is described as the true paradise here in Thailand. It definitely did not disappoint. We had amazing swimming right in front of our place and then about 20m in we had amazing snorkeling. Quite a combination. We spent our first day sitting on the beach but for our only full day there we took a boat ride around the islands that make up Koh Phi Phi. It's really interesting to see the varied topography of the islands. Most of the shoreline is really high cliffs and then all of a sudden there is a sandy beach. Its hard to imagine the forces at work that could make such dramatic changes over such small islands. The boat ride took us to several great snorkeling and swimming spots. We also went to the famous Maya Bay (from the movie "The Beach") which is a fantastic perfect O with only a small opening between the high cliff walls and then a shallow white sand beach. We actually saw a lot of wildlife on Koh Phi Phi: monkeys (at the bungalow and at "Monkey Beach", a school of dolphins (probably at least 30 different fin sightings), and a snake that first jumped (specific word use) on a girl's head at the restaurant and then 15 minutes later jumped from a different tree right in front of us to catch a gecko. Noah thinks this is their hunting technique. Well, it grabbed the gecko and soon the tail was off writhing on the ground for at least 3 minutes. We couldn't figure out if the snake was able to bite off the tail, or as Noah guessed it is a stress/escape reaction for a gecko when it is threatened. Either way, I have never seen a tail do that!










Yesterday we had a great shock as we got to Patong Beach at Phuket. All evening I tried to think of a good way to describe it, and the best we came up with is Vegas meets Spring Break. It is crazy here at night. Neon lights and bars everywhere. Hundred of people selling just about everything knock-off: Louis Vitton, Tiffany's. You name it is here. I think today we will take it easy with the crowds as we still have a lot of planning to do for our trip. It is unbelievably hard to move every 1-2 days. Just the maximizing of the guest room is tiring. But we are having an amazing time, and minus the big bumps on my head and leg from losing my balance and almost falling off the boat we feel great.

One last thing, we got a few questions about the food we've been eating. Noah has been pretty consistent with ordering all types of curry available: red, yellow, green, massaman, pha nang (which I love too). I was on the Pad Thai kick for a while but I did snap out of it long enough to have some stir fry (chinese style) and some curry. Noah also had a whole grilled snapper which he liked. Other than dinner foods, I've been set on having banana pancakes almost every morning and Noah has had muesli with fruit and yogurt. We also have indulged in Thai style crepes with chocolate and banana. Yum. We've also been drinking fruit shakes like crazy. I am partial to the watermelon and Noah loves the coconut. They have a dessert here that consists of bananas in hot coconut milk. It's really tasty. The food here is so fresh, especially the eggs which have really orange yolks and are so tasty that I had to break away from the pancakes sometimes. It made us think about the Industrial Food System in the USA and how unhealthy our food really is. It certainly does not taste as good as the food here.

Goodbye to Saris and North Face Gear, Hello to Board Shorts and Bikinis!

Krabi, Thailand
It's been a while since our last real post, so we're turning the clock back a week or so to when we were still in Kathmandu. After we got back from Chitwan, we did a walking tour of the city, passing numerous shrines and temples that were unceremoniously tucked in among the crowded buildings, narrow alleys and various street venders. Each Hindu shrine is typically dedicated to a single god, such as Ganesh (the half elephant) or Vishnu. There were numerous Buddhist temples as well, and some sites had significance in both religions. The monuments were fantastic, especially considering they mostly date to the middle ages, but their surroundings tended to encroach, and their general filthyness took away from the magic. We found the same to be true of the famed Durbar square, where the Kings coronation takes place. It was an interesting experience in any case.

In the afternoon, we headed up to the Garden of Dreams, a formal royal sanctuary, that fell into disrepair and was recently restored and opened to visitors. They did a great job, (even providing mats for lying on the grass) and we found it to be a nice break from the chaos of Kathmandu, that raged on outside the walls.

On our last full day in Kathmandu, we rented a couple of mountain bikes and headed for the hills to the North of the city. It wasn't real mountain biking or anything, but it was nice to get out of the smog and see the countryside around the city. We soon discovered one thing that Kathmandu doesn't have: suburbs. You ride past the city limits and pretty much find yourself immediately on the farm. It was a little unexpected, but pretty cool. Our map quickly became useless as we wound in and out of villages on dirt paths. We had to ask for directions about a hundred times, but eventually made it to our lunch goal (Tokah) and then back to Kathmandu.

We arrived in Thailand late last week, excited for beaches, but first we had to brave Bangkok for a few days to organize ourselves. Though possibly a bit overwhelming and grimy by western standards, we found Bangkok to be a releif in terms organization and sanitation. We had a number of errands to run, including getting our visas for Vietnam was quite a process. We also had to figure out just how to make it south. We settled on an overnight bus, and after a 13 hour ride we made it to Krabi Town. We got a guest room and immediately drove to Ao Nang Beach, where we boarded a longtail boat (the long tail refers to the very long, straight shaft that the propellor is attached to) and went out to Railay Beach. This is a spectacular beach with limestone cliffs on two sides (popular among rock-climbers) and restaurants along the sand. The cliffs are covered with stalactites that make them appear to be melting in the heat. We stayed there for a sunset dinner and had to negotiate a ride home since the boats had already stopped running.

Today we went on a kayaking trip into a canyon lined with limestone cliffs and mangrove trees, located near Ao Thalane (Muddy Bay). The trees grow in the muddy banks along the river with spider-like roots branching out well above the ground for stability. Monkeys run overhead and supposedly jump on your boat if they spot any food. We waited to have our snack until we were out of the canyon because we did not want to share. To help restore the mangrove tree population (decimated from harvesting them to make charcoal) we got the chance to plnt a seedling before heading back to the pier. Then we went back to the beach for the afternoon.

Heating Things Up

Bangkok, Thailand

We arrived last night in Bangkok, and it's a lot warmer here. Now we are laying low for a couple days and trying to plan the next phase of our trip. We did some mountain biking around Kathmandu, which was great. I don't have time to put up pictures right now, but will do soon.

Be Vewy Vewy Quiet, We're Hunting Whinos

Sauraha, Nepal

Well, it turns out that if everyone was jumping off a cliff, we'd do it too. At the time of booking, a walking safari didn't seem so crazy... But as we got off the dugout canoe and crossed into the Chitwan National Park as the first visitors of the day, I started to panic. Looking for rhinos and tigers on foot suddenly did not seem like a smart idea. The next ten minutes were some of the longest of my life. When some wild elephants roared nearby I almost ran. But our two guides were steady, and they were "armed" with sticks. So onwards we walked into the foggy jungle which made the whole scene even scarier. It got scarier still when we got into the foggy open grasslands and there were no more trees that could potentially provide refuge. Out in the open, I stayed as close as I could to the guide.


As we walked down the path we sporadically startled deer ( four types in the park, we saw two types), peacocks, and wild chickens. Out in the grasslands, we repeatedly saw rhino tracks and fresh dung and even tiger footprints. While walking along a river trying to catch sight of animals at the watering hole we heard a rustling and a grunt on the other side of the river. With the elephant grass so high, we couldn't see the animal, but our guides told us it was a bear sloth. We were beginning to think the rhinos had gotten the better of us, when we rounded a tuft of elephant grass... And walked up to a rhino only 30 feet away. Wow! The initial shock gave way to the understanding that rhinos are not usually aggressive and are pretty much just armored cows.


We finished the walking safari with few other sightings, and rounded out the day with a jeep safari. This was decidedly less exciting, but we did see "mugger" crocodiles, monkeys, and some more deer. We also went to a gharial (crocodile) breeding center. Oh, and there was a partial solar eclipse to boot.



The highlight of today was the third type of safari, an elephant safari. We clambered onto the top of a waiting elephant which we shared with a young German couple. The ride was not very smooth, but from our vantage point we could survey the whole jungle and approach wildlife without startling it. This was especially surprising to us because we had never seen a deer that was not running away, but the elephants were of no bother to them. At one point there were five elephants surrounding a rhino mom and baby and they didn't even flinch.


After the three safaris with four separate rhino sightings, we feel we are ready to head back north to Kathmandu for some more sightseeing and maybe some biking too.

One More Picture- Prayer Flags and Peaks

Today we have one more day in Pokhara and then we go to southern Nepal for a safari. We hope to see some rhinos and tigers if we are lucky. Here is a picture we missed in yesterday's post although it was one of my favorite moments in the trek high atop a ridge overlooking the peaks. We learned that each of the colors of the prayer flags stand for a different element: fire, water, earth, air, and ether (kind of like the planeteers). They have an image of the wind god to carry the prayers to the corners of the earth.

Trek Summary

Pokhara, Nepal

After Poon Hill, we trekked along a ridge with dramatic views of the Annapurna Range. From our viewpoint, the peaks appeared both enormous and practically within reach. However, they were actually more than 20 km away, meaning their true size was even greater than they appeared. In fact, these peaks were nearly three times higher than the mountains we climbed!


The teahouse trek was logistically much easier than we expected, even without a guide, which let us finally relax and enjoy our surroundings. We got an up-close view of the lifestyle of the local Gurung people. The terraced fields surrounding their homes were full of rice, canola flowers, veggies, yaks, chickens and goats. We shared the stone-paved paths and stairways with herds of mountain goats, pony caravans, porters and uniformed school children. It was a really peaceful and beautiful place to spend a week.

10,000 Feet

Ghorepani, Nepal
Today marks day three of our trek in Nepal. We are sitting at 10,000 feet and somehow there is internet access. Our first day we hiked from Nayapul to Tikedhunga during which we had beautiful views of terraced fields as we walked through several villages. We then had to climb 500m up a stone stair case to Ulleri and then onto Ghorepani another 800m through a beautiful oak and rhododendron forest (sad that the flowers were not in bloom but still pretty). With very achy legs after 6 hours of trekking we arrived at Ghorepani and were treated to a spectacular panorama view of the Annapurna Range. We ate dinner while watching the light change on the mountains. It really took our breath away.
This morning we climbed up Poon Hill (another 300m) to watch the sunrise over the great peaks. With our wobbly legs it was tough but worth it. We didn’t even have to share the view with too many people. I guess that’s the benefit of traveling in the off-season. With several more hours of trekking to go today, we better get going.

Trek Preparation

Pokhara, Nepal

We've spent the past couple of days getting ready for our trek; we got our treking permits, rented sleeping bags, bought a detailed map (although we were assured that it was no necessary), and rested up. We've enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere lakeside staring up at the dominating peaks of the Annapurna range. Can't wait to see them closer up! We are not sure how much internet access will be available during our teahouse trek, so if we disappear for a week or so, do not be alarmed.

A Breath of "Fresh" Air

Kathmandu, Nepal

We did sleep through new years, although I was temporarily roused by the cannon-like fireworks. I think they go for sound over visual in Delhi because there is no way you could possibly see fireworks through the smog. For our last day in Delhi we got on a bus tour of the city which brought us around to some of the popular sights. One highlight for us were the India gate, where we were something of an attraction ourselves among the Indian tourists several posed for pictures with us while others handed over their wives or babies to be photographed with the westerners. Another was the Baha'i temple, a fantastic structure in the shape of a 27 leaf lotus blossom. Unfortunately, the crowds were so thick here that we couldn't get very close, but it was amazing even from a distance.

The Baha'i Temple in New Delhi

We got back to the hotel and did our best to freshen up in our ascetic accommodations, and headed out to a superb meal at the Spice Route restaurant at the Imperial hotel (thanks Danielle and Lee!). At this point we discovered where all the westerners had been hiding. This place was over-the-top, both in terms of food and service, but was priced similar to a typical restaurant in Cambridge. The fragrant, filtered atmosphere seemed a world away from the dingy Delhi streets just outside.

First thing in the morning, we rushed out to the red fort where we were the first ones in the gate when it opened. The f(sm)og was so thick, you would get very close to the buildings before they would fade into view. It was very dramatic. A nice group of employees at the fort gave us some of their piping hot chai, which was a real treat. Then it was back to Connaught for a quick Cappuccino at Cafe Coffee Day (highly recommended) before we grabbed a tut-tut (three-wheeled, motorized rickshaw) for the 20km trip to the airport (brisk!).

In the midst of a host of f(sm)og related delays and cancellations, our flight to Kathmandu got out on time and we lifted quickly up out of the cloud. During another excellent Jet Air flight (a full meal served during a 90 minute hop, with free beer!) we observed what appeared to be a thin line of clouds on the northern horizon solidify into continuous line of snow-capped mountain tops, that were almost as high as we were. When we touched down at a sunny, 65 degree Kathmandu at the foot of the Himalayas, it felt like paradise.

Prayer Flags Welcome us to Nepal

Despite our guide book's warnings of near-apolcalyptic traffic and choking smog, we found Kathmandu to be charming and pleasant next to our most recent environs. Our hotel is amazing. We booked a deluxe room for $19/night and were thrilled when they put us in a 6th floor penthouse with a huge rooftop terrace. Free airport pickup and internet were included as well! We have spent the day exploring the city's Thamel area and are really enjoying it. It's almost a shame, but we are leaving tomorrow for Pokhara, springboard to some of the coutry's most popular trekking routes. We head out on a 7am 7-hour bus ride, which is said to have some superb scenery. More pictures soon!