From the mountains and the cold, into the heat, desert, and coastline extravagance of Dubai. From the refrigerated frying pan, into the fire. A very hot, wealthy, sandy fire. The Nepal to UAE (United Arab Emirates) transition is about as big of a contrast as you can imagine. Think Gordon Lightfoot doing a cover of a Rage Against the Machine Song. Yeah, I know. People in Nepal try to farm snow covered villages over 4000 metres above sea level. People in Dubai go skiing on an indoor ski hill in a mall in the middle of the desert.
My time here has been well appreciated, and I've enjoyed seeing the fantasy world of Dubai, and recognizing it as such. It's a nice place to visit if you have a friend's father's apartment floor to sleep on (rather than trying to pay for a hotel here), and it's an interesting place to see (quickly), and then leave before things get a little bit too overwhelming. I'd say I'm ready for our flight to Entebbe (Uganda) tomorrow morning.
The environment of this area of the world is completely different to anything I've experienced, and that is perhaps what I've enjoyed the most. We drove out into the desert and spent a night camping under the stars for an "Arabian night"...Alladin style. It was really beautiful to be surrounded by the bare rock and sand of the desert and we had a lot of fun climbing the rocky mountains around our makeshift "campsite". We also got to ride ATV's on the sand dunes and take huge air off of the dunes...totally hardcore, sort of. Remy is actually quite a proficient ATV-er...and I am not. Claire managed to fall off her ATV, then have it land on her. Don't worry, she's fine. (Claire is Remy's sister, who was also touring the area with Remy's Dad - Mac - Remy, and Myself).
We spent one night in the Sultanate of Oman, which was like an undeveloped version of the UAE. The geography of the coast of Oman was incredibly beautiful: fjords, Jellyfish/dolphin populated water (the gulf of Oman), beaches, and fishing villages were highlights.
The past few days have included the following other activities: Skiing (yep, I went with Claire to "Ski Dubai" - totally surreal!), an Ice Cafe (we ate lunch in a refrigerated room made of ice!), ATV riding, eating tasty Arabic food, sweating, Camels, seeing the worlds only "7 star hotel" and the worlds tallest building, and being subjected to unnecessary amounts of wealth. Yes, people actually pay over 15, 000 dollars for a hotel room for a night. Apparently that's a good idea. (Sorry if one of my readers has stayed at the Burj-Al-Arab hotel before!)
So the Dubai/Oman mini-chapter of the trip has been very interesting, filled with beautiful nature and one heck of a city, which I am still trying to process. Next chapter: Uganda!
Peace.
PS - those of you that are shaking their fists at me due to a lack of photos...if you have facebook, photos are a lot easier to add there, thus mine are posted there...if you don't have facebook (Mom and Dad), I'm sorry and I will try to get some photos put on here soon!
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Friday, March 14, 2008
Before....After!
So I had had enough after 5 months of growing hair...October 13th to March 13th, here is the result:
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Everest, you win this time. (see below for second new entry)
The window between leaving Bandipur and leaving Nepal allowed time for one thing: A trek in the Everest region. We were more than a little disorganized with how we planned the trek, but everything seemed to fall into place for us. We went to the airport on March 1st, looked around for a volunteer who was friends with volunteers we had met through Peter. We hadn't met him, but we had heard he had a pretty sweet trek planned. So we arrived at the airport, and I went up to the first guy with a beard I saw and said: "Cody?" And I was right! We had talked on the phone the night before and basically the plan was that we would tag along with him if we could get last minute seats on a flight to Lukla (Everest region airport). After meeting Cody, we went to the "Yeti airlines" desk and said: "Do you happen to have two extra seats on this mornings flights to Lukla?" The reply: "Yes." Everything was seriously going our way.
So we started our trek with Cody that afternoon in the misty mountains. The plan was to trek from Lukla (2800 metres above sea level) to Gokyo Peak (A beautiful mountain that overlooks Everest from 5300 metres). This is how the trek went for me:
First day: Lukla down to Phakding - no problem. (2800 - 2600 m)
Second day: Phakding up to Namche Bazar. This would be a killer, and our greatest rise in elevation on the entire trek. (2600 - 3450 metres).
Second day (halfway through): oh boy...I think I have altitude sickness.
Second day (at Namche Bazar): Boy it's hard to breathe...and the world is spinning...and I have no appetite.
Third day: Sick. Let's stay here to acclimatize and allow Tim to stay alive and take some medicine.
Fourth day: Worse. Ok Tim, you go down, we'll go up. (3450 - 2800...down to a town called Jorsalle)
Fifth day: ...the same? I'm gonna go down some more. (2800 - 2600...back to Phakding)
Sixth day: ...possibly worse still: let's get to Lukla and get out of here!! (2600 - 2800)
So I caught the first flight back to Kathmandu after 2 antibiotics and 1 altitude medication drug failed to do anything about my condition...and saw a doctor the next day. Apparently I had gotten a pretty stubborn bacterial virus and I would need a few days to recover while on some new antibiotics.
Lowlight: being sick.
Highlights:
#1: I did get a few clear days while trekking and the Everest region is really breathtaking.
#2: I'm feeling better now!
#3: I was allowed to stay at Peter's house while I recovered - I got some good reading/writing done.
#4: Remy got back today and said they made it to Gokyo Peak and it was unreal. So it was a successful expedition, despite my failure to perform.
We leave Nepal this Sunday and I can't believe how fast it's flown by! Other cool things I haven't mentioned on the blog:
We went Paragliding in Pokhara! (Very cool)
I shaved today! (I look like a baby!)
Remy got his eyebrow pierced! (JUST KIDDING! HA!)
Peace.
So we started our trek with Cody that afternoon in the misty mountains. The plan was to trek from Lukla (2800 metres above sea level) to Gokyo Peak (A beautiful mountain that overlooks Everest from 5300 metres). This is how the trek went for me:
First day: Lukla down to Phakding - no problem. (2800 - 2600 m)
Second day: Phakding up to Namche Bazar. This would be a killer, and our greatest rise in elevation on the entire trek. (2600 - 3450 metres).
Second day (halfway through): oh boy...I think I have altitude sickness.
Second day (at Namche Bazar): Boy it's hard to breathe...and the world is spinning...and I have no appetite.
Third day: Sick. Let's stay here to acclimatize and allow Tim to stay alive and take some medicine.
Fourth day: Worse. Ok Tim, you go down, we'll go up. (3450 - 2800...down to a town called Jorsalle)
Fifth day: ...the same? I'm gonna go down some more. (2800 - 2600...back to Phakding)
Sixth day: ...possibly worse still: let's get to Lukla and get out of here!! (2600 - 2800)
So I caught the first flight back to Kathmandu after 2 antibiotics and 1 altitude medication drug failed to do anything about my condition...and saw a doctor the next day. Apparently I had gotten a pretty stubborn bacterial virus and I would need a few days to recover while on some new antibiotics.
Lowlight: being sick.
Highlights:
#1: I did get a few clear days while trekking and the Everest region is really breathtaking.
#2: I'm feeling better now!
#3: I was allowed to stay at Peter's house while I recovered - I got some good reading/writing done.
#4: Remy got back today and said they made it to Gokyo Peak and it was unreal. So it was a successful expedition, despite my failure to perform.
We leave Nepal this Sunday and I can't believe how fast it's flown by! Other cool things I haven't mentioned on the blog:
We went Paragliding in Pokhara! (Very cool)
I shaved today! (I look like a baby!)
Remy got his eyebrow pierced! (JUST KIDDING! HA!)
Peace.
Goodbye Bandipur
Ok, I haven't done this in a while and I'm sorry. I fell off the ball. Now I'm on it, don't worry.
Our last week in Bandipur flew by like nobody's business. All of a sudden 2 months was up; no more Dal Bhat, no more school, and a lot of goodbye celebrations to be had. On our last night in Bandipur we were invited for 4 dinners, we got a total of about 10 garlands of flowers draped all over us (from schools/learning centres), I was given 3 Tika's (red bits of rice/paint on my forehead), and we spent much of the day dancing and singing Nepali songs with the children. There was a lot of laughing, eating, dancing, and gift recieving...by the end of it all we were exhausted but we felt very loved.
Highlights:
We were invited to one of the teacher's houses to learn how to make Mo mo's (a delicious dumpling-type food popular in Nepal), we were given traditional Nepali men's hats from our family, and we were given loads of beautiful flowers as gifts from various children.
Despite all the joy in the celebrations, it was hard to say goodbye to all of the amazing people we had been blessed to live alongside as we stayed in Bandipur. I will miss the children that would randomly attack us as we walked through the streets, the times when Rajani (our Nepali mother; "Aama") would play tricks on us, the students at the learning centres we got to hang out with, and the beauty of the village itself. If someone were to go to Bandipur as a tourist (as many people do - staying for 1 or 2 nights), they would witness a beautiful old village, however if you ever get the chance to go (to any Nepalese village), I recommend staying a bit longer and becoming familiar with the most beautiful part of the village; it's people.
Namaste Bandipur, I'll come back as soon as I can.
Peace.
Our last week in Bandipur flew by like nobody's business. All of a sudden 2 months was up; no more Dal Bhat, no more school, and a lot of goodbye celebrations to be had. On our last night in Bandipur we were invited for 4 dinners, we got a total of about 10 garlands of flowers draped all over us (from schools/learning centres), I was given 3 Tika's (red bits of rice/paint on my forehead), and we spent much of the day dancing and singing Nepali songs with the children. There was a lot of laughing, eating, dancing, and gift recieving...by the end of it all we were exhausted but we felt very loved.
Highlights:
We were invited to one of the teacher's houses to learn how to make Mo mo's (a delicious dumpling-type food popular in Nepal), we were given traditional Nepali men's hats from our family, and we were given loads of beautiful flowers as gifts from various children.
Despite all the joy in the celebrations, it was hard to say goodbye to all of the amazing people we had been blessed to live alongside as we stayed in Bandipur. I will miss the children that would randomly attack us as we walked through the streets, the times when Rajani (our Nepali mother; "Aama") would play tricks on us, the students at the learning centres we got to hang out with, and the beauty of the village itself. If someone were to go to Bandipur as a tourist (as many people do - staying for 1 or 2 nights), they would witness a beautiful old village, however if you ever get the chance to go (to any Nepalese village), I recommend staying a bit longer and becoming familiar with the most beautiful part of the village; it's people.
Namaste Bandipur, I'll come back as soon as I can.
Peace.
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