Vietnam - Travelling with Smart Phone

Early this year was one of our first backpacking trips, post the information explosion era of smart phones.  We took off on our two month long trip to South East Asia with our usual trusted companion LP guides, albeit in the electronic form.

Day 1 we realised that the hotel descriptions and prices were way out of date. However the good news was that as soon as we landed in Cambodia we got a SIM card with 1 Gb data and some ridiculously high amounts of text and talk for the princely sum of $5.00, which would se us through our planned 1 week there.  So now we can not only what's up and FB, but more importantly on the fly chcek reviews of fellow travellers on the hotels, travel trips etc.

"Need to have a re-think our strategy on travels.  Guide books for planning, on the road have access to the internet :) "

Here are some unique uses the smart phone came in handy -

Vegetarian food in Cần Thơ - Cần Thơ is one of a must see little villages in Mekong Delta and is famous for its floating markets. This was our first stop in Vietnam. Got here by boat, and hence did not have a local SIM we arrived. This is where the local farmers/fishermen bring their wares on long boats and wholesalers and retailer buy while in the river. 

After an early morning visit to the market realised that this place was nothing more than a very small town at best and that there is nothing much else to do. However had to spend 24hrs to go on to Ho Chi Minh.. So we did what we love, went for a walk off to the town proper. No tourists here, that can almost read as "no English understood"
Anyway, managed again to get ourselves local SIM for $10 that would take care of data for a month and had about $4 worth of calls. Armed with this wandered through the streets looking for lunch and found this little restaurant that looked very clean and the young chef/owner was very attentive and asked us in.  The menu was all Vietnamese, fortunately Vietnamese use the PInYing scrip (that is english alphabets) So tried using google translate and realised that it had nothing vegetarian. 
Next half hour went something like this me showing the google translate, the guy typing in the Vietnamese words and agin I look at google translate. 
Here is a gist of what went on
Me into Gtranslate -  No meat no fish only vegetables 
Gtranslate - Không có thịt không có cá chỉ rau
He into Gtransalate - Tôi co the lam cho ca bot khuay voi bap cai
Gtranslate -  I can make stir fry cabbage
Me - Want some tofu and noodles and other vegetables
Gtranslate - Muốn có một số đậu hũ và mì và các loại rau khác
He did not quite get that,  so typed in .. Xao voi bap cai, rau bina, dau hu va mi
Gtranslate - I can make stir fry with corn cairau spinach, tofu and noodles
or some such thing...
Anyway, decided to go for it, and wow was I happy... It was the yummiest stir fry I had in Vietnam.

"Google Translate may not be the best translator to use as phrase book and try saying things in other languages, BUT with current popularity of mobile phones with youth in most countries the showing the message on phone and getting them to type in works"

The next best use of the phone was selecting and being on the Halong Bay cruise. Selecting a cruise is really hard as every one of them on paper sounds same. BUT when walking around in hanoi and talking to few of the tour operators, we surreptitiously checked for reviews in Trip advisor etc, and the result got this really good one. 

 Also, having a local phone helped us contact the tour lead when things went wrong ( the second day was disaster due to bad weather) and  get a real fix/pay back. Yep scored a free night in Sapa :) 

AND google maps have most of the streets even in the little towns, thta definetely surprised us.  

Cruising the Vietnam highlands on Mobikes

The incredible easy rider trip started of as a day trip. The day was amazing where we started of visiting the pagoda and elephant falls, before heading back to Hang Nga Crazy house. The day trip gave us an amazing insight on seeing Vietnam riding on a motorbike, and we visited a pagoda, the Elephant falls, a few other things before heading to the crazy house.
This place was really a place that felt like Guadi on steroids for anyone who has been to Barcelona.  The best part was the ability to walk on most of the areas including the bits that were still being built and on some really high and narrow parts. Many parts would have seriously questioned the Health and Safety officers :).

The outcome of this trip was that we were sold on the three day trip from Dalat to Nha Trang, and managed to cancel our already booked bus tickets to Danang so we can do this three day trip.

The trip was for three days and two nights. Started of on 6/2/14 with two mobikes, and the two of us and our bags.

All set for the three day trip

It started with first stop at Tuyen Lam Lake , the other side of the Truc Lam Pagoda and the cable car ride. After that it was time to drive through some amazing sceneries and vegie farms, including a visit to the Turnip farm, mushroom farms, rice paddies and what not. The best part of this trip was meeting the locals. Here are some of those amazing experiences.

• Meeting this amazing woman in "chicken village" who had her little baby girl strapped to her back and could even say "good day mate" with the perfect aussie twang. 
• Meeting this really old tribal matriarch who could not speak a word of english or vietnamese but wanted some smoko money. She was so alive...

• Even our own guide could not understand what vegetarian food was... He would order for us and could not understand that we would be happy with extra serve of the soup and side vegies rather than the morning glory :)
• The little kids and the high houses with the awesome steps

• The greatest way to recycle an old TV, what about an high tech alter guys?

• Meeting the local entrepreneurs from brewers to noodle maker and having tea  and a chat (well sort off) with a few of them in their home that they happily throw open with a huge welcome
• Trying extremely strong rice wine and managing to refuse the snake wine (wine with snake marinating), that's considered to make men very strong.
• Sore bums and thighs, result of the many times you had to put your legs over and above the bags to take your seat 

Great trip to meet truly local people and appreciate how the simple things in life makes these hill tribes so happy. Will highly recommend to any fellow traveller. 

Annapurna trek part 2

Here is the looong overdue second part of the Annapurna trek

After the two days of acclimatisation in Manang took off with our new porter Ram and trusted Tej towards the highlight of this trip and the Tarungla pass. The hike to Yak Karkha was steep and short. At this altitude you definitely feel it, but not too difficult. The accommodation was getting even more basic and after an initial 'no' and intervention by Ram got a 4 bedder for the three of us.  After an hours rest and the usual omelet for lunch, took off to Letdar for another acclimatisation. Tea break there and back to yak karkha for rest and sleep at 4100 mts. This was the first place with no power. So it is camping with stone walls. Took off early to ensure the room availability is not an issue on the higher camps.  The walk to Letdar with the bags and the freezing cold in the morning took a bit longer than last day, but manged within half an hour.  Reached Thorungpedi in about three hours and took a break. Met a couple of Americans who had their own oxipulse meter, checked ours and found it was pretty good and >85%. So after an hours rest decided to do part of the climb and reach the high camp at 4900 mts and thus have a slightly easier climd next day.
 Took another hour and ten mins to get to the high camp. The accommodation here was really rough ( rustic as Paddy wanted to call it) and very very cold.  Think the temperature never went above -5c. Went for a lovely walk to the near by hillock and fantastic views of the Annapurna ranges.

This was our first experience of camping in high altitude (close to 5000mts) and it was no fun. We could hardly sleep and even with all our layers on it was freezing. You invariably woke up panicking as you were breathless. Good news is that waking up at 4 am is no hassle. Took off at 4:45 am when it was still a bit dark but enough moon light to follow the path. The going was very slow as it was freezing and very very steep. With the high altitude you got breathless and wanted to stop, but every time you stopped the toes and fingers would go number and you had to move to warm them up.  The result was tat the water we were carrying was frozen within the first hour of the climb  :( . Around an hour or so into the climb there was a icy stretch with a steep incline where you had to be careful.
Tej was leading followed by Gina and then Ram, followed by me and Paddy. Paddy  slipped a wee bit and managed to stop, and came to a complete halt. Ram came back and asked "problem"? Our answer was Yay... how do we go ahead?  And Pat cam the reply " Think problem, walk no problem" Must admit we followed the advice and went through the icy patch with no issues. It was a case of trust your boots, hold your core and keep one step in front of the other at a steady pace.  Finally reached the Thorungla Pass after almost a couple of hours around 7am.  The views were magnificent, but where everyone headed to was the  tea shop there. No idea what the cost of it was BUT that hot lemon tea was worth every penny.
There was a crazy Israeli up there who took his shirts off and on his bare body got someone to write "Happy Birthday ...." to wish his friend. Gina took the photo and the bloke was checking it was OK all in topless condition at -15C and we were shivering through our multiple layers.

The tea shop obviously did roaring business, and guess the couple running it have earned it. The tea there is about 4 times what it costs in all other tea houses, but I don't believe anyone complained.

The climb down was a bit of an anticlimax and quite long. After a couple of hours hike, a lunch break and another hour or so, made it to Mukthinath and Ranipur, walked onto Jarkhot and stayed there.


Mukthinath temple is worth a visit even if you are not religious just to see the frozen water spouts :) Its still quite high at 3800 mts. Next stop was Kaghbeni where we stayed at the "New Annapurna Hotel" but for free as we had the guides room. The owner had to remove the blankets there ( and that took away the gym smells) and change the sheets.

Marpha accommodation

Next stop was Marpha via Jomsom a 5hour trek including stopping in Jomsom for some money changing, and bus enquiry etc.  Jomsom is where you can finish this trek if you want to and take a flight back to Pkhara. However, even if you wanted to do this, I would go to Marpha for  a day and then head back to Jomsom. Marpha has some really nice accommodation, we had one such with lovely gardens. This village is almost European with flagstoned streets and at the same time very tibetan with a lovely monastry. Then it was time to pig out with one of the best apple crumble and carrot cake in this part of the world.
From Marpha the plan was to bus it to Tatopani. This worked out to be two two journeys first a jeep to ghasa and a bus (ride from hell) to Tatopani from there. The speciality here is the hot springs which we really enjoyed and then relaxed in the gardens of our guest house "Daulagiri".

Tatopani to Chitre was all on steps and relentless climb, but we were away from the roads :) Next morning to Deorali pass after a break fast stop at Gorepani before ending the day at Tadopani. This was the first afternoon where it rained. This village is just a few lodges and hence a bit more expensive with toast costing Rs140 :) The walk to Ghandrukh from Tadopani was not very long and where there by lunch time. Lovely little town and stayed in Milin on recommendation from Tej, and turned out to be a lovely little place.  This is a reasonable sized town and has a museum :) The track from here on is quite busy and popular for shorter trips from Pokhara.
Ghandruk to Pothana was a down, up , down again and up and down through some million steps :) The route is down to Landrukh, some up and down walking to Tolka, followed by a steep down to Bhan Karkha. From here it was again a steep and stiff climb to Deurali no 2 Pass, and another short down hill to Pothana our last tea house stop before heading to Pokhara.  Beers with the porters before we say good bye to them tomorrow. Thanks for looking after us guys.

The final day of trekking was another steep down hill to Phedi. More steps and more kids way laying us and demanding money ( they have a queer way of begging here :))  Got to Phedi by 9.30 am and got a very talkative and friendly taxi driver who dropped all 5 of us at the hotel.

Great to be in a decent hotel (Trekkers Hotel) with hot showers that worked well. AND had some dinner that as not dhal bath, and even got a Pizza.
Phokara was very well decorated and a lot of Tihar dancing by kids in front of businesses to get Bakshish. A lovely two days including an early morning ride to the Sarangkot View Point. The half hour walk up the steep steps there seemed so easy after the two days rest and all that we had done, that we kept over taking most people there. The views there was really worth the early wake up.

This has to be NYC

Hey the nomads are finally in the capital of commercial world... and looks like we will be here for a couple of moths at least :)

After many false alarms on a month to few months work gig in new york, as is always the case in our life, two weeks back things happened and here we are in Jersey City. Well, technically not in NYC, but just across the Hudson.  Here is my pictorial representation of NYC so far...

The city with the classic metropolis views :)

The view from Jersey City end - what we see most evenings.

My favourite wedge building... somewhere on fifth ave

From the ferry to Manhattan from Paulus Hook(Jersey City)

Another of those weird shaped buildings...

The Intrepid Museum of Space and Air, with the back drop of Manhattan 

The many parks with things happening all the time - one of my favourite is Bryant park, with lots of things like juggling, TT on offer for free :)

Free Zumba in front of Macy's 

The huge portions of food that can easily feed two :)

Our wrap and Chips in local Mexican that was more than enough for both

The down to earth signage :)

The abundant ferry cruises in non touristy places as well.  We walked to Hoboken last Friday, and ended up taking this cruise with just four of us. An almost private cruise of 1 hour was great. 

Manhattan from our private cruise

Lady Liberty in all her glory at night.

Brooklyn Bridge

Manhattan from east river side...

The public transport that makes going from A to B like a treasure hunt :). This is a classic. Here are some incidents that makes you think the best and funny side of it.

• All transport runs 24 x 7  - mind you off peak ( weekends and late hours) has lesser and not all ferries or buses) 
• Each type of transit has its own ticketing system, so if you are combining a few, be prepared to buy multiple types of tickets. 
• The suspense of "are you on the right platform"  not being known until the train arrives - yep you may have paid your fare and come in, and then find you are in the track with no indication of which way it goes. Also, there is no way to go to the other side without forking out another fare. This happened to us on the 23rd street PATH ( the train connecting jersey city to NYC)
• Stations that have same name to ensure you stay fit. The 33rd street station on PATH is about 1KM from the same namesake on the subway, as we found out 
• The transit web sites ensures the system is a success - one way they do that is, in the trip planner they come up with the most expensive version as first choice, not the quickest... In one trip NJ transit suggested I take, PATH, train and bus to get form A to B costing me 8 dollars and one hour while Google suggested taking Path and a bus for about 5 dollars and in half an hour.  

Having said all this, still amazing that you can just about go anywhere you want to using public transport in the US is great :) 

Looking forward to the cheap Broadway shows, some retail therapy and much more... 

That's it for now :)

Getting High on thin air- trekking the Markha Valley

After months of planning and preparation, the "Markha Valley Trek" in the tibetan plateau of India's Ladakh finally happened this August. The troupe of 9 trekkers, whom we decided to call Team navagraha (in the fond hope that we would get along better than our namesake :) ) gathered in Delhi on 25th July. The kickoff dinner in the Blueberry Hotel in downtown Karolbagh was so raucous , with the banter taking no prisoners, that GN (the only team member who had not met any of the others apart fro us nomads) started wondering what he had let himself in for! He was prepared for the nomads' noise level (having partied with us extensively in Frankfurt), but did not expect the rest of the gang from Melbourne to be quite so exuberant. Now for the trek .... Arrived in Leh on the 26th morning and were greeted with extremely blue skies and Rajuji of Grand Adventures India ( our fantastic mountain guide :))  along with his Ladakhi partner Namgyal, the former national Ski champion.

The transport organised was two Mahindra Xylo jeeps, and were going to be our wheels for the next three days of acclimatisation. The hotel Leh View was in a beautiful setting and looked comfortable. Raju left us there with some tea and biscuits and a promise to meet us later in the afternoon and warnings of don't try going anywhere as the low oxygen will hit us. We did exactly what we always do, and after a nice lunch, decided to disregard Raju's advice and take a walk to the near by streets. However, all we managed was walk up the drive way of the hotel leading to the street above and panting as if we had just about completed a half marathon. This did manage to convince us to head back to hotel and take it easy. By this time (about 3 or so hours since we landed) most of us were experiencing a slight head aches and a lot of breathlessness. The late afternoon/evening was spent taking a walk through the Leh township with Raju and picking up some last minute supplies from the trekking shops , and dry fruit vendors.

The next two days was spent driving around and visiting a few monasteries. The Dalai Lama decided to visit Leh at around the same time. This meant a lot of unannounced road closures in and around Leh leaving us to walk about a mile to get into our vehicles . Every cloud has a silver lining and this unplanned walk resulted in us catching a glimpse of his holiness presiding over some school kids and the crowd gathered to get his blessings and were quite emotional in their worship of him.
The next 2 days were spent visiting umpteen temples in half a dozen monasteries in and around Leh under the loving and lecturing care our guide Dolma jee. I suspect she wanted to pray( to avoid bad karma) and we were just an (in)convenient excuse :) . Well the acclimatisation went almost as planned  with us getting used to he thin air, and realising the high dependence of paracetamol and vitamin C that we will have during this trip.

Day 1 trek  29/07/12 - Zingchen to Gandala Base Camp

We set out to Zingchen for our day 1 trek on July 29th as per the plan at 8:30 am. The dive out of Leh was beautiful. Just as were doing our oohs and aahs one of our vehicles joined in and we had our first puncture (but thankfully the only one) on our way to Zingshen. The local made short work of fixing the tyre in a few minutes , no worries!
Reached zingchen at about 9am and though Raju had said no water crossing on day 1, there was a stream that warranted taking our boots off, and crossing a stream that was knee high in depth DS loved the start, and all others were quite enthusiastic about it , this was followed by a couple of civilised crossing on bridges, two on logs, that checked out your core, and two where the water proofness of the boot got checked out. 
Start of the trek, Raju told us that the day one, is being extended by an hour and half, as that was a better spot for the horses to rest!!!. Of course this also meant that much lesser walking on the reputedly tougher day 2.
The views in the first half were sensational, with many photo opportunities. Lunch was next to a lovely stream, and was a salad roll of sorts with boiled egg, cheese and a dessert of mango. 

When we reached the tiny village of Rumbak , the   intended camp site, there was a tent shop and we could buy some water. On Rajus advice that it was a max of 2 hrs from there we bought some, however, ran out of the water when we finally reached yurutse high camp to find it empty. Looks like the ghoda wallah decided to make it easy for the horses, rather than worry about us humans :) The result was a totally drained and pretty dehydrated team who had to face another hour or so of walking to the Gandala base camp. Our youngest member DS was totally exhausted and had to stop. Raju  ran ahead and brought us back some warm rasna (sugar loaded warmish drink).
Eventually we all got to the camp totally exhausted and feeling the effect of altitude and dehydration, but nothing that bottles of water and powerade could not fix, and not to miss the mutual help within the group ensuring  we all ate and replenished on our proteins (Okra) as MK and RS insisted on me and others who were really feeling the effects of altitude, and NP, making us laugh to get the bad air out of us ;)

Was quite a bad night for most as the altitude meant not enough sleep, but felt quite good next morning
When we recovered enough and had a look the next morning at the camp site, found it was  actually quite pretty and at 4200 mts. 
Day one hike Stats -  roughly 12 kms and took us 7.5hrs including breaks A altitude gain of about 600mts

Day 2 - 30/07/12 Gandala Base Camp - Gandala - Shingo 
Day two started of with everyone in high spirits and ready to roll. The altitude seems to impact your appetite, and some added wind capturing occurring in our bodies .  Constant headaches meant, Panadol became part of our diet, as did vitamin C as per our very own pharmacologists (RS) advice  Started hiking at 7:30 and it was a climb from the start. This time we were prepared with one water and one Gatorade bottle each. It was slow going and took us just over three hours to reach Gandala pass at 4800mts which took us about 3 hrs The walking style during the climb was a swinging ramble in extreme slow motion as otherwise, your head and heart started throbbing quite a bit. The scenery was a very arid hills, and saw some local fauna, marmots (huge rabbits) blue sheep, and few birds. The views at the top were great. 

Lunch spot today was on the way down on a lovely grassy bit, except there was no shade. 
Lunch was pasta, baked beans, cheese, boiled egg, chocolate and mango. However at the altitude of 4500mts the stomach seemed to get filled more with air rather than the food. 

It was a more of the same down scenery hill to reach a lovely camp site on a grassy patch, next to a rocky stream in Shingo. Managed to wash some clothes and have a wash of sorts with help from each other in pouring the cold water on each other. Needless to say it was noisy :). 

The evening was spent relaxing with some music from the Ipad and wandering around. The shining sun was perfect and not at all hot after a wash until the lovely dinner that the camp staff dished out yet again. 
Day two hike Stats -  roughly 12 kms and took us 6.5hrs including breaks An altitude gain of about 600mts, and a loss of 600 mts as the camp in Shingo was again at  4200 mts

Day 3 - 31/07/12 Shingo to Skyu
Day3 started of with egg in burji form and  toast. We were getting used to the altitude, and I felt the best so far, but a few of our team had runny nose and other such ailments . Walk to skyu  was lovely with shade and sun in equal bits. The clarity of the blue sky the ochres, greens and browns where amazing , with plenty of photo opps. 

It was primarily down hill, and we got to Skyu by about 10:45 the parachute tent shop was  very friendly. Bought 'yoza' some toasted barley and  apricot kernels. barley kind of tasted like improperly popped corn, and the apricot kernels were OK. The woman there  told Raju that the camp he had planned had washed out, so we stopped at 11:15 itself on the camp site which was on the banks of the Markha river. Lunch arrived soon and it was kitchidi , which we enjoyed sitting on some log like things mad of bamboo sticks

Managed to get a ball from the local home and a bat of sorts  for cricket.
The afternoon was spent with games of cricket inter mixed with dip in the silty river near by and a proper stretching routine before tea. There was even a pump with clean ground water, that meant that we could wash of the silt from our bodies and wash some clothes again. Turned out to be a very relaxing day, with a leg stretching hike in the morning followed by a very relaxing afternoon.  

Day three hike Stats -  9.7 kms and took us 3.5 hrs including breaks An altitude loss of 800 mts to reach 3430 mts

Day 4 - 1/08/12 Skyu - Markha 

The day started early at 7:15,with a statement from Raju that the earlier we reach river crossing the better. We had one flu victim (BR), who needed antibiotics, as she had not slept all night. With a bit of juggling made sure she did not have to carry any weight and started off at a decent pace. Raju set a scorching pace of about 4.5 to 5 kms and some of the team kept up with him.  This was a very long day and soon the group started stretching out  and by 10 we were quite spread out. Think some were feeling the pressure of the differential in fitness   when we stopped at a tea shop to refill water etc, some kept going ahead, it took us almost a full hour to catch up with them, luckily the tea shop which was also our lunch stop. Lunch was parrota and unbelievable aloo sabji. After that the walk was not too different, in that, it was a longish trudge with some reasonable views, but very hot and dusty, making it a real hard yakka.  Some of us were feeling it more than the others and a few tempers flared when everyone eventually caught up. The water crossing when we eventually reached it around 3ish reached almost to our thighs  and had quite a current. 

The good part was the fact that it was really warm by then and the water crossing a welcome cool down. Another hour or so of walking finally got us to the camp site. It was a nice camp site again and had  a really cold water pump. Dinner was good as usual with momo, beans, chatni and stuff. After that discussion turned to events of the day and agreed that we will stay together from now on. 

Day four hike Stats -
The day was 20.04 kms in 8 hrs  including 850 mts altitude gain and 440 loss, resulting in a final altitude of 3800

Day 5 - 2/08/12 - Markha to Thachungtse

The walk today was meant to have many river crossings with a deep crossing early on. However the floods of 2010 had changed the course of the river and hence the tracks resulting in a slightly longer walk with some steep climbs early on. This meant the going was slow with another hot and dusty day with no shades, giving some of the gang a chance to perfect DS's preferred word game. 
Lunch stop was another tent shop where we gave away the dri-fit T-shirts that the 'Run Melbourne' crew had given us before we left Melbourne to the 4 kids there. The beaming smile on the faces of the kids (not to mention the mum) was a joy to behold!

Here the only water available was some pre-boiled water and we did buy this before setting off again. Got to camp site by 3pm. most of us seem to be getting better acclimatised to the altitude. Again managed to have a quick wash in freezing cold water stream at the camp site. Dinner as usual was really good. 
Day five hike Stats -
The day was 16.6 kms in 8 hrs  including 870 mts altitude gain and 370 loss, resulting in a final altitude of 4250

Day 6 - 3/08/12 - Tachungtse to Nimaling
Today's start was the usual at 7:20am and had a river crossing early on where the water went to almost bum high  the walking was a steady climb and we reached the junction that had the choice of going to Kang Ya Tse base camp with scenic views, or low route with a steep climb in the end. The group were a bit disappointed with Raju's decision to go the low route, and clearly preferred the more scenic route which also climbing in the morning and not later. Finally Raju said he will take us up a middle path, which worked out for the best. 


The climb was reasonably steep with views of the Kang Ya Tse (6400m) on one side and the brown mountains of the Ladakh ranges in another side. 




We reached 4600mts by 10:00 and decided to take it easy as there was no point in rushing to camp site a. Got to the Nimaling camp site at 12:15 and had lunch at camp. The 4800mts altitude did seem to suddenly hit us and a few needed to rest after lunch.  After a nap to get over the head ache got up with a splitting one, and got really disoriented, unzipping couple of other tents trying to figure out which is ours.

This was clearly diamox time :)  Some of the team went for a wander around the local hills. NP and Raju stayed in and were chatting when I woke up and joined them and still had a bit of a headache. Raju got us a ginger tea with honey that really helped. The evening was spent doing very little and a dinner of aloo mash, baingan bartha, roti, dhal and rice.  Went to sleep by 8:45 and it rained on and off all night 

Day six hike Stats -

The day was 7.6 kms in 5 hrs  including 600 mts altitude gain and negligible loss, resulting in a final altitude of 4850

4/08/12 - Day 7 - Acclimatisation day in Nimaling
Our rest day / night was WET. After an all night showers of rain  where the first to wake up around 6 30 am, and asked for a cuppa. Managed to get a nice cup of tea in the kitchen tent where Raju and his boys were having tea and also managed to get a bowl of warm water to wash up.  By 7:30 all the senior members where up, but the three Gen Y's took the rare opportunity to sleep in.   The weather finally broke a bit around 10:30 and three of us, went for a wander with Raju along the river to about a couple of kms and then up the hill and back. The views were quite nice, but nothing too spectacular and the weather kind of pushed us back to the camp site for a nice hot lunch. Spent the afternoon, in the 'massage tent ', one of the tents had to be converted into our massage tent, as outside was not an option :) 

Day seven hike Stats - Rest day - negligible walking

5/08/12 - Day 8 - Nimaling to Shang Sumdo
This was going to be the last day of actual walking for this trek. Was an early morning start  by 7 am and immediately started the climb to Gongmarula Pass. It was up up and up, with some lovely views along the way. Reached the pass , in 2 and half hours.  The views were truly amazing despite the clouds and it was at 5300 mts. 

Climb every mountain pass :)

Spent almost 50 mins there as Raju was making phone calls ( mobile signal , yes!!) and found out about the floods in Utharkand (his home), and confirmed that the family of our support staff were not affected. NP was thrilled as he got to talk to his wife in Aus after all these days.

 It was an hour of walk down hill before the lunch spot. Lunch was lovely Rajma and paratta. Then it was a long walk down hill with a few very steep parts. Left lunch spot at 12:15 thinking it was another 4 or so hours.  However it was 3:15 by the time we got to a village tent, from which Raju said it as another hour or so.  However, this was one of the best days as far as variety and views were concerned, as we walked up and down following a stream or two. Reached yet another village and Raju said its less than half hour to shang sumdo, and we should see it around the corner :).

 However this corner kept getting further away. The way was a narrow ledge in some places and seemed to go on and on and on.  We reached the final turn around 5:15 one of the longest trek day so far. Debuji must have got worried as he came up the path to meet us.  Reached the camp and it was time for celebration as this was the last night of camping for this trek. Decided to skip the stretching and went to the dining tent, for some nice bujia and beer that was available, thanks to the road that had extended to the village of Shang Sumdo. It was time to toast end of the Markha valley trek, as next day was just a drive back to Leh for a shower and a solid bed. 

Day eight hike Stats -

The day was 11 kms in 7.5 hrs  including 500 mts altitude gain and 1215 loss, resulting in a final altitude of 4100 with highest point being 5300 

6/08/12 - Day 9 - Shang Sumdo to Leh

This morning it was a no walking day. The weather was great so it was brekky outside and and taking a one hour drive to Leh, that took closer to two,It was one of the special pooja's by Dalia
Lama as his visit was coming to an end, and the main road was blocked in many places, and we had to come via many minor roads, seeing the small suburbs/ villages before we finally got to the hotel. 

At the hotel, the rooms were ready and we got a chance to clean our clothes in addition to ourselves. 
After lunch of lovely aloo mutter, corn munchurian of sorts and dhal. Unfortunately, no dahi. After lunch, went for a wander to the Leh market and got some lovely pashmina shawls as presents as well as having some dahi and bring back a chocolate cake. 
Turned out to be a really nice and relaxing day before we headed off to tackle Stok Khangri 
MK has written an excellent blog about that which you can find in http://mohankaus.blogspot.in/2012/08/clarity-at-5850m-our-attempt-to-climb.html 

2011 - Stockholm Stay

Year 2011 started of a bit slowly in Melbourne with not very clear idea of when we can start our travel, as Paddy managed to break his foot. Also, the New york assignment for January did not happen as we hoped... The result was a few stints at Stockholm to experience all 4 seasons :)

January 26 - to Early April Stockholm - Leaving it till late January, did give the foot a chance to heal, so Paddy could actually wear proper shoes and  not the open toed CAM boots, to get exposed to the peak winter of Stockholm with temperatures never crossing the -20

Street scape of Stockholm in Feb

Finally arrived in a very white Stockholm on January 26 , Luckily, it was sunny :) we were prepared for very very short days, but it turned out better, and the snow actually made everything look beautiful The only problem was that we had to really be covered head to toe, and still feel cold. It was a mild -20C , but got used to the layers very soon. The apartment complex was lovely with some nice views of the harbour. The other good news was the food... In 1994 when we first visited Stockholm, vegetarian food implied that the meat actually came with a side serve of vegetables.  However, on very first day, we just wandered into a sandwich place for a quick lunch called 'Sandy' and found about 4 or 5 vegetarian options of wraps, sandwiches and such.

View from our apartment Window

The same night found a quick and cheap all you can eat vegetarian place with a OK option of vegetarian food that was a bit bland but quite good.  The views from our apartment was also really gorgeous and we had a lovely time. Another lovely thing abut Stockholm we found was the language... Yep you had to just hesitate for  micro second and immediately the English came out. All TV was also in English with Swedish sub titles, made it a lot easier in a way, though made learning even a little of Swedish very difficult. Result is after spending almost 5 months in total here our Swedish is limited to hey hey, hey Do, and tak tak :)

The first real effect of a winter storm was felt on our wedding anniversary, February 11th  It was strange watching the snow swirl around in the balcony when we were inside. It was so bad, that the buses could not run that morning. Also, could not get any taxis etc. So were forced stay at home for Paddy, with the main entertainment was to watch the snow clearing vehicles clear the bus depot to get the buses out :) This meant Paddy could  get to work around 1pm.
Only trouble was he had to walk with his dodgy foot from the station that evening :) 

BUT we were not going to let the weather spoil it for us, in fact the snow made the place almost magical and loved the Gamla Stan with its narrow paved lane-ways, and snow covered roofs and the lovely warm cafes,  and another wonderful vegetarian place called hermitage. Our first attempt on the Archipelago tour got abandoned as the ice breaker could not cut through the ice enough to leave the harbour, and only made the ferry move sideways.. We also enjoyed the first ice hockey game and it was good fun. Loved the way the players were introduced with music and the general vibes in the hall.  

The ice Bar

The other memorable trip was to the Vasa museum which was amazing. Saying that the two of us, who usually last about 30 mins in a good museum spent an hour and half here tells you a lot about the way the ship is preserved and the amount of info about it.  Another visit that was a bit tacky nevertheless an experience I will not forget was visiting the ice bar in Stockholm. This is a bar made entirely of ice, right down to the bar tables, and glasses, and yes they lend you these stylish ponchos and gloves :) 

Winter highlights of Stockholm 

• The days are much longer than I expected, and it was nice to have daily sunlight hours increase by about 15 mins each day.
• Watching the little pre-schoolers that were made to walk in their cute little snow bunny outfits to the park, where they used little frisby like disks to Toboggan down the tiny slopes Made you understand , why most swedes we saw were looking fit and non flabby.
• The absolutely white landscape that could not distinguish where the land ended and the water started

As the weather began to thaw in March, walking in the park had a different feel, now instead of slipping and sliding on the snow/ice, there was slush everywhere with the snow melt. The paths started to look very wide :) 

We visited the Skansen but it was still a bit too cold for the animals to come out of hibernation. Did manage to see a few rein deers, and bears that were a bit lazy and sleepy...   Managed to do the Archipelago tour and noticed that there was still a lot of ice floating in the Baltic sea. 

Also visited Sigtuna ,  a cute little town which is claimed to be one of the oldest twos in Sweden and has been a town for more than 1000 years. It was snowed in, and we could not wander through the ruins of the 1000 + years churches we would have loved to. 

View of Sodermalm in spring

The highlights of spring in Stockholm?

• The emergence of large masses of blue showing off the fact that Stockholm is actually made up of many many islands and the reason why people talk in terms of number of bridges when they talk of how far from the city they live in
• The number of cycles that are in use and the fact that people cycle in normal work clothes/shoes, including girls in mini skirts :)
• The parks are almost marshy and messy with all that snow melt. 
• It is finally above 0, and girls are out in mini skirts, but to me its still colder than Melbourne winter on most days :)

The next trip back to Stockholm was at end of summer, its end of July and as the flight comes in to land, can see this absolutely gorgeous sight of green carpets and blue oceans everywhere. Its picture perfect. Suddenly we find all this day light time to make full use off. The archipelago tour of thousand islands for the whole day and it was ... well how do you describe paradise. NOW I understand why the Stockholm people put up with all those miserable days in winter, to have this absolutely gorgeous place for about three to four months. Looks like weather is never bad here in July/August. 

Thousand island Cruise

enjoying the 100 island cruise

Made full use of the long days and visited the many natural spots in the vicinity and had many hikes with packed picnic even on work days... Even managed to go on our cruise to Helsinki and that three hours through the entire archipelago on Friday evening was nothing short of Magic. The archipelago in Helsinki felt very tame after the one at this end :( 

Enjoying a picnic dinner in Brunnsviken

Summer Highlights

• The park usage by all the sun worshippers - and swedes are not bash people and like to tan all of their bodies :)
• The gorgeous views of blue and green where ever you go , now you could see the thousands of islands you keep hearing about
• The long days and lovely weather to enjoy it

Our final trip back to Stockholm was not until Mid November, start of winter. This is my least favourite season in Stockholm. The days are absolutely damp and is getting shorter each day by about 15 mins :(  We seem to get about 1 or maximum 2 hours of sunshine if that, and the sun seems to be really lazy and  stays low down.  Did visit the Christmas market in Gamla Stan which is OK. The only plus I can see is the Christmas lights. You do get to enjoy their beauty for longer time frames, and the lighting is very discrete and lovely.

Highlights of Stockholm in early winter 

• Damp and not great weather
• Short days , shortening even more rapidly 
• Fantastic  Christmas lighting that is discrete and lovely
• Christmas shop windows that are unique and not like every other city in the world. 

2011 - germany and rest

2011 was a true nomadic life with most of our time in Stockholm and Frankfurt, with a few weeks interspersed in London and Paris.  So those of you interested here is a report of the non Stockholm part ... 

April - London 

As the closer friends and family and friends of us know there was a chance that we would go to the big apple in the first quarter of 2011, and Stockholm was going to be a place until then. However, with US economy being what it is the US project never happened in end of March, so it was decided that we will spend the next few months back in Frankfurt. However, the visa had expired and it took a while to get it done, so London was home for next three weeks. 

Here I had my first Pick Pocket experience.  The ज्ञान ( knowledge in sanskrit ) 

I got from this experience  was that if you report the incident to the police and you have lost everything ( as in your ticket cash etc) the police will help you get home using London transport. The police where extremely sympathetic and nice and realistic, (told me to forget any hope of getting the wallet/cards back... I had fond hopes that the thief might take the cash and return the wallet, so I will get my licence and such back...)  Well this meant calling all the banks in three countries to cancel the cards etc. However, luckily but for my ego nothing else was majorly affected, and some one got richer by about 200 british pounds. Did enjoy the brief ( 3 weeks) break, and appreciated being back in a place where you understood what was going on around you rather than it being just some background noise :) Also gave us a chance to catch up with some friends and family etc,  as well as get our Indian spice fix in East ham (Saravana Bhava)  and Southall ( Roxy's) 

May-July Frankfurt - 

This time qround we had couple of friends in Frankfurt. The young couple whom Paddy ad befriended end of his stay last year, where good fun, and we went out quite a bit. Discovered Cacoon, one of the classiest night spot, ( though not quite sure of techno music...)  Had loads of fun with a few friends, but could not last the distance with the music :)

Also, with weather warming up did a lot of hiking. First long weekend was in early june and checked out Vulcan Ring , and fell in love with the place.  The next fantastic trip as down the Lahn river. This was sensational to canoe 15 kms down the Lahn river. 

Again got Purnima and Geeth, with us, so the strong lad could lend us some muscle :) The walking and hiking continued every weekend in Taunus and the red wine consumption increased. 

The last long weekend in June we took of to Garmisch Parkirchen. Hired a medium car rather than the compact, and got upgrade to benz E class. result was for the first time in autobahn we were the ones that were one of the fast lane user :0 Touched 260 KMs but were driving around 200 for quite a while. Was a great experience. the web site http://www.gapa.de/Garmisch-Partenkirchen_GaPa_Multimedia_tour_planner/ was of fantastic value as it helped us find the perfect hikes.  We did the Mt Wank hike, The prartnachklam gorge walk ( along the tunnel and inside the tunnel that runs right next to the gorge. This was absolutely sensational and a not to be missed walk.  We also went to Alspspitz, kruezeck circuit using the cable cars rather than he zugspitz as that was a lot more crowded.  The trip also gave us an opportunity to meet and become friends with cousin of  a good friend who lives in Munich... Also meant that we got to have some yummy lemon rice in the banks of Eibsee with some fun company :)

One other unique experience we did have was visiting a german sauna/spa. This was on a roof top and open air, but the catch is that in these places in germany you are expected to go in your birthday suit ( as the receptionist warned us -  no swim wear allowed ) ! Dedcide that here I did not know anybody and hence should be OK to get in, and actually found that poeple are so comfortable and no one looks at another person. It was a lovely salted pool, steam and sauna etc with the pool/spa in the open air. Felt marvelous and am glad we did it and that I overcame my inhibition :) 

That ended the first part of the german stay. In July I went to Aus/Singapore while Paddy continued funding my holiday. 

Germany Sep/Oct

The late summer autumn in germany was even better with more company for hikes, this time with Fred a fellow CPTer being very interested. So did even more hiking by exploring Taunus, Rhine valley and heidelberg. Thanks to Fred's german also found this awesome website for hiking in and around Frankfurt http://www.regioausflug.de/odenwald/odenwald_wandern_rund.php 

All in all a very enjoyable routine of running during the week, hiking on at least one day in the weekend and partying as well.  End of october , using Pooja as an excuse I also visited Berlin, and that was good. Found that Berlin has definitely changed from our last visit in 1992 , though the bad news of this was that the museums are lot more crowded.  Enjoyed the city anyway. 

One of my favourite monument in paris The cathedral of Notre Dame

First week of November was in Paris and this was ... well what can you say about Paris. This city has to be the most beautiful one in the world with so many lovely architecturally unique and wonderful places in such small area. Staying in St Germain area was excellent and from where we stayed ( close to St Sulpice) the area is full of character at any time of the day.  Also had the good fortune get our dosa fix at the newly opened saravan bhava in paris :) The weather god was on our side and had an excellent stay before heading back to Stockholm.

The end of the year is close and its going to be London for a couple of days and back to base in Melbourne. Until next year and more travels  Auf Wiedersehen, Au Revoir, HeyDoe , Caio etc etc.