The Man from Xi'an

Wie Gehts.

We have spent the last two days in Xi'an (a quaint little town of six million) plonked in the middle of china. This is the original seat of power of China, being the home of the Qin (pronounced Chin as in Chin-a) dynasty (300BC), and home to a few of their more extravagent efforts: Yesterday (28th May) we did a cycle ride around the walls of the city, 14km circumference on a 10m high and 15m wide modest effort in masonry, (took an hour to cycle).

Accomodations have also been interesting, we have been staying inside the city walls in a converted textile factory, now home to a hotel and restaurant, in a seemingly nuclear-proof bunker of a basement, with a large and friendly contingent of mosquitos, who have certainly been enjoying my company in particular. For the princely sum of $4 per night it is hard to complain. (moreso when considered after the consumption of several $0.50 650ml beers.) Food is excellent, though communication is at best difficult. It is hard to overestimate the language barrier when you share no commonality, not alphabet, not consonents, not phonems, not intonation. Ordering a meal last night required 15 minutes of vigorous hand waving, recourse to paper and speaking loudly and slowly, with an end result of about 50% of what we were after. Mandarin is an absolute bastard to learn, compounded by the fact that pronunciation varies throughout China.

Today it was off to visit the last resting place of the 1st Qin emperor (300BC), again an understated little affair that involved the efforts of up to 750000 people at a time over a 37 year period, but unfortunately the task at hand was a dirt rather than a stone pyramid, and so has subsided a little in the following couple of millenia (50-80m high, covering about 10 hectares). The core of this mound/hill contains the burial chamber which is apparently high in mercury (invaluable to the prehistoric dynastic ruler-about-town) to the point where it is a dangerous.

Second stop was the famous terracotta warriors, This is a massive effort (though considering the size of the aforementioned workforce they may have knocked it out in a couple of saturday afternoons). Several hectares, only partially explored and excavated, now under stadium sized roofs. They have uncovered several thousand of these uber-sized ken-dolls, and think that there are many thousand more in existance, in underground barracks extending over many hectares. Crazy thing is they were created and buried in secret, each an individually shaped and baked correspondant to an existing person. So much effort expended on creating an army that while low-cost on povisioning, would only be dangerous if it fell on you. We are beginning to appreciate that these Chin(ese) fellas don't do things by halves.

Next stop Yunnan province and Tiger-Leaping Gorge. 32hours on a train, then more climbing at altitude. Wooo. Yay.

Seven Days in Tibet

Hi All, we can now tick off Tibet. It has been an excellent trip let down only by the operational approach of our package tour. We are here for their benefit, not the other way around, and unfortunately have no way of changing this. Oh well, its been a blast anyway.

We left Kathmandu at 6am Saturday the 19th to travel 5 hours to the border on typically awful Nepalese roads, Along the way we stopped for breakfast at which time our consumer rights were explained to us (none) and oh by the way if you are sick, or your documentation (that they sorted) has faults etc then tough it's your problem, also we are not going to the lake itemised in your itinerary due to road construction. We arrived at the border to be confronted with our first instance of beauracracy gone mad - three different sets of queues, officials and forms to run through spread over a distance of 10km and 2 hours. Due to the time taken (and the two hour time difference between Nepal and Tibet) this pretty much took us to the end of the day and we were forced to spend the night in the very pretty chinese border town of Zhangmu perched high on a forested valley side. We were informed that we had to start the next day at 5:30am (3:30am Nepal time) and were shipped off to the dorm rooms where we had to stay the night (package promised twinshare).

Up and ready to go a 6am we awaited in vain for our Tibetan guide to arrive, finally shows up at 7am pissed/hungover and we discover that he hasn't organised enough vehicles to transport the group. 11 of us have to wait around till 11:30am for more landcruisers (ubiquetous Tibetan vehicle) to arrive. We drive all day through spectacular gorges (like Fiordland, with huge waterfalls and all) and high arid rolling hills, passing through two passes during the day of 5150 and 5250m respectively, as well as amazing and sparsely populated open river valleys like the Mackenzie country of the South Island to finally arrive at our accommodation at 8:00pm in Lhatse. Loooong day, mostly dirt roads for first half of day, but then move onto sealed roads. The Chinese are doing a huge amount of road building and development and in a few years this will be just another highway, not a back country dirt road. Big annoyance is that the drivers will not stop for photos, and there is a lot that is worthy, so we have to try and make do with snaps out the window (this is where you need an expensive camera, unlike ours). However regular cigarette breaks are apparently essential. We are tired, and a bit pissed off with the tour operators, we had some food, a beer (650ml costs 50-90 cents here) and went to bed.

Easier day on the 21st; apologetic guide, 8:30 start and an easy drive on highway for 3 hours to Shigatse, where accomodation is excellent (hot bath and TV etc), visited Tashilunpo Monasty where some 2.I.C lama (Panchan, Great Precious Teacher) hangs out, though the exact identity of this guy is a bit contentious since Chinese took over the selection process and dissappeared the previous selectee. We wandered the streets and grabbed a drink at a little Tibetan restaurant, where we could not prevent the hostess from refilling our shot glass sized vessels every time we took a sip - end result 15 minutes for finish our beers.

Next day we travel to Gyantse, again an easy drive of only 2-3 hours, and a spectacular city. With a hill fort on a hundred metre tall rocky knob (conquered by brits with four casualties to 300 tibetan dead in 1904, now a poorly maintained chinese museum with great views). Signs around the place say something like Tibetan jump cliff, which we thought was a none-too-subtle suggestion until we found a memorial to Tibetan 'martyrs' who leapt to their deaths rather than surrender to Brits. This wasn't part of the tour instead the tour visited Pelkor Chode Monastery and the Kumbum Stupa, really just another monastery; Budda, budda, budda, oh and yet another budda. The fort was far better, dating back almost a thousand years and having bizarrely laid out rooms, some with doors just a metre high, and some entertaining chinese additions (tibetan torture maniquins). But we did have some entertainment at the Monastry watching a couple of tibetan chicks in some sort of devotional race around the monastry doing full length prostration+prayers advancing one body length at a time over the course of an hour or two.

The next day was a 5am start leaving Gyantse at 6am to get to Lhasa by 12.30. Our attempts at trying to convince our driver to start later were useless. Another example of the tour not being for our convenience. The early start obviously effected the driver also because he almost fell asleep at the wheel. At first we thought he was sticking his head out the window to check on some tire issue. Rob spent the next hour into Lhasa watching him carefully ready to grab the wheel if he fell asleep. Him get no tip.

Our accommodation in Lhasa has been brilliant. We basically have a suite with living room, double bedroom and all the mod cons excepting hot water. We had the afternoon to ourselves so organised our train tickets, an epic event as train station was 5km out of town and in our eagerness to save money we spent 3 hours walking to a net benefit of maybe a dollar each. So now we were going to Xi'an rather than Chengdu. Wasn't in our initial plans, but there wasn't a train leaving for Chengdu on Saturday and Xi'an isn't far out of the way and was recommended by other travelers.

On our first full day in Lhasa we visited Jokhang Monastery and Barkhor Square (basically a big market) which was packed with Tourists, Tibetan JAM (Just Another Monastery). Extremely important to the Tibetans, but pretty horrible really with the combination of a hot weather, huge numbers of people, a confined poorly lit and poorly ventilated space, reeking yak butter candles coating everything in black grime all combining to make us eager to be out of the place. We also visited Potala Palace which is a stunning fort/palace perched atop a rocky knob in the middle of Lhasa where the Dala Lama used to reside and where the tombs of the past Dala Lama's are. This had some very impressive shrines and statues, a couple of which contained several tonnes of gold. Sorry but no photos allowed in any of these monasteries unless you pay the exorbitant extra fees to the Govt who we think makes good coin out of the picture books they can sell as a result. We met up with some Dutch friends from our Everest trek and then went out drinking till 3am. Lhasa has a pretty good night life, and is apparently also a major Chinese sex tourism spot, something we discovered after passing a couple of shops full of hairdressers who were unusually dolled up. A weigh in on the street reveals that Robert has lost 7kg since trip start.

We didn't bother doing the activities on the second day (more Tibetan JAM) as we had pretty much had enough of them already and preferred to sleep in after the previous night. Instead we went out to see the water fountain show at the People's square in front of the Potala palace which was tres cool, a large flat area covered in different fountains controlled to pulse and operate in computer controlled sequences with coloured lights and music. A definite must see if visiting.

The train trip out of Tibet to Xi'an just served to reinforce what an amazing landscape this is. Traveling at altitudes between four and five thousand meters in a train equipped with oxygen supplies for the passengers for hundreds of kilometers through vast flat wide basins and river valleys. Almost no trees and at higher altitudes barely any grass, and ultimately permafrost. There are odd marauding herds of Yaks, molesting the tundra and followed around by Tibetans in tents. The small surrounding hills are still some of the largest mountains in the world! There was also a lake we passed by that was maybe one third the size of lake Taupo at over 4500m. 36 hours on this train really isn't that bad, as the track is very smooth and the train is air conditioned and quiet with sleeper cabins and does up to 200km/h on faster sections close to Xi'an. It only cost $110 each, though the bastardly bastards at the security check in (for a train????) wouldn't let Robert take the knife he bought for $8 (Marked down from the $76 the stall owner initially tried for).

All in all, we really recommend this excellent trip. Though it would have been nice to have been with one of the other tour companies who actually care what their customers think (talking to others we know that ours was a particularly bad company), and who don't have a monastery fetish - variety is nice, though we think this monastery monomania might be either Tibetan chauvinism or a subtle attempt to push awareness of Tibetan issues.

Since leaving Nepal food has improved greatly, tastier, and with meat!! Beer is even cheaper than Nepal, though accommodation is slightly more expensive. China (as represented by Tibet) has been a revelation. These fellas are spending a huge amount of money on developing infrastructure, roads, trains, cities, the stuff they are building in Tibet looks like it is designed to support a population of millions more, even though I believe China's population isn't expected to grow that much more. The weather was hot sunny and dry, it may just turn out to be one of the best places in the world for solar power (they have many market stalls selling panels) which could be very important for the economic future of China and the otherwise unused Tibetan plains. By comparison Nepal looks massively mismanaged, underdeveloped and poor, though funnily while Nepal is dirtier, it doesn't seem to smell so much of shit as Tibet did. Oh well, after the last weeks extravagances now we have to get used to budget accommodation again.

Next week: Terracotta Barbie

The great white punters

So if you want Marijuana Nepal is the place to be, it grows like a weed along the streets here and is offered a number of times a night in Thamel. The bushes were particularly noticeable in Chitwan National Park where we have spent the last 3 days south west of Kathmandu, to be more precise we have spent the last 3 days minus 12 hours of bus rides at Chitwan National Park. This park is a bit of an extravagance for Nepal, mainly because it is set on highly prized lowlands where agriculture is comparatively easy compared to the heavy efforts required to grow a crop in the steep highlands. It boasts an impressive array of beasties, ranging from the Big (Elephants and Rhino's) to the small (errr... mosquito's).

We booked a package deal and stayed at the splendid sounding Royal Tiger Safari Lodge, which was actually bloody good, if rather empty. Seems in Nepal that as soon as anyone has a sniff of success then there are immediately 30 competitors offering the same product or service leaving all struggling to survive. Anyway, best food we've had all trip (we had meat, oooh yeeesss), as well as spacious room with lights that went (subject to Grid outages as per usual), ensuite and sit-down toilet! Luxury. Activities, while they sounded pretty cheezy going in, turned out to be good as well. Highlights were chasing rhinos through the jungle on elephants (pretty surreal that was), and the Tharu people cultural program - locals dancing and singing on stage, but not nearly as bad as you would expect from say "an evening of Maori Magic". These blokes had stick dances, twirly fire sticks, peacock pantomime costumes and drag queens - helluva show.

Only dissappointments were not seeing Tigers or Snakes, and to be honest on the jungle walk, after having the correct procedure explained to us for running away from different animals, I was somewhat in the "hope it gets rained off" camp.

Back in Kathmandu for another couple of nights then off to Tibet early Saturday morning.

Return of the Kiwis

This post bought to you by the bedraggled team of monkeys frantically smashing their foreheads against their keyboards to bring the the wondrous WWW to Nepal at break-neck speeds hitherto not seen since the 80's. And not forgetting their associates in the electical supply authority who are generally overtaxed by the task of attempting to keep the grid up for more than an hour and a half at a time in Kathmandu (they are collectively responsible for the lack of piccy's in the following).

We have just returned from our 20 day hike to the bowels of the Himalaya's and back, along the way we have checked off the usual notable destinations; and all learned a valuable moral lesson or two;

1/ If a chick you are trying to impress asks you if you want to get high, make sure you find out exactly what she is talking about before you agree.
2/ Drugs are good, M'Kay?

I kept a diary, but will not go crazy with detail (it bores even me).

We started out badly, a day and a half spent sitting in the Kathmandu Airport waiting for the weather and every other person in the airport to leave first so that we could finally enjoy the last flight to Lukla, gateway to Everest and a pretty scary airport. While waiting I weighed myself at 100kg pre-trip. Nice flight and fun landing (really!) on a short and steeply uphill strip perched at 2800m on a mountainside ridge. Note that tourists are charges several times the Nepali rate for many things; it cost $US35 for Arjun, our guide's flight, we were US$100 each.

Walk in was pretty good, led by Arjun, who is studying for a master's in sociology - financing his uni habit by guiding for the last 9 years. He definitely made life easier by conversing with accomodation and food providers, but a little research would eliminate the need for a guide (though it only costs $20-30 a day to have one). The countryside is a bit like the Alps in Europe but with everthing magnified in scale. Because it's a warm climate (same latitude as florida) all the usual features of alpine environments are similar to what we know in NZ but lifted by 2-3000m. For example the treeline is about 4000m (Mt Cook is 3800m), and there is limited cultivation and farming at 4500m. Walk in to Everest base camp is at low speed, 3-4 hours per day, due to the human body's limited speed of adaption, you can only increase your sleeping altitude by about 300m per night above 3000m without risking serious altitude sickness (which is also where the drugs come in - thank you Diamox, a drug which alters your blood pH to speed adaption, at the cost of huge volumes of urination day and night).

During walk-in we spent a few hours a day slogging up hills, and a lot of time sitting around doing sod all, talking, reading or sleeping. A couple of rest days to acclimatise were included, and they are needed - a very fit dutch based polish couple we met had to turn back when Piotr came down with a bad dose of Alt sickness on second day at 4400m. Pretty disappointing for them after 16 days walking in. Surprised me a bit too as I don't have good lung capacity and am asthmatic but on this trip had no problems other than poor initial physical fitness and fatigue on long hard uphills (probably not eating enough), on one or two days at altitude I was even happier than Jane who is far far fitter than I.

Getting up to the highest point really started to drain us. Apart from planting the flag and bragging rights, above about 4000m really wasn't much fun; Fatigue, poor sleep, monotonous food (cuisine based mainly on potatoes and rice), hard breathing and cold all diminished the appeal, curious were the vivid dreams that everyone seems to get. We did the obligatory jaunt to Everest Base Camp (5360m) and Kala Patthar (5545m) that overlooks the sprawling Base Camp sitting on a glacier at the foot of Everest and affords a decent view of Everest that is otherwise curiously hidden by other mountains for almost all the rest of the trip. 5545m (18100 feet) is above half the world's atmosphere, you have half the avialable O2 in each breath, and after the overhead (literally) of keeping our oversized brains and other ancilliarys going, this leaves sod all for those pesky leg muscles. 5545m is also a 1 minute freefall to the sea level, over a mile higher than Mt Cook (3800m) twice as high as Mt Ruapehu (2800m) and about 3 minutes drive on the motorway. A Bloodly long way up! Everything is an effort at this altitude, and hardest by far for me was the hard 400m climb up the hill of Kala Patthar after a night at 5150m at Gorak Shep.

There were a lot of interesting things to see along the way, the amazing Porters who usually carry 70kg and can carry up to double this! All supported on straps over their foreheads. Saw one or two in bare feet and one fellow scurrying along with the usual load and two completely club feet (like 90 degees). Pretty horrible in some ways to see humans reduced to beasts of burden, but for them it's a job and an income in a country with massive under/unemployment. They compete with but far outnumber the small cattle (Yaks/Naks Male/Female - best to politely decline if offered Yak cheese, but Nak cheese is good - like a hard gouda). And the Yaks showed that yes indeed horns are a prerequisite for all Nepali vehicles.

Birds also amazed me, Goraks? - like a large pheasant living on lichen covered hills at 5500m and the ubiquetous crows everywhere up to and including this altitude. Also telling were the additions of modern technology; micro-hydro power schemes have proliferated (do a good job) but the things that have made the biggest difference to their lives are polyethylene pipe for water reticulation, steel wire for bridges, and modern shoes, clothes and radios. We saw a lot of discarded technocrap like satellite dishes and solar cookers strewn about the place.

I have lost almost all respect for the Everest climbers - physically it might be pretty clever, but it is an incredibly selfish persuit, massively expensive, kills huge numbers of people (so many Sherpa widows), and ignores the needs of families and loved ones who stand to lose so much. Met one American lady who had just heard her husband was still alive after one month out of touch, and a Swiss woman who's boyfriend was trying to drag an armless climber to the top of Everest - this is just ridiculous, lets all just try to get our kicks without needlessly endangering others I say. US70,000 for a climbing permit for six months and a 10-20% chance of dying if you attempt to summit. Twats. I could arrange a roughly equivalent game of Russian roulette for far less.

After a few days at high altitude we were keen to get back down to more manageable heights. So what followed was a quick descent back below 3000m in 3 days and then the loong 7 day walk out to Jiri (bypassing Lukla Airport and the let-your-wallet-do-the-walking set, (I guess this includes us partially), who outnumber the walk-in option probably 50:1). I found this part physically much harder, with some days climb exceeding 1000m and descents as big. Hard on knees and legs with less developed tracks and more primative accomodation. Where we had seen hundreds of tourists per day now we saw only a couple. This area from Lukla to Jiri has been hurt pretty badly by the development of Lukla Airport and the Maoist insurgency of recent years (now ended) with many empty teahouses. They survive on their ridiculously inefficient subsistence agriculture (eg individually cutting the heads off buck wheat, and in more accessible areas threshing it by laying it on roads for buses to run over), but they can only benefit from better road access and infrastructure, something that the current government has been abysmally bad at developing. The tracks and towns are covered in litter at this point, cleanliness is obviously a rich persons luxury, and the Nepali's generally don't give a crap, most common are the two minute noodle wrappers that the porters eat raw.

Finally got to Jiri, had a celebratory beer (first of trip), a night's sleep and then enjoyed the super-express bus ride back to Kathmandu at an average speed of maybe 25km/hr for 7 and a half hours on a major arterial road that would be put to shame by most NZ driveways. We are now decompressing and planning our next excursion. Haven't weighed myself yet but feels like I've lost 5-10kg.

It is definitely interesting times in Nepal, they are in the process of pulling the monarchy's teeth, with elections scheduled soon and the Maoist's look to have lost some of their impetus. On the down side they have the massive problem of excess population to deal with 5-22 million in the last 50 years. And more topically it will be interesting to see if there is any petrol left for us to drive out of Nepal next week after the Indian Oil Corporation cut off Nepal's trucked in supply this week (No trains!!!) for non-payment of bills.

Overall I would say Nepal has a nice climate, not as unpleasantly hot as India and there is incredible potential for hydroelectricity and tourism development, with a lot of English speakers and very low wages, but they will always be dirt poor unless they can get past their religious desire for massive families that is currently producing 3% population growth per year.