Tigers in Thailand
I flew from Katmandu to Kolkatta and after a very enjoyable evening/morning tour of the city I flew straight onto Bangkok in Thailand. It is really really hot here in comparison to Katmandu however the food and the people more than make up for it. I have not set foot in one restaurant yet because the street food is so fantastic, and unlike India and Nepal there are no street touts who follow you around. Maybe it is due to the heat but the people are more relaxed here and very welcoming. I have already been walked over by a thai masseuse ( not entirely relaxing since there was a fair bit of mild pain involved), and have visited the floating markets while sipping fresh coconut.
Today on my first day I decided to follow a friends advice (thanks kev and lisa!!) and visit the tiger temple. This is a Buddist monastery 3 hours west of bangkok where you can pet real live tigers. It was brilliant and I have some fantastic photos which I will upload later this evening. I am hoping to volunteer at the temple since it was such a chilled out place so watch this space.
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Slow Computers
I am back in Kathmandu after successfully Kayaking from Polkara down the Seti River. I was on Polkara's famous lake for 1 day before going down the river which included lever 2 rapids. By the end of it I could perform successful rolls (a very hand skill when you have capsized in the middle of a rapid!).
On Monday I will fly to Kolkatta where I will stay one night before flying on to Bangkok. Owing to troubles with the Nepal / India border and some interesting experiences on over night trains I decided to go to Polkara rather than Kolkatta overland. Still, I am looking forward to my return to India. Even though I don't yet have accommodation there :D
The computer I am on is very slow but hopefully you shall soon see photos from Everest and Polkara.
In other news after arriving in Katmandu I booked and successfully completed the worlds second highest bungee jump. Absolutely terrifying! But I have a video so expect that to turn up at some point over the next few weeks.
Finally if anyone gets the chance to see the Boy in the striped pyjamas film I would really recommend it.
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Polkara, Paragliding, Buses and Bumps
My 22nd birthday was spent in a very different way to my 21st! I caught an early morning bus from Katmandu to Polkara which took approximately 6 1/2 hours through winding mountain roads. These eventually leveled out into rice paddy farms and long winding rivers so the view was pretty spectacular. It was a bit spoilt by the very bumpy road and sheer cliffs, normally I have no problem with living dangerously but our drivers driving left a lot to be desired! Thus is the joy of traveling.
Polkara is the 2nd biggest city in Nepal and is home to one of the worlds highest lakes. Surrounded by the Himalayas it is the end point of the Annapuna circuit so there are lots of trekking groups and tourists around. It is also home to the worlds largest paragliding competition since it apparently has great thermals. This induced me to fly like a bird and take to the skies. However while that was being booked I spent my first full day here making like a fish and swimming in the lake.
Despite my swimming costume (a very fetching matalan number..)I did not attract that much attention from the locals. In India and to a lesser state in Nepal I get stared at alot especially by men, who find me a strange curiousity. While most people would accept that I am a bit odd they at least dont follow me around (as in india) so it is refreshing to have some privacy.
The only problem with swimming in the lake was that I had to eat at one of the lakeside restaurants, which unfortunately at 3 in the morning lead to food poisoning. Yesterday I hardly left my room except to get more water and some dry food (popcorn what a suprise!). Thankfully the lady who runs my hostel is from cornwall and has been keeping an eye on me.
I thought i was on the mend this morning, but a omelete for brekkie and its subsequent return made me reconsider. This small setback did not however stop me paragliding. I took to the skies underneath a giant kite and with the help of a french instructor for over 40 minutes. Skimming over the mountains and with Polkara stretched out below, it was magical but suprisingly noisey. Unfortunately the rapid spinning descent did nothing to help my stomach!
Despite the afternoon thunderstorms I am planning on staying in polkara until the end of this month, then by kayak I will head back to katmandu.
Thanks for all the comments and messages on FB and on www.hannahgreen.net keep them coming and i will upload some piccies soon. Any suggestions for books to read would be greatly appreciated since I am very quickly getting through them and seem to be reading a lot of jackie collins xxx
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Everest base camp
I survived!!!!!
After 12 days of potatoes and popcorn, snow, blizzards and pouring rain I have returned to katmandu after sucessfully climbing everest base camp (5,300 meters) and kallapattar (5,675 meters or 19,000 feet). Needless to say i am pretty wiped out and happy to be back in the land of hot showers and occasional internet. Out of a group of 12 10 of us made it to base camp and 5 of us climbed kallapattar. One of our group was almost helicoptered out after suffering from a HAPE ( high altitude pulmonary edema). Basically his brain swelled :S but thanks to our guides he got safely off the mountain.
It is currently pouring with rain in katmandu, and as a result I am planning on heading overland to polkara in nepal.
I realise this is not a detailed blog but i am very tired and need to sleep.
Still my wasps toothbrush, and titanic headscarf also made it to basecamp :D
xx love you all
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16 hour blackout
At the moment I am in katmandu which is the capital of nepal. Despite the pollution and the hum of petrol generators it is a fantastic city, and the people have been really nice and welcoming. Nepal has been in a state of civil war for the past 20 years or so, as a result its infastructure is very fragile. So despite being the capital city Katmandu has over 16 hours when there is no electricity. This is not too much of a problem during the day, but it did mean that yesterday I waited 3 hours for my food, most of which was spent talking with friends by torchlight in an underground restaurant.
The food was made from scratch and when u have 14 different orders of food and no electric it can take a while :D
My intrepid trip has now finished and i have moved into the main guest house in katmandu. the two norwegians are also staying here and I will be doing a 3 day acclimitisation trek from tuesday onwards. This combined with a lack of power for most of the day means I wont upload many photos for a while ( it takes way too long here). So you will have to wait until I have filled my memory card and posted them back to dave.
Love you all x
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Elephants and Rhinos
At this moment in time I am in an internet cafe in the Chitwan national park in Nepal. So from this post you can assume that they did actually let me into Nepal, and that i have not yet lost anything. (saying that i am not entirely sure where my sun glasses are)
Two days ago when we arrived in Chitwan we went to the elephant breeding centre for the park. The elephants are used to patrol for poachers hence why they breed them. There were twin babies!!! I have a very cute film of them and once I get to Kathmandu I will upload it.
Yesterday we went for a jungle trek through Chitwan which is famous for its endangered tigers and rhinos. We caught a canoe down the river, and after going for about an hour our guides were told about a rhino. We jumped out of the canoes and after 5 minutes found a huge rhino enjoying its brekkie. We got within 5 meters of it before it was spooked and ran away.
About 2 hours later after much walking we started tracking a big rhino. We could see from its footprints that it was probably a big male, our guides made us stick together, walk quietly and eventually hide behind a tree when we got near the rhino. I got some indistinct shots before we hid behind the tree. ( I was wearing a dark pink shirt not the best camofladge but it kept the mossies off). Each of us cautiously peered round the tree with our guides infront of us. My guide mointioned me to move behind him, as i did I saw possibly the biggest rhino i have ever seen! Bigger than any I have seen in Africa standing less than 2 meters infront of me, I was so shocked I let out a little oh (precursor to oh %*&^), before being shoved back behind the tree. Our guides then threw lots of sticks at it as the rhino tried to charge the tree!
It did leave eventually! Still a little scary.
I also washed an elephant today and have got some fab photos but you will just have to wait for them, since I am about to head off on an elephant safari.
love Hannah xx
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Being sick at 70 mph on the sleeper express
As you can guess from the title I have had a fairly rough few days. At the time of my last travel post I was in Orcha which is a 30 min tuk tuk drive from Jhansi (pronounced chan si). This place is about the size of thame but has over 30 temples and castles. It was really really beautiful and the locals where very relaxed and just happy to stare at us :D.
I am currently on an organised tour from Delhi to Katmandu which is run by Intrepid. Intrepid where the first company to start going to orcha which explains why we got such a warm welcome there. They have some really really beautiful ruins and because this place is still not really in any guide book it was not too busy.
We slept in luxury tents with comfy beds, hot showers and the complex even had a swimming pool!!! On our final afternoon we were treated to a cookery demonstration where we had some delicious food ( i have recipies for later). We left Orcha late thursday night, and caught a sleeper train to Allahabad were we would get a connection for a sailing trip on the ganges.
I was luck enough to get the middle bunk, very comfy. Anyway I regretted it at 1 in the morning when I got delhi belly in a major way!! Turns out the cooking demonstration gave me food poisoning ( it did not effect anyone else typical!), and there was nothing i could do about it except get out of my bedding, climb down from my bunk, find my shoes, find my toilet roll and run for the squat toilet.
The funny thing about indian trains is they are literally a hole in the floor! So you can see the railway rushing beneath you. Was not funny at the time but right now it seems hilarious! I continued to be ill until we arrived in the morning at allahabad. Once there I threw up on the train station much to the interest of local people.
Both of the americans on my tour are nurses so they carry practically a walking pharmacy. They dosed me up with lots of medication and I checked myself into the nearest 4 star hotel. Asides from the odd room service for extra water I slept continously for 24 hours and now feel fantastic. The next day I got an air conditioned taxi to Varanarsi where I am now with the rest of my team.
So even when sick I can still find the nearest chicest hotel to whole up in. Tomorrow we get an early morning taxi to the Nepal border, where we go threw the Royal Chitwan National Park before going to Katmandu.
Right now i feel fantastic and cannot wait for my next adventure.
Love H
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Typos and questionsi will explain more about my past few days in the next post, but to just quickly answer some of the questions i have been sent;
What is the night life like? In india alcohol is generally pretty expensive with the exception of beer, which i can't drink. On top of that I have been ill on and off so i have not drank lots. Western women are portrayed as very easy in indian bollywood/ holly wood films so i have had plenty of people ask me for a drink but so far have said no :) Although i am surrounded by westeners on my tour from delhi to katmandu (3 brits, 1 ozzie, 2 dutch, 2 american and 2 vikings who the locals have nicknamed elephants), we do spend most evenings eating and drinking lots of chai or indian tea late into the night.
Have you lost half your head? No but i dont really trust indian taxi wallahs outside the red fort with my camera.
Why can't you spell? There are frequent power cuts in most of the cities i am blogging from e.g I was told today that katmandu has upon average 16 hours of blackouts. Couple this with slow internet and broken delete keys, you must excuse my spelling.
Will there be more photos? Yes but the slow internet connection makes it hard to send them to flickr sometimes.
Are you ok? Having a fantastic time but have been a bit ill read the other post to find out more.
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The Taj and the Train
Well I have seen the Taj Mahal, at sunset the day after valentines day. Not bad going really :D
Since my last post I have unfortunately had a bit of delhi belly, thankfully it is mainly cleared up not and I have strted eating other things than rtice. I am travelling on an intrepid trip with aboiuyt 11 other people and an indian guide called Parul. We caught an early morning train from Delhi to Agra, staying in air conditioned cabins. After a night and a morning at the Taj we caught another train onto Jhansi and then tuk tuks to the small town of Orcha.
The train ride from Agra to Jhansi was hilarious. We travelled in the common compartments and were probably the only white people on the train. Speeding through senic Rajastan we got talking to some of the locals. Apparently in northern india women are given henas for valentines day. It took alot of explaining to explain our own valentines day celebrations. Some of the children on board the train thought we were ghosts!!!
Anyway thank you for all the lovely emails. Tonight i catch a sleeper train to get to the Ganges river. There we will sail up to Vanarsi one of the most holiest places in Hinduism since it is where people go to be cremated into the Ganges.
love H
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