we went for a walk today, to loosen up the old leg muscles that have not seen much hill walking in the past 4 years and it was great to go for a short walk with a small pack.
we did not cover any great distance the key to training is and always will be start small and work your way up to bigger walks increasing the load and pack size let the body adjust first.
so for a first training day it was pretty good!
it was very hot today but all the better a bit of sweat & detox never hurt anyone.
there are over 15000 everest blogs on wordpress so if you are reading mine great.
its all uphill from here see you soon.

Recently I was part of a team that visited ‘Khumbu’ to inspect the impacts of climate change in the Himalayas. We were seven youths from different backgrounds.We visited schools, interacted with locals and treked to Everest basecamp,Kala pather and Imja lake.Personally,I joined the campaign because I wanted to do more than support a rally from inside a car or applaud an effort made for climate change.

The trek was inspiring for me in many ways. I am posting my diaries here and maybe I will do a write up very soon. For now, here are some pictures…

our team at basecamp with Dawa Steven Sherpa

entering khumbu

I slept well yesterday night. ‘Y’ left for the pub and I don’t know when she came back. I didn’t lock the door and wasn’t disturbed. We climbed uphill from Namche to Kumjhong at aroung seven. I climbed a few steps and couldn’t do it. So I bought a ‘Chinese Vista’ shoes for Rs 850.My shoe size is 35-36-37 (the size differs now and then). Well, the vista is sized 40. I left my trekking boots in the shoe shop where I bought the shoes. The owner’s promised us to keep it safely.

I can’t explain how light I felt while walking. The way up hill was exhausting but after that the path took a new turn. It was enjoyable and we walked really slowly. There was a yak farm but there were no yaks.

Khumjong’s beautiful . After lunch, we visited Khumjong High School, initially funded by Edmund Hillary and interacted with students of grade eight, nine and ten.Mahendra Bdr Kathet, the principal was an interesting man. All the other teachers also reminded me of my own Nepali gurus.

Bust of Edmund Hillary at Khumjong school

We are now staying at Sherpa Lodge. The rooms are awesome-double blankets and light bulbs above your head. It’s drizzling outside. Our program coordinator ‘Prashant’ has also arrived and the boys are back on their game of cards.

I also did go to see a doctor at Khunde hospital with ‘Y’, Rajan dai and Khasing.The doctor gave me four files of medicine but I plan to take none.

It’s raining outside. There are a group of American treekers here in the dining hall who have returned from Gorak Sheep. Lucky fellas, they didn’t have to face the bad weather. I have been talking to Kathlyn from the other group. I just hope the weather will be good tomorrow.

We arrived in Delhi shortly before dawn on a red eye flight from London. Bleary eyed we passed through the swine flu check and then the border, then collected our bags before catching a cab to our hotel.

The city was slowly waking as we drove through. The sun was a brilliant red orb seen through the smothering cloak of smog over gray, dusty streets strewn with litter, as people and cows wandered lazily along the road.

We checked into our hotel by about 6:30 am and promptly fell into a light sleep as the clamour of the waking city drifted through the hotel’s window: the daily orchestra of deliveries being made, business deals being done, friends being greeted. After a few hours sleep, we decided it was impossible to resist the pull of the city – her sounds and smells were coming to us whether we liked it or not – so we set off to explore.

That afternoon we were not overly ambitious – we wanted to digest the city slowly. We met with some of my old colleagues from work and were joined by one of them for an afternoon’s snack of pakoras and samosas. Then we wandered through Chawdrey Chowk – a market district crammed with all manner of goods – and competed for pavement space against stray dogs, men carrying large sacks of goods on their heads, laden push carts, and the many bicycle rickshaws that ply their trade in the crowded aisles of commerce.

I wasn’t sure if I liked Delhi with the wild chaos of the streets, the shouting, the constant honking, and the smothering pollution. But I wasn’t sure either that I disliked her either. She was brash but also vibrant. Loud but alive.

The next day we flew to Bagdogra in the Northeast of India. Immediately the air was cleaner and we were surrounded by sprawling tea plantations interspersed with little highways of commerce. Towns and villages rise up here on the side of the road seemingly built out of whatever material was on hand that day.

The plains and its ramshackle villages soon succumbed to the foothills – lush green palms covered the fingers of the hills as the road snaked its way higher.

In all, it was a four and half hour drive to Darjeeling, and our driver honked for at least half of the journey. From what I can see Indian drivers have developed a whole language our of horn honking. There’s a honk for “thank you” (generally two short bursts) a honk for “outta my way” (generally two long honks), a honk for approaching a blind corner (this one has no set formation – it is denoted merely by the presence of a bend in the road), a honk for “hurry up and get back in the jeep” (used by share-jeep drivers, usually long wailing honks with some punctuation continuing until all clients clamber back in the vehicle) and, my personal favorite the “slow down I’m overtaking you,” honk (a couple of blasts on your horn as you sidle pass the vehicle in front of you).

The honking system appears to function relatively well and we arrived safely and without incident in Darjeeling in time for an evening stroll around the laidback city before one of the many power cuts stole the electricity from the streetlights.

Hiking up on the first day of the trek.

After formalities were sorted out with the Wildlife Office and the Office for the Registration of Foreigners our guide, Ram, lead us up a steep trail through forests of fir, pine, oak, rhododendrons and magnolias. We passed innumerable Buddhist prayer flags, the lovely Buddhist monastery at Chitray, and a plethora of huts selling a hot, sweet and milky tea, before arriving at Jaubari – a Nepalese village where the cows, goats, chickens and dogs outnumber the human inhabitants by a ratio of at least four to one.

That night, we stayed in one of the local trekker’s huts and feasted on a meal of vegetable curry, rice, dahl, and local vegetables chased down by a steaming hot mug of sugary tea.

The Himalayas seen from the village of Sandakphu

Subsequent days followed largely the same pattern – a day’s walk through rhododendron forests, with views towards the sleeping giants of the Himalayas. We watched sunrises and sunsets over those mountains as the light rose and dimmed on Everest and the nearby Kachendzonga (third highest mountain in the world). There was something magical seeing the most famous mountain range on earth splayed out in front of us, a fortress of rock, snow and ice.

We meandered back and forth freely between India and Nepal, stopped occasionally by Indian army checkpoints where the resident officers would take a break from a game of badminton or volleyball to register our details. Each day we got brilliant sunshine in the morning followed by a heavy mist in the afternoon. By night, we huddle in all our warm clothes as the temperatures plunged in the unheated trekker’s huts that were part shelter, part refrigerator.

At the end of the fifth day we caught the daily sharejeep from Rimbick back to Darjeeling – a 53-km journey that took over five hours. Our trekking guide Ram helped us negotiate that experience and his assistance there was more useful than his navigational prowess on the trail. With Ram’s help, Jeff and I were among the first to be ushered into the jeep and we watch bewildered as person after person piled into the vehicle after us. There were babies in that jeep with us and old women, young women and farmers taking their goods to market, and a few other wide-eyed Western tourists like us. Backpacks and sack of vegetables were thrown up on the top of the vehicle as were the young men who couldn’t quite fit inside the jeep.

In total we counted 19 people inside the jeep, which was only designed to accommodate 11 (or 12 including the driver). On the roof at any given time there were at least three men, holding on for dear life. The jeep strained under the weight of all those bodies and bags we lurched slowly down the steep and windy mountain road towards the valley floor.

We arrived back in Darjeeling late and spent the next day exploring its sites – watching monkeys eat prayer flags on Observatory Hill, tea tasting at Happy Valley Tea Plantation, and a visit to the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, where you can see the gear used by Tenzig Norgay during his successful 1953 Everest expedition with Sir Edmund Hillary.

The next morning we were up early to catch our taxi to Sikkim in preparation for our next trek – up the Goecha La Pass, 5000m up one of the highest mountains on earth.

Heya ppl. Your friendly neighbourhood wide eyed cyclist  offering another update on Project: Carbonize My Ride!!! I swear I made the biggest newbie mistake ever… *groan*

So here I was bringing my bike and frame (picture cycling on 1 bike, with the frame <handlebars n forks all attached> slung across my back. Wasn’t pretty…) to Soon Seng to swap the parts over. And horror of all horrors, the mechanic told me that my front derailleur bracket that was attached to the carbon frame was a braze-on version, while the 0ne coming off my Merida was a clamp on version. So it can’t be done without me getting a new braze on front Derailleur, and he didn’t have any. So I had to cycle home (again, not pretty) thoroughly defeated and disheartened by the experience… Was super damn sad, but my never-say-die attitude kicked in..

This time, I decided to send my bike into another bike shop… Rodalink in the east. Rodalink is the distributor of Shimano parts… so I figured that if they didn’t have the ability to get the part, who did? So happily (this time I used my car and bike rack) I drove down to Rodalink to get a 2nd opinion…

Basically, the 2nd opinion was the same as the 1st. Cept that these guys could actually order the part in… which could take anything from a week to 3 months. On its own, a braze-on derailleur doesn’t seem hard to find, but I needed a braze-on derailleur for a TRIPLE crankset. Now, THAT is hard to get… By this time, I had almost given up hope and so just agreed to leave my frame (Got confirmation from the Rodalink mechanic who was V experienced in frame from the 90s that my carbon frame’s actually a Trek carbon from ‘95… woohoo…) at the shop and wait for the parts.

So now I’m going to play the waiting game and wait for the part to come in while cycling on my heavy assed Merida bike for now…. Its the *grumble* engine that counts anyway…*grumble grumble*

*New update: I’m gonna call up all the major shops in Singapore to check for the part. Finger’s crossed for the part 4!!! Hopefully I can wrap this one up by then!!

*Anyone out there with a kind heart and a good soul that has a Braze-on Front Derailleur for a Triple Crankset to donate?? Please?? Leave your contact details in the comments section if you have anything at all…

This is looking to be quite an epic topic…

Something really funny happened last night. I couldn’t get any sleep. We must have gone to bed around nine. I was asleep until 10:30. Then I woke up with a sore throat. I felt as if I had eaten sand. I waited and waited for the feeling to go away but it didn’t. All I longed for was a glass of hot water.It was cold, I didn’t want to get out of bed.Outside, dudkoshi in all its beauty kept gurgling and was company. There was also a water sprinter in the kitchen garden outside my window that kept buzzing. I tossed and turned.I couldn’t swallow or even breathe. Finally at 1:30 a.m I gathered all my spirits and tiptoed down the hallway.

Well, the hallway was a nice one and with each step you took the lights automatically turned on.So I felt as if I was enacting a scene from a movie. I walked down the hallway to the kitchen. Luckily the kitchen door was open and I walked in like a cat. I couldn’t think of turning on the lights. I fumbled around in the darkness and caught hold of a cup. Then I located the thermoses.I poured in one to find out it was ‘milk tea’. I emptied it and took hold of another thermos. It was hot water. I filled my cup and tiptoed back to my room. I gulped the water slowly, opened the curtains slightly, observed the water sprinter and the camp tents and spent the rest of the night. Later, I remembered what had kept me awake-the tumbler of coffee I had drunk in ‘Y’s company.So I promise myself no more coffee. I don’t really enjoy drinking coffee. In face I hate coffee. I only like the ‘idea of drinking coffee’.

We had breakfast at Phakding and started our journey to Monzu. There were two above sixty year old ladies walking ahead of us and it was encouraging enough for me to keep walking.I had also given all the heavy items in my bag to ‘Y’, so it was no problem.We lunched at singer ‘Mingma Sherpa’s house. The food was great and the place is run by his sister. She was kind enough to show me around the house. Mingmas song was playing in the dining hall. It was a remixed version,not bad at all.

The more than a hundred feet tall stream in Toc-toc was gorgeous.

At Toc-toc

just another view of Toctoc stream

While crossing the bridge from toc-toc two Americans noticed our banner and wished us luck.They are the only friendly foreigners I have met so far. At the khumbu tourist centre, an official asked us to stop after we had entered the gates. “Didi! Tapaiko kuire ko ticket khoi ta?he came up to ‘Y’ and questioned. We laughed him off and told him I was not a foreigner.’Ah! I thought you were a tourist and ‘y’ was your guide’ he retorted and walked away. All along the way people have been mistaking me for a foreigner. I don’t know why? Maybe it’s because of my boots.

first views

first view....

horse on the run

stone stream

We reached Namche in about four hours. My boots have been hurting me really bad. So I went around searching for a pair of light, cheap sports shoes. I found none. A branded north face shoes was priced around 2,500 rupees and since I wasn’t carrying any money I let it go.The weather was chilly as we roamed around the tibetan market. I kept sniffing all the while due to my sore throat and suddenly started feeling home sick.

At the moment I am sitting in front of the stove . On the table next to me, there’s a lady who’s quietly reading a book. The guys are playing cards in another corner of the room.The old lady and I are the only quiet ones in the room. I can’t help thinking if this is how I will end up old. I am ill. I don’t want any dinner, only good sleep.

A group of Spaniards in another table are making so much noise , you could mistake them for school children. I envy their fun. But at the moment I feel ill, my nose is running and all I want is some sleep.

P.S: I can’t explain how sad I am to have lost those Namche pictures. It grieves me but it’s my own doing. They might have been lost but I remember each one and can’t help replaying them over and over.

Dette er filmen der viser kaptajn James Kirks tidlige dage i Starfleet. Hele filmen starter med at Kirks far dør, da han ofre sig selv og sit skib for at han besætning kan slippe væk fra et ukendt skib, som senere viser sig at komme fra fremtiden. 20år senere er Kirk kommet i træning for at komme med i Starfleet, han er dog ikke så god til autoriteter, og snyder for at kunne vinde i en test, der ellers er mulig at klare, på grund af dette får han ikke lov til at komme ombord på skibene da Vulcan pludseligt bliver angrebet. hans ven som er læge, der får han med. Kirk tager nu afsted på sin første tur med USS Enterprise.
Jeg vil egentlig ikke sige så meget mere da jeg nemt vil komme til at sige for meget så, men kan bare sige at hans første tur ikke er nem, og at han slet ikke på dette tidspunkt er gode venner med Spock, Og at han skal kæmpe imod dem som er indehavere af skibet fra fremtiden, som er et “miningship”, hvilket på dansk betyder at de suger “energi” ud af planeter.
Det er en ganske udmærket film, som man sagtens kan se selvom man ikke har set de andre, især fordi det jo er forhistorien, så den går ikke ud fra at man kender personerne inden. Den skal have 4/5 stjerner

Ditlev

“Some experiences are life changing”-it’s a cliche. Today I say it and I mean it. I am hanging my boots but I know the memories of Khumbu will haunt me forever. The trek to ‘Everest Base camp’ was beyond my imagination. I never thought I would remember it with so much nostalgia and now that I do I realize how inspirational it was.. I will write about the thirteen day trip and more but for now I must relish in the memories of ‘Dur khema’….

P.S:Thanks to everyone who thought I would make it to Everest Base Camp and those who didn’t.

I Recommend….

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Nepal Travel Tour Packages with Information.

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Kathmandu Pokhara Chitwan Tour Package.

Kathmandu to Pokhara Tour & Chitwan Jungle Safari
This 10 day Kathmandu to Pokhara Tour and Chitwan Jungle Safari is a well designed tour program that gives you excellent opportunities to see and experience the sites and sound of ancients cultures to present day cultures of Nepal.

While in Pokhara, you will enjoy seeing the most extraordinary views of the Annapurna Himalayan range and the surrounding valleys. On the cultural side, you will closely experience the Nepalese way of life both in the cities and in the rural areas throughout the tour. Then, in Chitwan Jungle park, you will enjoy elephant safari through the jungle to see wildlife and indulge yourself at the comfort of luxury at our best choice of resort with swimming pool.
Highlight of Pokhara:
Pokhara is an extraordinary landscape and one of the most attractive destinations in Nepal. The treasures of Pokhara include the tranquillity of Phewa Lake, spectacular views of Annapurna Himalayan range and Mount Machhapuchhare (6,977 m), luscious green hills, terraced farm slopes, countless species of vegetation, rushing rivers in a tropical-like environment. Pokhara is, since ancient times, the traditional export center for trade with India and Tibet. Merchants from remote Himalayan regions of Nepal, such as Muktinath and Mustang still come here with mule trains.
The Gurungs and Magars are the aboriginal inhabitants and remain the majority in the hill regions. But the urban population is now made up of diverse ethnic groups seeking employment opportunities. The Gurungs and Magars have reputation as hardworking farmers and valorous warriors who have earned worldwide fame as Gurkha soldiers.

This calm city of Pokhara serves as a base camp for trekking and rafting trips through the regions of Annapurna and Western Nepal. Baidam on the southeastern end of Phewa Lake and is dominated by restaurants, bars, hotels and shops, is the gathering place for travelers in the western regions of Nepal. The island temple of Barahi is accessible from Baidam by dug out canoes. This two-storied pagoda is dedicated to the Hindu goddess Ajima. On Saturdays, devotees paddle across the lake carrying live animals for sacrifice.

Bindhyabasini Mandir is a local Hindu temple on the northeast of Phewa Lake in the vicinity of the Old Bazaar. It is dedicated to Goddess Bhagwati. Devotees perform animal sacrifices and have picnics in the courtyard on Saturdays. The Old Bazaar area is still the commercial hub of merchants from the remote Himalayas while Phewa Lake site is a pleasure spot for holiday maker from around the world!
Trip Facts of Kathmandu Pokhara Chitwan Tour Package :

Itineraries of Kathmandu Pokhara Chitwan Tour Package

Please note that:
1. Airfare is included in the tour price.
TOUR COST INCLUDES:
All hotel accommodations in Kathmandu and Pokhara at 4-5 star hotels based on a twin sharing and half-board basis,full board in Chitwan Jungle, two half to full day Kathmandu Valley sightseeing tours, all tour activities as mentions in the itinerary, one way airfare to Pokhara, luxury resort accommodation in Chitwan Jungle with jungle safari activities, monument and park entrance fees, all ground transportation within Nepal to and from start and end points of tours, all meals during the trek, Nepalese staff insurance, transfers to and from airport to hotel.
TOUR COST DOES NOT INCLUDE:
Visa fees, international airfares, airport departure tax, dinners while in Kathmandu and all dinners in Pokhara, personal clothing, personal insurance, alcoholic beverages, telephone, and laundry.

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** zapraszam na relacje z wypraw polskich himalaistów.

zapraszam do subskrypcji mego bloga

more about “Backcountry trek to study Rocky Mount…“, posted with vodpod

At the risk of sounding arrogant, I have to say that I have one of the coolest jobs in the world. I work as the science writer for CIRES, the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences. My job doesn’t stop at writing about science. Being a photographer and multimedia producer play equal parts.

In this instance, I got to hit the trail with Jimmy McCutchan and Tommy Detmer, a couple of CIRES scientists studying the effects of fish introductions on formerly fishless lakes of Rocky Mountain National Park. Fish were introduced to support fly fishing from the 1800s until the 1960s. Now the National Park Service is working with CIRES to find out what’s happened to those lakes, knowledge that may help guide future management.

Their study also isn’t a bad way to work a little fly fishing into your science.

You can learn more about CIRES science at cires.colorado.edu, or check out the CIRESvideos channel on YouTube.com.

36 Weeks to 50

Wow!

Well for the past month,  I have been on the adventure of my life.   My husband Kevin and I travelled to Nepal to Trek to Everest and spend time with the girls we save from Contract Bonded labour.   And all I can say is Nepal was not what I was expecting.  After a 32 hour adventure of planes, trains and airports,  we arrived in Kathmandu at 11pm on a Thursday night.  Our good friend and NGO director Dinesh Sapkota picked us up at the airport and derived us to our hotel.  We were up by 6am to get ready to leave for Lukla (the small village where you begin your trek to Everest)

The landing strip in Lukla is one of the shortest and highest altitude in the world.  It is also the steepest, which helps because it’s the shortest.  We hook up with our porter (the Man who will be carrying our bags) Jelging and away we go.  Kevin, Dinesh, Wangchuk (our guide) and his brother Jelging (our porter).  The 5 of us become fast friends.

Day 1-4  We hike through a very lush, green and garden laden part of the trip.  It is beautiful and parts of it are very steep.  Our last 3 hour up to Namche is pretty much straight up and we get our first glimpse of Everest from 2 different spots on the trail.   We arrive at Namche about 3pm, ready for a beer or something. We are now at about 11,000 feet.  What I can’t seem to get used to is the bodily function noises most of the Nepalese men make.  Lots of snorting, and spitting.   And lots of smells…

After dinner, we play cards for a while and hit the hay by 8pm. 

We spend the next day doing a 600 meter day hike up and then back down to Namche to help with acclimatization. 

Day 4 we hiked to a famous small little village where there is a  large Monks Monastery. The first half of this hike was easy and the second half was again, pretty straight up.  I am now starting to get headaches.  And as we arrive, we find out they are preparing for a famous Monks festival.  So we get to see some of the ceremonies.  We stay in a VERY Modest (I’d say primitive)  tea house.  So I have to do lots of talking to myself to handle it.  I even have a moment when I realize I am not as tough as one should be for a trip like this one.  Ahhh,  the Linda ‘princess syndrome’ is showing it’s face.

Day 5 Up at 6am,  and off we go to climb another 500 meters to a small town called Dingbouche.  I am starting to get headaches again.  I take a short nap to try and get it to go away.  We have tea and dinner and once again hit the hay by 8pm. 

(here is where I feel we make our hiking mistake)  We should have stayed one more night to acclimatize a bit better.

Day 6 I slept really well here.  Kevin is still not sleeping.  He has not slept for 5 nights now.  They say you start to get crazy dreams when you are in high altitudes,  I dreamt last night that Al Pachino was the master mind behind the 9-11 disaster.  I think he needs to play a few more nice guy roles…

We hike up yet another 500 meters to  Labouche.  And once again the second half of the day was straight up.  When I reach the top of this hard ridge,  we are at the place where many memorials have been built to honour hikers and climbers who have died on these trails.  And there are many.  Kevin and I have a photo taken in front of Scott Fisher’s memorial.  He is the expedition leader of the Everest Summit team that experienced so much tragedy back in 1996.  The book “Into Thin Air” was written about that event.

Here is also when my “BAD” Altitude Sickness really kicks it up a notch.   I am not doing so well now.  As my head feels like it’s going to explode! And I mean literally.  It’s like the worst red wine hangover you many have ever had.   I guess that’s what they mean by swelling of the fluids on your brain. 

Day 7 Kevin has been up since 2am,  with diarrhea and vomiting.  These are also part of the “Altitude Sickness”  And to think we paid for this for  our holidays.  The temperature in our room is about -15 degrees Celsius.  And the entire place we are staying in smells like an outhouse.  It’s tough to say the least. 

Up at 8am,  and we decide to spend a few more hours seeing how we feel to try and make a decision on whether we should spend the day and try and acclimatize or go down.  I leave this decision up to Kevin as this is his dream.  So at around 10 am that morning, after Kevin reflected on helping a man into a helicopter the day before who was unconscious from Altitude Sickness, he decided we need to go down and try and get better.  That was a long, cold, windy, and very silent day let me tell you.

 More Everest and Nepal in my Next Instalment.

Linda

Cheers!

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Sunrise at Mundajje

I had tough time porting 8 sleeping bags and 2 tents plus my backpack from my office to the Majestic bus terminal. Thanks Srushti and KD for offloading a few. The Rajahamsa left on time without Cuba and Hemanth, who boarded it running haphazardly at the exit of the terminal.

We filled up the last 1/4th of the bus. As usual soft targets were in the firing range with KD, Hemanth, Cuba and myself taking turns at the trigger. Benjamin was busy watching some soap in his ipod. We had to bring down the noise levels whn rest of the passengers looked annoyed. After a small tea break at kamat’s in Hassan, the bus took us to Ujire nonstop. At the end of the journey, I along with Cuba was sitting on the engine bonnet and bus driver was very enthusiastic in informing us about the places nearby and how adventurous he was during his childhood. The bus dropped us at Ujire by 6:30AM.

Narayan gowda's house

Narayan gowda(NG) was standing outside his old fashioned antique looking yet majestic house( reminded me of my Granny’s house). He asked us to get refreshened and leav asap and the guide(not one, but 2! – He had called another fellow as backup!) was already waiting for us. NG’s wife came out with their grand daughter Tanvi and girls set busy playing with the baby. NG went on to explain that he is a member of zilla panchayat and has plans to come up with a trek guide with trails in the surrounding areas to promote adventure. We appreciated his effort and bid goodbye and started our trek on a trail that begins right beside his house.

Stream no less than a waterfall

Grasslands - Finally, the No leach zone

Arbi(Bandajje) falls - front view

Benjamin , Sangram and Poonam had gone well ahead of us and we started very late after lunch.The uphill trek continues even in the grasslands and one can see the head of the Bandajje waterfall after about an hour of trek. We found some shade under a tree and rested for an hour or so( No water). The discussions and topics in that one hour was one of the most fun filled times in my trek life!!(@Srushti, Bindu, KD, Saritha, Cuba and Hemanth: I’m too much tempted to write! but, i’ll hold on ) Its only when someone stopped laughing – after a good one hour or so, that we realized we are far behind an d the guide was waiting for us a KM away under the hot Sun.

Bandajje falls - Breadthtaking top view!

Razor edge!

Sunset as seen from Bandajje waterfall

Mesmerizing!

Bonfire!

Chanda maama

Green carpet welcome

Ballarayana Durga

Come Sunday morning, we could not afford to be lazy. We had to leave early and it is not so easy to pull people out of water when they are in playing mood. We had to smother a few, threaten the rest before everybody were set to start. The trek continued in the grassland. It was very sunny and we could spot Elephant dung everywhere. After crosing a few hills, we could see the Ballarayan durga fort a sweet 3 hills further. I paced up along with Benjamin, Bindu and Srushti while the rest were far far behind. On reaching the base of the hill on which the fort stood, we could see a gunman and another fellow. They had disappeared when we reached the fort though. (There was another group who had come from sunkasaale just to visit the fort – They had a gunman too! )

Watch tower

Little wall of ballarayana durga

The fort is a ruin. There is nothing inside apart from a compound. It looks like a small wall of china . There is a watch tower which gives 360 degree view of the surroundings. The place offers breathtaking view of western ghats and the green carpeted mountains are just mind boggling!

The GANG

Temple at the base of the hill

We had our bus booked at 9:30 from Horanadu. Since we had wnough time, we booked 2 rooms to freshen up and visited the famous Annapoorneshwari Temple. We had the prasadam dinner at the temple hall and boarded the bus on time. (Just on time, as 4 poeple went missing and the rest had tough time finding them!)

The bus dropped us in Bangalore Majestic bus terminal by 6:30 and we all parted promising to meetup on a dinner someday the same week. And, we DID. Had a rocking time, AGAIN!

Summary:

* There are two possible routes: Mudajje – Bandajje falls – Ballarayandurga fort – Sunkasaale in that order OR in reverse order. I do not suggest reverse order as it takes out the fun and beauty of the route.

*Take a bus from bangalore to Ujire (All Kundapur bound buses ply this route)

*Jeeps are available from Ujire to Narayangowda’s house. Call him up well in advance and know the weather conditions, rainfall and guide availability.

*For the return journey, book Horanadu – bangalore 9:30 PM bus. One can reach Horanadu comfortably from Sunkasaale. About 32kms. KSRTC buses ply this route from 4:30PM to 5:30PM (around 3 buses)

*camp just beside the Bandajje falls. There is a small campsite where one can pitch 3 tents.

*On the 2nd day, Leave the campsite as early as possible. One can enjoy the mist filled meadows on the way to fort. It gets really hot later.

*Carry fire crackers (Helps scare elephants away)

*carry enough water. Only water resource – Bandajje waterfalls.

God, isn’t that like the best title for a blog entry ever?  I think so.

I was also thinking about what the differences are between the United Federation of Planets and the United Federation of Awesomeness.

One difference?  Kurtwood Smith is still the President, only he’s more like Red Foreman than an alien.  Also, there is a chocolate planet within their borders.  It’s exactly what it sounds like too.  A planet made of chocolate.

But a huge difference is the in the weaponry of the ships.  The torpedoes, well, they pack a little more of a punch.  They do this in order to give me a reason to post this picture.

There ya go.

Lhasa to Everest Base Camp – Trek with Himalayan Planet.

Everest Base camp tour from the Tibet site is one of the most hidden, beautiful and untamed place in the world with its rich culture with hundreds of Monastery and chorten can be seen during your whole trip to Tibet that is starting to emerge from centuries of isolation.

Tibet – Mysterious land of Himalaya

Tibet is a spiritual land which is a culturally, religiously, ethnically, linguistically and geographically distinct region located to the north of the Nepal and India. Tibet was once an independent kingdom and since 1951, when China invaded Tibet; it has been fully incorporated into the Peoples Republic of China. Tibet is rewarded by the largest and highest plateau of the World with an average elevation of 4,900 meters referred as roof of the world. Tibet is a home to the indigenous Tibetan people and it has unique Buddhist culture, spiritual land, magnificent wildlife, and giant peaks are the main attraction of the Tibet.

Tibet is the Shangri-La for travelers and has many interesting part to visit as Lhasa city, the capital of Tibet including famous Potala palace, Shigatse is an another attraction with Tashilhunpo Monastery and the fort, Everest base camp has its own meaning for adventures including Shakya monastery and rongbuk, Mt. Kailash and Lake Mansarovar are the popular destination for pilgrimage tours and many beautiful lakes as Yamdo-Tso, Namtso can be seen during the Tibet visit. We organize all the tours, treks and expedition in Tibet and Himalayan Planet Adventures P. Ltd. dedicated to make your wonderful holiday during your Tibet travel.

Lhasa to Everest Base Camp Tour – 12  Days.

This trip aims to introduce you to wonderful and colorful city of Lhasa with exotic ancient mysteries and wild beauty of Tibet and make the journey to the Base Camp of the highest peak in the world, Mt. Everest. During the visit you’ll experience some of the highlights of this spiritual land and its traditions, its awesome landscapes, ancient trade routes, mysterious nomadic peoples, revered monasteries and seats of power, spiritual wonders and timeless legend and splendor. You’ll achieve one of the world’s ultimate highs when you arrive at and explore Everest Base Camp (EBC) and you’ll have plenty of time to rest, relax and enjoy your journey as you travel through stunning and diverse landscapes from the high Tibetan plateau to the lush jungle lowlands and foothills of Nepal.

Outline Itinerary

Day 01: Arriving in Lhasa Day 02: Visit Norbulinka, Sera and Jokhang Day 03: Visit Potala and Dreprung Monastery Day 04: Drive from Lhasa to Gyantse Day 05: Drive from Gyantse to Shigatse Day 06: Drive from Shigatse to Shegar Day 07: Drive from Shegar to Rongbuk Day 08: Explore Everest Base camp Day 09: Drive from Rongbuk to Zhangmu Day 10: Drive from Zhangmu to Kathmandu Day 11: Leisure at Kathmandu Day 12: Departure from Kathmandu

Detail day to day itinerary

Trip Cost Includes

Trip Cost Does Not Includes

• Chinese Visa US$45.00, for American US$128.00 (Can be arranged from Kathmandu)
• Nepal entry visa fees
• Intl. airfare (Kathmandu to Lhasa can be arranged on request US$ 376.00)
• All departure taxes
• Excess baggage charges
• Lunch and dinner in Tibet & Kathmandu
• Travel and rescue insurance
• Personal expenses e.g. phone calls, laundry, bar bills & extra porters
• Tips for driver and guide
• Any extending trips
• Services doesn’t includes in service inclusive column

* BOOK THIS TRIP

**Source : – http://www.himalayanplanet.com/

We wish you a wonderful Himalayan experience with us!!

** Previous story : – Trekking

** zapraszam na relacje z wypraw polskich himalaistów.

zapraszam do subskrypcji mego bloga

To most people the idea of cycling the gruelling yet iconic 874 miles route between Lands End and John O’Groats is a major achievement. While it was exactly that, for me cycling the length of the UK is warm up for a challenge on an altogether bigger scale. My plan in a nutshell is in March 2012 to Cycle Around the World in 100 Days, this means pedalling a minimum of 18,000 miles in all and approaching 200 miles per day.

To give you some comparison the current record stands at 176 days and I think the average daily mileage was about 110-120 miles. So why do I think I can almost cut this record in half? It is built on my philosophy; You can Achieve anything if you are willing to mind to it. When I say this I don’t mean positive thinking, I mean specific level headed planning, preparation and precise execution.

With this challenge I want to spark peoples imagination, expand what they think they are capable of, provoke there thoughts and belief’s about themselves, push themselves further and this is not just on a physical level but on a mental, financial, social, vocational, spiritual and familial level.

As promised, here is the second installment of Barkerville CEO Judy Campbell’s travel blog from the People’s Republic of China.  More to follow….

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November 11 and 12 – Kaiping

Later in the afternoon we visited the Ruishi Diaolou, which was built in 1923.  The Kaiping Diaolou have been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site and this nine-story tower is considered to be one of the best examples.

The diaolou are fortified multi-story towers, generally made of reinforced concrete.  These towers are located mainly in Kaiping County.  Kaiping and its neighbouring counties of Enping, Taishan and Xinhui are collectively known as the “Four Counties” (and it was from these four counties that many of the Chinese labourers to North America, Australia, and Southeast Asia originated).

The first towers were built during the early Qing Dynasty.  Reaching a peak in the 1920s and 1930s, there were more than three thousand of these structures in existence.  Today, approximately 1,833 diaolou remain standing in Kaiping, and approximately 500 in Taishan.  Although the diaolou served mainly as protection against forays by bandits, a few of them also served as living quarters.

Kaiping has traditionally been a region of major emigration abroad, and a melting pot of ideas and trends brought back by overseas Chinese.  As a result, many diaolou incorporate architectural features from China and from the West.

In 2007, UNESCO named the Kaiping Diaolou and Villages as a World Heritage Site.  UNESCO wrote: “The Diaolou … display a complex and flamboyant fusion of Chinese and Western structural and decorative forms.  They reflect the significant role of émigré Kaiping people in the development of several countries in South Asia, Australasia, and North America during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and the close links between overseas Kaiping and their ancestral homes.  The property inscribed here consists of four groups of Diaolou, totaling some 1,800 tower houses in their village settings.”

Ruishi Diaolou, located behind Jinjiangli Village, Xianggang Township.

Ruishi Diaolou

Constructed in 1923, it has nine floors and is the highest diaolou at Kaiping.

It features a Byzantine style roof and a Roman dome.

Because the diaolou were mainly built with money from “overseas Chinese” (Chinese who emmigrated to places like Barkerville to make money) they are of special interest to us.  Did any of the Chinese in Barkerville send money home to build a diaolou?  We don’t know at this point,but perhaps future research will reveal a link.

On Thursday morning we visited another of the key sites on the UNESCO list – LiYuan Gardens. This was an extensive villa including two diaolou towers, again featuring a blend of Eastern and Western architectural styles, all surrounded by traditional Chinese gardens.  A beautiful and tranquil setting.  The traditional covered walkway along the canal featured incredible plaster reliefs of plant, bird and animal life – some native, some exotic.

Next we visited Chikan, a town dating back to the early Qing Dynasty (about 350 years ago).  Here a street of buildings dating from the late 19th and early 20th century and built by overseas money has been preserved.  Chikan is also famous because Jackie Chan filmed a movie here.  This is also the site of the Quan family library.  Here Senator Dyck was presented with a copy of the geneology of the Quan family.

Then back to Kaiping for lunch.  Have I mentioned the food here?  So far every lunch and dinner has been banquet style.  Breakfasts are included in the room, and consist of extensive buffets of Chinese, European, and North American breakfast foods.

The banquets follow a common format.  We are greeted by our hosts (often the local government) and seated around a large round table with a ‘lazy Susan’ in the centre.  Hot wash clothes for washing hands are given on a small tray to our left.  There is usually a small plate and one or two small bowls with Chinese spoons, and a set of chop sticks on a bridge.  The meals consist of ten to twelve courses, usually starting with a soup.  Each course is served to us individually on a small plate.  It is much like eating Spanish tapas.

Here is an example of one of our lunches which was less formal, with no host or speeches because we were en route between Kaiping and Jaingmen:

1.   Soup made from two types of almonds in a quail broth

… one almond from northern China, one almond from the South.  Delicious.

2.   BBQ pork skins

… to make your skin glow.

3.   Bite-sized quail meat

… like Cornish game hen.

4.   Beef ribs in pepper sauce

… cut Maui style.

5.   Prawns with brocolli and linquinni

6.   Lemon pork ribs with pineapple

7.   Sea bass with scallop on rice vermicelli

8.   Bok choi and white fungus steamed in chicken broth

9.   Dumplings filled with onions and corn along with a spongecake

10. Watermelon and oranges

… the fruit course is always the last course.

All the food is delicious, although the fish tends to be very boney and hard to eat and the shells are left on the prawns, making it very hard to maneuver with chopsticks!  The only issue is volume – we are not going to loose any weight on this trip!  At some of the banquets large dishes were placed on the ‘lazy Susan’ and we just helped ourselves.  I preferred this because I could make sure I didn’t eat too much.

In Jiangmen we had our last meal with the Quan family.  Bill and I will be staying in Jiangmen for the next two days to make a presentation to Wuyi University, while Lily and the Quan family are returning to Guangzhou to attend the opening of the Guangdong Overseas Chinese Museum.

But more about that in my next, and final, installment.

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Stay tuned for the next exciting installment of Judy and Bill’s historic trek to China!

For thousands of years the Himalayas have been a refuge for seekers of relaxation and inner peace. Due to its remoteness the Tsum Valley has remained such an oasis of quietness and recreation up to the present time, a hidden spot where it is easy to forget the hectic and the turmoils of our daily life.

This serene valley in the north of Gorkha is situated under the impressive backdrop of the mighty Buddha Himal and its towering peaks Himal Chuli (7‘823m) in the west, Ganesh Himal (7‘429m) in the south and Sringi Himal (7‘187m) in the north and is carrying a long history of ancient Himalayan civilization styles; culture, art, tradition, religion, customs and thinking.

Tsum is one of the eight “sacred” valleys (Beyuls) in the inner Himalaya and owes its genesis to the Buddhist saint “Padmasambhava”. According to the legend he created these “beyuls” in the 8^th century as safe havens for people fleeing from the effects of war, famine and religious oppression. In these valleys the Buddhist culture has remained in its traditional form up to the present days and its religious values and the lost way of life have been preserved here for generations.

In and around the Tsum Valley

The Tsum Valley has been opened to tourists only in October 2007 and since then its well kept numerous historic monuments can be admired by interested visitors in their original forms.

Once you reach the first settlement in Upper Tsum you get the impression of entering into a new world. Decorative stone built settlements, crystal clear streams, massive forests, cultivated fields and magnificent snow covered peaks characterize this small and beautiful valley. The route through the Tsum Valley takes trekkers along the old “Nepal – Tibet” caravan path to Mu Gompa, the last inhabited settlement in the valley. Mu Gompa features two important monasteries, the 1895 AD established Mu monastery and the oldest monastery in the valley – Dephyudonma – which was founded about 700 years ago.

The trail through the Tsum Valley is dotted with many mani walls, chortens and kaanis (gateway chortens). Chortens are distinctive features of the Tsum Valley which were built to keep away evil spirits from important places like river confluences or bridges and to commemorate the visits of historic figures or the death of important personalities and lamas. Kaanis are the typical gateway chortens which can be found at the entrance of most villages and it is expected that everybody walks through them. Many walls are long stone walls decorated with important mantras (words/formulas of spiritual significance) whose main purpose is to ask the gods for the wellbeing and the protection of all travelers.

In the higher areas of the Tsum Valley and closer to the snow clad mountains and frozen glaciers the more adventurous visitors can follow a number of attractive pilgrimage trails and explore the high alpine landscape on the border of Tibet.

The Tsum Valley – A World Apart

The Tsum Valley is an ideal spot to escape the hectic of everyday’s life. Here people still live in complete harmony and in perfect unison with nature. In this remote and poor valley there is for example no slaughter of animals not even as offering to the gods, a religious procedure otherwise still practiced in many parts of this country. It is also the custom for each family in Tsum to send one child to the local monastery to become a monk or a nun.

Monasteries are therefore the outstanding landmarks in this forlorn valley. Rachen Gompa is the largest monastery in Tsum and is inhabited by monks and nuns. Its life size statues of Avalokiteshvara (Lord of Infinite Compassion), Guru Padmasambhava (Founder of the Tibetan Buddhism), Tara (The Holy Mother) und Buddha Amitabha (Lord of Infinite Light) are the main attractions in this important Buddhist learning center. Besides these statues visitors can also admire a large number of traditional paintings with scenes and symbols of classical Buddhism.

The “Piren Phu Caves” (pigeon caves) located in the village of Burji are considered to be the most important caves in the valley. They are of great spiritual significance and also called Milarepa caves after the great Buddhist Yogi Milarepa (The Yogi of Tibet) who is supposed to have meditated here for a while and whose “footprints” have been preserved in these caves. The Milarepa cave is probably the largest and best known cave in the district of Gorkha. Attached to the cave are also two monasteries which house again life size statues of Avalokiteshvara, Buddha, Tara and Milarepa.

Kyiumulung is the sacred and mysterious Buddhist pilgrimage trail in the mountains around the Tsum Valley. The trail goes along the Nepal-Tibet border and is passing through various important pilgrimage sites. On the 30 days pilgrimage the more than 5’000m high Lajyang Bhanjyang and Thapla Banjyang passes are crossed and the settlements of Chhekam, Philim, Sirdibas, Dyang, Bihi, Namrung and Loh in Nepal and Rui Gaon, Sala Himal and Nyang Tibet are visited.

While visiting the Tsum Valley one can feel the Buddhists’ deep mystical sense for the beauty of nature and learns to understand the importance of a harmonious interaction between man and nature, a way of life that is considered to be the basis for reaching a higher and deeper sphere where simple existence turns into an experience of living with wisdom and compassion.

The Tsum Valley – A Place forgotten by the World!

Because of its isolation, its remoteness and due to the exodus of many young people the inhabitants of this valley suffer from great poverty and massif economic problems. Even the most basic modern infrastructures have never reached Tsum and the people were turned into a minority who is fighting for its survival. Their traditional way of life with its art and religious values is threatened with extinction. It would be the Nepalese government’s duty to protect the existence of this exotic spot and to assure the needed support measures. But also travelers from all over the world who are looking for a special trekking experience in Nepal can contribute their part to improve the economic situation of the people of Tsum by visiting this long forgotten valley thus helping to create new income opportunities for them.

The Tsum Valley owes its reputation as an exotic and forgotten spot on the border of Tibet primarily to the fact that it has been spared from the impacts of modern civilization – however, the inhabitants of this isolated area also have a right to a life where they can in some ways benefit from the achievements of today’s civilization, at least in the areas of education and health care.

As one of the first international trekking program operators we are giving a limited number of participants the opportunity to explore this remote area with us in May and October 2010. From a trek to the Tsum Valley participants return not only with many happy memories but also with the feeling of having made a small personal contribution to the improvement of the living conditions of the people in this forgotten valley at the foot of the Himalaya.

More information on our Tsum Valley Trekking Expedition you find here: Tsum Valley Exploration

Der Himalaya gehört schon seit Jahrtausenden zu den bevorzugten Rückzugsgebieten für Menschen die auf der Suche nach Entspannung sind, ein Ort der Stille und der Besinnlichkeit wo jeder die Chance hat den inneren Frieden zu finden. Das Tsum Valley ist dank seiner Abgeschiedenheit eine solche Oase der Ruhe und Erholung geblieben in der es uns leicht fällt die Hektik und die Turbulenzen aus dem täglichen Leben zu vergessen.

Dieses vergessene Tal liegt im Norden Nepals im Gorkha Distrikt, eingebettet zwischen der mächtigen Gebirgskette des Buddha Himal mit ihren markanten Gipfeln, dem  Himal Chuli (7‘823m) im Westen, dem Ganesh Himal (7‘429m) im Süden und dem Sringi Himal (7‘187m) im Norden. Es ist eines der acht „heiligen“ Täler (Beyuls) im inneren Himalaya deren Geschichte stark verbunden ist mit dem Buddhistischen Heiligen „Padmasambhava“der diese „Beyuls“  im 8. Jahrhundert als sichere Schutzgebiete für Menschen geschaffen haben soll damit sie sich von den Auswirkungen kriegerischer Auseinandersetzungen, Hungersnöten oder religiöser Unterdrückung  in Sicherheit bringen können.

Dieses von den hohen Gipfeln des Himalaya geschütze Tal an der Grenze Tibets  ist ein lebendes Museum mit zahlreichen antiken Schätzen und Sehenswürdigkeiten aus  Kultur, Kunst und Religion,  es ist eine lang vergessene Talschaft die heute noch geprägt wird von traditionellen Bräuchen und Buddhistischem Denken und Handeln.

Im und um das Tsum Valley

Das Tsum Valley darf offiziell erst seit dem 17. Oktober 2007 von Touristen besucht werden. Den Besucher erwarten in dieser abgelegenen Gegend zahlreiche historische Zeitzeugen die hier über viele Generationen gepflegt worden sind und deshalb immer noch in ihren ursprünglichen Formen bewundert werden können.

Sobald man die erste Siedlung im oberen Tsum Gebiet erreicht hat fühlt man sich versetzt in eine andere Welt. Das wunderschöne Tal wird geprägt von kleinen aber sehr schmucken Dörfchen mit Gebäuden aus Stein, sorgfältig bebauten Feldern, rauschenden Bächen mit kristall klarem Wasser, grossen Wäldern und mächtigen Schnee bedeckten Gipfeln. Die Route durch diese abgelegene Gebirgslanschaft führt entlang des alten „Nepal – Tibet“ Karawannen Pfades nach Mu Gumba, dem letzten bewohnten Ort im Tal. Hier sind auch zwei wichtige Buddhistische Klöster beheimatet, das gleichnamige, im Jahre 1895 gebaute und 1998 restaurierte Kloster Mu und das älteste Kloster des Tales, das vor gut 700 Jahren gebaute Kloster Dephyudonma.

Der Weg durch das Tsum Valley ist gesäumt von zahlreichen Mani Walls, Chorten und Kaanis (Portal Chorten). Chorten sind religiöse Monumente des Buddhistismus die auch Stupas genannt werden. Es sind die unverkennbaren Merkmale des Tsum Valleys die nicht nur gebaut wurden um die bösen Geister von wichtigen Orten wie Flussmündungen oder Brücken fern zu halten sondern auch zum Gedenken an Besuche oder zur Ehrung von verstorbenen wichtigen Persönlichkeiten und Lamas. Kaanis sind sg. Portal Chorten die jeweils an den Eingängen zu den Dörfern erstellt worden sind und durch die jeder Besucher gehen sollte. Mani Walls sind lange mit Mantras verzierte Steinmauern die den Zweck haben die Götter zu bitten sich um das Wohlbefinden der Reisenden zu sorgen und sie zu beschützen.

In den höheren Gebieten des Tsum Valleys in der Nähe der Berge und Gletscher findet man zudem eine Reihe von interessanten Pilgerpfaden auf denen man u.a. auch das Gebiet entlang der Grenze zu Tibet in mehrtägigen Hochwanderungen erkunden kann.

Das Tsum Valley – Eine Welt für sich

Das Tsum Valley ist ein idealer Ort um der Hektik des Alltags zu entfliehen. Hier leben die Menschen noch in totaler Harmonie und im perfekten Einklang mit der Natur. In diesem Tal werden zum Beispiel keine Tiere getötet, weder für die Ernährung noch für religiöse Opfer an die Götter wie es in anderen Teilen dieses Landes immer noch üblich ist. Auch ist es Brauch, dass jede Familie im Tal ein Kind ins Kloster schickt damit es Mönch oder Nonne werden kann.

Im Tsum Valley sind daher eine ganze Reihe von z.T. sehr alten Klöstern zu besichtigen, das grösste heisst Rachen Gumba und beherbergt sowohl Mönche wie auch  Nonnen. Die lebensgrossen Statuen von Avolitekshvara (Gott der Erleuchtung), Guru Padmasambhava (Begründer des Tibetischen Buddhismus), Tara (die Göttliche Mutter) und Buddha Amitabha (Buddha des Westens) gehören zu seinen wichtigsten Sehenswürdigkeiten. Im Inneren des Klosters können zudem zahlreiche Wandmalereien aus dem traditionellen Tibetischen Buddhismus bewundert werden.

Ein weiteres attraktives Besuchsziel im Tsum Valley sind die „Tauben Höhlen“ (Piren Phu) in der Nähe des Dorfes Burji. Diese Höhlen haben insbesonder für Buddhisten eine grosse spirituelle Bedeutung weil der berühmte Yogi Milarepa (Tibets grosser Yogi) hier eine Zeit lang meditiert haben soll und weil Überreste seiner „Fussabdrücke“ in diesen „Milarepa Höhlen“ konserviert worden sein sollen. In den dazugehörigen zwei Klöstern kann man wiederum lebensgrosse Statuen von Avaloketishvara,  Buddha, Tara und Milarepa bewundern.

Kyimulung ist der heilige und geheimnisvolle Buddhistische Pilgerweg in den Bergen des Tsum Valley. Die 30 tägige Pilgerreise führt in einem 30km Radius entlang der Grenzgebiete von Nepal und Tibet zu den wichtigen Pilger Orten Chhekam, Philim, Sirdibas, Dyang, Bihi, Namrung, Prok und Loh in Nepal und Rui Gaon, Ning, Sala Himal und Nyang in Tibet und beinhaltet die Überquerung der über 5‘000m hohen Pässe Lajyang Bhanjyang und Thapla Banjyang.

Im Tsum Valley kann das tiefe mystische Empfinden des Buddhismus für die Schönheit der Natur verspürt werden, man kann erfahren wie gross hier die Bedeutung des harmonischen Zusammenspiels von Natur und Mensch ist um die Seele aus der irdischen Welt in eine höhere Sphäre zu bringen wo das einfache Dasein zu einer Erfahrung eines Lebens in Weisheit und voller Mitgefühl wird.

Das Tsum Valley – Ein von der Welt vergessenes Tal!

Wegen seiner Unzugänglichkeit, seiner Abgeschiedenheit und des Wegzugs vieler jungen Menschen leiden die Bewohner dieses Tals unter grosser Armut und massiven wirtschaftlichen Problemen. Bei der Einführung der minimalsten modernen Infrastrukturen wurde dieses abgelegene Gebiet total vergessen! So sind die Menschen hier gezwungenermassen zu einer Minorität geworden die nun um ihr Ueberleben kämpfen muss. Die traditionelle Lebensweise mit ihrer Kunst und ihren religiösen Werten steht heute vor dem totalen Aussterben. Es wäre die Aufgabe der nepalesischen Regierung diesen exotischen Fleck Erde in seiner Existenz zu schützen und dafür einen Beitrag zu leisten. Aber auch Menschen aus allen Teilen der Welt die in Nepal ein spezielles Trekking Erlebnis suchen können mit ihrem Besuch etwas für die Verbesserung der wirtschaftlichen Situation der Bevölkerung in diesem vergessenen Tal tun und ihnen alternative Einkunftsmöglichkeiten eröffnen.

Das Tsum Valley verdankt seinen Ruf des exotischen und vergessenen Ortes an der Grenze Tibets vor allem der Tatsache dass es von den Einflüssen der modernen Zivilsation weitgehend  verschont geblieben ist  – trotzdem haben auch die Menschen dort ein Anrecht auf ein Leben in dem sie von den elementaren Fortschritten zur Verbesserung des täglichen Lebens profitieren können, wenigstens in den Bereichen Bildung und Gesundheit.

Als einer der ersten internationalen Trekking Programm Anbieter  werden wir deshalb im Jahre 2010 im Mai und Oktober einer begrenzten Anzahl von Menschen die Gelegenheit geben mit uns dieses Gebiet zu  entdecken. Von einem Trek in das Tsum Valley wird man nicht nur mit vielen schönen Erinnerungen zurückkehren sondern auch mit dem befriedigenden Gefühl einen ersten Beitrag geleistet zu haben der zur Verbesserung der Lebensumstände der Menschen in diesem vergessenen Tal am Fusse des Himalaya führen wird.

Mehr zur Tsum Valley Trekking Expedition finden Sie hier: Tsum Valley Exploration

Note: in the following weeks I’ll be covering the Top Ten Lies We Tell Ourselves In The (USA) Bike business. Here’s Lie #10.

The Lie: Reporting bad news might hurt the industry. Ignoring bad news will make it go away. And if you think otherwise, you must hate bikes.

The Reasoning: There, um, isn’t any.

It’s like a four-year-old who suspects there are monsters in his closet waiting to devour him. But whether they’re actually behind the door or not, he knows that they can’t hurt him as long as his head is tucked firmly under the covers. Make sense? Didn’t think so.

Case(s) In Point:

1. The Great 2009 Inventory Debacle. Bike suppliers (BPSA) carried record amounts of inventory into 2009, but said that was OK. Then they stopped reporting their inventory numbers for several months and hoped no one would notice when they had the exactly fame fifth-of-a-billion-dollars worth of inventory coming out of the prime selling season that they’d gone into it with.

Now, according to retailers around the country who spoke on condition of anonymity, a number of bike brands are offering discounts of 15-25% from wholesale on leftover ’09 and even current ’10 models…but don’t want to tell anyone because it might start a panic, OK? (Glub forbid we should drop retail prices and actually move any of those units.) So savvy retailers are snapping up discounted inventory, plus dating terms…and then selling it at full or near-full SRP to consumers as demand warrants, realizing fat profits in the process.

The punchline? Because there’s no real price incentive at retail, there’s no real stimulation of sales, and the net inventory situation is therefore more or less the same as it ever was…only with the suppliers giving their profit away to retailers and then paying the retailers to warehouse it for them.

So, largely due to an unwillingness to  deal with bad news like adults—to open the closet door and see for ourselves whether there’re any monsters therein—the inventory glut is going to be with us for many, many months to come.

2. LeMond v Trek Opening Arguments. You may be unaware that there’s been some boilover in the long-simmering dispute between Greg Lemond and the Trek Bicycle Company, and that Lemond attorneys have gotten the judge to more or less agree to turn the entire trial into a referendum on Lance Armstrong’s alleged ongoing record of in-competition doping. The reasons for this are pretty interesting, and if you want to read about it, the subject was well-covered, both by the excellent British semi-trade site Bike Radar and by a thoughtful, well-researched, 3,000-word analysis in the New York Daily News.

Now as cycling fans and/or people who actually make our living in this quirky little industry, you or I might think the looming specter of an acrimonious micturition contest between the two greatest champions in the history of American cycling might be considered at least newsworthy, if not actual Pretty Big News…if not for the pure courtroom drama of the thing, then at least for its potentially devastating impact on both US and world cycling.

But you won’t read about Lemond v Trek in the USA cycling press. Websites like VeloNews, Bicycling, Cycle Sport, Road Bike Action, all the usual suspects? Not a single. Freakin’. Word. And here’s the headline the industry journal of record, BR&IN, gave the topic (with zero mention of the Armstrong tie-in):

Trek, LeMond Case: Settlement an Option

That’s like the headlines on September 12^th 1989 reading

WTC: Window Damage May Be Less Than Expected

So who’s covering the actual event? Exactly one fan blog, that’s who: Red Kite Prayer (Disclaimer: I have a comment on that article under my own name and occasionally place pieces there, usually by disagreeing with my friend Patrick Brady and saying something snotty about it).

Read the article. Now read the Comments section. Even if the “traditional” cycling press try to shove it under the carpet and declare it’s “not real news”, the cognoscenti certainly think otherwise.

(Note: I don’t have an opinion on the merits of the case; my point here is that it’s both potentially huge and being ignored by the cycling press.).

The Reality: To paraphrase the Prophet Bobke Roll, Have a warm steamin’ cup of Grow the Hell Up. There is either bad news on the horizon or there isn’t. And no one likes bad news, because it generally means that prices and therefore profits tend to go down. So suppliers like to hide bad news it from resellers, and resellers like to hide it from consumers*.

Plus, as Fred Clements, who is president of the NBDA and sits on the board of the BPSA told me in a recent interview, “There’s even a perception among both suppliers and retailers that if you’re the bearer of bad news you’re somehow trying to ‘hurt the industry’.”

But as the internet makes the world more transparent, it inexorably makes the stonewalling of unpleasant information increasingly difficult, and its consequences increasingly disastrous. So why are we still hiding the elephant in the middle of our sport/industry/livelihood room and pretending that the Bad News doesn’t exist, and even if it does, it’ll go away if we just hide under the covers long enough?

Besides, whether it’s good news or bad, professional businesspeople working in a professional industry require professional-grade, accurate, and timely information on which to make professional—which is to say, informed— business decisions. The more timely and accurate that information, the more informed and therefore sound the business decisions will tend to be. Which means that as an industry, high-quality information can help us all benefit more from good times and get hurt a lot less in the bad.

So if we want to become a more professional (and ultimately profitable) industry, maybe we should start by growing the hell up and acting like one.

*Note to Consumers: Sure, there’s a short-term consumer benefit to an industry downturn as cyclists get to pay less for stuff for awhile, but there’s already plenty of price competition in the bike market, and margins all around are already among the lowest in the consumer products world (we’ll deal with those issues in more detail in Lies #9, 8, 3, 2, and 1, promise). And in the long run, a profitable cycling business is a healthy cycling community, with a lot of the business’ profits getting reinvested in things that directly benefit cyclists, from bigtime teams and local fun events to advocacy & trailbuilding, increased R &D that results in more new cool products that consumers like, to increased breadth of sizes, colors, and specialty products that encourage women and other emerging demographics to become more involved in the sport.

The following is the first installment of Barkerville CEO Judy Campbell’s travel blog from Guangdong Province.  Share the adventures of Judy and Bill, as they take an exciting step forward for Barkerville’s relationship with the People’s Republic of China!  Tomorrow, part two….

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Barkerville Visits China

On November 10th a delegation from Barkerville Historic Town arrived in Guangshou, Guangdong Province, PRC.  The delegation – Judy Campbell (CEO), Bill Quackenbush (Curator) and Lily Chow (former Barkerville Heritage Trust Director) – hopes to build links for research and communication with museums and academic institutions, and to promote Barkerville as a tourism destination for Chinese travelers.

Barkerville contains one of the most important collections of early Chinese buildings, artifacts and archival material (including photographs) in North America.  The Chee Kung Tong building in Barkerville was recently designated

Barkerville's Chee Kung Tong

a National Historic Site of Canada.

November 11-13

We joined the party of Canadian federal Senator, the Honourable Lillian (Quan) Dyck.   Senator Dyck was returning to her ancestral village in China and she graciously allowed us to accompany her, her brother Winston, and son Nathan.

The visit was hosted by the Overseas Exchange Association of Guangdong Province.  Lily Chow is a Director of this association and worked very hard with her contacts in China to arrange both the Senator’s and Barkerville’s visit.  Our hosts were amazing!  They put us up in the best hotels and the local governments of Guangdong Province, Kaiping City and Jiangmen City, along with the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office, hosted formal dinners for us to meet and talk with local representatives.  This allowed us to exchange gifts, and leave information about Barkerville. We had a special DVD on the dedication of the Chee Kung Tong building and Barkerville’s Autumn Moon Festival, as well as the Barkerville Site Guide and small vials of Barkerville gold as gifts.

The visit to Senator Dyck’s ancestral village was very moving.  Her father had left the village as a young man, however he was remembered in the village.  When we arrived, there was a red banner with gold Chinese lettering across the road in front of the village gate which read: “Welcome Home Senator Lillian Dyck Quan.”  When we got down from our bus, the Senator was greeted by village elders and lion dancers led her into the village.  We even visited the house where her father had lived, which was now abandoned but contained the original brick stove, tables, benches, etc. – all remarkably similar to the artifacts we have in Barkerville.

Later that afternoon we visited the Ruisli Diaolou, one of the better preserved Kaiping towers.  I will write about that in my next installment….

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Tune in tomorrow for another exciting report from Bakerville’s historic trek to China!

There are a lot of weekend trips you can do from Mumbai, and one of them is Harishchandragad in the Western Ghaats. You have to camp out in ancient caves midway before continuing the trek to the top. It’s beautiful but tiring, especially for someone like me who doesn’t trek too often

On the way to the starting point we stopped by a lake:

The view as we just begin the 2 to 3 hour trek to the base.

A small temple at the first point at the base. Several other trekers were already camped here, and we got chai and misal, absolutely yummy after the trek, and a relief from the freezing cold. We are now more than 4000 ft. above sea level.

The main temple looks like its still in use for worship, but completely forgotten by the government or any authority responsible for maintaining it. Why am I not surprised?

We camped out in ancient caves that were carved out of the rock face. We went with an organized trekking group which arranged for our food and shelter. But if you’re planning the trip on your own, you can also rent a tent once you reach the point for about 150 Rs. Do not camp here without a tent or cave because it is absolutely freezing and windy once the sun goes down.

One of the views from the second day:

Near the top:

An ancient shiv ling at the top of the ghaat:

Today, I was sitting and thinking a little about this past year.  Sure, I could write about the beginning of my one man campaign against flip-flops, or the incessant ringing of the phone.  Or something boring like college.

Instead, I wanted to write about Patrick Stewart.

Some people claim he once joked that he enjoys bald eagles not because they are bald, but because they taste good.  I’m not sure I heard a joke in there.  If Patrick Stewart wants to eat a bald eagle, Patrick Stewart can fucking eat a bald eagle.

Why?  Because he’s awesome.

He’s awesomely manly, awesomely bald, and awesomely British.  He’s the sole reason British people are 108% awesomer than everyone else in the world.  When he smiles, flowers bloom, and midgets around the world do a dance of joy.

And any attraction to Patrick Stewart, no matter your gender, can be easily explained.  There is no gay or straight when it comes to Patrick Stewart.  He transcends everything.  Being attracted to him is almost a foregone conclusion.

He deserves standing ovations wherever he goes.  And he gets them.

When I met him at a convention earlier this year, hence my new firsthand knowledge of his awesomeness, he was scheduled for a photo-op.  When he entered the room adjacent to where everyone else was waiting, he took off his hat, and got a standing ovation.  Part of that was because we were already standing.  But the ovation part?  All Patrick’s awesomeness.

His awesomeness caused the planets themselves to take their round shape so they might better resemble his head.

In fact, he’s so awesome that he may be God.  If there is a God, and if God made man in his image, why would God create a man awesomer than him or herself?  That doesn’t make sense.  God wouldn’t.  Therefore, Patrick Stewart is God.  Or at the very least, some kind of drug made by God itself.

Warning: Patrick Stewart may cause loss of motor function, loss of bladder control, excessive perspiration, hallucinations in the form of an extra light source, and erectile overactivity.

In closing, because it can never be repeated enough: Patrick Stewart is all that is right and good with the world.

Patrick Stewart is awesome.

Representatives from western North America’s largest living history museum have made an historic trip to Guangdong Province, China.

Judy Campbell, CEO of Barkerville Historic Town, and William G. Quackenbush, Barkerville’s Curator, joined Barkerville Heritage Trust liaison Lily Chow and a Canadian federal Senator in Guangzhou last week, marking the start of an eleven day research expedition aimed at better understanding Barkerville’s beautifully preserved Chinatown and its extensive collection of archival records, photographs, and artifacts – many of which were brought by early Chinese immigrants from Guangdong province.

The trip – which commenced November 10th – was jointly arranged by the Barkerville Heritage Trust, Barkerville’s operating and managing partner, and the Overseas Exchange Association of Guangdong Province, in order to provide Barkerville’s management team opportunities to meet with Chinese tourism officials, government policy makers, and academic and museum professionals.

“We were honoured that a delegation from the Guangdong Overseas Chinese Affairs office visited Barkerville in 2006,” said Ms. Campbell, Barkerville’s Chief Executive Officer. “And this past summer the Chinese Consular General in Vancouver, Mr. Liang Shugen, helped us celebrate the designation of Barkerville’s Chee Kung Tong building as a National Historic Site of Canada – an event that has already increased Chinese interest in Northern British Columbia and the Cariboo Chilcotin Coast regions.”

“If we are to continue to build a meaningful relationship with China that will ultimately result in a cultural exchange and increased tourism to British Columbia, then it is important for us to return the visit we received from these Chinese officials in 2006, and to acknowledge the continued attention paid to us by the Chinese Consular General,” Campbell concluded.

On November 11th, Ms. Campbell and Mr. Quackenbush traveled with Mrs. Lily Chow and Senator Lillian (Quan) Dyck to the Kiaping area of China’s Guangdong Province, to visit the Senator’s ancestral village. Senator Dyck’s father – Yok Lee Quan – immigrated to Canada from Canton, China in 1912.

The group then moved to Jiangmen on November 13th, where Ms. Campbell and Mr. Quackenbush made a joint presentation to the Overseas Chinese Research Centre at Wuyi University. Selia Tan Jinhua, a researcher from Wuyi University who traveled to Barkerville this summer for the Chee Kung Tong dedication ceremony, later brought the Canadian delegates to the home villages of some of Barkerville’s most prominent Chinese community members. The party returned to Guangzhou on November 15th to meet with the Director of the Guangdong Museum and other tourism officials.

This week Ms. Campbell and Mr. Quackenbush travel to Tianhe, Guangzhou to meet with the Managing Director of British Columbia’s Trade and Investment Representative Office for South China before heading home to Barkerville on November 21st.

These are fantastic…

Luke Butler has done a series of paintings capturing everything I love about the original Star Trek.

More HERE.