Friends,
Lets take a break from Buenos Aires and tango. For my last few weeks in Buenos Aires I plan to cover some of the major milongas and the tango scene here in Buenos Aires.
But first let me bring back the good times I had in Nepal last year april, travelling with my good friend Nicholas.
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Namaste mero nam Isaac ho! (Hi my name is Isaac!)
Nepal Travel Experience
Day 1: Singapore, Changi Airport 17/03/06
Clean efficient toilets, new toilet rolls of the best quality, feels so gentle against the buttcheeks; cleaners go in immediately after we use them.
Illusion of Singapore's prosperity?? There was always this stress from the government about Singapore maintaining her 'first world' image. Thats really evident at the airport, where visitors get their first and last impressions.
We saw no nepalese babes where we are waiting, at the Nepalese Airlines check in queue. Loads of Nepalese men, generally waiting from the transit from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
As the plane took off in the air, suddenly, I thought of Gene again....couldn't resist but sent her a text message. As I thought about the recent trip I had to Phuket, where she was on my mind all the time. I literally saw Phuket through her eyes. Would that happen again to the Nepal trip?
As the plane turns into Kathmandu, the faraway strips of clouds reveal their true selves...Peaks of the ridgelines of Himalayas, flying just right beside me. The airplane monitor flashed a message 'Sunny but cool, 24 deg Cel'.
As we flew lower to the ground, layers upon layers of terrace cultivation litter the vast overlapping ridgelines & mountain passes.
On arrival, like all most airports I've been to, the arrival gate is swarmed with tour agencies, taxi drivers, limo drivers, hotel guides and tour guides, etc. We hopped onto one of the taxi God destined for us and the driver drove us to Thamel street, stopping us at a certain Mt Annapurna Guest House.
Spent SGD700 plus each, with trekking company. Found out later that night from Andy, an Ozzy mountaineering veteran that it was money well spent. Andy, a professional mountain climber, who lost 2 toes while conquering Evertest, had been in Nepal for ages, married a nice nepalese woman and started his own trekking equipment and guide company. He would later tell me that conquering Evertest is nothing like the behemoth task it was like in the past. With a wink in the eye he told me and Nicholas, "With USD50k, I'll bring you guys up to the top of the world."
We met our mountain guide, Dharma. He took us around to get all the winter equipment we will need for our grand climbing trip in the Annapurna Circuit, Mount Annapurna, Pokhara.
Took a day tour around city center. Made eyes with a few cute gals, check that... cute girls made eyes with me (say what you want about that Nic..). The traffic in Kathmandu was crazy, there were no pavements for pedestrains, no traffic lights. The tiny roads were barely 2 cars wide, with shop entrances and houses just lined up right beside the street. Numerous small korean cars line the streets, sharing them with the pedestrains of Kathmandu, horse carts, trishaws, and sacred cows. Crazy vortex of ruleless drivers meet at the cross junctions like a tornado; for a car to make it across a junction looks almost like a car being ejected from a swirling tornado. To top it all off, constant 'honking' no one cares after awhile.
Long day is over. Had a good talk with Nic. No electricity in our guest house's room!!! Turned out that Nepal was experiencing electricity rationing. No matter. We were beat, fell asleep like babies.
