Crossing Continents

california girls

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 11:57:32 -0500

california girls

Audio

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 11:29:42 -0400

Sanitation is not the strong suit of the Nepalese. Cows are holy...

Mon, 29 Dec 2008 17:40:00 -0500

Sanitation is not the strong suit of the Nepalese. Cows are holy here, as they are in India, so you can imagine how the people live. This is on the way out of Kathmandu, where the banks of the river are lined with garbage on good days. I happened to be there in the midst of a garbage collection strike, so you can imagine how wonderful it smelled.

Here’s one of the other guides climbing up the side of the...

Mon, 29 Dec 2008 17:35:50 -0500

Here’s one of the other guides climbing up the side of the waterfall.

Here’s the river captain at a pit stop at a waterfall on...

Mon, 29 Dec 2008 17:34:56 -0500

Here’s the river captain at a pit stop at a waterfall on day 6. Dude had a great sense of humor.

Every now and then we would have to stop at a village to pick up...

Mon, 29 Dec 2008 17:33:06 -0500

Every now and then we would have to stop at a village to pick up dinner. These chickens were a particular treat. Unfortunately I spent almost the whole trip with an upset stomach. It lasted for almost a week after the trip, so I finally went to the doctor where they determined I had cyclospora. I won’t go into details, but suffice it to say it wasn’t the chickens’ fault, but the fault of the guides.

Everyday we would paddle down river for four hours or so, then...

Mon, 29 Dec 2008 17:29:35 -0500

Everyday we would paddle down river for four hours or so, then make camp on one of the many sandy beaches lining the river. I spent each night under a proped up raft and a tarp with these two guys, a South African journalist makeing his way by land from Hong Kong, and a British guy learning how to be a river rafting guide.

This is the beginning of an 8 day river rafting trip down the...

Mon, 29 Dec 2008 17:25:51 -0500

This is the beginning of an 8 day river rafting trip down the Sun Koshi River in Nepal. We caught the river a few hours east of Katmandu and made our way down to near the Indian border in the far south east of the country. The Sun Koshi is rated one of the top ten river rafting trips in the world.

Here’s another one.

Mon, 29 Dec 2008 17:23:01 -0500

Here’s another one.

These boys, and a few others were taking turns floating down the...

Mon, 29 Dec 2008 17:19:58 -0500

These boys, and a few others were taking turns floating down the mini-rapids on this river. They also tried to teach me how to use their fishing nets, but I almost managed to ruin them on just the second try, so they took them back.

After surviving my intitial night in Kathmandu, I moved to a...

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 07:39:31 -0400

After surviving my intitial night in Kathmandu, I moved to a southern suburb called Patan for a couple nights. This is Patan Durbar Square, and the view from my guest house window. An interesting place. At one point there was a dance competition, where people from different nationalities displayed their traditional dances. The Indians, Pakistanis, and Nepalis were all fairly obvious. Then came the Americans. It was a group of fat ugly white women, dressed up in ostentatiously fake arab costumes, veils and all, doing embarresingly bad versions of belly dancing. I can only assume that it was a misguided attempt at stating American multi-culturalism by stupid uber-liberal expat NGO workers who have probably never danced before. I haven’t felt so embarresed to be American since we invaded re-elected Bush. fortunately, by this point, my beard was so long that most people just assumed I was Muslim, so my obvious disdain for the performance was most likely mistaken as directed towards Americans making fun of my people, rather than embarresment. The Austrians were next, and stole the show with quite an amazing dance performance that earned them a standing ovation and made me feel even worse.

The roads in Nepal are the worst I’ve seen ever in the...

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 07:22:51 -0400

The roads in Nepal are the worst I’ve seen ever in the world anywhere. I can’t overstate this point. In addition to their terrible condition, the drivers of buses, and trucks are all insane, and the condition of the vehicles is 5th or 6th world at best. People honk their horns all the time for every possible reason. The back of this truck, and all the others indicates that they want you to honk when you pass them, becuase they aren’t paying attention and/or don’t have mirrors. People die on the roads a lot, and there’s a rumor floating around, that I’ve been unable to substantiate, that the US government put out an explicet advisor telling it’s citizens not to take over night buses. This picture was taken at while my bus from Kakarbitha to Kathmandu stopped for 7 hours because a political protest had closed the road. That combined with the flat tire we got shortly afterwards ment I arrived in the city well after 2pm with no hotel reservation and not even a guide book. Possibly the low point of my trip so far.

This stream is the border between India and Nepal at Kakarbitha....

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 07:10:45 -0400

This stream is the border between India and Nepal at Kakarbitha. After a few more weeks of rain, it will be a lot bigger.

This is an out of focus red panda at the Darjeeling Zoo, which...

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 07:06:29 -0400

This is an out of focus red panda at the Darjeeling Zoo, which would have been a cool one except for all the damn Indian tourists and their screaming children openly ignoring the “don’t taunt the animals” signs, and the guards, basically asleep on the job.

There’s a movement for an autonomous state called...

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 07:00:28 -0400

There’s a movement for an autonomous state called “Gurkaland” that has Darjeeling at it’s center. It’s complicated, but basically, there’s a bunch of Nepalis in the state of West Bengal that feel like the are not getting enough respect from the Marxist-led W. Bengal gov. Shortly after I left, the protesters shut down everything in the region, and several travelers I met were told by their embassies to get out, or they would be stuck there for at least a month. It looks like the protesters may have some luck, as they’ve secured talks with the prime minister, and the issue may be used as a wedge against the marxists by the governing party in its quest to secure the US-India nuclear deal. On the other hand, the Marxist have the power to bring down the government and force new elections. Indian politics are complicated.

This is telescope used to belong to Hitler. It was presented to...

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 06:53:22 -0400

This is telescope used to belong to Hitler. It was presented to the Maharaja of India at some point or something like that. I think it’s weird it ended up here.

It’s also the home of the Himalayan Mountaineering...

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 06:49:41 -0400

It’s also the home of the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, which was started by Sherpa Tenzing Norgay after he and Edmund Hillary climed Everest. There’s a cool meusem with a history of climbing in the Himalayas. The third highest peak in the world, Kanchenjunga, is within view when the weather is clear (which it never is, apparently).

Darjeeling is famous for its tea, justifiably so, and for its...

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 06:29:00 -0400

Darjeeling is famous for its tea, justifiably so, and for its cool mountain hillside location, both of which make it a great place to hang out for a while. Unfortunately, by the time I got there, monsoon season had started, so most of the mountain views were limited.

Incidentally, this song has been floating in and out of my head...

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 06:21:00 -0400

Incidentally, this song has been floating in and out of my head since Darjeeling, partly because it’s on the movie soundtrack.

Contrary to popular belief. There is in fact no...

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 06:10:47 -0400

Contrary to popular belief. There is in fact no “Darjeeling Limited” train service. You have to change trains at Siliguri, which, as far as anyone can tell is the only reason that city exists, before transfering to a jeep up the hill. The other option is to take this incredibly slow small guage “toy train” which seemed like fun, but probably wasn’t. It is, however, a UNESCO World Heritage site. I didn’t know trains counted as “sites” but whatever.