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Daytrip to the Nagarjun Forest Reserve
Blog: Seat of Our Pants - 22 December 2009
The other day, we decided that a bit of fresh air wouldn’t hurt. Looking at our options, we decided that a bit of semi-urban trekking would be the thing to do. Hence, we hopped into a taxi to the Nagarjun Forest Reserve, also known as the Queen’s forest. Today it’s no longer the queen’s forest, [...]
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Are You Calling Me Fat?
Blog: GoBackpacking - 22 December 2009
To the people of Bhaktapur, being fat meant we looked healthy.Buy travel insurance from Worldnomads.com (Lonely Planet's preferred carrier)
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Breathe Through Your Mouth
Blog: Ottsworld - 22 December 2009
If blogs were scratch and sniff…you’d really be in trouble with this post. I found myself chanting the mantra, “Breathe through your mouth, not through your nose.” - while completely naked. Oh, sorry, I got ahead of myself; let me go back to the beginning.
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The Empty Streets of Kathmandu
Blog: Seat of Our Pants - 21 December 2009
Yesterday, we went out to buy some butter for baking Xmas cookies. It took us about five minutes to realize that something was not quite normal here in Kathmandu. It took us another minute to realize what it was: everything’s closed, and there are no cars or motorbikes anywhere. In short: there’s a general strike [...]
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Jomsom Area and Annapurna Sanctuary Trek – Day 11 & 12
Blog: Seat of Our Pants - 20 December 2009
Our route for our last two days retraced our steps through Chhomrong, then branched into new territory along the Modi Khola river. As Martin mentioned in Day 10’s post, by the time day 11 and 12 rolled around we were looking forward to returning to some of Pokhara’s luxuries (hot showers in something other than [...]
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Jomsom Area and Annapurna Sanctuary Trek – Day 10
Blog: Seat of Our Pants - 19 December 2009
The night wasn’t especially nice to us up at the ABC. We both slept fitfully, waking up frequently and wondering whether or not we were coming down with altitude sickness. A room temperature of 30 F/ -1 C didn’t help much, but thanks to our thick sleeping bags we still managed to get a few [...]
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Nepal: Country in Review
Blog: No Hurry Curry - 19 December 2009
11/29/09: Nepal Top Five To-Dos Annapurna Circuit Trek Get blessed by the 100-Rupee Monk in Menang Paragliding in Pokhara Eat half-price bakery items after 8pm Ride on top of a bus like the locals do Top Five Don’t-Dos Breathe in the Kathmandu air for more than three days Cry at over 5,000 meters [...]
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Jomsom Area and Annapurna Sanctuary Trek – Day 9
Blog: Seat of Our Pants - 19 December 2009
Our ninth day was our pinnacle day – the day we would reach the Annapurna Base Camp (aka as far as you can trek before you start walking on pretty dangerous ground). Knowing this, we were up early and out walking before many people had finished their breakfasts. A steady five hour climb along the Modi [...]
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An Unedited Look Into Our Lives
Blog: No Hurry Curry - 18 December 2009
11/29/09: Kathmandu, Nepal I am prefacing this post with a boring (but I think necessary) explanation. So you see, now that we’re done trekking and will (fingers crossed) have consistent, decent Internet access for the remainder of the trip, I have strongly suggested to Kevin several times that we need to come to an almost-real-time schedule [...]
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Jomsom Area and Annapurna Sanctuary Trek – Day 8
Blog: Seat of Our Pants - 17 December 2009
The morning of day eight offered brief glimpses of the mountains ahead of us, until a thick layer of clouds rolled in. Trekking wise the day was to be a good test of our capacity, having us go up and down in altitude like no other day before. We started the day with a great breakfast [...]
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Turkey – Er, Steak and Salad Day
Blog: No Hurry Curry - 17 December 2009
11/26/09: Kathmandu, Nepal Thanksgiving Day started out inauspiciously with me curled up in a ball on our hotel bed (we think it was caused by a bad chocolate donut), croaking out to Kevin, “I’m dying… Please, shoot me now. I’m dying!” Kevin, who is familiar with my absurdly melodramatic manner when even the least bit sick, [...]
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Food. It’s What’s for Dinner
Blog: No Hurry Curry - 16 December 2009
11/24/09 – 11/25/09: Kathmandu, Nepal There’s an unstoppable force heading toward the streets of Kathmandu, and Zhou and I (more specifically just me) were one day from being part of the problem, not the solution. That’s right, you too can soon fly thousands of miles to an incredibly cheap city and overpay for food that you can [...]
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Jomsom Area and Annapurna Sanctuary Trek – Day 7
Blog: Seat of Our Pants - 16 December 2009
Our seventh day walking was an easy one, relatively speaking. The day began bathed in sunlight, a welcome change to the previous night which we spent avoiding the misty cold. Our morning view helped us realize just how close we were getting to some of the impending giants (notably Annapurna III and Machhapuchare in the [...]
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Jomsom Area and Annapurna Sanctuary Trek – Day 6 (with Poon Hill)
Blog: Seat of Our Pants - 16 December 2009
The day started early, because this was the morning when our plan was to greet the sunrise from a nearby hilltop, Poon Hill. This hill is somewhat of a trekking target in itself – it is the climax of a popular four-day itinerary from Pokhara and it is often included in other treks in the [...]
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Sunday Morning Pancakes
Blog: No Hurry Curry - 15 December 2009
[Editor's note: Please note that in an effort to catch up, we have temporarily instituted "Two for Tuesdays" and this is the second post of the day.] 11/23/09: Nepal The last time we put on a clean pair of pants was exactly three weeks ago. For me, it will have to wait one more day. We grossly [...]
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Pop Quiz
Blog: No Hurry Curry - 15 December 2009
11/22/09: Chitwan National Park, Nepal Question 1: What activity is bumpy, uncomfortable and leaves you with tiny purple feathery things all over your clothes? a) A Nepali-style pillow fight, where the pillows are stuffed with feathers that are dyed a maroon-ish pink b) A long ride in a dusty jeep in which the last passengers were ducks and [...]
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Jomsom Area and Annapurna Sanctuary Trek – Day 5
Blog: Seat of Our Pants - 15 December 2009
Day five of our trek can be summed up in one word: climb (or, alternatively: pain). The day started in Tatopani, a little trekker’s village that sits in a river valley at 1,190 meters/3,904 feet. From an early morning start at 7:30, we climbed for seven hours, gaining 1,670 altitude meters/5,479 feet to reach our destination [...]
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A Little Reflection…Vipassana Meditation Six Months Later
Blog: A Little Adrift - A RTW Travelogue - 15 December 2009
Quite a few friends and blog readers have asked for a follow up post about the ten day Vipassana Meditation course that I took in Nepal…the journal chronicling my ten day Vipassana course was very raw and there was no room for reflection at the time… Vipassana Meditation in Nepal I dubbed my time in Vipassana meditation as my “ten day stint in solitary confinement”- it’s how it felt at the time, and, in jest, I do still think of this intense mediation course as one of my wackier decisions. But now, ...
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You’ll Learn More Trekking than by Being in Kindergarten
Blog: No Hurry Curry - 14 December 2009
11/21/09: Annapurna Circuit, Nepal It’s only been two days since leaving the Annapurna region, and already the number one thought on my mind has turned to who won the Big Game. (For those of you living under a rock, the Big Game refers to when Ohio State thumps Michigan in American college football each year before [...]
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Jomsom Area and Annapurna Sanctuary Trek – Day 4
Blog: Seat of Our Pants - 14 December 2009
Alas, the report from the fourth day of our glorious trek will be a short one. Here’s the thing: the Nepalese have cut a road along the once popular Jomsom trek. This has dramatically lessened the popularity of trekking in this part of the Annapurna region, because it isn’t much fun to hike through beautiful [...]
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Jomsom Area and Annapurna Sanctuary Trek – Day 3
Blog: Seat of Our Pants - 14 December 2009
Our third day was spent backtracking from Mukinath to Jomsom. Up to this point we were walking in a reverse Annapurna Circuit direction. Most trekkers who tackle the Circuit trek (which the Jomsom area is apart of) walk around the Annapurna massif in a counter-clockwise direction. There are a few reasons for this. The most [...]
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Jomsom Area and Annapurna Sanctuary Trek – Day 2
Blog: Seat of Our Pants - 13 December 2009
The second day of our trek was a bit more strenuous than the first, mostly because this was the one day when we actually got a bit lost. Getting lost, on these types of treks, involves very little danger. Rather than getting lost I would say that we took a scenic detour to a nearby [...]
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I Can Fly, I Can Fly, I Can Fly!
Blog: No Hurry Curry - 13 December 2009
11/20/09: Pokhara, Nepal Hey, I’m back! While we were trekking, it took about 90% of my mental energy to focus on walking and not giving up and not stumbling on rocks when thinking about other things than the road in front of me and putting one foot in front of the other and oh geez why do [...]
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Jomsom Area and Annapurna Sanctuary Trek – Day 1
Blog: Seat of Our Pants - 13 December 2009
Unlike our intense morning flight from Pokhara to Jomsom, the first day’s trekking was relatively easy; a warm-up, really. The route hugs the riverbed between Jomsom and Kagbeni, which for all purposes was nearly flat. The landscape reminded us of our time in Leh: bare, rocky mountains separated by a wide riverbed with little vegetation. [...]
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OK – Now I feel safe
Blog: Seat of Our Pants - 12 December 2009
When you’re packed into a 30 year old prop plane, flying between Himalayan mountains, en route to one of the world’s most difficult airports, you deserve a little freak-out when you glance up and notice this: Your pilot snapping photos on his phone. Of the huge mountain you’re flying toward. This was just one of a number of, [...]
