hey im off to Nepal

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timyone
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Postby timyone » 26 Sep 2009, 11:18

hey i wont be training for a few weeks, im doing a bit of a non riding holiday in Nepal and India. Im leaving tonight. Cya all after it.

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mikesbytes
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Postby mikesbytes » 26 Sep 2009, 13:28

Happy travelling

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G
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Postby G » 26 Sep 2009, 22:08

Try yak cheese there :D

timyone
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Postby timyone » 27 Sep 2009, 20:11

man im scared of all the food.

timyone
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Postby timyone » 27 Sep 2009, 20:12

ok here is the reply i sent to mum


lol cool to hear. Yeah we are in Katmandu, and yeah it was a bit different to other places we have been. We are in a really nice hotel, the guy that owns it is amazingly hospitable. We are seriously freeked out about leaving the place though! every one seems dodgy?! and india is supposed to be dangerous compared to here! but yeah, have only been here a few hours, and only really been through the place in a taxi! but what a ride!!

There are motor bikes and scooters every where, every one is nearly running into each other, the taxi is an old unmarked car of some sort, and he beeps his horn every couple of seconds?! every one stands alll over the street, and i cant beleive we didnt have a crash on the way here?! the water smells different, and we are supposed to get food some where tonight?! we havent totally worked out money and swapping it over yet, but im half way through the lonely planet guide, and its heaps helpful.

I have a camera, which im not totally sure about, and keep only getting crap photos with, as im not sure what im actually allowed to take photos of! none of everest yet, its surrounded by clouds!! I was lucky George is switched on with every thing, as when we got a taxi to start with, they asked if we had any thing booked, and i was like umm no, where as we had an idea of where we wanted to go, they had us in a taxi, and just about signed up for his cousins place etc.

but yeah, feel free to forward this to who ever, im off back to read my lonely planet, which isnt actually up to date, but id be alot more lost with out?! (lindsey gave it to me)
But yeah, this place is totally different, im totally freaked out by it, but seriously loving it all at once?! its impossible to explain how blown away i am by it all?!!!

mBut yeah, feel free to forward this to who ever you like.
Tim

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G
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Postby G » 27 Sep 2009, 21:08

ha haa haa! This is so funny :D

oh you know wot, theres something you should know: pedestrians are at their own risk on the road. Small vehicles are at their own risk on the road. Bigger vehicle owns the road and they will expect the smaller vehicle like bike or the pedestrians to clear way for them or risk being run over. Just wanted to have you know so that you don't expect cars to stop for you when you cross the road at a zebra crossing, because the may not!

Oh, and the horns are not to abuse other vehicles. They would beep at any slow vehicle or anything to get their attention. Just imagine if they overtake someone in the same lane without honking!! :shock:

timyone
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Postby timyone » 29 Sep 2009, 21:55

ok, seriously having issues with posting on the net, and today im having issues with this keyboard.

I totally wrote a massive thing yesterday, then didn't copy it in case it didnt post so totally lost it! and cant remember any of what i wrote!

But yeah today we had to get from Kathmandu, to Pokhera, and we had to leave at like 6|! crazy! (ok yeah i know i get up earlier than that every day for training) And last night we went out for a Local feast with our hotel owner. It turns out that they have a local drink that is pretty much tequila and they keep poring it until you smash the little dish that they poor it into, i think they said its 60 some thing percent though, its enough to catch on fire|! and yeah, then for our early morning get up, the boss, who had one too many of those crazy shots the night before, slept in! so we had to run with bags! instead we jumped in some rickshaws! those things are so cool!!! but yeah, they got us to our bus!

Our bus ride on a nice little Nepali bus was going along fine (but amazingly slowly) until it broke down, and we had to get out and sit on the side of the road with all the nice indian looking people in cool get ups! (theres a massive Hindu festival on at the moment so every ones dressed up) And yeah, we were sitting there in 30 degree heat untill a nice bus driver offered us a place on the roof. We jumped at the chance!! seriously the scenery is amazing around here, and its nothing untill youve seen it from the top of a bus|! you should check out the corners we keep nearly falling over|! and the bikes, motor bikes and cars that over take us around them!

It wasnt all smooth sailing for the locals though, we went past one van that had had the front smashed in, before we approached a group of people standing around some thing on the road, i was getting ready to take a photo before i realised that there was a dead motor cyclist with a pool of blood streaming from his head. I stopped the amazing amount of smiling that i had been doing for the first hour of this trip after this, and no one really knew what to say. But it didn't take much of that crazy bus driving to get us over it!

we have now arived at our e\destination of Pokhara, and are sitting in the rain waiting for some thing to eat! ive only had a mars bar today, and George (my crazy Nepalese adventure buddy) has only had a muesli bar with chocolate on it. So yeah, we are planning our 3 or 4 days of trecking now :D hopefully with this totally trippy welsh lad named Ben (yeah i know crazy that i know his name?!_) will join us. We then head down stream through some white water rapids to the chitwan national park for some swimming with elephants before back to kathmandu :D

timyone
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Postby timyone » 29 Sep 2009, 22:01

oh yeah and yesterday we did the monkey temple! i cant remember how it went, but there were monkeys, then we went for a 3 hour walk through the back streets off the beaten tourist track of Nepal, we went past a few army bases, and asked one of the lads for directions, his boss wasn't big on that, and came and yelled some directions at me. We also saw the results of this massive festival thats on for the Hindus, they killed about 60 animals, lopped their heads right off!!

Turns out theres a cover charge for the P.. some thing or other square that we went to for it, and i didnt believe the army guy that followed George demanding money! but yeah, all in all yesterday was pretty cool too, it was our first time surrounded by people that had no idea what we were asking, and there was no one of any thing but Nepalese looking origin there! We totally stressed for a bit there, but found our way home :D

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Postby G » 29 Sep 2009, 22:13

oh yeah and yesterday we did the monkey temple! i cant remember how it went, but there were monkeys, then we went for a 3 hour walk through the back streets off the beaten tourist track of Nepal, we went past a few army bases, and asked one of the lads for directions, his boss wasn't big on that, and came and yelled some directions at me. We also saw the results of this massive festival thats on for the Hindus, they killed about 60 animals, lopped their heads right off!!

Turns out theres a cover charge for the P.. some thing or other square that we went to for it, and i didnt believe the army guy that followed George demanding money! but yeah, all in all yesterday was pretty cool too, it was our first time surrounded by people that had no idea what we were asking, and there was no one of any thing but Nepalese looking origin there! We totally stressed for a bit there, but found our way home :D
LOL! You having way too much fun. And I think looking at you they started charging fun tax. Just a little tip. Speak slowly, word by word. w.o.r.d. ... b.y.... w.o.r.d. It's hard for a non native English speaker to understand someone who speaks fluent English. Their brain isn't used to process English that fast. :D

timyone
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Postby timyone » 02 Oct 2009, 15:58

hey any one thats reading this, im now up a mountain of some sort, near poon hill if you want to check it out on a map, its part of the annapoona circuit i think. We are getting up in the morning to check out and take some pics of all the mountains. I cant actually remember what we have been doing before all this walking, but ii think its been fun. We now have a cool guide calledn narayan, he is 24, has a wife and supports his family as well as being big on local orphans, so if any one is after some one to help sponsor give me a yell, he will be on my face book (though he is up a hill alot of the time)
, and is teaching us how to sing a song in nepaly, im seriously slow as at learning! i keep forgetting how to say hello let alone sing a song, but its fun!

We are meeting lots of nice travellers as we go past them, then them us, and we have now fulfilled most of my dreams of riding on buses and going around the lake in a boat.

Yesterday after a few hours of watching narayan carry our heavy bag for us, i decided it was time to give it a go, so half an hour into the 3 or so thousand steps we were about to climb i grabbed the bag off him and had a go, and i liked it, so did the rest of the day with a bag instead! it wasn't that bad, i think all the grafton training helped, though it hurts your shoulders and neck! crazy?! last week he had a bag that was 35 kilos for a Swedish guy?! and that Sherpa's can carry 50 or 60kilos! I totally should apply for a job hey!

but yeah, i better go, we are off to play some pool with the spanish girls, and this internet is costing about 5 rupe a min! actually i dont know if that is expensive or not! But yeah.

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Postby G » 02 Oct 2009, 16:49

but yeah, i better go, we are off to play some pool with the spanish girls, and this internet is costing about 5 rupe a min! actually i dont know if that is expensive or not! But yeah.

5 Rupees per min is a rip-off! It should be more like Rs 10/hour or something. So you are basically paying 30 times. But then, in a free market, if you have money, and you want internet, you would pay wotever iniit?

Anyways good to hear you havign good time. :D

timyone
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Postby timyone » 07 Oct 2009, 23:08

hey people, im back from some trecking, and jumping on elephants. We started by doing a four day treck, which had a heap of steps in it, i was watching our guide lad carry a heaps heavy bag, and decided i could totally do it, so swapped bags with him for the 300 steps bit of the tour, i was right, and i beat them up there :D it wasnt that hard. On the way down though, i was stuffed?! seriously i dont have the right muscles happening!! i could hardly walk the second day of down hills! and was stuffed two days later?!

At the safari park (where we stayed in a totally cool indian safari park style place) we got to ride in a world war two jeep that kept breaking down as well as on the back of a few cars and utes :D This was followed by seeing some birds, rhinos, and then some swimming with elephants! You jump on the back of the massive thing, then it walks into the water (seriously those things are high! and then once in the water it spurts water at you through its trunk, and then falls over sideways?! then you clamber back on in time for it to jump to its feet again, then it does it again!

But yeah, now we are back in Kathmandu for a couple of days followed by a trip to india to hopefully see some tigers and the Tajmahal!

timyone
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Postby timyone » 08 Oct 2009, 21:04

today we went to see the burning bodies.. it wasn't actually that great an experience, but i had no choice as the mountain biking i wanted to do was rained out.

After the burning, we went off to the second biggest Buddhist temple sorta thing out side Tibet (well some thing like that) it was pretty big, and we started walking around in the right direction, which was left from where we started. It turns out i didnt need to bother though as im pretty sure ive all ready reached enlightenment, according to the Buddha lad, its about umming a lot, and if you have ever heard me speak, im totally with it. So yeah, been there done that, not that great :D ill be leading seminars on it when i get back though.

I think we inhaled too much body smoke today though, along with all the smog im feeling a bit sick. Our owner of our motel lad who has been looking after us with every thing is taking us to his place tonight for some home cooked steak though, that should fix it :D

timyone
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Postby timyone » 08 Oct 2009, 21:06

i have now banged my head 8 times or so on doors etc
today i cut my head open etc?!

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Michael Chidgey
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Postby Michael Chidgey » 08 Oct 2009, 21:30

super jealous Tim sounds like quite an experience.

timyone
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Postby timyone » 09 Oct 2009, 20:43

Hey people, seriously it seems like im posting on here more than ever?!
we are now in India, in Deli, and we are seriously living the high life, and not the type that you can buy on the streets of Kathmandu! we have been strait from the airport in a fancy car to our hotel, which is a nice classy little joint. We havent seen many tourists around though, so no idea if there are any or they are all off seeing the sites.

So far nothing is any more full than being in Nepal besides seeing a cop smacking a lady with a stick because she was walking past where he was directing cars. We are seriously wondering about gender equality around these two countries, and im totally going to start checking out what we can do to help with it all when i get back.

starting our site seeing tomorrow, nothing on tonight, should have been off hangin out with some Israely company that we met on the way here, but we werent sure about transport. would have been nice too, as seriously it only seems like me and George here at the moment!!

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mikesbytes
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Postby mikesbytes » 09 Oct 2009, 20:52

Keep the posts coming Tim

timyone
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Postby timyone » 12 Oct 2009, 21:09

ok people, ive moved into the luxury class on my tour, and not totally sure if i like it any more?! we have a driver, and some times a guide too, and nice air conditioning etc (i actually had more fun on the bus tops) and some of our hotels are up ther with the star rankings! But yeah.

we are so far from the real life people around the place! well we do get ripped off left right and centre by the locals when they come in contact, but besides that, its all just in passing, a bit like seeing it on tv, but we have to go over the bumpy roads along the way! which arent actually that bumpy where we seem to go, as they are doing them up for the common wealth games which they have on next year.

Today we went to a palace of the third Moghul ruler of india, his name was Akbar, he sounds pretty crazy, and we had a walk around his mosque etc, getting guides from lads we hadnt asked to guid us. George had a pretty knowledgable lad that reckons he is the clerk for the place, and i had a young 8 year old, who loves soccer (we told them we are enlgish as there seems to be alot of back lash towards these indian bashings happening in melbourne (i hadnt heard much about them until now)) After my little lad tried on my sun glasses, i told him he could have them, as thy looked better on him, and he gave me a bracelet that im assuming is worth about 20 rupe, and fitted for an ankle, as it doesnt fit?!

Yesterday we went to the Taj mahal, and it seriously ripped it! George says its his highlight of the trip, that thing is massive and white! they put so much effort into the making of it (and thats compared to the other buildings that they put alot of effort into! I dont know what else to say about that building, more than it was built by the 5th emperor after the death of his wife. This led us onto a Bollywood style musical drama thing which seemed to be full of rich audience members! it was good though, and had radio things for us to hear the translation into english. I think they may have over done the shivalry portrayed by the king, but yeah, he really was romantic!

Tomorrow we are off to see some tigers, and we are staying in a totally nice wild life safari hut place, where every one else is wearing green safari outfits?! George reckons the tigers remind him of alot of the local indian hockers that seem to feed on us between walks.

Ok off for a dip in the pool, followed by a drink or two, then planning out our red fort trip for tommorow after th tigers.

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Trouty
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Postby Trouty » 13 Oct 2009, 03:51

Who is George Timmy? A cycling friend?

Have fun, keep safe.

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G
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Postby G » 13 Oct 2009, 09:12

George Clinton :D

timyone
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Postby timyone » 13 Oct 2009, 15:29

george is the lad im here with, hes a funny greek guy from work, the one that a month ago asked me if i would like to go to nepal.


Ok today we went to see tigers, and we saw one!! it turns out you are lucky to see one, though some people yesterday saw two, lots of people go through 5 or 6 times with out seeing any.

Our tiger was a massive looking lad (guys are rarely seen, they are more shy, its normally the girls you see) and yeah he walked across the rad, then sat down in the distance, where he was yawning, thats when we got to see him.

Besides that, i think we are out of tour goals besides riding a camel really.

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G
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Postby G » 13 Oct 2009, 15:37

george is the lad im here with, hes a funny greek guy from work, the one that a month ago asked me if i would like to go to nepal.


Ok today we went to see tigers, and we saw one!! it turns out you are lucky to see one, though some people yesterday saw two, lots of people go through 5 or 6 times with out seeing any.

Our tiger was a massive looking lad (guys are rarely seen, they are more shy, its normally the girls you see) and yeah he walked across the rad, then sat down in the distance, where he was yawning, thats when we got to see him.

Besides that, i think we are out of tour goals besides riding a camel really.
Ask you tour guide whether they can get you to try a ride on a milkman's bicycle. They are robust heavy steel frame bikes, you might have seen them around?

timyone
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Postby timyone » 15 Oct 2009, 22:01

man im seriously over these computers?! the keyboard sux, and i just typed a masive thing, whch disapeared?!

But yeah, im back to sydney tomorrow, today we went shopping in soe markets then caught the train home, it was fun, and nothing hardcore at all. We have finally found all the tourists, and its too late?! but yeah.

Back to some training, plan on doubling the intencity, and becoming a track cyclist now, so any one thats after a challenge can try and keep up :) ill hopefully race b grade heffron saturday if i can get some tyres, then maybe the crist sunday, though a party the night before so not hopeful of eing home for it :P maybe waterfall later in the day or a bigger ride if any ones up for it.

I totaly recomend any one going to nepal or india, they are a nie place to visit, we had more fun in nepal, but should have had more fun in india, as it can be a cool and challenging place :D


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