JACK & VERA RETURN TO EVEREST

Ram at the Mustang Holiday Inn Kathmandu, during Tihar

Westerns preferred early morning location, Indra Chowk in Kathmandu, always something going on

Sisters applying tikka's at for Bai Tihar festival

Ell hanging out with the young offenders of Bhaktapur

La Petite Generale has purchased a new pair of questionable quality walking boots, and has reinforced the adhesive around the sunglasses because...yes, the temptation of the world's most glorious mountains have once again proved too much, and tomorrow we take a 45 minute flight to Lukla, where we start a 2 week trek to set our sights on Everest, this time from Gokyo, the next valley over from base camp and reputedly offerinng much better views. We had made plans to spend 2 weeks in the kathmandu valley, enjoying warmer climes and village life, which at the moment is particularly interesting as its harvesting time. But once we questioned ourselves about what we REALLY wanted to do, and confirmed that we could get a last minute flight...well we dont know when we will be back here and to be honest there was only one decision - s0 we will be off limits until Nov 10th, when hopefully we return with more high altitude tales of miserable trekkers, one dimensional food, stupendous views and fingers crossed walking boots still intact.

The last 2 weeks has seen us enjoying Kathmandu, its been new year here...Tihar is a great festival. On the first day, the crow is worshipped, on the 2nd its the dog, on the 3rd, its the cow and the biggest day is sister brother worship. If you dont have one, you can go to various public places, and the women administer the tikka (red dot on forehead!) to men without sisters, great stuff. Western picked up a big foreheadful of red paste with rice stuck on it.

Kathmandu has served up great food, authentic wood fired pizza and pasta, quality curries - both local style, Indian and Thai, superb cakes and coffee, all gratefully consumed after the demands of the Langtang trek. After 14 days of indulgence, tomorrow we return to a diet of potatoes/noodle soups and hot lemon drinks....bring it on.

We have hired quality cold weather gear...4 seasons sleeping bags, and down jackets. Weather should be hot high altitude sun in the day, though very very cold as soon as you put one foot in the shade, and -10 nights - the fact that none of the lodges have heating, will mean us going to bed wearing all our clothes. The beaches of Thailand back half of November will be truly appreciated! Namaste.

JACK & VERA DUCKWORTH RETURN TO NEPAL

Heading back towards Kathmandu from the Langtang valley

A pretty rough section of road from Dunche - at least we were in a jeep this time

The view from Kyanjin Ri

The other way

Ell playing 'Peter & Paul'

Fried egg & chips at 4400m

Gosainkund lakes

Ell really tired

On the top of Kyanjin Ri

108 beads

Greetings once again from Nepal. The journey from the airport to the tourist hub of Thamel in Kathmandu has convinced Western that apart from India, there is not a country in the world that can touch it as a visual feast. Yes, its chaotic and dirty, but its also vibrant, energetic and steeped in such bewilderingly different customs that I find it hard not to fall in love with it. Traffic held up by elephants, holy days for dogs sporting tikka on their foreheads (as you often see on people here), and elderly women up early in the morning, to rub butter or ghee onto statues of hindu gods and godesses....there is always something going on. The downsides include an increasing number of young streetkids dependent on sniffing glue, and a seemingly endless amount of people who need sponsorship from Westerners for their children. The politicians are once again at loggerheads, as the country shuffles sideways...the people here also deserve better.

We have just returned from 2 weeks in the mountains, this time the Langtang valley and the holy lakes at Gosainkund, and we are completely wiped out. One of the effects of altitude gain (and subsequent lack of oxygen) is fitful sleep, and we are wondering if in reverse we suffer with too much oxygen and too much sleep? We decended from 4400m to 2030 in one day before taking a jeep back to the capital at 900m. We are sleeping all the time. The Langtang is apparently one of the easier treks in the country, but I think that this is a bit like saying its easier to swim the channel than the atlantic. We caught the tail end of the monsoon, which meant rains in the afternoon, and one huge dump of snow at the lakes - we were robbed of views on several of the days, but the silver lining was that the 2 days where we had 1000m climbs, we were kept cool by light drizzle. As per usual on these treks, we met a fine selection of individuals, in particular, Philippe the maths teacher from Switzerland, Alan from Wimbledon - soon to appear in the Guinness Book of Records for playing cricket at Everest - Ian from Cardiff - disappointed with the weather for robbing him of his chance to cross the tricky 'Ganja La', Ziv & Sharon from Israel and their 2 young boys (9&6!) coping excellently with the conditions, and 2 English families with their superb guide Thanka, someone I am sure we will keep in touch with.

The trek didnt go as smoothly as we would have liked. I lost my sunglasses on the bus on the way up - we sat on top of this old vehicle for 9 boneshaking hours, as we covered 110kms, with the road crossing several hairy exposed landslide sections, which demanded great care and attention from the driver and conductor, who hung from the side of the bus tapping on the side panel to indicate to the driver how much space he had to play with. My money belt broke after 12 months, and most importantly, Ells boots which had been fine on leaving Kathmandu, had by the time of reaching the trailhead, started to decompose quite badly. By the 3rd day, both soles had fallen off, and by the final day all of the support padding had been left in various parts of the Langtang valley, they resembled Charlie Caroli's clown shoes - at 110 quid, I had told her not to buy cheap German tat! Ells sunglasses also broke, and emergency plasters were used to secure the lens to the frame, she bore an uncanny resemblance to Jack Duckworth, and I to Vera. Westerns arse and thighs provided a help yourself buffet to the bedbugs of the lodge in Thulo Syaphru, and writing this a week after, he carries around 70 4mm red dots in the region....not pretty.

Those of you who have done their fare share of travel will know of the poor reputation of the post army conscript Israeli and its fair to say, thay have cemented in their position as least favourite visitor to the country. In fact, most of the countries we have visited would seem to share this view. There is something pretty nauseating about the ball-breaking negotating tactics, where they demand a set price for room and all food from lodge owners who have 5 months in the year to make money and where supplies to the lodges are carried up the valley by porter or horse. To give you some idea, a room at the top of the valley costs (for 2 people) just under 3 quid, with a main meal costing 2-4 pound. Refusing to pay for a bucket of hot water (1 pound) because you were only given half or cyphoning out petrol from the fuel tank of the hired motorbike so that you return the bike with the same amount of fuel in it are also vote losers....oh dear. Bargain and negotiate by all means, its the name of the game here, but how about keeping a little bit of perspective at the same time.

Finally, there must be a special mention here for 'La Petite Generale', who on the last day of the trek, decended 2300m, with virtually no boots, whilst enduring cramps and an upset stomach - it was a pretty phenomenal effort and one that 72 hours later is still taking its toll....what a woman, what a woman.