Cave lodge-Tham Lod

Waterfall cave

Run by an Australian who has lived in the area for over 30 years, self proclaimed caver, archaeologist, kayak and trekking guide...anything was possible at Cave Lodge.  Everyday he drew us a sketch map of a new cave to explore, a prehistoric rock shelter, cave paintings, a water fall, 2000 year old teak coffins...For three days we, and our Auzie friend Aaron followed these maps, trudging through the jungle sometimes on our own, sometimes with a local guide for help.  What we found was amazing...

Fossil cave

February 5th  Our fist day we had an organized tour to fossil cave, about a 700m walk through a cave with stunning formations made from limestone with invertebrate fossils in the rock.  Then on to waterfall cave where we followed a stream flowing into the cave.  In places we had to crawl through the water on all fours, the water up to our necks and the ceiling just above our heads...tight!  about 400m in the stream falls over the edge into a cavern about 30m bellow and we could go no farther.  Of course the owner of the lodge has repelled down it to explore the cavern bellow!  The final cave we visited that day was called Christmas cave (not sure why) an open cavern with amazing flowstone formations and a calcified spider!

Christmas Cave

Tham Lod- Pang Mapa

February 4-9th

Again on a quest for nature we headed west into the mountains of Pang Mapa Province to a town called Sopong and a cave called Tham Lod.  This famous cave has a river running through it, that can be navigated by bamboo raft.  The cave  has three main chambers, one with a cave painting, and one with a 2000 year old teak coffin, and all with great formations of flow stone and the like.  Again a local woman with a lantern showed us the sights, pointing out formations as we went...a lotus flower, an elephant, a Buddha, a breast (though she didn't say that one out loud she just nudged Ben and smiled).  At dusk we watched the swifts returning to the cave for the night... by the thousands.

Pai

February 1-4th

What a long bus ride we had...so many people packed on to a bus we thought would never come...
We were told 'you will love Pai'...'what a place!' people would say.  Imagine California, Santa Cruz maybe, but international dirty hippies...wheat grass, kambucha, art and music seen...nice right? but where are the Thai people?  The hotels were cheap and the food was cheap and the town was so 'unique' it felt like California...we weren't that in to it.  Amanda took a cooking class...that was great! and cheap too...thanks Pai!

Chiang Dao

January 29-31st

Cave entrance

Chiang Dao, north of Chiang Mai by 100 or so km, is known for a large limestone cave and the second highest peak in Thailand...with a 17km hike to the top (we were not getting our hopes up for this... assuming it did not exist).  The cave had a temple built into the entrance, with A row of Buddha statues adorning one wall, and many smaller Buddhas placed throughout the first chamber.  A local woman with a pressurized gas lantern gave us a tour, pointing out the local names for some of the formations and lead us through the other three non light chambers.  The next day we set out to climb the peak, again with low expectations of finding the trail.  The road through the Park was lush and beautiful, but steep and hard for the scooter with two riders.  We were pleasantly surprised to find the trail where the guest house owner had told us it would be, and even more pleasantly surprised to meet a few people on the way who confirmed that we would in fact make it all the way to the top of the peak.  Chirping birds abounded amongst the bamboo and banana palms, the limestone peaks looming almost vertical above our heads, 17km later we reached the summit with little in the way of a commanding view, due to smog from China and slash and burn agriculture....truth be told we came for the hike not the view, and happy to have finally found a long hike, we didn't mind the smog.

Doi Luang summit

Doi Inthanon

January 26-28th

The tallest peak in Thailand, over 8000ft...we thought we would do some hiking..silly us!
Thais come here for one thing...a photo shoot in wool hats and sweaters...and they drive! Right to the top of the peak, through the park, to the waterfalls, to the camp site, roads everywhere...at least we had a scooter.

The park was beautiful, pine forests with wild white orchids clinging to their trunks, rhododendrons almost in bloom, bamboo and wild banana palms amongst the pines...and yes...slightly cool temperatures.  There were also some picaresque waterfalls, one we could see from our tent window.  We managed a short 20min hike on a dirt road and a 1km hike to a 'remote' water fall (too far for the other tourists to go in their snow boots and wool hats...)

Banana, pine, bamboo forest

Chiang Mai

January 21-26th

Chiang Mai is called 'the rose in the North'...a small city nestled in the mountains...hardly.  It was a sprawling suburbia that would make L.A. proud, smog and all.  Our guest house was beautiful, and much to our horror on checking out, twice the price! We rented bikes and explored the old city, surrounded by a mote and full of small alley ways, Wats, and cafes.  We then decided that bikes were much too slow and rented motor bikes...

Well one bike because I (Amanda) was too scared to pull out of the rental shop... Ben drove and quikly took a liking to it...much to my chagrin because the thing scared me even more when I was on the back.  Exploring the countryside around Chiang Mai was well worth the fear (I got over it eventually).

We went to Doi Sutep, a National Park on a Hill with two Wats (Wats everywhere!).  We tried to take a small hike but that was not possible, as we soon learned was the case at every park, because the maps were inaccurate, the trails were nonexistent, and Thais don't hike...We then went exploring up to the north of Chiang Mai to the Mae Rim Valley, Ben enjoying driving fast around tight curves and me finally relaxing and enjoying the view from the back of the bike.

Doi Sutep

Orchid at the Orchid Nursery

Bangkok

The 'wai' traditional Thai grating

January 16-20th

Bangkok was a shock to our senses...hot, humid, the smell of fish and fresh fruit on the air, mixed with a hint of fuel and flowers...
What a place! so clean and orderly, cars stay in their lanes, street vendors in abundance and clean food too, but so Hot!

We reveled in the infrastructure, taking the Sky Train and Metro to most of our destinations. Enjoying the air-conditioned mega mall, the i-max theater, and the cheap soft serve ice cream at McDonald's.  We ate all the fruit we could possibly stomach, and enjoyed street food as much as possible.  We saw a few tourist sights; the National Museum, a Wat or two (Buddist temple), we took a boat down the river, did some shopping Asian style (crowded markets with everything imaginable for sale), and then we left the hustle and bustle of
the city for the mountains of the North

Wat Arun and the Mae Nam Chao Phraya River

Kathmandu

January 9-16th

We eventually left gourmet Pokhara for Kathmandu where all our stuff was awaiting us...  change of clothes, computer, sandals.  It was nice to be reunited again with our things, having worn the same clothes for almost a month, but Kathmandu had lost most of its charm after being in the mountains.  We did explore some of the old city which had a rustic medieval look to the narrow cobbled streets and Stuppas on every corner.

Typical street in central Kathmandu

Statue of Ganesh

Durbar Squar

We visited the Monkey Temple, so named because of the band of monkeys prowling the temple grounds waiting for food tourist so readily provide them.  The temple is perhaps the most famous in Kathmandu and tourists and Nepalese alike flock there on weekends.  We took our picture with quite a few different families, all posing with us like we were rock stars or something (I think its Ben's hair!).

Monkey Temple

 After a week of lounging in cold Kathmandu where we began dreaming up the next, warmer leg of our trip, we said farewell to abode of snows through our airplane window headed for the beaches of Thailand...
Little did we know that Nepal would make it that easy...our flight with Air India, that had already been canceled once and re booked with a new airline was canceled on the spot and passengers were sent in all directions on any number of airlines to make their connecting flights.  For us and two other weary travelers, it was not so simple..."Your flight is tomorrow not today....your flight has been canceled...we will put you on a nonstop to Bangkok with Thai air 8 hours from now...have a complimentary meal on us..." all things our Air India representative tried out on us throughout the ordeal.  Finally we got boarding passes for a flight non of us had booked and then we waited for 8 hours while every flight in the Kathmandu airport was canceled due to bad weather...somehow we made it out of there and at 11:30pm we arrived, no longer cold but hot, hot and humid in the other world that is Bangkok

Pokhara

The view from our hotel room

A beautiful town on the edge of a lake with the Annapurna Range loomming behind.  The town is full of travelers being the starting place for most treks into the region.  The area just on the edge of he lake is sunny with clean, wide, tree lined streets full of vendors selling anything from fresh squeezed fruit juice to used backpacks, mountain honey, and hand crafts.  The area is also full of expats who, tiered of uninspired Nepalese food, have opened a plethora of restaurants with cappuccinos, basken robins ice cream, pita and hummus...you name it we ate it...in fact that is about all we did for the four days we were there! Oh and laundry, that took four days too...did I mention electricity can never be counted on in Nepal?

The 'hamburger' as they see it at one restaurant...thin slices of ham held together with mashed potatoes

Ben's mountain man beard...20 days in the making

Day 20

Landruk to Phedi...and on to Pokhara

The last morning of the trek and oh what a beautiful day! The clouds were hovering around the peaks of Annapurnna but the snow capped mountains were in view and glowing in the morning sun.  We hiked up a long jungly stone staircase and caught our last good glimpse of the mountains before they disappeared behind the clouds and we descended the other side of the ridge into the Pokhara valley.
The final descent into the town of Phedi was a nightmare...the 'staircase from hell' a fellow trekker called it.  winding down through short steep switchbacks, seemingly never ending, all the way to the road.  When we finally reach the vehicle road we would have jumped for joy had it not been for the fact that no cars were heading to Pokhara that day due to a strike, yet again! We were stranded...20km from Pokhara on a paved road though rice fields....and it was late in the afternoon.  We briefly considered hiking back up the 'staircase from hell' but thought better of it.  While contemplating what to do we met a Swiss girl and her guide who were walking at a brake neck speed towards Pokhara.  They offered us a ride from their taxi (how they managed to get a vehicle is beyond us) if we could keep up with their pace for another kilometer.
Well we made it to Pokhara after paying too much for a taxi...but we were back in town, good food, good bed, good shower...

Day 19

Chulie to Landruk via Gorepani

The morning was cloudy and rainy, with no view of the mountains in sight.  We hiked up to Gorepani, know for its spectacular mountain views, hoping the clouds would clear...no such luck.  We decided that we would head back down to the river and out of the mountains the way we came in.  The trail from Gorepani to Gandruk was all rhododendron jungle, very lush and fragrant.

  Gandruk is a large Gurung settlement with traditional stone houses and stone lined streets...and a long flight of stairs down to the river.  By the time we crossed the river it was raining steadily but we decided to push on, up the other side of the river and a few hundred more stairs, to the town of Landruk with flower filled gardens and nice warm showers!

Day 18

Bamboo to Chulie

Victory lunch!

Long day back down the river over many a stone stair...2353 from the river back up to Chomrong alone!  When we made it to the top we had a victory feast of pizza and said farewell to Andy and Alejandro. After lunch we went back down more stairs...and you guessed it up some more stairs to Chulie....and by that time it had started to rain!

View from Chomrong

Day 17

ABC to Bamboo...back down in the snow

Knee deep snow and clear sky!  We woke to the hammering knock of our friends guide on their door before sunrise informing us all that the storm had broke and the mountains were out...we dressed fast and headed out to catch the sunrise over the peaks...and what a winter wonderland we found...

Hiking back down to Bamboo we made good time because Ben and I had spikes for our shoes, poles, and gators....we ran through the powder gliding over the trail that had slowed us the day before with high elevation and lots of wet rock...now only open fields of powder!  By the time we got to Bamboo we were exhausted! The sun got hot and the snow got heavy...we descended 6000ft in 6 hours, the last 500ft were muddy jungle the rest all snow where two days before there had been nothing but sun.

Day 16

MBC to ABC, Annapurna base camp 4300m   New Years Day

Snow! We woke up to a dusting of snow, and more snow falling...by the time we got to ABC it was snowing hard and we couldn't see a thing.  Around lunch time it looked like it was going to brake so took a walk to the glacial moraine but the storm got worse and what stared as a walk turned in to a full Himalayan Expedition...well it felt that way...snow blowing, wind howling, sinking into snow drifts up to our knees, not being able to see the trail...but we made it back safe to the guest house and stayed warm all the rest of the day.  Good thing too because the snow kept falling and falling and falling...

Day 15

Deruli to Manchapuchre Base Camp (MBC) New Years Eve

Ben's 30th Birthday!

Top of the glacial morraine

Manchapuchre

Another short hike from 9000ft 12000ft, very beautiful but not as easy, the last thousand feet we started to feel the elevation.  There was no snow still at this elevation but the rivers were iced over and only in direct sun was it warm.
That night for New Years Eve and Ben's b-day we celebrated with balloons (the lodge owner had a few) some imported Spanish wine, Jagermeister, and Vodka all carried up to MBC by Alejandro and Andy (well by their porter we suspect).  Ben had a snickers roll for a birthday cake, a snickers bar rolled in a thin bread and fried.  It was so cold after a few lively rounds of spoons with the whole guest house we celebrated the new year in our sleeping bags...asleep at 9:30!

Birthday cake

Day 14

Bamboo to Deruli

The weeping wall

Short hike due to elevation (Bamboo at 7500ft and Deruli at more than 9000ft) but beautiful and icy!  We passed a small stupa and a place called 'the weeping wall' believed to be a gift from Lord Shiva, the Nepalese believe that beyond this point you enter a sacred area in the mountains where no meet should be consumed or bad luck will come to your party.

We had our first of many card games, starting with a rowdy game of spoons followed by Egyptian War...we had a lot of time on our hands with so little hiking!

Ice Fall