Escape from Kathmandu

Alrighty,

We finally managed to leave Nepal, Yay. Although, the day before we were supposed to leave the strikes and curfews ended meaning if our patients had held out a bit longer we could have saved ourselves $70. But, on the bright side we didn’t have to use Indian transport and the flight food was the best I’ve ever had.

We did also find a way to make our last few days in Kathmandu fly by – get drunk with a Chilean called Christian (We met him in India and ended up spending our last five nights sharing a room, he also looks a lot like Peter Shilton circa Italia 90) Jo the girl we traveled with in India, a scarily crazy Aussie woman (one night she actually climbed under Garlen’s bed sheets and just sat there) called something weird and a guy from the UK called Peter.

The only downside to getting drunk on cheap Vodka from the mystical land of Ruslan was that I lost my debit card, so we’re now stuck in Delhi (40 degrees, very busy and over crowded. Although, it does have a KFC where we spent a large part of today consuming a family feast) waiting for my card and our Pakistan Visas. Incidentally, the Visas require a letter which will cost 50 quid from the British High Council, 50 quid for a letter, whinge, whinge, etc, etc!

I would, before I end this post, like to apologize for the level of abuse that came out of my mouth when the bar tender at Tom and Jerrys decided to turn the Arsenal – Villarreal match off at half time. I hope your country does keep democracy and that the king doesn’t regain power. Down with the King! Oh and I’d also like to thank the Sandwich bar round the corner for showing the second half.

damo

wenger, friends and protests

dame just had to take a picture when he saw arsene's side project - he owns a bakery on delhi. the other pic is of our last dinner in katmandu. left to right: spanish girl whose name i forget, ramsbury jo who we met up with again, legend from colindale, chilean cristian the mountaineer, some dude from folkstone, aussie zsa, and peter from crawley (crawley has the highest teenage pregnancy rate in england apparantly; and no he doesnt know you des). the last pic is of some kids in the riot.

prisoners on holiday

hi everybody, since climbing the big mountain we've been stuck in katmandu for the past few days. due to strikes and nepali citizens curfew - calling for the resignation of the eviillll king and a wish for democracy - katmandu has become a ghost town but for the few sneaky places like this very internet cafe im in now. the army patrol every corner of every street armed with machine guns and batons... 'no sudden movements damo'.

theres only so much time killing to be done b4 we get bored senseless (we played chess in a bookshop yesterday - i won ;)), so we have decided to bite the bullit and pay for a 100 US dollar flight to delhi rather than to wait for the eviillll king to do the honourable thing. shame, cause a coach into delhi would have only cost around 10 US dollars. if anybody feels sorry fo us they can make charitable donations to the garlen and damian fund at: makethiertriplastlonger@hotmail.com

so thats, that. we will book our flights tonight and should hopefully be in delhi this time tomorow. by the way, the army think im nepalese and keep telling me to go indoors: 'IM ENGLISH', i keep protesting. also, ive shaved that tache off now. thank god. thank gillette.

Indian Team

The Indian team planning to climb everest at the base camp fed us tea and biscuits. Which was nice. (i put the italics on by accident and don't know how to turn them off)

Base Camp

Those yellow dots behind us are Everest Base Camp. And the guy next to us is a Ray Ban wearing Monk.

3.3 mile high club

Our first glimpse of Everest (the black looking one in the middle), well actually we had been walking for half an hour with it in sight we just didn't realise until somebody pointed it out to us.

The Himalyas

A big thank you to Barry and Shelby (far right and left) without whom we would probably still be looking for the biggest mountain in the world and suffering headaches from the mountain sickness.

We have to walk that?

Garlen: "I just over heard some guy say we have to walk through that valley for 8 days before we get to Everest."

Damian: "Don't be silly, he must have been havimg a laugth, ha ha."

Getting lost is easy!

Right which way is it again?

A plan is hatched

If only she had warned us it wasn't as easy as 'Walking to the shops'

'which ones everest dame?' 'dunno mate'

we're back. alive and just about kicking. it was the hardest 10 days we've ever spent in our lives.

in our first 8 days going up mountains and down valleys we battled: high altitude headaches, severe breathing difficulties, aching shoulders from our backpacks, blisters, chaffing on our thighs, trekking when its too hot, sleeping when its too cold, sunburn on our faces (we look like unwashed pandas), smelly feet, smelly armpits, greasy hair (the water was too freezing to wash with - though damian tried once and never again), a poor diet of biscuits and hard dry noodles (noodles eaten straight from the pack), uncontrallable bouts of mad laughter (mainly from me - imagine steve buscemi in armagedon), and of course massive physical exertion and fatigue.

was it worth it? of course it bleedin was. when we reached the optimal peak of the trek (called kala pattar) we celebrated by eating biscuits and dry noodles and busting out the ipod. 'thats entertainment' indeed. we were also fortunate enough to be invited to the bass camp tent of the indian everest excurtion team - called borders security force. we enjoyed tea and biscuits with them! we also met some other really nice trekkers who helped us two debutants, and we certainly wouldnt have had as much fun without them. barry and shelby - absolute massive thanks, a pair of 'namche bazaars' (thats cockney nepal rhyming slang for 'stars').

anyway it took us only 2 days to trek back where we started. and now we're both still recovering from our everest adventure in katmandu. we planned to leave nepal by coach back into india but with the strikes it seems the only way out of here is by plane. so we are currently at a crosswords as to whether to wait till the strikes over (somebody told us it will be over when they get democracy - which could be anytime!) or fly to either india, pakistan or china.

so, thats about it for this week, things are hotting up in dan browns deception point and villereal look odds on to knock 'the arse' of the big eared cup. better ring my mum now.

garl xox

ps. finally got my police report for my stolen bag, phew...

pss. pics later, patience boys and girls...

Go Go Gunner Gooners Bang Bang

Hi,

Just a quick post to say we'll be missing for the next 15 days as we have decided to walk to Everest Base camp from the Nepal side. We go halfway by plane (about 1 hour flight) and then walk the rest, may be a bad decision as we are not fans of walking; Garlen got a stich walking back to the Hotel after dinner last night and I'm no better.

Apart from that we haven't done much, just sorting out flights, trying to get a police report for Garlen's insurance and deciding on the best way into China (we've opted for the Pakistan route). We did meet Julika from Uni and rent bikes to go and see some temples and stuff on Tuesday but that's about it.

See you in 15 days, take care

Damo

P.S Great results for Arsenal recently eh... I'll settle for the Champions League this year!

Kathmandu Dogmandont

Namaste
Hope everyone is okay. Don't really know where to begin as we have done quite a bit since the last post.

Cricket was really good even though England lost. We luckily managed to get our tickets upgraded to executive and watched the game from sofas while waiters bought us free food and drink. It can be really hard this travelling lark. We also managed to sneak past security and straight into the press conference.

The game was in a place called Jaipur. It wasn't really nice there as it was polluted and all the sites were just poor versions of other places we had been. We did however learn not to take pity on cycle rickshaw drivers and go for the poorest looking one. They (and this is said in hindsight) don't seem to have a well balanced diet and because of this their fitness levels aren't up to much making your journey take the time it should.

We also went to Agra and saw the Taj Mahal, which was nice. I thought it was one of the most amazing man made things I had ever seen and could have stared at it for hours. Garlen wasn't so impressed and described it as a little room.

After that we went to the river Ganges; one of the holiest places in the Hindu faith and also one of the most polluted rivers in the world. It was weird seeing dead bodies (the first I have ever seen) being taken to the river side put in wood rafts, set alight and pushed out while other people jump in to wash away their sins. I sort of lost some respect for the hindu faith there as Garlen told me had seen the raft bearers joking and messing about as they went about burning the bodies. We also watched the A-team in our hotel and I washed a 700 rupee train ticket in my shorts. Garlen looks after the tickets now.

We've left our fellow traveler Jo (From Ramsbury not Swindon) now, it was really cool having another person to talk to for the last 3 weeks, changed the group dynamics and meant I didn't have to listen to Garlen going on about; Chelsea, the oragami chicken and his bad/awful Ewan Mcgreggor impression (only kiding Garlen I love you really) but we'll miss Jo. Cue tears.

After the Ganges we left for Nepal, but on the way, while sitting at a road side Cafe, Garlen had a bag stolen with loads of expensive stuff in it, including most of his clothes (I haven't noticed him smelling more despite him wearing the same top since, but then he always has had a strange smell about him). He also lost some jeans which he seems to have a strange emotional connection to.

It was quite a weird journey really; the change in climate and landscape was dramatic and sudden as was change in people's faces and attiutdes to tourists. Also, our coach owner kept trying to start fights with people, one on Garlens behalf as he searched for culprits. The most annoying thing about the theft was the loss of the video diary we had been making. Memories, water colour, memories in the corner of our minds. Oh and a tyre blew up.

This place is a bit pollitically unstable at the moment - something to do with Maoist rebels, a king that is really a dictator and a fixed election - so there are lots of soilders with guns, one brushed against me, but only the butt so don't worry mum.
We're in Kathmandu at the moment making plans to go to Mount Everest Base Camp and then into Tibet, which will be fun.

But anyway take and we'll post again soon (sorry if this post makes no sense but I've only had about 3 hours sleep over the past 35 hours)

Damo

river gunge

'la la la, la la la, river ganges
something , something, lemonade
la la la, la la la, bunch of tourists
something, something, something, all up into space'

albarn/lo composition 2006

todge more hall

dame: er, garlen, whose this person that keeps following us and saboutaging our pictures?

garl: i dunno but its bleedin cold! wheres my gloves when i need 'em?

stranger girl: its me jo! the girl who talks alot and who takes ages deciding what to order from very simple menus.

dame and garl: leggit!

todge more hall

dame: er, garlen, whose this person that keeps following us and saboutaging our pictures?

garl: i dunno but its bleedin cold! wheres my gloves when i need 'em?

stranger girl: its me jo! the girl who talks alot and who takes ages deciding what to order from very simple menus.

dame and garl: leggit!

jiminey-cricket

goal! er...

camel-flarge

follow that camel!!!