thewills'wanderings

After lots of frustrations uploading photos and it taking forever, we’ve figured out a way for you to check out loads more of our photos. You just need to look on the right hand side in the blogroll section and click on “more photos”. We won’t be offended if you can’t be bothered but for those who’d like to, enjoy!

We left Luang Prabang a week ago by bus and headed for Vang Vieng, the adventure town of Laos. The bus trip was an adventure in itself with a landslide on the road causing us to wait for an hour while it was cleared. Tim was out there in the pouring rain clearing rocks from the road. Lots of fun. I stayed dry in the bus with Charlotte and read my book!
Arriving in Vang Vieng we soon realised why so many young travellers descend upon this place. The scenery is stunning with limestone rocks jutting out everywhere. You can do all sorts of outdoorsy stuff here, mostly on the Nam Song River but also caving, mountain biking and rock-climbing. In the dry season the river is clear, but now with lots of rain starting to fall it’s brown and swollen. There’s no industry anywhere so it’s pretty clean though, a nice change from the stinky Mekong River.
Tubing is the main attraction in Vang Vieng which is quite hilarious. You pay for a tube, a life-jacket(if you want one) and a tuk-tuk ride to the get-in point of the river. At this point most people spend a couple of hours drinking huge volumes of alcohol at the bars set up next to the river. There’s load music pumping out of the sound systems and you can buy whiskey in small buckets and then drink with straws with your friends. It’s crazy! There’s also plenty of hashish on offer. Seeing the effects of a day spent doing this is quite awful as they all stagger into town in the evenings. It’s no wonder that 4 or 5 backpackers a year die doing this! They have huge rope swings and slides set up next to the river so as you float down you stop and risk your life on those. Because the river is running really high, once you’ve jumped someone throws a tube out to pull you in so you don’t get swept away. Tim took the three big girls on the tubing trip on the first day and they loved it ,especially the big swings!
One day we hired bikes and all went on an adventure, caving and swimming in a river. Another day we did a guided mountain trekking trip which was awesome. Jungle bashing, leeches, caving, eating kebabs cooked on an open fire, kayaking. All for a fraction of the cost of a trip like this in NZ. What more could you ask for? Tim’s going to do a blog entry on the outdoor industry in Laos.
We left Vang Vieng on Sunday and are now in Vientianne, the capital of Laos. It’s quite a nice city, again quite French and have been taking it quite slow here, doing a bit of schoolwork, getting washing done etc. Yesterday we found a waterpark with slides which was great for a cool off and then headed to a museum that was all about raising awareness of the effects of UXO’s(unexploded ordanances) in Laos. I had no idea how hugely affected Laos has been by the bombing by the US during the Vietnam War. More bombs were dropped in Laos than in World War 1 and 2 combined. Every year over 400 people die or are seriously injured by exploding bombs. The centre we visited tries to educate local people about the dangers of them. Because they can make money by selling the scrap metal, so many go looking for them to sell. It shows how desperately poor you must be if you’d risk your life to make money like that. It was quite an education for us all. It’s also a rehabilitation centre where they make prosthesis and try to help people adjust to life without a limb.
Well, this is our last day in Laos. Today at 3pm we fly from Vientianne to Hanoi in Vietnam. We’re looking forward to being on the coast and enjoying lots of swimming while we explore Vietnam. We’ve heard mixed reports on Vietnam. It’s supposed to be a faster pace than Thailand or Laos with lots of aggressive people trying to sell you things. This is so unlike Laos where you sometimes have to wake people up to buy things! If not wake them up, at least get them to stop watching TV. They are seriously obsessed with TV-maybe because it’s quite new for them.
We’ve all now reached the point where we’re craving a bit of home cooking. Eating out 3 meals a day is actually a bit tiresome, although we don’t miss the dishes! Yesterday we actually went looking for a toaster thinking we could make our own toast in our guesthouse because we do have vegemite(thanks, Karen!). Unfortunately the toasters were so expensive so we decided to flag that idea. Instead we’re having croissants, and rolls which are great!

Finally I gave in. It wasn’t the ridicule of my hippy look or the apparent try hard attempt to look young, it was the annoyance of getting hair in my eyes, combing and having to use shampoo.

So, in a rash moment much to the delight of some children and to the horror of others, I went to a back street Lao barber and paid $3 for a number two. So, 10 months of hair is now swept into the mighty MeKong and yes bald men (well going bald) are sexy!!

Right now, I’m sitting on the mighty Mekong River in Laos in a slow boat as we head for Pak Beng, the half way point in our journey to Luang Prabang. We’ll stay in Pak Beng overnight before we get back on the boat for another day. It’s great to finally be here as it was one of the things that really excited me when we first started planning this whole adventure. The boat is packed with foreigners, mostly young backpackers and we’re so glad to be travelling in the low season, which means we actually each got a seat. The stories of overcrowded boats were a bit frightening so we were relieved to find our boat has only 37 passengers compared with 100 or more that sometimes happens.
Yesterday we arrived in Chiang Khong, the border town after a bus ride from Chiang-Rai to Chiang-Saen and then a songtaeuw ride(taxi-ute kind of thing). We stopped at the Golden Triangle and saw the border of Burma, Thailand and Laos. Very cool! Our guesthouse was right on the Mekong River and we could look across and see Laos on the other side. The girls were fascinated by the fact that right across the river we could see a different country. Charlotte was sure that we needed to go in a plane to get to another country and couldn’t figure out that in the morning we would cross the river and be in Laos.
So we woke early ready to make our way down the road to Thailand Immigration and then across the river to Laos and fill out 12 forms to get our Laos visa. We finally got everything processed and made it onto the boat only to wait over an hour in the scorching heat before the boat left. We’ve now been on the boat for a few hours and we’re all coping quite well. Tonight, we’ll be spending the night in Pak Beng which only has electricity from 6pm to 10pm. We’re not looking forward to a night with no fan because it is so hot. I don’t imagine we’ll get much sleep!
I’m really enjoying being here. Even though the boat isn’t that comfortable, the engine is noisy, the Mekong is a great brown slug of a river and in a few hours the girls are probably going to be cranky, hungry and at each other’s throats, I still love this type of travelling. It’s so exciting to go places that are a bit unknown. Where we are now is a common backpacker route so it’s not at all scary. The girls are proving to be hardy little travellers who don’t seem to be phased by much at all. They can cope easily with squat toilets and a bin in the corner to put your used toilet paper. Maybe all our years of camping have been good preparation!
The scenery is now getting more jungle like and as we look out we can see villages in the distance and people fishing from their long-tail boats. Although, it’s a very slow journey it really is a great way to see how people live.
I’m sure by the this time tomorrow I will have seen enough though and will be looking forward to Luang Prabang which has a strong French influence(lots of pastries and baguettes, yippee!!)
(2 and a half days later)
Well, we are now in Luang Prabang after surviving our 2 day boat epic. At the end of the first day we arrived in Pak Beng and were whisked away by an offer of a cheap guesthouse. We had read the Ayres experience of Pak Beng and were all ready to avoid getting money extorted from us by the numerous guys who try to carry your bags up the hill from the boat. A very tempting offer when you have 4 tired children and 7 or so bags!
Anyway, we went with a guy who offered us a guesthouse for $5NZ a room and he even carried Charlotte up the hill. The rooms were great so for $15 we got 3 rooms, a bargain! As usual in rural South-East Asia we were woken early by roosters crowing and dogs barking. We went and found breakfast, got baguettes for lunch on the boat and headed for the wharf. It was nice to be leaving Pak Beng where it felt as if everyone was trying to rip you off. Tim was offered drugs as soon as we got to our guesthouse, and poor Michaella had a bad experience when we sent her and Maddie off in the morning to buy snacks for the boat. We were all trying to get our head around the Lao money(kip). We gave her 50,000 kip which is about $10 and they went to get some snacks. She came back with a small box of crackers and a bag of lollies. She had thought the 50,000 note was a 5,000 and the woman at the shop saw her trying to figure it out and told her, “yes,yes, it’s a 5,000” and took it. Tim marched back to the shop with her. They saw him coming and all tried to duck for cover but eventually came out and said, “oh, sorry, sorry, I tried to follow her and give her money back”. That was a good lesson in keeping your wits about you!
Day 2 of the boat ride was a bit different from Day 1. Once again we got to the boat early to try to get some good seats. We were told to be there at 8am. At 10am we finally left absolutely packed with people on the floor everywhere. The first day there were two boats, but it seemed that they ditched one boat and stuck us all on one boat, along with various sacks of rice and even a chicken tied on the roof. Charlotte kept asking why we weren’t going and where is the driver and what IS he doing? Finally, after one question too many I told her to go and ask him herself, not actually thinking she would. So, off she went, stepping over people and went straight to the front of the boat and said, “When are we leaving?”I don’t know if he understood but he just smiled and said something in Lao to her.
We had a very uncomfortable trip crammed on wooden bench seats where your knees touch the bench in front. We all took turns to lie on the floor in the aisle or even under the seats. We were so glad to have 2 inflatable air mattresses with us. The backpackers on the boat seemed to cope with the trip by drinking copious amounts of Laos beer.
At about 5.30pm we arrived in Luang Prabang and got a tuktuk to SpicyLaos Backpackers. It was the only accommodation I could find on-line and I thought it would be good to have something booked after the boatride. It was pretty grotty and overpriced so we stayed the night there and then in the morning found a cheaper much nicer guesthouse right on the main street in walking distance of everything.
Luang Prabang is a really beautiful city, with lots of French architecture and strong French influence in food as well. It’s strange to be in South-East Asia and baguettes being the cheapest meal option! Quite nice though, after having no decent bread for a few months.
Yesterday we met a family from Nelson who we spent the day with today. Thumbs up for the Barkers t-shirts with the map of NZ on them. We would never have met them if we hadn’t noticed Peter’s(the Dad) t-shirt. It’s so nice to meet kiwis when you’re away(or even Aussies). Straight away you seem to be able to relate to them. We teamed up and got a taxi to a waterfall where we all swam and had a great time. We were so surprised at the beautiful blue water and the girls had a blast swinging from a rope into the river and jumping from the top of the waterfall into the river.
Tomorrow we’re going to hire bikes for the day and head to the museum as well as doing a bit of schoolwork. We plan to stay here for a few more days before heading south to Vang Vieng, the adventure town of Lao where there’s all sorts of cool things to do like tubing down a river, climbing, caving etc. I’m sure we’ll have lots of adventures there.

photos coming……..

href=’http://blogs.bootsnall.com/adventure/files/2009/06/changimai-trekking-207.jpg’ title=’changimai-trekking-207.jpg’>For the last week we’ve had Karen, Hayley and Willem(my sister and children) with us from NZ. We’ve loved showing them around Chiang-Mai and just hanging out, eating out at lots of different places together and shopping! We had lots of laughs riding in tuk-tuks, going to the local markets and flash shopping malls . It was so nice for the girls to have their cousins with them to enjoy it together.
While they were here we booked an overnight trip which involved trekking,elephant riding,white-water rafting and bamboo rafting. The place we stayed was at a Lahu hilltribe village in very basic huts with no electricity. We all slept in one room with mosquito nets over our beds. We were all wondering what the food would be like but were pleasantly surprised by the fantastic meal of crunchy fried chicken, potato curry and stir fried veges. The first day was quite a gruelling day of uphill walking and Karen was wondering why on earth she wasn’t sitting on a beach in Phuket instead of sweating and puffing up hill in 33 degree heat. The second day was all downhill so that would have been good news if it hadn’t have been raining quite hard which made it super slippery. Karen had her special guide who looked after her and held out her hand in the dodgy bits while singing various classic English songs with his own special version of the words. It was very amusing!
We made it downhill to the waterfall where some swam and then had a short walk to the elephant camp. Riding the elephant was quite a neat experience. I must admit to feeling a bit freaked at first especially when we went up a steep boggy track. I was sure the elephant was going to fall sideways with me landing between the ground and the elephant! Once we got on level ground it was all good, though and was a very relaxing ride along the river bank.
Next was white-water rafting, or should I say brown water rafting. We decided Charlotte was too young and Karen happily volunteered to look after her and get a ride down in the van. The rapids were fun but not too scary, perfect for me but of course not quite scary enough for the rest of the family. We all really enjoyed it though. It was interesting for Tim to see how they run a rafting trip compared to how he would run one in NZ. They didn’t have a safety talk at all. If I didn’t have Tim with us I don”t know that I would have been happy jumping on a raft. At the end of the white-water section we were then transferred onto the bamboo rafts, which Karen and Charlotte joined us for. It was very cruisy, just floating , slightly submerged down the river for a while to our get out point.
After getting changed and eating iceblocks we jumped into the ute and headed back to Chiang-Mai.
We had one more day in CM before we packed up our bags and then all of us took the bus to Chiang-Rai, which took about 3 hours. There we did a bit more market shopping at the Night Bazaar, went on a boat ride to a cave, checked out an impressive temple, had lots of delicious fried chicken and fruit shakes and just hung out at our guesthouse. One day we paid for the kids to swim in a hotel pool, a bit of relief from the unbelievably sticky heat.
Monday came and this is when we left Karen, Willem and Hayley to head for the Laos border. They were heading back to CM for a few days, before heading to Bangkok. We had to catch a public bus to Chiang Saen so we could check out the Golden Triangle before getting to Chiang Khong where we’d spend the night. We had a good look around the Opium Musuem at the Golden Triangle which showed the long history of opium smoking and trading. When we got to Chiang-Khong we found a guesthouse right on the edge of the Mekong, with air-con for $30 for 2 triple rooms. In the morning we made our way to the wharf to begin our journey into Laos.

Photos coming soon……

Our time in Chiang-Mai has been very relaxing and a big surprise to us in lots of ways. First of all our house is incredible! The Perich family have been here in Chiang-Mai teaching at Grace International School for the past year and they’ve been renting this house. It has 4 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms and is in a subdivision of houses all the same with a guard at the gate. A very different experience from our time in Nepal. It’s been the perfect place for us to have a bit of settled time, do some schoolwork, cook for ourselves(occasionally!), and explore Chiang-Mai.
The Periches were with us for the first week before they left for Europe on their way back to New Zealand. It was great to spend time with them, meet some of their friends and for our girls to hang out with their kids. We’ve spent a bit of time at the resort style school swimming pool trying to cool off from the muggy heat.
We’ve also spent some time getting dental check-ups which are so much cheaper here, and with the Periches recommendation we were able to find an awesome dentist. It’s been a shock to us how good the standard of living is here for foreigners. It would be a very easy place to live if you had a reasonable job.
We love the markets here. We’ve been to the touristy night bazaar a couple of times, the Sunday markets, and a few times a week we head to the little local market where all the locals buy their fresh meat and fruit and veges. It’s fun walking past the snakes, frogs, termites, and other tasty bugs without looking too repulsed in case you offend the stall owners. It’s funny that while this market has all of this really interesting stuff, right next door at the 7/11 store you can buy a burger for 80c and a big slushy (the girl’s favourite) for 50c. We’ve been eating out mostly but have occasionally cooked when we can’t quite face going out. Chicken is so cheap here. I made burgers last night and bought chicken breast to put in them and it cost $1.50 for enough chicken for the 6 of us! Eating Thai food is cheap, about $1.50 for a plate of noodles and veges but if you go Western it’s probably a bit cheaper than NZ, but a lot more pricy than Thai. The girls have coped pretty well with the food. Sometimes Charlotte will just have plain rice with an omelette on top which seems to be on every menu.
When the Periches left, they also left their car and their maid. I know, it’s all sounding far too glam now. A month after we leave, the new teacher and her husband arrive and take over the house, and they didn’t want to put Acha(the maid) out of a job, so we have her on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. She is an 18 year old girl from Burma and had become part of the Perich family while they were here. She doesn’t speak much English or Thai but we know that she came from a difficult situation in Burma and that her mother is still in there and she sends money back to her. It has been kind of strange having her do everything. Every day she’s here she does the washing, folding, cleans all the bathrooms, sweeps up leaves, and mops the whole house which is all tiles, and a very big house! I never know quite where to put myself and I can’t help feeling guilty as I read my book and do stuff on the computer. I’m sure I’d get used to it quite quickly if I lived here though. It’s just part of life here and all of the foreigners have them.
Having a car has been great as we’ve been able to explore Chiang-Mai easily. We’re getting used to the driving which isn’t all that bad just a bit loose with road rules and tons of motorbikes everywhere. A few days ago it was my turn to head out on my own while Tim did schoolwork with the kids. We try to have turnabout so we can both get a break. It was my first time driving right into town and I was a bit nervous as there are lots of one-way streets and I wasn’t sure about parking. Anyway, I made it and found a park in a little back street temple parking area which didn’t have many cars in it. I spent the day wandering the streets, scouring the second-hand bookshops and eating Pad Thai. When I finally made it back to the car, which took a while because I couldn’t exactly remember where I parked and all the little streets do look quite similar, I noticed that the car park was now full and a car had parked right behind mine. Now, in NZ I would have been furious and would have had to wait until the owner returned. Not in Thailand though. Luckily, we had seen this happen in the big shopping mall and noticed the sign saying that if you do this, please leave your car in neutral with the handbrake off so you can be pushed out of the way. Imagine this working at Westcity, or St Lukes! I don’t think so. So, with sweat pouring off me I casually pushed the car out of my way and managed to drive myself out of the car park. I did have a slight panic as I started pushing, wondering if it was on a slight slope and would it run off and crash into something. I’m still getting over the Woodlands Park driveway incident!
While we’ve been here we’ve also visited an orphanage which has just been started by an Aussie couple. They are friends of the Periches and we met them and asked if we could help them out while we were here. They have 9 little girls who have all been rescued from horrendous situations. Most of them have come from remote areas or Laos and don’t speak mainstream Thai, so even with the Thai speaking staff in the orphanage there are lots of difficulties in communicating. Luckily, the oldest girl who is 12 can speak enough English to do lots of translating. We all went for a ride to pick the older kids up from school and our girls piled in the back of the ute with them.(check out the photo of those gorgeous girls, it was so nice to see them giggling and laughing, knowing what they’ve come from). Tim has since been back to build a wall to make more sleeping space. He had fun trying to find wood and tools, all a lot different from building in NZ.
Last weekend Grace International School, where Catherine worked as the music teacher, ran a sports camp outreach for local Thai children. Tim and the big girls went along and helped. Tim was a leader on the volleyball station and the girls joined in with the activities for the 2 days. They had about 250 local Thai kids so that was quite an experience.
We spent the day at Chiang-Mai Zoo on Wednesday. That was a different zoo experience. We were expecting really cramped conditions for the animals but it was actually a pretty amazing zoo with lots of development taking place to improve enclosures. It’s a huge zoo, impossible to walk around so you take shuttle buses all around. The best part of it is that you’re allowed to feed the animals so we were passing bananas to the monkeys and elephants. You can actually bring in your own veges to feed them! The panda was very cool! Check out the photo! I think part of the enjoyment is that it didn’t cost the earth to get in. When we visited Australia Zoo in February, we loved it but it cost SO much that you can’t help wondering if it was really worth it.
So, life here has been great. We’ve enjoyed having a house and car and a bit of normality while we explore more of Thailand. We’ve been out a few times with no children, got to know some of the Perich’s friends (actually, we really have just taken over their lives). Grace International School would love to give us jobs actually, but no, don’t worry, though tempting as it be would be to live here, we’re not going to settle down in Chiang-Mai.(not in the near future anyway)
Tomorrow Karen, Willem and Hayley( my sister and children) are arriving in Chiang-Mai and we can’t wait! It’s going to be so much fun showing them around. We’re going to do an overnight elephant trek in the hills and by this time next week we’ll be leaving our home comforts behind and will be off to the Golden Triangle and then across to Laos and down the Mekong on the 2 day boat ride!

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href=’http://blogs.bootsnall.com/adventure/files/2009/06/changimai-048.jpg’ title=’changimai-048.jpg’> We arrived in Bangkok from Nepal and crashed once again at our favourite guesthouse, Sanawan Palace. It was nice to be welcomed back like family and we spent the day by the pool and just enjoying being back somewhere familiar. Tim and I had a Thai massage which was so nice after our trekking in Nepal. The downside was the 4 girls hovering around watching and laughing!
In the morning we got a taxi to the Bangkok train station ready for our overnight train to Chiang-Mai at 6pm that night. We stored our luggage at the station and hit the streets to explore ChinaTown. It was fun seeing all the different things for sale especially all the slimy fishy things. What surprised us was how clean and civilised the streets of Bangkok seemed to us after spending 5 weeks in Nepal. We didn’t hesitate to eat the delicious barbequed chicken sold on the streets. It’s funny how your perspective changes.
We had a few hours to kill before we needed to head back to train station and decided we needed a bit of airconditioning so we jumped on a tuk-tuk, yes, all six of us, and asked to be taken to MBK, a huge shopping mall. We wandered around a while, then found a supermarket and stocked up on supplies for the overnight train so we didn’t have to spend lots on the overpriced train food.
After eating at the station we boarded the overnight train bound for Chiang-Mai. What a cool trip with great service! At about 8pm the staff came round and converted the seats into little sleeping berths. They were really comfortable and it was so nice to see them put white crispy clean sheets and pillowcases on, a real luxury after Nepal, where even cleanish sheets were a kind of grey.
We woke to the lush, green countryside of Northern Thailand and Tim and I couldn’t help thinking it reminded us of rural Japan. What an awesome way to travel. We’re looking forward to doing more of the same in Vietnam
After getting off the train without forgetting any bags or children, we were picked up by Steven and headed for our new home away from home!

by Tim

Back in 1952 Everest was climbed with 362 porters,20 Sherpa guides and 10,000 pounds of baggage. So being lead by Sir Eds example Lyndsay, Mark and myself along with 5 porters, 1 cook , and 1 climbing Sherpa set out to climb our own Everest, a mighty high peak Langshisha Ri, 6300m.
For us Nzers the altitude was the biggest problem ,as Mount Cook is only 3800m and although information about Langshisa Ri was very limited and it hadn’t been climbed a lot ,we decided it was within our technical ability. The whole lead up to the climb was all about “slowly slowly” as we took our time to acclimatise and wandered up the Langtang Valley. We started at 1400m and left the families after 5 days trekking at a small village called Kyanjing Gompa (3800m). Then 6 of us headed off for a 2 day acclimatisation climb up Yala Peak (5500m). This was a big test for me as I feel the effects of altitude really easily and was worried how I would cope.
Our base camp for Yala was at 4800m and on arriving there I was feeling great. However throughout the night I started suffering from headaches and one of our members started suffering from explosive diarrohea and vomiting(I think Kim will fill you in on this in a special “sickness” section). It was not the place you want to be sick as there was no way of washing yourself up and it was also snowing heavily throughout the night. The morning finally came round and 4 of us started heading for the summit. This soon dropped down to 3 as exhaustion and altitude culled another out.
The climbing of Yala was a really tough climb. Not because of its technically difficulty, as it is an easy trekking peak(except for the last 10m) but because of the new snow over the rocks and the altitude. We were all finding it really hard work and after a few 100m of ascent , headaches were getting really bad followed be nausea and exhaustion. The new snow also made it really hard work as we had to plug holes and there was wasn’t enough snow to completely cover the rocks but just enough to make it difficult. Getting close to the top we were all feeling really bad and had to dig deep to keep going. The last 15m was really tough and involved some difficult scrambling. I was the only one that managed to get onto the true summit ridge but stopped about 10m short of the summit due to a narrow ridge with shear drops on each side. I was feeling really bad and was in no way able to make sound decisions so decided 10m short was summit enough.
Heading down was even trickier with a difficult down climb off the summit ridge which involved a lot of stress and required Mark to get in a position to catch me if I slipped! (that is to stop me sliding into a slot). We then had a supposedly easy walk down to base camp but again the altitude played havoc with us with throbbing headaches and nausea. Mark was feeling really bad and threw up a number of times and needed to summon incredible strength to carry on. We finally made it back to base camp vowing to never feel like that again!!!
After walking back to the family and explaining all our dramas Kim, asked “and do you enjoy this?” To which our reply was that this was only the warm up climb!!

After a days rest our climbing team of porters, cook and guides arrived and we started to feel like real explorers. It was lots of fun being so looked after, completely different from NZ climbing where you carry all your own stuff and cook all your own food. At times I felt really guilty with being woken up at 6.30 and having tea passed into the tent. Then breakfast at 7.00 of pancakes, cereal, porridge and eggs. Then cooked lunch at 12.30, afternoon tea at 4.30 and then a huge western dinner at 6.30. I quickly got over the guilt though! I am now training Kim to serve me in the same way!(yeah right!-Kim says)
Our first camp was at a really cool place surrounded by yaks , a river and huge mountains. The next day we had to cross the river which was a great laugh as we all took off our shoes and crossed through the freezing water. We then continued to wind our way up to where we thought base camp should be. I say should be, because there was much discussion as our guide couldn’t read a map and needed a bit of help!
Unfortunately, this is where our expedition ends! That afternoon it started to snow and then more snow all through the night and into the next day. We sat around for a while discussing our options but it became obvious that conditions were too dangerous (avalanches) and if it stopped snowing we did not have enough time to sit around for three days for it to consolidate and enable safe travel again. So we shook snow off the tents, watched our porters and cook pack up and headed back down the valley.
Although we have left Nepal with unfinished business and didn’t manage to climb our technical peak it was still a great experience and that’s the mountains for you anyway. I have spent many days trapped in NZ mountain huts because of the weather and it’s all part of the game we play! The snow was unseasonal and all the locals were surprised at the intensity and amount for that time of year! So perhaps it wasn’t meant to be. Kim was really relieved that we came back early as she was starting to froth at the mouth (not rabies) from being trapped in a small village with 4 kids.
I also think that the altitude would have probably have got to me as well as I don’t seem to acclimatise well and without the help of diamox(altitude acclimatisation tablets) ,4800m seems to be my limit!! Kim think its Gods way of keeping me me closer to home!!

PS. I relent , the porters are way tougher than me!!

I don’t think I could talk about a trip to Nepal without talking about sickness. Almost ever foreigner you meet tells you about when and how sick they were while they were here. It seems that almost everyone gets sick. For those of you who aren’t interested in reading about the details of our bellies and bowels, please don’t read on. I know most of you won’t be able to help yourselves though. There’s nothing like enjoying someone elses pain.

While at Haibung, Diana and Lyndsay went down first and spent quite a bit of time getting aquainted with the squat toilet. Fortunately, they had recovered by the time we set off on the trek.
Tim was the next to go down and did a spectacular power chunder with his head outside the bus heading to the start of the trek. Luckily, he made quite a quick recovery and felt much better after decorating the side of the bus. A lot of the buses in Nepal have a familiar pattern permanently stained down the side of the bus. Yuk!
Well, we trekked for two days with Diana still recovering but managing to soldier on without too much drama. We arrived at Langtang and within a couple of hours Glenda and Charlotte started vomiting. In the teahouses the walls are like cardboard and the two of them were in rooms next to each and were almost vomiting in unison! Charlotte who absolutely adores Glenda would occasionally say between bouts of vomiting, ”Poooor Glenda, she’s very sick!”
Hari, our guide was very concerned and at first thought it might be the effect of altitude as we’d just reached about 3300m. However, during the night Ashleigh and Nick started and we soon realised that it wasn’t altitude but some bug or food poisoning or something. Hari was awesome running around in the middle of the night finding bowls and helping us clean up and generally acting like a mother to us all! The hard thing about being sick in a place like this is that there’s no hot running water, so the next day we spent quite a bit of time handwashing outside at the tap.

We decided to stay put for another day until everyone recovered. By 4pm I was feeling seedy and it wasn’t long before it was all on. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced anything quite as violent in the bowel department and I have to confess to being trapped in my sleeping bag with the zip jamming and being unable to get out in time. That has to be a low point in my life. Poor Tim had to do a big clean up job (……in sickness and in health…….) Not only that, but I had swapped sleeping bags with him because his was warmer! Tim Simpkin was next to go down , followed soon by Mark, so it was now 7 out of 12 of us!
By the next morning though, apart from Charlotte who was still not looking that great, most of us were much better. Our family decided to wait another night in Langtang until Charlotte was much better and join the others up at Kyanjin Gompa where we’d be staying put for 8 days. The next day we headed up to join the others and all was well in camp.
The next day Tim, Lyndsay,Tim S, Nick, Mark and Diana headed off for their acclimatisation climb on Yala Peak(see expedition post). Now, I thought my sickness had been hideous, but I soon learned when they all came back that there could be a worse place to be violently sick, inside a small 2 person tent in a snowstorm at altitude. This poor person, who shall remain nameless, had to resort to using his eating bowl as a toilet and let’s just say it was not good and there was a lot of discussion regarding what should be done with this bowl and whether even after cleaning it with boiling water, it will ever be the same again!(why would you want to keep it?)

After this we were all pretty healthy for quite some time. I think our guts started to toughen up. There was is, however one last sickness story that Ashleigh has given me permission to tell. Near the end of the trek, we were staying in a teahouse that was 2 storied. The bedrooms were upstairs and our big girls were very excited to get a room with the fireplace flu coming up through their room from the living room below. It was the warmest room in the lodge. We were in the room next door and in the middle of the night we heard that tell-tale call “Mum!” and then splatt! on the wooden floor. Now that wouldn’t be so bad if she hadn’t leant over the bed and vomited onto the chimney flu which had huge gaps down the side of it,(so big that you can see down to the next floor). I guess you can imagine what happened, yes, vomit dripped down the chimney to the floor below. Luckily there weren’t a whole bunch of trekkers sitting below enjoying the warm fire!Nasty! Poor Ash!

Apart from the above extreme moments on the whole the kids coped really well and were pretty healthy. Michaella got the award for not really being sick at all and Maddison for best recovery! (I forgot to say that when 7 of us were sick, she just vomited once and was completely fine 5 minutes later.)We were amazed that Charlotte didn’t get sicker considering she loved digging in the dirt and was always grubby and seems to spend a lot of time with her finger up her nose!

We’re hoping Nepal has prepared our bodies for S E Asia and that we’ll have built up some immunity.

Share and Care Nepal is a Christian organisation that is supported financially by Tear Fund NZ. As part of the 25 year celebrations for Adventure Specialties a trip to Nepal was planned. Of course, a major part of this was about climbing and trekking but while in Nepal we also wanted to see if we could do something for some local people here.

Well, through Tear Fund NZ it was arranged for us to spend some time with Share and Care Nepal and help out in some way. Until we arrived here, we weren’t at all sure of the detail but they had plans for us and it was great getting an insight into the fantastic work that they do here.

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