We made it back to the USofA from India without any hangups, at all. We asked for free upgrades (not expecting much) and sweet-talked our ways into business class from Delhi to Doha, Qatar. From Doha to NYC, we sat in poor man’s first class, which was quite spacious in a Boeing 777. After we arrived from India, New York City was the cleanest, freshest, most welcome sight for our sore eyes noses. We spent time with Jerry and Caitlin, laughing and decompressing from the trip. After a quick stop through DC, we were glad to be arriving back in Rochester.
Before we unpacked, before we’d reactivated our cell phones and before we’d had a chance to even leave the house, Mary and I bought a puppy dog. Her name is Chitchen and she’s the cutest, sweetest, little creature that’s ever existed! She’s 9 weeks old and was born on the first anniversary of our engagement: 22 Feb. 2009. She’s a pure-bred beagle, is mostly black with white feet and tail. On her face and huge droopy ears, she’s got some brown colors mixed in. Her name is pronounced like a combination of ‘Chicken’ and ‘Kitchen’… it’s totally unrelated to the Mayan Pyramids found in Mexico. Here’s some pictures from her first day as the newest, littlest and (arguably) cutest addition to our family:
While we were in Hanoi, we stayed just north of the old French Quarter near St. Joseph’s Cathedral. In the neighborhood, there are many hotel options for all price ranges, yet we were very hard pressed to find a decently priced meal in Hanoi. Vietnamese food seems to be focussed on fish and sea life of all varieties, but good, cheap food is extremely hard to come by unless you’re craving noodles in beef broth — Pho — 3xDay. In contrast, we were tripping over great food all over Thailand and especially Laos.
I’ve been able to upload several items of note. First, we recorded a video of our experience arriving to Cat Ba Island without the use of a tour company, here:
Next, while visiting the “Hanoi Hilton”, Mary snapped my picture standing next to John McCain’s flight suit from when he was imprisoned and tortured in Vietnam’s infamous POW prison, here:
Finally, on our way out of town, we swung by the Hanoi Water Puppet theater for an afternoon show of tradition song, music and water puppetry. The art form was impressive and not just in the “I’ve been going strong for 10 centuries” sortof way. I was impressed by the puppets’ speed and the dexterity of the puppeteers given that they were sloshing through water several feet deep.
This morning, we arrived in Sapa (AKA Sa Pa or Cha Pa) on the overnight ’soft’ sleeper train from Hanoi. After we boarded the train, the car started to fill with smoke — not from some emergency or a small fire, no. The smoke plumed out of the 2 cabins next to ours FOR hours. We cranked the window down in the hall to relieve our burning eyes. Upon request of the conductors, the dozen chain smokers sealed themselves in their cabins long enough for us to get ready for bed. My last train memory was watching the smoke billow through our door frame and over the internationally vivid no-smoking sign.
We toured the town and have set-up a 3 day, 2 night trek up to the “Roof of Indochina”. Fansipan (or as I’ve been mispronouncing as Fancy-pants) rises to 3143 meters and we’ll hike most of the way up tomorrow with the remainder on Saturday. Sunday will be all downhill as we trot back into town after becoming “vanquishers of the mountain” (straight from the Vietnamese tourist posters). So, no contact for the next 4 days while we’re trekking.
On Monday night, we’ll take the overnight train back to Hanoi, sitesee a bit more and catch a flight to Ho Chi Mihn City (Saigon) at 1:30 PM, Tuesday.
We’re taking a bit of a day off today after three awesome, fun-filled days spent rock climbing. The combination of a fantastic crew (3 Brits and 3 ‘Mericans), top notch guides and good walls made it a great time for all. We signed up for the three day course in Luang Prubang through Green Discovery and arrived in Vang Vieng to find that 4 others had joined up, too. We started on Sunday morning at 9ish, gathered shoes and harnesses from the shop and rode out the the river. The beginner climbing walls were just off the river not far from the “Last Bar Last Swing” restaurant, which also served us lunch and stocked cold Beerlao for post-climb celebrations. Our guides, Hoi and Gau, taught knots, top roping and basic climbing techniques before lunch. Afterwards, we practiced belays and were able to have three teams climbing/belaying at once. We rounded out the day with a blindfolded climb which improved everyones’ confidence and general team trust.
Mary climbing blindfolded with Patrick on belay
On Monday and Tuesday we learned about lead climbing and were able to practice to our hearts’ content. Lead climbing differs from top-roping in that there is no rope above you to stop a fall. Rather, the rope is below you on a lead climb and requires clipping into successive bolts that have been drilled into the rock face. This technique was a real breakthrough from any of our prior experiences and was also a tad scarier in practice. My fear was focussed on the part where you untie yourself from the safety of the rope in order to loop it through the top ring prior to descending.
Mary is lead climbing up through this crevassed wall.
After some practice, I really enjoyed the lead climbing and Hoi (our trusty guide) kept pushing me to try more and more technical climbs. Mary and I are very excited to keep learning more about the sport and REALLY enjoyed climbing outdoors for 3 days in a row. We both have improved our techniques and our bodies need a rest after getting all banged up against the Laos limestone.
I want to be a rock-climber, if only for all the cool gear!
Coincidentally, we finished our course on St. Patrick’s Day and went out for a double celebration with everyone. Corned Beef and Cabbage seemed very challenging to find last night, so I ordered green curry with chicken, instead. In addition to my green shirt, I thought the green curry might lend a festive air to the day.
My best attempt at dinner befitting a St. Patty’s Day in Laos
We stepped off the slow boat onto to dry land last night in Luang Prubang, Loas. We left Huay Xai at about noon on Saturday, sped downstream for 6 hours, 20 minutes and spent the night ashore in Pak Beng. We woke up to a snappy breakfast and grabbed our pre-ordered bag-o-sammies on the way back down to the boat. The 9AM boat pulled out promptly at 10 and floated downstream for 8 hours, 25 minutes of additional Me Kong glory. All told the trip took just under 15 hours, which is considerably shorter than the 18 hour prediction from the guy selling ‘upgrades’ for the direct mini-van — shocking.
"Two tickets on the slow boat please!"
The boat ride was interesting — the crowd was a bit much, but the scenery made it spectacular voyage. Starting from Huay Xai, the sand dunes turn into hills, which grew upwards into limestone rock faces. Making the trip even more breathtaking, the boulders and rock-outcroppings along the shores and mid-stream required occasionally intricate slaloming. The river rapids were not overly intense for a rubber boat, but seemed just wild enough for our over sized canoe. I’ll attempt to describe our craft: two sets of benches go down either side of the boat and are separated by an aisle way wide enough for two people to lay down, shoulder to shoulder. In the front is the windshield and navigations with about 20 feet of flat room for lounging. Next is room for ~100 people to sit on the benches, followed by the snack bar, engine, family’s living quarters and bathroom. All told, the boat was maybe 200 feet long and maybe 15 feet wide. The engine looked like a v12 diesel that had been pulled out of a tractor trailer and hooked up to the long tailed prop.
There was no reverse.
While docked, the boat would point up stream and then swing around slowly with the help of some long bamboo poles. The crew appeared well trained — to the point that we’d suspected they’d never spent more than a day off the Me Kong.
We’re on the bus on our way out of Pai (pronounced Pie), en route to return to Chiang Mai. The little hippy town was great for many reasons – not the least of which being a break from the Thai heat/humidity. Pai is about a 3 hours ride northwest of Chiang Mai and is higher up into the mountains, thereby cooler. We took a private mini-bus and thought we would arrive in style. Instead, the hair-pin mountain roads left us both a bit wracked, bounced and turned. In contrast, today’s bus seems much cooler and has half the people, allowing us to spread out a bit.
Pai is spectacular in every sense. We seemed to have arrived at just the right time of year – cool at night (maybe 65 degrees F) and just crowded enough for some nightlife. We read that Pai was good for hanging out next to the river, elephant trekking and some free hikes to nearby waterfalls. This is exactly what we did: on day one, we scouted the town for the good eats and stopped into The Witching Well for great sammies. Day two, we walked out of town up into the hills in seek of a waterfall (slash) old-style swimmin’ hole. However, yesterday was the most incredible of our adventures in Pai, possibly in all of Thailand.
We set out on the day with some coffee and bagels before Mary took a 2.5 hour yoga class (including plenty of meditation, too). After lunch, we headed over to Thom’s Elephant Camp to ride and play with the elephants. Pompaem was our gentle beast who carried us down to the river. Bath time!!! The elephants loved playing in the river and we learned several new things about these ancient creatures: First, a long trunk is very useful for many things, including use as a super long snorkel, dine-and-dash grass-grabber and fire hose. Results of our water fight with Pompaem and her buddy Tut Dao — Humans: 0, Elephants: 1. After bath time, we continued downstream and returned to Thom’s to snack on the entirety of several banana trees. Thom’s shoots video of your ride (with pictures, too) and offers to sell you a DVD for $17… of course, you HAVE to buy it and hope that it comes out well. Regardless of the price tag, how many videos do you have of an elephant dumping you off its back into a river? We know own one. After the elephant ride and snack time, we soaked up the sunset in Thom’s hot tubs. To recover from our magical experience, we applied a few Singha beers and some cakes from a bakery in town… should we have held out for Pie in Pai?
This afternoon, we’re headed to a Buddhist Meditation Retreat on the campus of Chiang Mai University where we’ll learn about the religion and chat with student/novice monks. I’m not sure if the camera will be allowed in, but we are very excited about getting new, all white suits for the retreat and the possibility of breaking it down with some real life Thais. Send us your questions about Buddhism and we’ll try to send back any answers that we find.
And here’s the picture to prove it:
It’s the highest we’ve both ever been before. The sign says 4450 meters, but we had to walk down to get there… hence, we’re calling it 15,000 feet above sea level.
Mary and I got back late last night from our 4 day trek to Machu Picchu. We hiked the Inca Trail and camped along the way, arriving to Machu Picchu via the Sun Gate just after sunrise. It was a fantastic experience and we are so fortunate to have been able to make the pilgrimage. We are working on getting the pictures and videos organized/uploaded. Once these are done, we’ll post more specific links to Flickr and YouTube.
In the meantime, we’ve been adding thoughts to our Inca Trail to Machu Picchu page (link also on the right-hand sidebar). One thing that’s clear is our love for the Peru Treks company, our porters, cooks and guides along the trail. Our guides, Hubert and Ricardo, were extremely knowledgeable, passionate and great friends during our four days on the trail. If you’re interested in Machu Picchu, or other Peruvian Treks, please consider Peru Treks as your adventure companions.
Mary and I are planning on doing a 5 day trek starting on Saturday, October 25th and lasting through the evening of Wednesday, October 29th. As such, we will be incommunicado while we galavant in the moutains. During the trip, we will visit several archealogical sites and historical towns with evidence of Incan and pre-Incan civilizations. This kind of trek is why we came all the way out to Chachapoyas and should be exciting for its vistas and the lack of tourists. We are definitely more off the beaten path than our time in Peru, but there will be a couple other tourists on our trek, which is being organized by the Andes Tours company here in town.
No Internet. No Email. No Phones.
Hiking. Montañas. Horses.
Mary and have bounced back from our days Cotopaxi via Quito for a single night at the Secret Garden, Quito. While we were near Cotopaxi, we stayed in the other, possiblly more lovely, Secret Garden hostel. We arrived via bus from Quito in Machachi and found the bus up the mountain, which let us off at the end of the hostel´s driveway. From there, we hitched a ride with Roberto and got in with time for lunch.
The place is super cozy and the indoors revolves around the large fireplace, with couches and a huge dinner table. The outside has hammocks, a composting toilet and several outbuildings for cabins and the dorms. There was a distinctly European crowd and we made fast friends with some brits, swiss and dutch folks. On the second day, we went horse back riding to a cool river, where we attempted to pull fish directly from the stream (seemed alot easier when Vera, our guide, described it). Our horses were very gentle and we had a blast being out in the country-side for so long.
I´ve just uploaded a video of Mary and I on the horses about 3km from the hostel:
After a nap and dinner, we played cards and laughed with our neighbors. The next morning, a bunch of folks trekked up to the glaciers surrounding the Cotopaxi Volcano, but we opted to stay back and rest. Some colds we´d picked up from the nights in our hostels needed some tender loving care. We banded together several people to share a ride back into town and caught a bus towards Quito. We arrived back at the Secret Garden and got some time in an internet cafe before dinner time. We attempted some Skype calls, but have struggled to find a good connection or computers that have working microphones.
At the moment, we´ve been in Baños, Ecuador for almost an entire day. Our colds are on the mend and we may get out for a hike tomorrow. Yesterday was a bit crazy, but are glad to have found such nice town, at a good elevation (1200m or 3600ft) where it´s warm and sunny. On our way to the internet cafe yesterday, we crossed paths with a student protest that seemed to surround their desire to have free bus fare to/from school. When it became apparent that the internet cafe was unavailable, we hoped in a cab to the bus terminal and took off for Baños, which is about 3.5 hours south of Quito. The town is prepping for Columbus Day weekend, which they call Dia de la Raza.
A final note, some pictures from our first week are posted on our flickr account, here are some favorites:
Mary and I got a recommendation (from Lynne and Rachel) for a trekking company to use to visit Machu Picchu. We sent an email last night and heard back at lunchtime today from David Weston of Peru Treks (www.PeruTreks.com). We just sent him a PayPal deposit to hold our spots in the group. Our itinerary is to depart the morning of Thursday November 13th, 2008 after breakfast. Hike for 3 days through the mountains, camp with our guide and show up in Machu Picchu as early as possible on the morning of Sunday, November 16th. After we’ve shot our fill of pics and vids, we’ll hike back down and into the town of Aguas Calientes. From there, we may grab a soak in the hot springs before jumping on a train back to Cusco.
Machu Picchu Sunrise (wiki)
Quick Overview: Machu Picchu, AKA the Lost City, was an Incan city in the Peruvian Andes and is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Majestic pictures of the city surrounded by steamy mountains abound on the internet and the beauty is simply captivating. Go ahead, Google Machu Picchu and see what else you learn about the little Peruvian gem.
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