I have been trying to get to Nepal now for a few months, we tried to get there in the fall for our Eid break but that did not work. So when my friend Kara said she was trying to orginize a white water rafting trip to Nepal I was in. It was an amazing time; the Nepalize people are very friendly and caring. We golfed and rafted for a week, I took tons of pictures and it they are all on piccassa, I will add the link again at the end of the blog here.
So on the first day we had to get to the airport for 5:30 am, now some of you may think that I had a hard time getting up and could make the group late, you are wrong. I was in bed somewhat early. (I had played in a golf tournament that day and won, blog to come later about it) I had some friends, namely the girl who organized the whole trip got wasted the night before and we could not get her awake to get in the cab for the trip. So after calling her 23 times on her cell phone, we had to wake up her roommate at 5am to open the door to drag the girl out of bed. Jack Daniels was to blame she said when she came outside to get in the cab, still quite a fresh smell of it emanating from her body to I have to say. She paid for it all day so no one could be too mad as well. We got to the airport with time to spare and the lady at the passport control had to be one of the nicest people I have ever dealt with at the airports here in the UAE. She even gave me a quick lesson in Arabic on how to say good morning, which I have since forgot but it was very refreshing compared to the usual grumpy distain we get from most of the passport control people. We started to fly to Katmandu and all went really well, the flight was only 3.5 hours which was great because I had the joy of sitting next to Kara the whole way there, her smell did not get much better and I am sure the Arab man sitting behind us thought it was me the whole way there. We got to Katmandu airport and had to go through the visa issuing process of paying our $25 US and getting pictures taken which we had to pay in rupees. I do find it amusing that no one likes Americans in general around the world but yet are more than willing to take their cash when you enter the country. We got picked up from the airport by the hotel that we stayed at for the first 2 nights and we had 12 guys trying to carry our bags from the airport to the car so they could get a small tip from us. I gave the tip and i think i gave the main guy 400 Rupees, which works out to be about 5 bucks. I was later told by the driver that I had tiped about 2 times more than i needed to but I felt that I had not really given anything to these people.
Side note: I was told by a few sources that the average Nepalese lives on about a dollar and a half a day. it does put a few things in reality check when we get back here and see the opulence in Dubai, most people i think would struggle to live on less than $20 a day.
Anyway we got to the resort had a rest, got some food down at the clubhouse, which serves some amazing Thai food and cheap beer, we were all smiles at that time. We did go out for a bit that night to the main area where all the back packers go and it was a very interesting area, one that I will admit never really felt all that safe at all during the night. it felt like I was being watched all the time and if I let my guard down I would lose my cash or something else could happen. I have been to a few countries now and that was the first time that I felt that way. There were a lot of kids begging for cash from us, they said it was because the were hungry, later we found out it was all for drugs, these street kids spend 12 hours a day high begging for anything that will get them back there again. It was really sad to see, some of these kids looked no older than 10 or 11 years old too.
At 11 pm, the bar we were in started closing all their shades and windows, we asked what was going on and they said that it was because of the new government not allowing any bars to be open past 11 so they have to appear that they are closed after that time. it was very strange to have the lights go off and the music get turned way down to finish our drinks at that time of night. So we finished and went back to the hotel, which the cab driver had no idea on how to get there so we spent a good hour in the cab until he found the resort. (http://www.gokararesort.com/)
The next day some of us got up at a reasonable time and other were back up at 5 am for a flight to Mount Everest and back. I was torn if I wanted to go or not but I have seen a lot of mountains in Canada and so what I did was gave my camera to a few that went on the flight and let them get pictures of Everest for me. I am now glad that I did not go as they could not get all that close to it and the pictures look really interesting but it is another mountain in the sky and to tell the truth if I did not know it was a picture of Everest I would not be able to guess that from the pictures. Anyway, once they got back we went down to the golf course to play our first round of golf, we had caddies and a ball boy to find our shots if we missed and they went into the trees. it was a great experience but with the thin air and the fact that there was a ton of elevation change on the course we were gassed at the end of the round and the last few holes were a struggle to score well on. I think I shot a 92, nothing spectacular but it was a great course. It was a shame that I kept on forgetting to bring my camera around with me on the course. sorry all.
White water rafting.
What an amazing experience this was, we rafted down the Marsyanghi River, the rapids on it are a class 4-5, most are a 3-4 i would say but 3 were very much class 5 and were intense when we went through them. The first night we got to camp late so we just had a camp and a drink or two before the first day of rafting. it was chilled out and everyone was very excited about the trip down the river for the next 3 days. We got up early had breakfast and got the safety talk out of the way which was delivered in broken English with some Nepalese added in, most of it sunk in and away we went. The first part of the river was great we were all fairly tense and were getting used to our guide and each other paddling in the boat. we hit our first big rapid fairly quickly in the morning and we all made it though, except on girl who when ass over tea kettle out of the boat on the first class 5 and hit her bum on a rock. It kind of woke everyone up in the fact that we were in Nepal in the middle of nowhere and had to be careful on what we were doing. It was a great time on the river for the next few days, lots of laughs, lots of bugs, very little sleep and fantastic people to travel with, it was definitely a highlight of my traveling adventures so far. we did have one incident that was quite scary and one of the boats flipped over and we slid on top of the overturned boat in a small opening between two rocks, everyone was safe but it was a garage sale on the river, the were paddles and people everywhere. The rescue Kayaks were great guys and they really did a great job of making sure everyone was safe and back to shore as soon as they could be.
At the end of the rafting we drove for 9 hours to get back to the resort, it was supposed to be a 3-4 hour drive but hey you just have to grin and bear it in Nepal, the roads are way to small, tons of big trucks on the roads. At one point we were on a steep incline and the traffic was not moving so one of the guys had to go find rock and stick them behind the bus tires so that we would not roll back when the driver turned off the bus to wait till the traffic started moving again.
We got back to the resort around midnight and went to bed, it was so nice to be back to have a shower, a regular toilet (not a squatter) and a comfy bed.
the next day we got into town to look at the temples and go around the markets, we got some great pictures and some very cool souvenirs from there. we golfed the next morning again and then headed to the airport to get back to Dubai, it was funny I could not wait to get out of Dubai before the trip and at the end I was very excited to get back here, I guess that is when you know you have had a good trip and have a home in the place you live.
well if you are still with me after all of that, I thank you, I will try to keep the stories a little shorter from now on, but to tell the truth I left out a fair bit too.
it is 7 weeks now till the end of school, it is going to fly by and I am very excited to get back to Canada to see everyone again. look out I am bringing my A game in golf too. Get some lessons as I will be looking to take some cash off a few of you...or even just good company and a beer.
I am playing in another golf tournament on the weekend so I will let you all know how it goes. I will be golfing with a guy that some of you may know. He played in his last Masters over the weekend, Gary Player will be at the tournament I am playing in and we even get to golf a par 3 with him. Super pumped about it.
Thanks for reading this
Curtis
So on the first day we had to get to the airport for 5:30 am, now some of you may think that I had a hard time getting up and could make the group late, you are wrong. I was in bed somewhat early. (I had played in a golf tournament that day and won, blog to come later about it) I had some friends, namely the girl who organized the whole trip got wasted the night before and we could not get her awake to get in the cab for the trip. So after calling her 23 times on her cell phone, we had to wake up her roommate at 5am to open the door to drag the girl out of bed. Jack Daniels was to blame she said when she came outside to get in the cab, still quite a fresh smell of it emanating from her body to I have to say. She paid for it all day so no one could be too mad as well. We got to the airport with time to spare and the lady at the passport control had to be one of the nicest people I have ever dealt with at the airports here in the UAE. She even gave me a quick lesson in Arabic on how to say good morning, which I have since forgot but it was very refreshing compared to the usual grumpy distain we get from most of the passport control people. We started to fly to Katmandu and all went really well, the flight was only 3.5 hours which was great because I had the joy of sitting next to Kara the whole way there, her smell did not get much better and I am sure the Arab man sitting behind us thought it was me the whole way there. We got to Katmandu airport and had to go through the visa issuing process of paying our $25 US and getting pictures taken which we had to pay in rupees. I do find it amusing that no one likes Americans in general around the world but yet are more than willing to take their cash when you enter the country. We got picked up from the airport by the hotel that we stayed at for the first 2 nights and we had 12 guys trying to carry our bags from the airport to the car so they could get a small tip from us. I gave the tip and i think i gave the main guy 400 Rupees, which works out to be about 5 bucks. I was later told by the driver that I had tiped about 2 times more than i needed to but I felt that I had not really given anything to these people.
Side note: I was told by a few sources that the average Nepalese lives on about a dollar and a half a day. it does put a few things in reality check when we get back here and see the opulence in Dubai, most people i think would struggle to live on less than $20 a day.
Anyway we got to the resort had a rest, got some food down at the clubhouse, which serves some amazing Thai food and cheap beer, we were all smiles at that time. We did go out for a bit that night to the main area where all the back packers go and it was a very interesting area, one that I will admit never really felt all that safe at all during the night. it felt like I was being watched all the time and if I let my guard down I would lose my cash or something else could happen. I have been to a few countries now and that was the first time that I felt that way. There were a lot of kids begging for cash from us, they said it was because the were hungry, later we found out it was all for drugs, these street kids spend 12 hours a day high begging for anything that will get them back there again. It was really sad to see, some of these kids looked no older than 10 or 11 years old too.
At 11 pm, the bar we were in started closing all their shades and windows, we asked what was going on and they said that it was because of the new government not allowing any bars to be open past 11 so they have to appear that they are closed after that time. it was very strange to have the lights go off and the music get turned way down to finish our drinks at that time of night. So we finished and went back to the hotel, which the cab driver had no idea on how to get there so we spent a good hour in the cab until he found the resort. (http://www.gokararesort.com/)
The next day some of us got up at a reasonable time and other were back up at 5 am for a flight to Mount Everest and back. I was torn if I wanted to go or not but I have seen a lot of mountains in Canada and so what I did was gave my camera to a few that went on the flight and let them get pictures of Everest for me. I am now glad that I did not go as they could not get all that close to it and the pictures look really interesting but it is another mountain in the sky and to tell the truth if I did not know it was a picture of Everest I would not be able to guess that from the pictures. Anyway, once they got back we went down to the golf course to play our first round of golf, we had caddies and a ball boy to find our shots if we missed and they went into the trees. it was a great experience but with the thin air and the fact that there was a ton of elevation change on the course we were gassed at the end of the round and the last few holes were a struggle to score well on. I think I shot a 92, nothing spectacular but it was a great course. It was a shame that I kept on forgetting to bring my camera around with me on the course. sorry all.
White water rafting.
What an amazing experience this was, we rafted down the Marsyanghi River, the rapids on it are a class 4-5, most are a 3-4 i would say but 3 were very much class 5 and were intense when we went through them. The first night we got to camp late so we just had a camp and a drink or two before the first day of rafting. it was chilled out and everyone was very excited about the trip down the river for the next 3 days. We got up early had breakfast and got the safety talk out of the way which was delivered in broken English with some Nepalese added in, most of it sunk in and away we went. The first part of the river was great we were all fairly tense and were getting used to our guide and each other paddling in the boat. we hit our first big rapid fairly quickly in the morning and we all made it though, except on girl who when ass over tea kettle out of the boat on the first class 5 and hit her bum on a rock. It kind of woke everyone up in the fact that we were in Nepal in the middle of nowhere and had to be careful on what we were doing. It was a great time on the river for the next few days, lots of laughs, lots of bugs, very little sleep and fantastic people to travel with, it was definitely a highlight of my traveling adventures so far. we did have one incident that was quite scary and one of the boats flipped over and we slid on top of the overturned boat in a small opening between two rocks, everyone was safe but it was a garage sale on the river, the were paddles and people everywhere. The rescue Kayaks were great guys and they really did a great job of making sure everyone was safe and back to shore as soon as they could be.
At the end of the rafting we drove for 9 hours to get back to the resort, it was supposed to be a 3-4 hour drive but hey you just have to grin and bear it in Nepal, the roads are way to small, tons of big trucks on the roads. At one point we were on a steep incline and the traffic was not moving so one of the guys had to go find rock and stick them behind the bus tires so that we would not roll back when the driver turned off the bus to wait till the traffic started moving again.
We got back to the resort around midnight and went to bed, it was so nice to be back to have a shower, a regular toilet (not a squatter) and a comfy bed.
the next day we got into town to look at the temples and go around the markets, we got some great pictures and some very cool souvenirs from there. we golfed the next morning again and then headed to the airport to get back to Dubai, it was funny I could not wait to get out of Dubai before the trip and at the end I was very excited to get back here, I guess that is when you know you have had a good trip and have a home in the place you live.
well if you are still with me after all of that, I thank you, I will try to keep the stories a little shorter from now on, but to tell the truth I left out a fair bit too.
it is 7 weeks now till the end of school, it is going to fly by and I am very excited to get back to Canada to see everyone again. look out I am bringing my A game in golf too. Get some lessons as I will be looking to take some cash off a few of you...or even just good company and a beer.
I am playing in another golf tournament on the weekend so I will let you all know how it goes. I will be golfing with a guy that some of you may know. He played in his last Masters over the weekend, Gary Player will be at the tournament I am playing in and we even get to golf a par 3 with him. Super pumped about it.
Thanks for reading this
Curtis
