Vercs in Gaysia

Nepal mut be a backpackers paradise. It's been shoved against the greatest mountain range in the world and had two massive countries as neighbours jostling over who can control the people and the power. Almost anywhere in the country you are reminded of the mountains at arms reach, whether it is at surise from a $3 hotel roof or the thunderclouds and changing alpine weather that rolls in during the afternoon, its breathtaking.

 

After arriving in kathmandu we spent a day catching up with Kirk and Ang, visiting a local Hindu Temple we headed straight for Pokhara in the west. Here competing with the Kumbu region for trekking tourists is the Annapurna Range with 3 of the top 0 highest mountains in the world towering above you. Pokhara itself is a small service town for the surrounding villages but nestled along the lakeside is a bustling tourist street full of hotels and guesthouses bubbling with pizzas, beers, and trekking shops. We had to indulge waiting for our trek as the weather opened and didnt stop for three days. Finally, clouds clearing we hired a porter (hereafter affectionately known as sherp) and headed on a 12 day hike to the Annapurna sanctuary. We walked up through steep river valleys to 3000 meters on our secnd day following over 4000 consecutive steps to Ghorepani . which although is a small detour form the usual trek both Sherp and our guidebook told us would be worth the early orning sunrise vista over the ranges. It was spectacular. From left to right covering 100 degrees of vision were Dauligiri, Annapurna, her brothering peaks of Annapurna South, I, II, III and IVFrom the view at Poon hill we walked 5-7 hours each day between setlements in the mountains. every hour or two are teahouses run and maintained by local people letting out cheaps rooms at $2NZD a night and great food considering the altitude and accessibility only by foot. Keeping at arounf 2500-3000m for the forst 5 nights we slowly climbed over the last two days to Annapurna Base Camp. Hidden in a sacred Nepali sanctuary, the set of 3 lodges is 4200m above sea level but is flanked by a 360 degree view of mountains rising around you. The mountains all over 6500m spew more than 6 glaciers into this small valley head creating a massive morraine wall over 100m high to view the peaks. Although surrounded in cloud, peppered by thunder, hail and snow and drawing in each breath as if breathing through a straw upon arriving, the next morning the weather was perfect and the peaks lit up like candles almost appearing to flow lava from their tops. We quickened our pace heading down the valley following the Modi Khola from its source to Naya Pul before taxiing back to Pokhahra in 3 days.

 

Next time I'm heaing East to see Everest and Gyoko glacier! I have thousands of photos just waiting....

 

 

I'm sitting in Pokhara in the pissing rain supposedly 3 days after the official end of the rainy season here in Nepal wondering why I can't see the lake in front of us let alone the 8000m peaks surrounding the city. We arrived from Kathmandu by bus yesterday after enjoyiong a bevvie with Kirk and Ang deciding to do the 10 day Annapura Sauntuary trek to the base camp at 4500m. Hiring a Sherpa, and setting off are going to have to wait until the rain clears. In the mean time China was a blast1

 

From Beijing we over night trained to Xian the historical capital of China before the northern Beijing came to promenence. The train was cramped and had six bunk beds to a compartment. We had the two tops bunks with enough room to raise me knees let alone lift my bum. Xian despite all reports is a great place. Its a walled city with a 25m high 20m thick wall surrounding the center with the suburbs sprawling out around it. The main attraction here is the Terracotta Warriors. Buried for centuries this subterranean army guards the former emperor in his grave. It consists of soldiers, generals and cavalry in individual regiments, each member with unique clothes and face individually carved before they were put in pits measurubng more than 4 football fields.

 

From Xian we again took a 16 hour train oveniught to Chengdu. This train on a more local route was a lot dirtier and crowded with people. Sleeping in separate bunks we braved the locals and spent little time away from our books an ipods getting up only for the neccessary. Chendgu is more of a gateway to more interesting ports in China with most visitors here waiting for tickets through to Tibet or further south. We arrived and left for Songpan, a quiant little mountain village some 2500m up in the Himilayan foothills. Predominantly Tibetain these people live off the land and were amazing frienhdly and colorful. The main attraction here is the horse trekking. We took a four day trek up the base of Ice Mountain with only our two guides and horses fro company. After an 8 hour ride through small villages and along ridges bordered by ice peaks we arrived at our homestay. From here the next day was a 6 hour return trip to the house up the valley to Ice Mountain. We stopped at the head of a valley for a sublime view of the peak and area at 4400m above sea level. After another night eating vegetarian stews and watching Chinese period dramas we returned to Songpan for a bus to Chengdu. Our final day in Chengdu involved a visits to the Panda breeding Sanctuary. Unlike most crowded and horrific Asian Zoos I have seen this was refreshingly open, clean and green. This the the worlds premiere Panda base managing to be the only one to successfully breed Pandas in captivity. Currently holding more than 30 Giant Pandas they are all on display sitting bolt upright chewing on bamboo. You can walk up to the enclosure where 10ft away the Pandas are eating and playing with only a trench between you. Also in the nursery were three baby pandas less than 2 months old. Looking like hairless drowned rats they resembled more a Beijing sidestreet dish than a national icon.

 

From Chengdu after enough trains we wimped out and flew to Guilin. It's a poetic area with Karst scenery dotting the area. The limestone peaks give it a fairytake aura and its difficult to leave. My English doesnt do this place credit, you will have to wait for the photos. But after 5 days or bamboo rafting down river, mountain bike rides through the countryside, and days seeing how Tsingtao's one can drink we pulled ourselves away for the flight to Bangkok. A night of fine food and fancy hotel including rooftop pool and all later we flew Royal Nepal Arilines to Kathmandu. I'm not sure it's an experience I would repeat in a hurry, who would trust a national carrier who goes to 6 countries using only one plane in their entire fleet. I'd rather have the Beijing side street dish.

 

I'll try with some phots when the internet connection is quicker.

Only a year out from the games and it's clear that everything is geared up and running to prepare for one month when everyone is going to be looking and judging. I've always held distorted poverty ridden, organised chaos thoughts about China but it's an amazing place. We arrived Monday morning to the banging as some of Beijing's 2 million extra employed workers constructing what will be the worlds biggest airport. Our hostel was in the cities hutong district, which formerly the home of the masses with narrow streets servicing compacted areas of humanity has now been renovated into stores lining the passageways. Still through open doors behind the bean bagged coffe shops you can see the cramped poor housing conditions of the owners. Nevertheless the food not only along here but everywhere is amazing. Lamb kebabs BBQed on the street in front of restaurants for $0.20NZD to enhace a feed of the best beef, pork, chicken and lamb ever, even veges here taste good. Must be the MSG.

 

Apparently judged as one of the better walls, I certainly havent seen better (Berlin might complain), the Great Wall of China is amazing. We took a 3 hour bus to a remote part hiking along 10km of partially restored, crumbling wall resting in each of the 30 towers along the way for breathtaking vistas of the bricks across the countryside. We ended at an area called Simitai and paid for the joy of using a zip line to go down from the mountain.

 

We visited the Forbidden City and Tiannimen Sqaures as well. The sunset behind chairman Mao's portrait in the Sq. with well over 5000 people was amazing. to back it up a trip to Beijing wouldnt suffice without a bike around the city. I'm sure we were followed by police both uniformed and plainclothed as we biked by the forbidden city, however they would have to have penetrated the throng of vendors, touts, and scam artists who seemed to be hidden at every turn. You'd think if I wanted to buy an overpriced piece of art, Olympics hat or Beijing tourist book I would have bought it already so F%$#k off!!! It is a pity that some of the cultural relics in the city where cloaked under scaffolding restoring the for 2008, even chairman Mao's body was off limits, but a stroll without throngs of tourists was worth it.

 

Im writing this from Xi'an, hoime of the terracotta warriors before we head off on our travels towards the South of China on friday ensuring stops in major cities to catch the World Cup in the weekends.

Saturday marked the end of a year in Korea for a few of us here in Ansan, so celbrating in the true way we donned some very metro shirts tie dyed shirts and headed into Hondae in Seoul for teh world famous Carnie Station. Apparentely even Australia can claim one of these all you can eat and drink restaurants. $22USD buys you all the BBQ meat and salads you can eat along with a range of tap beers and a bar full of spirits. A normal night ensued which involved small doses of karaoke before being removed from the room due to crowding, a club and the local ice bar where everything inside is made of ice. The bar, the seating, the glasses, even a fake toilet are all made of ice.

 

Yesterday was my final day at work and although as happy as I am to be moving onto my next journey it was sad to say goodbye to all of the kids. A couple or classes organised some parties for me as I showed the new American teacher the ropes, kids to constantly keep an eye on and the ever roaming hoardes of children ready to ask for lollies.

 

We fly out on Monday morning for Beijing for a month in China before hitting Nepal in October and India in November. I'l try to put up some posts and/or pics when I can but I'll be back in NZ on December forist so if you are around a BBQ steak, pie and speights would be perfect.

 

 

It has been a busy couple of weeks. Angela arrived and soon after we had Matt and Karen stay for three days exploring Seoul. We visited the War Memorial museum and although I have been before we hada  good walk around inside. In just under two hours we had quickly explored half of the exhibits and one gets the feeling that a good day would be required to take in all the inforamation. It's amazing how much war a peaceful country has been involved in. We also explored Itaewon, took in some good pub food and filled our culture quota with the Monet exhibition. Although only a small part of his collection it was obviouls he was a; on some good drugs and b;mentally insane. Always seems to be the talented ones.

 

Matt and Karen continued their journey on Monday through to Nepal and it was really exciting talking about their plans realising our trip isn't far off either. I have 7 days of work left and a couple of weeks to finish our preparations before we fly out. We are in the middle of visa applications and at this moment are passportless as they are in the hands of the Indian embassy after the most ridiculous application process ever. The consulate is only open for 3 hours to accept aplications and for one hour in the evenings to collect your finished product. I'm rambling. bye bye 

The Boreyeong Mud Festival is the biggest in Korea and has to be the most fun you can have here without shooting things over the border. We joined a tour group early Saturday morning in Seoul and had the mandatory Maccas breakfast before taking the bus 4 hours to our destination half way down the Korean penninsula bordering the Sea of China. Our first stop in the afternoon was a massive mud flat that is used by the Korean Special Armed Corps as a training field. The antics incuded a ccular blow up wrestling ring, numerous races and just general carnage as people were covered head to toe in mud over our compulsory army fatigues. This even before the mud fighting and tackling had started. our team won both the mens and womens team and individual wrestling titles. Showrs consistd of a water tanker with a maniacal Korean on top with a high pressure hose.

 

After a beer to restore the order we headed to our accomodation closer to the swimming beach before spending the rest of the afternoon covering ourselves in yet more mud from pools spoadically placed along the beach. Each pool had different kinds of mud and different Koreans always keen on tempting mudless foreigners into their hovels with different coloured mud. Needless to say we enjoyed the sun, clean air and beers playing football, volleyball and swimming in the sea. After dinner and a marvellous version of the New Zealand anthem from our thrid storey balcony tunes were required. Brad and I managed to find a internet cafe and bought the owners speakers from his own computer as he was playing a game. Everything is attainable if the priace is right. After this it all got a little hazy with 'Kim Jong Il' the new drink made with the combined madness of soju and Jagermeister. We camped ourselves along the beach before indulging in one of many nude runs to the sea and back to our clothes. By the end of the night the running had decreased to a strut and the shamefulness had been removed with more than one Krean posing for photos in our glory. I apoligize in advance if one of these comes into your possession.

 

Sunday with clear skies, heat and humidity along with a few hours sleep wasn't pleasant but we managed to sunbath, swim and make our way to the bus terminal for a torturous ride home, and I had a seat!!! Photos up when I get some.

On Saturday we held the first Ansan Convienience store Golf Open. Each person receives a score card and follow the rules enclosed and drink a beverage at 9 different convienience stores on an already planned course through the streets of the city. Your score is the amount of sips it take you to consume your vessel. Penalty points are also added for slow play, speaking Korean, dropping or spiling beer and arguing with your marker. The days game lasted only 4 holes before our 8 players were reduced to 4 following a nasty hole involving an entire bottle of soju to be skulled.

 

The night continued in normal fashion with a trip to Beer Plus and watching the All Blacks dimantle the Springboks. The next golf game is tentitively planned for this weekend but I have revised the score card to include less soju and a lowering of the beer size from a 740ml to a standard can at each hole.

Spirit MC is the Korean version of the popular Ultimate Fighting Championship and Pride. They all are free style fighting competitions where the majority of fighters now come from at least 2 and sometimes 5 or so martial arts disiplines. The guys were from 70 to 125kg and stood toe to toe in the ring for two five minute rounds of fighting. Few fights lasted this long with most losers tappig out after being chocked in a wrestling position or KOed from either a kick or punch.

 

The competition was in a gymnasium in Seoul and comprised of 15 fights, named The Road to the final". The first 8 fights were lower class fighters without the same training but just as entertaining with some massive weight differences between some pairings. The later fights were fighers with records who were competing for belts. they had dance routines and songs for their entry along a catwalk to the ring. the best was a full karaoke performance wearing a yellow sequined shirt while his opponent warmed up in the ring. The fight of the night was an American lad Ross Ebanez against a local Korean fella. Being some of the only foreigners there it seemed appropriate to cheer the yank. He won the fight by knock out after pining his opponent on his back and laying repeptive punches on his face. After a right hook he was out before his head hit the floor but the ref failed to stop the fight and at least another left and right bounced his unconscience head off the floor and into the next incoming fist before the ref called it off. We were duely rewarded at the end of the match with a rope climbing double fist pump salute from the champ. We obligied with raucous cheers which has landed us on Korean TV.

 

Now "thats gold".

To celebrate Brad's birthday a number of us headed to Everland. It is about 40mins away but by magically weaving through the streets of outer Seoul the bus driver managed to take a good 90mins off my life. I'm not getting that back. The resort itself is huge. There are 3 main parts with a zoo, a theme park and the water park. Not interested in either depressed tigers or overcrowded lines for rollercoasters we had our hearts set on the water park. Carribean Bay has both indoor and outdorr attractions althoug by far the most interesting is outside. We tried the standing wave machine, numerous tube waterslides, the wave pool and three speed slides. The speed slides were the best. One started in a darkened tube where you slid slowly until the slide droped away at a sharp angle allowing you to leave the slide momentarily before plumetting down the sharp incline. The wave pool was highly amusing. Lifeguards patrolled two areas in the pool. One, where you had to wear a life jacket if you went deeper than 1.6 metres and a zone of 2 metres wide stretching the entire pool where the 2 metre high wave broke. We were asked numerous times whether we were swimmers as we body surfed the waves as being able to swim is a foreign concept to adults who float in a pool in life jackets screaming at the sight of a wave.

 

Oh I didnt mention that through this entire experience you wrent allowed on a ride or in the water without a swimming cap on.......

 

God help any Koreans who actually go to a normal beach. Couple of pics below.

He was out in full force last weekend. Brad and I traveled on a bus to PyeongChang, better known for its upcoming bid to host the 2014 Winter Olympics it is also host to the lesser spectator sport of a annual football tournament. We joined a team from Incheon full of 50 year old buys with a penchant for the booze. The ride thre was a 3 hour affair full of soju, beer and kareoke. The bus had its own system hooked up to a mic travelling up and down the isles of the bus belting out timeless Korean tunes in the key of awful. Not involved in the frivolity Brad and I cautiously watched from the front as especially one fella, aptly named the soju master frequented the chiller for more and more until the walk to the ront of the bus replicated the ease of a Vietnamese land mine crossing. We arrived and played a game within ourselves on a grass pitch, which for me was a unique experience here in Asia. After 30mins I could actually smell the booze coming out of our skin. We retired to a lodge about an hours drive away for the night and the FA cup final.

 

Sunday was the tournament and we played 4 games, again on a grass pitch. We lost all I think but the 28 odd degree day was filled with drinking and a magnificent pork BBQ (butchered on the spot). We left at 2pm and after yet another stop at a restaurant which would easily be condemned in New Zealand for any number of 100 reasons not including the poultry wandering the toilets for Seoul. Here, there was more than slight interest in the size of Brad and my manhood. The topic of conversation wa to use chopsticks to produce a rough estimate of each players penis size and then a request to follow the lead. We politley diverted conversation but this only spurred one guy on to casualy grope me while I was eating my hotter than the sun noodles. I think I was molested at least half a dozen times. The 5 hour traffic congested trip home has since left me slight of hearing. The kareoke was in full voice with half cut men prancing the isle for three hours. This after a day in the sun and numerous football games following a sleepless night and a prison hazing was the perfect end to the trip known in the Vercs history as random.