Kathmandu: Durbar Square

I know I got a bit tired of editing photos but reading about the major earthquakes that have happened in Nepal this weekend was a shock for me and somehow motivated me to get back to it. Looking at the pictures of Kathmandu after the earthquake is a personal challenge for me. The earthquake(s) have left several hundred if not thousand people dead and damaged and destroyed large parts of the rich cultural heritage.

One of the main places in Kathmandu is Durbar Square (royal place), which hosts many ancient temples and the royal palace and is part of the UNESCO world heritage. It was the first place we visited during our stay there in January and we were amazed but the beauty of it. It seems that large parts of it were destroyed this weekend, a big tragedy. I decided to post some pictures to show the beauty of this place. I also encourage everyone to consider donating to the red cross or Oxfam to help the people of Nepal, one of the poorest Asian countries. Even if it is not much you can give, it will help those in urgent need right now and might eventually help them rebuild what was lost in just a few minutes yesterday:
Deutsches Rotes Kreuz: http://www.drk.de/pressemeldungen/meldung/8479-spendenaufruf-drk-steht-fuer-hilfe-fuer-erdbebenopfer-in-nepal-bereit.html
Aktion Deutschland hilft: https://www.tagesschau.de/spendenkonten/spendenkonten-nepal-101.html
Red cross USA: http://www.redcross.org/news/article/Red-Cross-Responding-to-78-Magnitude-Earthquake-in-Nepal
Oxfam: https://secure2.oxfamamerica.org/page/content/nepal_earthquake/

Hiking the Annapurna Mountains (III)

Getting up early to see a breath-taking sunrise: after our 800m ascent on day 2 we got up at 5:20am and walked up 400m to the 3200m high Poon Hill. Sunrise in January was at about 7 am, the walk up there took about 30 minutes (maybe up to 45 minutes if you are a slow walker). What makes this hill so special? The spectacular view on the whole Annapurna range, none of the peaks are hidden. That is unique (well, except for the top of Annapurna South maybe ^^).

We arrived up on Poon Hill at about 6:45, just in time to still see the full moon and the first sun rays.

The view back into the valley, the lights on the lower right are from other hikers coming up a bit late. Why do need a flashlight in full moon, though?

The same view, just a few minutes later.

And there it is: Annapurna South with its peak hit by the first sunlight coming up from the horizon.

The fishtail mountain just right of Annapurna South. To see the full mountain, you need to take a much longer trek though. That was the best view we got of it.

The observation on top of Poon Hill, sunrise was almost over and most people have already left. It was actually quite crowded given that it was off season.

On the way back down, I came across this beautiful picture: The Buddhist flags in front of the sunrise and the clouds down in the valley.

And a close-up to the other side of the ridge.

And finally, a look at our hotel (which I can definitely recommend). We were really looking forward to some hot tea and breakfast at 8am to start the day hike at 9...

Hiking the Annapurna Mountains (II)

After the strenuous ascent on the first day, we had another 800m to go up to Ghorepani on the second day. Fortunately, there were less stairs to climb. Still 800m is certainly not nothing :)

A view on our first-night guesthouse (forgot to show it in the last post). The cloudy spot behind the building on the right is the place where Annapurna South was hidden from us.

The menus in the guesthouse are surprisingly rich, with a lot of meat dishes, ranging from chicken, through pork to even beef. Now, this is how they bring the chicken up to an altitude of 3000m: mules carrying them in small cages up the steps. We were not the only ones who became part-time vegetarians after seeing this.
These mules are the only means of transportation into these areas, so they also transport gas bottles, water bottles, rice sacks, and pretty much everything else that the people (and tourists) up there need.

Oh, and it seemed that we were there in the right time for puppies, we've seen plenty of them on our way through the villages.

Our first view of the Fishtail Mountain (Mount Machhapuchchhre). It's not the best angle to tell it looks like a fish tail because we are seeing it from the south. What you see here is the tail, the body of the fish is hidden behind it.

The second day wasn't too bad, in fact, we even went through some sort of jungle with big trees. However, it was surprisingly cold that morning, only short above zero centigrade.

After ascending for about 800m in 4.5 hours we reached Ghorepani at an altitude of about 2800m, a larger town split into a lower and an upper part. The lower part greeted us with this beautiful gate.

Our trekking guide book recommended the upper part though and it was totally right. Up there, we were greeted by this little stupa on a small market and Annapurna South in the background. It's these moments that reward you for the exertion of the hike.

Our cottage for the night. For five dollars we had two warm beds and running hot water (heated by natural gas) at the sunny hotel, probably the hotel in place.

A spectular view on the Annapurna mountain range, with Annapurna South on the right side.

Me in front of Annapurna South, obviously tired from going up 1800m in 2 days and ready to get some sleep, just to get up at 5 the next morning to catch the sunrise from Poon Hill...

Hiking the Annapurna Mountains (I)

I finally got around to go through some of the pictures that I took on the trip to India and Nepal. One of the highlights was certainly our five day trek through the Annapurna mountains. And since these are some of the freshest and most vivid memories I'm going to start with this hike...

Foreword

We planned to do a five day trek but we had no idea where exactly we wanted to go until two days before the start. We decided that we want to see the Annapurna mountains, which have some of the world's highest peaks (not the Everest though). Back in Germany, we already heard two reports about this area and what is there to see. While we were first under the impression that we need to hire a guide, we eventually figured out that we can do this trek on our, equipped with a trekking guide book and a map of the area, both of which we bough in Kathmandu. The guide book was the Lonely Planet Trekking Guide Nepal, an excellent choice with loads of information for trekkers, from specific treks to moral aspects of trekking through the Himalayans. Highly recommendable. Thanks for the nice guy from Wales that motivated us to do it on our own!

A quick note about the pros and cons of having a guide (and potentially porters). Just one thing ahead: for many of the treks in this area you will not need to have a guide, especially the shorter ones. So if you feel adventurous, go ahead and do the trek by yourself (not alone, though!) You need to take care of some more things (TIMMS trekking permit and Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP) permit, route planning, guesthouse search) but it gives you a higher degree of freedom (and potentially satisfaction). However, guides can certainly make your trek more comfortable and help you learn about the culture and customs in this area. We preferred the independence and adventure of planning and going on our own, though. The story might be totally different in remote areas where you have to rely on your guide, e.g., if English does not get you very far or you are inexperienced with going to high altitudes. A porter can be helpful if you cannot or do not want to carry all of your clothes and equipment on your own. You meet them a lot on the treks and they never failed to amaze me in how much they can carry (usually a big backpack plus their own stuff, without any problem). I guess my backpack weighed about 10kg, which was ok but more would have started to be become problematic. For a longer trek I certainly need to optimize for weight... If you feel bad for hiring someone to carry your stuff up the mountain, consider this advice that I read in the trekking guide mentioned above: People do not feel guilty for hiring a cab driver to drive them around because he knows how to drive and knows the way. So why not hire someone who is able to carry your load and trained in climbing mountains?

The first day

We started from Kathmandu to Pokhara by bus, which is cheaper than flying (20 USD as compared to >100 USD per person). It is also quite adventurous to ride the narrow roads for 200km and see what Nepali traffic looks like. Plus, you can catch gorgeous views of the nature on the way, provided that the fog lifts here and there.

After one night in Pokhara, we took yet another bus to Nayapul ("New Bridge", 1070m) where we started the actual hike. Our plan was to go to Ghorepani, from there to Ghandruk, and back to Nayapul. We ended up taking some detours though because we learned about interesting places during the hike.

Some of the typical things you spot around this area: long suspension bridges, terrace fields, and green forests surrounding the rivers going through the valleys.

A typical small village you come through: the blue roofs usually signal guesthouses or teahouses, which makes it easy to spot a overnight stays and lunch places even from the distance. Many of the villages seem to only consist of guesthouses, which is not surprising since this is a very busy trek.

Beautiful flowers you find everywhere in this area.

Again, going through villages, passing by guesthouses about every 500 meters. At least during low-season you do not need to be afraid to end up without a bed at night.

The first day brought us up by about 1000m to Ullerie (2020m), a small village which lies at the top of a steep ascent, which is said to have more than 3200 stairs (and no, I did not count them). Arriving uphill, we were quite exhausted and ready for tea so we took the first guesthouse we came across, which was quite decent. Looking back downhill made us realize where we came from.

Unfortunately, our first potential view of the Annapurna South was hidden by clouds...

The next morning look out of the window totally made up for it though. It was an amazing feeling, waking up looking at an 8k mountain. Impressive! It gave us a vague feeling of what was awaiting us at the end of the second day...

Safari at Pilanesberg

With this post, I am probably leaving the chronological order. There are two reasons: First, I wanted to get these Safari pictures out. Second, I realized that we didn't take a lot of pictures between Cape Town and Pretoria and none of them are as interesting as African wild life :)

So we went to Pilanesberg National Park, which is about 160 km north-west of Pretoria. It is designed for self-guided tours (which we did) but also offers guided tours with Jeeps (in case you don't want to to take your car through the washed out roads).


We were equipped with a four wheel drive Toyota, which had to go through quite some adventurous roads with us. However, at least for us it was totally worth it!

For one, we saw lots of colourful birds...

... turtles ...

... and various types of deer.

If you looked carefully, you were able to spot many lizards (for those who like them ^^).

Finally, some springboks, the mascots of the South African rugby team.

We also saw many Zebras all around the park. This one was especially brave since it took on with a bunch of gnus and won the claim for the salt. The gnus had to wait for the Zebra to finish...

Two elephants from the distance. We couldn't get closer to them but I think this was the safer distance anyway.

For some reason, Zebras and Giraffes like to stick together. Maybe it is because they do not have to fight each other for food...

Zebras themselves are quite social so they support each other in holding their big heads.

While we only saw elephants from the far distance, we got really close to two rhinos on the way to the exit. They are fascinating and scary at the same time, huge and calm but there is this weird feeling that once they start running after you things will get messy...

Note: I started writing this article many months ago and never managed to get back to it. I might not have a chance to write again about South Africa, there are currently other things that need a lot of attention and interesting stuff will be coming up. However, I still love to think about the great time I had down there...