day 7 & 8

up and over. i didn't take many pictures these 2 days. as the scottish guy i trekked with said, it was a brutal slog. these 2 days we climbed over 6000ft. from manang to thorong phedi (base camp of the pass) wasn't too bad, but i hardly slept because of the altitude. that made the next morning all the more difficult. the first hour from thorung phedi to the pass almost knocked me out. literally. my heart was pounding, and my head was aching, though i was hardly moving at all. so you can get an idea of my pace, stand up and take one step every 2-3 seconds and suck in a lung full of air. that's what i did for 5 hours straight up to the pass.

the one good thing about this all was that i was the 2nd to last person to set off for the pass, but i was by no means the last person up. i passed at least 30 people going up, and more coming down. most left before sunrise, hoping for good views and plenty of time. the earliest people left at 2am. not smart. i waited to about 6:30, about 2 hours after originally planned. sometime during the night it began to snow, so for me there was no hope of a good view. most of the way it was a near white out. man was it cold at the top (17,769ft). the wind blew hard, snow fell steady and my hands and feet felt it brutality. but i did it, marking my highest point ever reached while on land.

thorung phedi (14,599ft) with 2 of the 3 kiwis and the scotsman i trekked with.

me at the highest point of the trek (17,769ft). it was cold.

days 5 & 6

this as the last of the shortish walking days i had. we set off in a slight drizzle and walked a mostly level path. though we gained a full 1000ft on the day. the scenery grew sparser as the day wore on. by lunchtime i was in manang, the site of the one and only scheduled rest day, in order to acclimatize before ascending the 17,000ft in crossing the throng-la pass 2 days later.

in manang i mostly ate well, rested, and scampered around the surrounding mountains flirting with landslides and seeking out wildlife. i nearly reached the 12,000ft gangapurna glacier before having to turn back, and i saw a herd of blue sheep bounding up the surrounding cliffs of the glacier like it was a flat road. they were amazing to watch as they easily scaled distances and heights it took us hours to cover.

from manang the trail grew steeper and certainly higher.

waking up at 6am this was the first view i had from my balcony.

me in front of the annapuranas.

making use of the macro setting on my camera to show the local flora.

a sparkling white stupa in manang.

a traditional ladder in manang.

the tibetans in manang were growing wheat at 11,614ft.

evidence of the massive erosion in the himalayas. it seemed
the mountains were falling apart under our feet.

annapurna IV and II, standing at 24,688ft and 26,040ft respectively.

the gangapurna, standing at 24,455ft.

the gangapurna glacier. i didn't get close enough to touch it,
but i nearly caused a landslide trying.

more photos from day 4

here are a few more pictures from day 4. i hope you all enjoy them, because they take forever to upload here in nepal.

an avalanche on annapurna II

a mani stone along the trail. the carvings are prayers to assist in a better reincarnation.

i can't remember which peak this is right now.

me.

the rapids of a monsoon river with a sheer granite wall in the background.

what a face. this little girl had the world to herself, playing with pens,
chickens, and a water pot till i walked by.

the dry trans-himalaya landscape

one of the annapurna peaks poking through the clouds

a confused looking kid in lower pisang.

annapurna cicuit day 4

day 4 was a doozy. the views were astounding up that point, but had lacked the monster mountains i came for. but no more. i walked out my door in the morning and there she was, lamjung himal (22,910 ft), staring at me with the glory of the rising sun dressing her in a glowing yellow. off to the right the 26,040 ft annapurna II was just visible over other mountains. what a beginning to the day. they, as i was brushing my teeth a few minutes later there was a cloud of white on lamjung himal. an avalanche. it was breathtaking.

that day we climbed more than 2500 ft to lower pisang, passing one of the most stunning remnants of glaciation i've ever seen in person. the the swargadwari danda is a smooth as glass rock face that looks more like a slide, soaring from the riverbed more than 4000 ft. i couldn't help but think it would be fun to slide down it. deadly too.

in the afternoon we gained enough elevation and turned in behind what is called the great barrier, to see the vegetation grow sparser and dryer. mom, it looked like the mountains around flagstaff to be sure. i remarked the very thing to my guide. in pisang, where i spent the night, i was once again among tibetans. it felt like home in a way. though they spoke a different language and i could not communicate with them, it was good to be with them.

on this day i began to see that i was in a very daring place, daring of life to take hold and live abundantly. these people struggle so hard to make their living. and the weather is brutal. the winds ripped through the valley, chapping my skin, and giving all the locals the distinctive red cheeks of the tibetan plateau. at night the temperatures dropped quickly, and i had to run back to my room to put on the long johns, which i wore with shorts. quite stylish indeed.

this was also the place i met the most racist man i've ever met. maybe i've ever heard of outside a few famous ones. listening to him talk literally made my stomach knot up. it had to bite my tongue to avoid lashing out in violent speak, or from getting made enough to hit him. he was so pompous he offered to send me his book, detailing his theories of race for free, offering that it might open up some doors for me and help me see things clearly. what and prick. the really strange thing was that he did not see that his theories were based on bad science. really bad science. to me he was just a man giddy to have a justification for his bigotry. science can be a danger to those with causes to justify. my opinion of aussies changed a lot on this trip. 3 out of 4 offered what i consider to be racist opinions of the aborigines. i know they are not all that way, but man.

a mother and child, with my guide buying chewing gum in the background.

a small home along the trail.

the evening view of annapurna II, the monster standing at 26,040 ft. awesome.

two young nepalis (one of tibetan descent) eating apples and laughing up a storm.

a young nepali boy relaxing.

me standing on a suspension bridge in front of my guest house in chame

a little girl and her mom in a local tea shop, or the
front room of their little house.

annapurna cicuit day 3

day 3 began with my heels heavily taped and me being very unsure of my fitness level. had i really become that out of shape? no. after this day i became stronger by the day, until my guide was telling me to slow down, and then unable to keep up with me. i did indeed finally learn the moral of the fable about the hare and the tortoise though. slow and steady.

with every passing kilometer the forests grew thicker and were filled with more birds and animals. though i saw few, the sounds of monkeys and birds echoed on the valley walls. it was a spectacular day.

these porters would lug up to 80 kilos on their heads through the
mountains so that i could, if i so chose, eat a snickers anytime.

i told you they would become ubiquitous. but still so beautiful.

we came up and over a little pass and the waterfalls gave way to a verdant valley with a meandering glacial river, near the town tal.

annapurna cicuit day 2

hardest day of them all. two reasons. i was out of shape and i developed blisters on both heels. in reality it should not have been that bad. just one of those bad athletic days. it just was not a wonderful day. for most of the day we climbed steadily. we walked past village after village of rice farmers, till finally we ended in jagot, where every kid came out to get their photos taken. some even tried reaching into my pockets to get money for allowing me to photograph them. crazy little kids. but adorable and so photogenic.

first view of the day. it really got me going.

bhulbule as the sun rises. the start of day 2.

using a wall to avoid the mud.

waterfalls like this would soon become a dime a dozen. this
one spilled over the mountainside a good 1000 feet.

my guide, on the left, and another enjoying a seat after a longish day.

a little one from jagot. i don't think he knew what i was doing when i took his photo.

a view through jagat. a very small little village where i spent the night.

this little boy was enamored with a little bead.

one of the few older people not afraid to have their picture taken.

just lines on a map

the last few days i've been thinking about something. it sparked when a guy i was trekking asked me if my guide was indian. 'he sure looks like it,' he said. to that i said he was brahmin, and that they are essentially india. 'really, it's just lines on a map,' i said. and this got me going.

imagine the differences in lives because of a long wavy black line that separates one country from another. this was clear to me in certain areas of my annapuran trek. i came across a group of ethnic tibetans that were as wealthy and prosperous in every area of life as any i've ever seen. some owned houses in 2 or more places and vacationed in europe. this was all thanks to special trading rights granted to them hundreds of years ago. but just across the border, about 250 kilometers north, their ethnic brethren toil away as nomads, never washing, eating the same meal every day, and certainly never seeing more than photos of europe, much less kathmandu. what a difference a line can make.

i just finished dave eggers' 'what is the whay?,' a sort of sarcastically fictionalized memoir of a man who escaped the civil war of sudan and resettled in the u.s. this too made me thing of the importance of a little ink on a page. in the book he describes the fatal mistake the southern sudanese made in joining the northern in the middle of the 20th century. they were duped he said. they decided to be a united sudan with the muslim arabs of the north, while they were african catholics. more or less, from then on they had suffered at the hands of the khartoum government. because of a line on a map. now, maybe they would have suffered in a similar way anyway, but that is no matter to me.

it really is a strange thing, the power of maps. they decide who is what. they determine our prospects of a future. take me, for example, growing up so close to the mexican border. many times i have been to the other side and seen the difference. and i have seen countless mexicans risk their lives to cross an ink line for better future. what if i was born on the other side? who would i be? what would i be doing? maybe painting houses in san antonio. maybe i'd be a shepherd in jalisco. or a maybe i'd still be pursuing a graduate degree, but in mexico city. all the same, it would be a different life for me. sorry to get preachy and all, but i've think it a very interesting thing to consider.

annapurna cicuit day 1

day 1 began with a 7 hour long bus ride from kathmandu. along the way we were in an accident and stopped to pick up countless standing room only passengers, and even a few chickens. but nothing dampened my excitement for setting off on the annapurna circuit. not even finding out that the guy who arranged my guide had lied to me. my guide said in no uncertain terms, that he would not carry anything for me, because 'i am a guide now. i used to be a porter, but not anymore.' what a start to a beautiful trip. but honestly, i did not let any of this get me down. i picked up my pack and we set off and a brisk pace. we only had a few hours of daylight left after disembarking from the bus.

really, the first day was uneventful. we walked along a dirt road, that to me looked undriveable, but the nepalis must have a different definition for that word that me. about 2.5 hours of walking left us in a quaint little town called bhulbule, so we checking into a teahouse/guesthouse with nothing built in 90* angles. every wall and floor was off square.

end day one.

twin girls i came across along the dirt road. just too cute.

the first of at least 50 suspension bridges along the way.,

the final view of the day (upper left in the clouds). it made my heart skip a beat.
this is what i came for, mountains piercing the sky.

it's a kathmandoozy

this girl was adorable, and when i showed her the photo
i took of her, she smiled as big as i've ever seen.

a variation of henna.

a sadhu asking for money to live on.

dried dyes used to paint the faces of festival goers.

women gathered for a festival in kathmandu.

something i forgot to say the other day

i forgot to tell you guys this the other day. you know the bangkok riots you've been seeing on cnn and cspan? maybe not, i guess. well, i was in those the other day. i was walking along the road the other day and all of a sudden i was surrounded by a sea of yellow clad protesters. the were nearly all wearing motorcycles helmets and wielding sticks, or metal poles. there were 1000s of them streaming down the sidewalks, and even stopping traffic to get to the prime ministers residence. as i began to get to the edge of the scene i stopped and chatted with some international journalist and asked if this was what i had been seeing on tv. they said it was indeed. and apparently their cause is a very just one. they simply want a very corrupt man out of leadership of their country, and they are willing to skip work, risking their employment, and get beat by police to see it done. i find that sort of person inspiring. now, i am not saying rioting is a good thing, but if i am honest, i would hope i would rise up when injustice needs an opponent. it's how the great countries of the world were started.

one final thing. as i walked the opposite direction as the ever growing numbers of protesters i was struck by their faces. many were stern and stone faced, heading for battle and difficulty. but many offered me unsolicited smiles, like they were truly excited about what they were doing, and difference it might make. it was a strange thing in the moment, a man clad in helmet with weapon in hand beaming a smile. just thought i would share this with you. not sure what is adds though.