Matt’s Travel Blog

This isn’t all of them, but its most of them. Crazy times… stories will be told.

Part 1 – Kathmandu…

View of Thailand from the air..
I also would have taken a picture of Burma fromt he air but it was just brown.. all of it.

Kathmandu during our landing. This was the sketchist landing ever.. we sorta bounced off the ground then went few meters to the side then landed and ‘explored’ the runway. Kathmandu is really spread out in a vally. Theres lots of condensed city then big open parts like this.

Kathmandu city is a hodge podge really. This was on my walk to the monkey temple.

The garbage river. Alot of the countries ive been to dont have garbage trucks. They burn it, pile it, leave it, or throw it … plastic is a miracle and a curse it seems.

The bottem of the monkey temple.

The way up.. why do all great monuments have stairs that are to high too step up, and too thin to stand on? Did ancient humans have long legs and no feet? Maybe if you pray a lot your legs get longer and your feet fall off… and you get called ‘the stumpies’.

View of Kathmandu city. There is supposed to be mountains in the background but the airpollution sits in the valley. When you pick your nose it comes out black. My enjoyment of nose picking decreased.

I Think this is the tibetan budda ‘Manjushuri’ the buddha of wisdom.. but i could be wrong. It was hard to read my map of the temple. although i got lost and ended up eating free buffalo meat… it tastes like fat.

Random section of the city with prayer flags from the back of the Monkey temple.

Kathmandu streets..

Hindu Temple in Kathmandu.. those fires are buring bodies then they get pushed into the river.

Monkeys!

Budnath stupa. The biggest one in the world. I chilled here for quite a while.. comtemplating life or .. something. My realization:… star trek IS that awesome, isn’t it.

Monk. ‘Gong!!!!!’

People praying and repairing le stupa.

Sun set in the city. After the sun goes down they have power till about 9pm .. then everything is closed. It eventually got worse..

Himalaya section.. Trekking to Annapurna “The Grandmother of all” so they say.

I have way to many pics of mountains and things… so heres just a few.

Me with a ‘Tika’ for good luck. This pic is blurry and i am sleepy.. it works out.

The mountains im going to climb too. That peak will get closer and closer…

Donkeys..

Dat 1 Look at me! Im trekking!!!

Swimming in Glacier water… cold doesnt really do it justice. It actually sorta hurt.

Picture of mountian houses..

Inside mountian town..

Day 2 Me after climbing 2000 steps with that 50lbs on my back.. the worst parts were when the little school girls would skip past you.. dang yo.

The Jungle.. we saw crazy white monkeys here but taking a picture was imposible due to my slowness and their quickness.

Annapurna mountian range from Poon Hill.. this is the town where i got drunk in the local bar(it was a barn) that turned out to be filled with Maoists. Uhh.. i am still alive!

Day 3 Me at 3200 meters. I saw a plane fly below me later from this mountian.. sweet.

Sunrise from Poon hill.

Nepali kids..

On top of the world at 8am.. this was the day of reckoning.. walked for 14 hours.. up and down two valleys.. then i died an emotional death in freezing rain. But this picture was taken while happiness still existed. It later left and was replaced by bitterness at having to walk up… again.

Pretty flowers that seem to be everywhere at high altitude. Apparently they can be used as medicine as well.

Day 4 Getting closer..

The valley that leads to Annapurna base camp.

Abandoned way station.. or goat shack.

Himalay.. where i slept and chatted with da germans. It was about here that things started to get cold. No more showers..

Day 6 Valley with small town.. walking is inevitable.

Me .. i dont even know what i was thinking at this point. I remember every step was painful, my feet were blistered, soaked and icy and showering was out of the question. But i look happy.. i think i was happy… i think i just stopped thinking about it actually. Life consisted of walking.. and more then more walking. It was pretty simple i guess.

Back down the valley..

Heres the peak from the first picture of the mountains.. im now at the base camp 3700 meters.

On my way to Annapurna base camp.. with no clouds in sight. sweeet.

Surrounded by mountians…

Annapurna..

It speaks for itself..

The mountian.. those clouds turned into real clouds.. then it got real cold.. then in snowed on us. This was the last time to see the mountian clearly for 3 days it rained everyday after this.. So i was pretty luckey or else i would have walked all that way to see clouds.

Day 7 or 8 .. ?? The way home required more walking. Hurray.

This is a house thats burning down on the other side of the mountian.

The last of the mountians..

Leaving Nepal.
Busy street.

Same street at curfew.

After this i worked the miracle of leaving… hard to do with no taxis and means of travel. I was going to go to india but flights were expensive and buses ceased to exist. Eventually i got to the airport and flew back to Thailand.

Once i came back to Thailand i subdued tigers with my mind… they respected my inner mountain dominance. I will be a great captain like Picard.

In Bangkok now.. in about 4 hrs i fly to Nepal..

I plan to see friends of friends, temples, go on a long walk and not shower for a long time, and hunt the yetti.

Edit: Landed and wandering around.. there are no street lights here. You wander in the dark and most restaurants are lit by candle. If you replace motor bikes with horses this place would be Kings Quest.. very peaceful here.