Female traveller

I'm back in the relative comfort of Kathmandu. Despite its dirtiness and craziness, for some reason I feel more at home in Nepal than I did anywhere else on this trip.

The flight was delayed due to weather in Kathmandu. You can imagine my surprise when they made their boarding announcement and the only aircraft I could see out on the tarmac was a twin-propeller plane!

At first I was scared, then a bit happier because I thought it should do better on the shorter runway at Paro and in and around the mountains which flank the airport.

Then I started to get scared again when I questioned whether a twin-prop should go OVER the Himalayas. Agh.

Obviously, I survived in one piece.

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Being a female traveller can be interesting. Of course there's the extra male attention, extra caution when out at night, but then there's the fun of trying to find tampons...

I came with extra tampons on this trip because I knew from previous experiences how difficult such a luxury item can be to find.

Trying to explain to housekeeping, the pharmacist, and the taxi driver what it is I'm after, and even showing a tampon as an example, became very not fun very quickly.

I suppose I can last two more days without the luxuries of home.

Life and great expectations

Life can be funny. When I first arrived in Bhutan I was so impressed but the rooms and food. But I had just come from Tibet and my expectations were low.

Now, five days in, I'm not impressed. Infact, i'm slightly disappointed.

I managed to find an atm yesterday that accepted Visa (it said Mastercard too) which was not easy. It's in Paro. Thete-s rumours of one in Thimpu as well, and I saw one at the airport but it was out of service so I'm not sure if it would have worked.

Tigers Nest today... I'm nervous! It's a 5 hour hike to 2000m. Can't wait to go back to work for a rest.

Thangkas

So ive started to become slightly obsessed with Buddhist thangkas. They are these painting depicting different things, sometimes a buddha or a tara, but my favourite ones are The Wheel of Life, Buddha's Life, and the Mandala (Kalachakra Mandala).

The picture is The Wheel of Life. The detail and craftmanship alone is amazing. It takes a master with 15 years experience around 40 hours to paint one around 60x90cm. Using a single yak hair, the add the gold paint carefully.

Looking into the paintings, there's always something to see. The Wheel of Life has a number of components, but to summarise, the six segments represent the six states of existance in life. There's the hell-like experience where I just noticed a man with a rope around his neck and another man coming at him with an axe!

There's the animal-level which I believe literally represents being an animal (reincarnation, remember) but i'd guess it might also represent humans living like animals as well, in a sort of unconcious state, perhaps,driven only but basic emotions like fear and anger. But I see no humans in that segment.

Then there's the area which I think is like greed because all the people arw fat. I heard it described as the people that are never satisfied and spend all their time consuming. I think that could translate into the capitalist West easily.

Then there's the two inter-related segments where one is the "sowing" and the other the "reaping". The people who sow are jealous of those who get to reap. I see the sowers have their bows and arrows out against the reapers. The reapers seem to have a luxurious segment, like the rich, but they have to deal with the jealously from the sowers. This diachotomy would well represent the rich versus the poor.

Then finally there is the heaven-like segment. I assume one needs to achieve enlightenment first.

By the way....

.... I'm back from Tibet.

There is so much to say. I saved a post every few days on my phone app as Blogger and Facebook are banned there. I'll try and post them when I can and write a bit more about my trip when I return home.

For now I still need to survive this week in Bhutan.

Kathmandu Hyatt

So last night I decided to stay at Kathmandu Hyatt. It also upgraded myself to a Club Room which cost about $200. It was well worth it. I had a nice hot bubble vath, washed AND conditioned my hair, had all my laundry sent out and returned within 3 hours (they even repaired my travel pillow), and had a decent meal. I may have also had one or two glasses of Australian wine.

I had good wifi but was still unable to upload my blog posts for some reason. I will post them back-dated asap.

Now i'm waiting to check-in with Drukair at Kathmandu airport for my flight to Paro, Bhutan.

Tibet

I go to Tibet tomorrow for two weeks and I'm not sure if I'll be able to publish my blogs from there or not.

Standby....

Kathmandu valley

I took this photo yesterday from "monkey temple" (that's what the tourists call it due to all the monkeys which live there). It overlooks Kathmandu valley.

Altitude (12/9/11)

I'm having my first experience with altitude as I write this. My driver guesses we are about 2500m. I estimate this is probably about right as the effects have just begun to take effect.

I feel the hypoxia. I'm dizzy, a little confused, and a bit tired but overall ok. I feel a little hard to breathe also, and I liken it to being in a suffy boardroom with bad jetlag.

We've stopped for lunch at a local restaurant in the mountains in the hope the clouds will move so we can see Mt Everest and the Anapurnas.

Punjabi dress (11/9/11)

I bought a punjabi dress today. Very happy.

Power (10/9/11)

Just experienced my first Kathmandu blackout. I'm so glad I got pre-warned about them. I have my trusty dynamo torch and the room comes with a candle and box of matches - nice.

So, Kathmandu apparently has government-controlled, systematic (but not predictable) blackouts in regions due to there not being enough power. Interesting solution.

Slumdog

So my tour guide today wasn't a real tour guide. He was a dude I met while walking through Thamel in Kathmandu.

Firstly, you should know I got a lot by vibe and gut feeling. I liked Rakesh from the get-go.

The tour was excellent, but the highlight for me was having tea at his "house" which rivalled any refugee-camp i've ever seen on tv, and surpassed the slums i've been to in Cambodia.

Rakesh lives under a tarp on a woven bamboo-sliver frame he made himself and houses him, his wife and four children. I'd say it was 3-4 metres squared. It's pretty dismal but I tried really hard not to show it.

Instead I complimented him on his handy work, his beautiful family, and thanked them all for the priviledge of being welcomed into their home and their life.

Below is a photo of his son. I did the thing where you take a photo of the kid and show it to them- they love it.

I'm so lucky.

Kathmandu

This place is friggin insane. It frenic, noisy, colouful, and slightly overwhelming.

I took a walking tour today which was interesting, hot, sticky, a little scary, and mostly amazing.

I saw bodies being washed and openly cremated by the river. I saw Hindu and Buddhust temples. I saw leppers and beggers of all kinds. I walked right through on-coming traffic, and travelled on public transport called "micros" which are small Suzuki mini vans.

I even had a retailer drop his price with haggling - I think he felt sorry for me - because I agreed to pay $15usd for a shirt without argument.

Overall, its been an amazing day.

Karaoke

(From 2 nights ago in Hong Kong)

Goodbye Hong Kong

I had the best fun last night with some locals and some expats drinking cocktails, shots, dancing, and singing karaoke!  I'm so glad I had a late check-out this ornign as I really needed it!

My breakfast included green tea which, along with 1g of Panadol, really helped the hangover. I feel ok to fly tonight.

Budget hotel

After a long bus ride from Hong Kong airport to my hotel in Kowloon, I missed my stop and had to walk not far with luggage, i'm here.

I wasn't expecting much. Like Singapore, $135AUD gets you what I'd consider 3-star. But that's all ok if you're prepared for it. However, the food and transport is cheap. My 2-course lunch with tea or coffee was $10 AUD. It wasn't overly tasty, but that's ok too.

It's a bit insane here in Kowloon. It's not how I remembered HK from '99. Apart from it's reputable excellent shopping, I see no advantage in stopping here over Bangkok nor Singapore, and in my opinion KL remains superior. Indonesia should get themselves a good airline with stop-overs in Bali. Who wouldn't want to stop-over in Bali? And geographically-speaking, it's in the right place.

Anyway, I got a late check-out at my HK hotel which is the best thing that could've happened to me today.

Accents

I used to feel really self-concious of my Australian accent when I travelled. Now: not-so-much. Except... When people are having trouble understanding what I'm saying and they repeat the word back to me in my accent!

Example: this morning I was asked which airline I'm flying (for the shuttle bus to get me to the correct terminal). I said DragonAir. I got parrotted back to me "DraaaagounAir" in the most horrible faux-Australian accent.

(Incidently, I'm actually flying Cathay).

Taiwan

I leave Taiwan this morning after a good 3-day stay.

I'd recommend more than one day in Taroko as getting there is an effort. If I lived in Taiwan I think it would make a great weekend-escape.

Everyone has been extremely friendly. This is my general experience while traveling which restores so much needed faith back in the human race (sometimes all the stupid things our species does gets me down).

I'd recommend the Novotel Hotel at Taiwan International Airport (Taoyuan) for late/early morning flights for sure. It's very new here and I'd give it 5/5. It's about 30 mins from Taoyuan and 60 from Taipei so it's not suitable for any other reason.

Goodbye Taiwan! I had a great time!

Safety ideas

This (sign in picture, taken at Hualien train station) is a good idea. I think "safe zone" would be slightly less discriminatory. There are other vulnerable persons around.

Unless they decide to serve cocktails in this female-friendly zone...

Lunch

I love bento boxes. I wasn't expecting to see them in Taiwan's train stations.

The picture is my lunch. The box,was 65 NTD which is about $2 AUD. I also got a cute skinny can of coke and three Ferrero Rochers for 115 NTD total. That's about $4 AUD. Sweet.

Silks

I check-out of Silks Hotel Taroko this morning - I'm currently stuffing myself with the free (included) breakfast to prepare me for the 4+hr journey back to Taipei today.

I've already had my swim in the amazing roof-top pool which over-looks the gorge. There's a pagoda on the top of one of the peaks, and swallows, dragonflies and butterflies seem to enjoy the pool as much as the guests.

Taroko

Today I spent the day hiking Taroko Gorge. My legs and feet are sore. I was so glad to make it to Silks which is 5-star luxury. I started with a lychee martini in the rooftop spa. There were 4 elderly Taiwanese people in the spa with me who were all very interested in my tattoos. Noone got out in disgust though, so I think i'm fine.

The room is gorgeous, but the bed is as hard as anything. Typically Asian. I'm sure i'll sleep well anyway.

First faux-pas

So I accidentally mentioned the Dalai Lama today. My tour guide was talking to me about the different religions in Taiwan, he asked me if I was Buddhist because I' vegetarian (I'm only a part-time vegetarian but I guess asking for chicken and not porj put me in some-sort of vegetariab category), and then I mentioned how the Dalai Lama eats meat sometimes. The response I got was "He's not a Buddhist. He's something else" in a kind of stern tone. Oops. Sorry I forgot that the Chinese hate him, and I guess the Taiwanese are strongly influenced by popular Chinese ideas. I'd love to delve deeper into the anti-HHDL psyche, but I haven't founf the appropriate time/person as yet.

The photo is from my taxi. Those small koalas bloody make it everywhere - it's unbelievable. I saw 3 westerners all day, yet I see 2 Australian koala keyring thingys.

Hualien night market

No Westerners here... Loving it. Luckily my taxi driver ordered my meal for me as everything was in Chinese. He was a bit stressed about what I would like but it worked out well.

Chicken coffin

Here's a picture of my chicken "coffin" sandwich from last night at the Hualien night market

Cool

Cool things that have already happened to me on this trip:

+made all flights, buses, trains (even though I didn't pre-book as recommended), visas and have retained all luguage
+standing-out like dogs balls as the only round-eye in Taiwan has been an advantage as people been super-friendly and helpful
+free wifi in many locations
+used a squat-toilet on a moving train
+girl next to me on train took photos of me while I was (sort of) asleep
+confimed my first night's accomidation, emailed the homestay in Hualien and got picked up from the station
+at a sandwich called a "coffin" which was a hybrid between french toast, toasted sandwich, honey chicken and lettuce
+confirmed my suspicion that travel adaptor plugs are way over-priced in Australia (1500%)

HK

Made it to Hong Kong after a fairly reasonable 9+ hour overnight flight.

Just had to walk about 2kms to my connecting flight's gate. But I have food, iced espresso mocha, a seat, free wifi, and the gate in eye-sight.

Taiwan, here I come!

Packing

Leaving in 3 hours....