Into the unknown

We're now at the northern Thai border town of Chiang Khong. We have just checked in at Siam Riverside hotel, and the river in question is the mighty Mae Khong (Mekong), on the opposite bank of which lies the Lao People's Democratic Republic. Once again we find ourselves alone with our backpacks, heading in to unknown territory, and after another couple of days of pampering and cream-of-the-crop sightseeing, it feels perhaps a bit more daunting than usual!

As promised, Sara picked us up in Chiang Mai on Friday morning with her rental car. We brought along an extra passenger for her: Taro, a Japanese solo traveler we'd been hanging out with a lot from our dorm at Woody's, who also was heading north roundabouts now. Sara was taking us to the vacation home of a friend of hers, deep in the hills beyond the town of Chiang Rai, and to our pleasure Taro agreed to come along. Chiang Rai is about three hours' drive from Chiang Mai, and we stopped for lunch at a charming a resort/restaurant on a hill just outside of town. Then followed a shocking round of sightseeing a la Sara:
There are over 40 000 Buddhist temples ("wat" in Thai) in Thailand, but there's only one Wat Rong Khun. Our jaws dropped the moment we stepped out of the car, and remained dislocated the entire time we took in this stunning site. Known among foreigners as the White Temple, it is designed by the (in)famous Thai artist Chalermchai Kositpipat and still a work in progress - he reckons the whole nine-building complex should be finished in 60 years time. It is all white and overwhelmingly decorated, with ornaments ranging from sublimely beautiful to desperately grotesque. Pictures speak more than words, however eloquent they may be, in cases like this.

Me and an impressed Taro.

We were greeted by creatures similar to the dwarves, goblins and orcs Bilbo encountered.

In order to enter the temple you had to walk a narrow lane through a sea of skeletal hands and anguished faces. Inside the temple was, in addition to the "normal" Buddha images, a gaudy mural painting in a space travel setting with 21st century figures like Michael Jackson, Superman, Transformers, George Bush, Robocop. Other buildings were in various stages of completion, looking funny next to the temple with their naked, unornamented frames. Fulfilling the artistic genious/madman stereotype, Chalermchai oversees the work on the temple to tinyest detail, as each element is packed with symbolic value. The megaproject is, in his own words, "a gift to mankind", which he hopes will become a modern world heritage that every human being should visit. Well, if it really becomes nine times what it is today, we're not dispute him.

The symbolism is that in order to know heaven you need to know hell.

The toilet was also moderately extravagant.

The next stop was Baan Dam, the Black House. Seemingly the direct opposite of the White Temple, it is the residence of another famous contemporary Thai artist, Thawan Duchanee. A large garden full of all-black, wooden buildings with characteristic elements of traditional northern Thai architecture, the main draw is the eccentricity of this artist, revealed inside the buildings: Everywhere is packed with animals remains - skins, antlers, horns, endo- or exoskeletons, furs, shells, tusks and more. According to Sara he "gets inspiration from them". A morbid but unstoppably fascinating place, we walked around for a while, until an attendant... released the Boa constrictor. Yup, this massive snake was apparently perfectly people-safe, and although reluctant at first, we were soon petting, close-up-shooting and even carrying the boa.

The toilets at the two sites competed in eccentricity

Oh yeah, midst the zoological specimen were absurd wood carvings like these.

But this guy stole the show. What is this strange, slithering sensation?!

The day's program completed, we drove towards the hut in the mountains. After several ventures down dirt roads more fit for mountain bikes than rental cars, Sara eventually had to give up maneuvering the forks in the road by memory, and call a fellow from the hill tribe in the area, who came to our rescue by motorbike and led us to the hut just as darkness was falling. It is not your typical Norwegian mountain cabin, but two spacey clay huts with bamboo roofs, surrounded by a lovely garden, and with hill tribe people doing gardening and maintenance. After settling in we drove down to the nearby Phu Chai Sai resort for a moonlight swim in the pool, a delightful dinner, and an interesting array of card games from Norway, Thailand and Japan.

After sleeping like a rock in the mountain peace and quiet, I got up early for a morning run, reveling in finally having some proper hills again. The cool morning air and the mystical mist hanging low in the valleys made for a great start to the day! We packed up, enjoyed an extensive buffet breakfast at the resort, and headed even further north - to the Golden Triangle. This is the area around where the Thai, Lao and Burmese borders meet, which for many years was a main site of illegal opium production and trade. We visited the Hall of Opium, an excellent museum about the fascinating and horrible history of the drug. Thailand has very successfully rid its hills of opium trade, through a series of crop replacement projects, rehabilitation centers and educational programs for the rural hill tribe people, many of them founded by members of the exemplary royal family.

Barrelriders + 1 at the lovely Phu Chai Sai resort this morning. Life's OK!

After a stop at the tri-country border, doing obligatory tourist snaps and eating lunch on the Mae Khong, our beloved tour guide and private chauffeur drove us to our current location, before going to drop of Taro in Chiang Rai and driving back to Chiang Mai on her own. We can't thank her enough for everything she has done for us. As we turn towards Laos, the less developed, less visited and more remote version of Thailand, we don't really know what lies ahead, but we sure know we'll miss Sara!

Aforementioned obligatory tourist snap.
This bank: Thailand; opposite left: Burma; opposite right: Laos (w/casino)

Our first stop in Laos will be Luang Prabang, which we will reach by a two-day slowboat journey down the Mae Khong. See you there!

The Adventurer Trilogy completed

No time for hanging around! If you ever get bored in Chiang Mai you're doing it all wrong. I mean, among many things, you can go rock climbing, zip-lining, mountain biking, hill tribe trekking or just exploring the city (if you even get the time). Even if you've done all that, there's tons of things you could just do again! I know me and Thomas wouldn't mind staying here climbing for a week, if there weren't so many other super exciting places to visit.

Oh well, the next part of our Chiang Mai adventure took us zip-lining on Flight of the Gibbon with the aforementioned arrangements, all courtesy of our dear friend Sara. A van picked us up at our hostel and drove us out into the jungle to a small village. Here we freed the operators of any liability and got into what would be our life support for the next couple of hours, our harnesses. Like the rare ape, the gibbon, we would go flying, abseiling, and bridge-walking from tree to tree among the branches of the rain-forest, an exhilarating ride which would last for about two hours. Most of the zip-lines were less than a hundred meters, similar to what you can see from the video, but as I was soaring high above the ground on the 800 meter line, I was very close to letting out a primal scream and start beating my chest furiously.

We saw three (tame) gibbons on Flight of the Gibbon. Damn you poachers!

Thomas zooming comfortably from tree to tree.

After lunch we were taken out to a pristine, seven-tiered, waterfall and we explored the rocky path leading to the top. We both wore down our camera shutters by shooting the beautiful waterfall, plants and wildlife all around the forest. We were so zealous that when we finally came down to the bottom, ready for a dip in the waterfall pool, we found the rest of our group impatiently trotting around ready to leave. We were full of disbelief. Had we been to the same waterfall? Well, I guess there will be more occasions for us to cross swimming in a waterfall off our list though.

Thomas in macro-mode photographing some wildlife by the waterfall.

Back in Chiang Mai earlier than expected, (come on guys we could totally have gone swimming in the waterfall), we went templing in the Old City, but were quickly called to a halt by a cafe which boasted an open piano for customers. As Thomas rolled out some tunes I indulged myself to some lovely cake and read up on some modern philosophy. "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" takes Western and Eastern philosophy and applies it to questions of technology, scientific theory and the division between Art and Science. Philosophical discussions are cleverly woven into an engaging story, with the motorcycle and its maintenance being provided as fitting examples to questions about sanity, truth and Quality. We both highly recommend it to anyone who has a slight interest in philosophy and I almost think it should be curriculum for every engineering student in the Ex.Phil course.

Enjoying apple cake and philosophy accompanied by soothing tunes.

Sorry for the digression but more is to follow, I'll get back on track in a minute I promise! Before we go on, I feel I should give an honorable mention to our hostel: Woody's Elephant. It was literally the first and best place we found as our cab driver dropped us off in the Old City on Monday afternoon. 120 baht (24 kroner) for a dorm bed was simply too cheap not to check out. Yoann, an expat Frenchman was taking care of the place while Woody was out with his elephants. He showed us the dorm, which was spacious and nice, and we quickly got along with the very diverse bunch of travelers calling Woody's their home for the week. Yoann was more than happy to help with the arranging of different adventures. He even got a little grumpy when we told him we've fixed it all on our own as we're oft to do (you don't count Sara!) In fact, he was so engaged, that he was out most of Wednesday, zip-lining with some Swedes, and the hostel was left to its own device.

Old and new at one of Chiang Mai's countless temple grounds.

We got a taste of Yoann's arrangements when he took a bunch of us to see the Muay Thai Wednesday evening. Thailand's famous kickboxing made us expect a flurry of feet and arms engaged in exiting one-on-ones in the ring. Therefore, I was a little disappointed when it started and all we saw was some silly dance and fighting moves taken straight out of American choreographed wrestling. We quickly understood that it was only an opening show however, and sure enough, we got our circus ancient Roman style. While there was little blood it was still exciting and primal and we left with a sense of having seen real Thai kickboxing. Of course, the place was mainly packed with tourists and to appeal to them the half-time show provided was a bunch of boxers fighting it off free-for-all blindly in the ring. Fun!

As a grand finale to our Outdoor Adventure Trilogy (of which rock climbing was volume I and zip-lining volume II) we decided to go mountain biking on Thursday. We got Taro, our Japanese friend from Woody's, along for the ride and were shuttled the 1200 height meters up to the top of a mountain overlooking Chiang Mai. A fine group consisting of a Canadian cop, a German student, an American web designer and us. Oh, and there was also Jordan: an American "volunteer". Don't know what she was volunteering, she hitched a ride to the top and stayed ahead of us most of the time. Unfortunately, Jeff the American left for the hospital after he fell off on the paved road and dislocated his shoulder after the first 5 minutes. Poor guy, but we had to go on without him even if we were a little shaken after a rough start.

The road took us to a coffee plantation and we soon found ourselves on a dirt path zooming faster and faster down the mountainside. We passed beautiful views, hill-tribe villages, and even got to try our skills on the challenging and steep single-track paths. It was amazing how much you felt in control even as you were going over rocks and roots, and there were plenty of stops for us to admire the views of the lake and the plains below. As we got to the bottom of the lake me and Thomas were both super excited and we both realized we have good possibilities for mountain biking back in Byåsen in Trondheim. Can't wait to try it again!

Thomas' trophy photo didn't turn out as expected.

Come on Eva! You can do it!

Nope.

Even though Jordan failed to volunteer for us, she showed her qualities by recommending and joining the rest of the group for drinks at North Gate Jazz Co-op the same evening. We spent the rest of the night exploring the drinks menu and talking of our travels, accompanied by the sweet tunes of some really virtuoso jazz musicians who jammed and played the whole evening.

Nothin' like some brass to bring out the jazz...

We want to do more climbing, more mountain biking, more everything (and surely, we'll get the chance), but it's time to go. We're kidnapping Taro and leaving further North. Next: Chiang Rai and the Golden Triangle: The northern border full of opium-growing history.  

From Grand Palace to Crazy Horse

I sit here again with that lovely feeling of chipped fingers and exhausted muscles make typing a challenge, bruised knees, mosquito-bitten legs and a sunburnt back - it's been another fantastic day of climbing!

We've arrived in Chiang Mai, the charming capital of Northern Thailand, which offers countless temples and all kinds of activities. We took an eleven hour bus from Bangkok yesterday, and wasted no time upon arrival. We immediately located the climbers' association, and this morning at 8 sharp we rented equipment and joined a shared jeep out to Crazy Horse Buttress, one of Thailand's best rock-climbing destinations and only a half hour from Chiang Mai.

Leading up a thankfully shady route towards the crazy horse.

The climbing was incredible, offering routes for all skill levels and lots of different types of climbing - from luxuriously twisty limestone walls full of bucket grips to slippery sun-scathed cliffs testing your balancing skills, from cave and roof and chimney climbing to exposed multi-length routes giving great views and more than a small dash of adrenaline. Since we climbed on our own and had to lead everything, we stuck to the easier routes. They weren't very difficult for the top-roper coming afterwards, but for the one of us leading they were great challenges. Especially a 27 meter long climb up the crag towards the crazy horse itself (the ridiculous rock formation at the top that has given the whole area its name) had me shaking for a long time afterwards! But the routes were very well bolted, so it never felt dangerous at all, and it's so extremely rewarding. Rock climbing is such a great sport. It's great exercise, while a day of climbing also is just as relaxing and replenishing as a quiet day of fishing. The way you get in touch with both yourself and the elements is really inspiring, and it allows you to push yourself to the utmost limits. For anyone who appreciates what I'm talking about, we can recommend Crazy Horse very much. It's incredibly well run by Chiang Mai Rock Climbing Association, it's spotlessly clean, sustainably run and respectful of the surrounding village, jungle, and Buddhist monks. It was a really, really great place.

Fascinating bamboo woods surrounded the crag.

We met two Norwegians! Whaddyaknow!

In other Chiang Mai news: Our wonderful host Sara is treating us to a ziplining adventure while we're here, "Flight of the Gibbon". She paid for everything, her AFS-friend Sak helped us set up everything, and tomorrow we're being picked up at our hostel at 8.30. Sara also couldn't keep herself away - she's coming here on Friday to take us to a town even further north, Chiang Rai! That'll be great to see her again. And for Thursday, our last day here in Chiang Mai, we've booked a mountain biking trip - 35 kilometers and a 1200 meter descent - strongly recommended by a friend of mine who just visited. So we're packing the days full of adventure! But with all this action we're unavoidably skimping on some of the other sides of Chiang Mai: soaking up the relaxed atmosphere, visiting all the temples and browsing the local markets would have been a plenty rewarding way to spend days in this lovely town. It's full of travelers, Thai and foreign, and we're enjoying delicious restaurants and super-friendly hostelmates.

Time to catch up on our second Bangkok-leg. After two lovely days of scuba diving on Ko Samet (though no license for Alex, due to telephone-misunderstood timing), we headed back to Bangkok, the "Big Mango". We found our own youth hostel (despite Sara's continued hotel offer - it's just too much!), and based ourselves in a different part of town for a change, Chong Nonsi. We spent one day with my Aunt Patti and Uncle Cornell, who were passing through before going to Ko Samui with their two granddaughters from Hong Kong (and Jenni and Trent!). It was so cool that our schedules actually overlapped, how crazy to meet on the other side of the world like this! First we took them to Siam Ocean World, a big aquarium with lots of interesting animals - from seahorses to tiger sharks. Two highlights were watching divers feed the sharks and walking through the long tunnel. Then they took us out to a lovely Italian restaurant, before we went back to their high-class hotel for continued chatting, a swim in the pool, and a briefing on Cornell's trip to Antarctica. (What an adventure! As seasoned adventurers now, we highly approve!)

Jaws! Incoming!

The next day we took in Bangkok's full sightseeing round; Sara would be proud of us, we thought - and turns out, she was! We took a river boat down the mighty Chao Phraya, passing the Temple of Dawn and imposing skyscrapers, to Thailand's crown jewel: the Grand Palace. Our jaws were dropped pretty much from the moment we stepped inside the huge complex - in every direction were magnificent royal buildings, monuments, temples and stupas, all exquisitely restored, glimmering in gold and sparkly colors in the sunlight. One of the temples housed the Emerald Buddha, a half-meter tall statue of Buddha carved from a single piece of jade (the name is a mistake of its discoverer's, which stuck). Continuing on we went to Thailand's most famous temples, Wat Pho. Despite getting really hungry (all these sights were about five times the size we were expecting), we wandered the expansive temple complex and let ourselves overwhelm by its grandeur (including the 43 meter long (!!) statue of a Reclining Buddha).

Alex is jealous of the beard.

Cornell taught us how to get sunbursts in pictures,
so this was as good a place to practice as any!

After a chic lunch at a riverside restaurant Sara recommended, we visited the Museum of Siam, to tie together some of the different strings of Thai history we'd witnessed. We then wandered down towards the lively Chinatown, getting sidetracked at the famous flower market, before meeting Sara at the pier for a dinner cruise on the Chao Phraya! We capped this spectacular day with a trip up 61 floors to the sky bar of one Bangkok's highest towers. The view from the top was nothing short of breathtaking, and we stood for a long time enjoying the view and the live jazz band's smooth tunes in equal parts. We like this city!

Engineering and architectural brilliance, as viewed from the dinner cruise.

Seasoned backpackers in a Bangkok sky bar.

On Sunday morning, while Alex found a Catholic church and went to mass, I headed off to Lumpini Park for a breath of fresh(er) air and some interesting wildlife and protester watching. We later met up at the pier and took the river boat all the way to the last stop, for some residual sightseeing. We wandered through Banglamphu, the old town, which was riddled with temples, forts, monuments and backpacker hangouts (the latter a feature of Bangkok we weren't too sad to have missed - it was basically the travelers' quarters of Kathmandu, Varanasi, Agra, Bundi etc. all over again). We then went to one of the modern malls for some full-blown shopping; feeling painfully underdressed at the sky bar the night before, we found out that maybe having a pair of shoes that hasn't been trekked in and worn for months isn't such a bad idea. And the AC was nice that scorching day.

Alex took a Sunday morning here...

...and this is how Thomas spent his free time.

That evening we were invited to dinner at Sara's house, which she shares with her wonderful mother and about 30 dogs and 70 cats (correct me if I'm wrong, Sara!) that they've rescued off the street. So the house was noisy, smelly, chaotic and cluttered - but so charming and so full of compassion and love that we couldn't help feeling touched! Dinner was delicious, meeting Sara's mother was a real treat, and Sara just couldn't stop offering us more and more gifts and keepsakes. After only ten days in Thailand we feel so at home! Saying good bye to Sara was no fun, but as mentioned above, we were only a few hours into the bus ride before an SMS says "I have bad news: You will see me again this weekend!" :)

The house was split into separate "zones", depending on which dogs got along.

A traditional Thai dinner in the garden.
Sara's mom is a psychologist and still as bright as ever!

Shutdown Backpacking, Restart Thailand

What just happened? Really, I'm clueless. I mean, one day we're roaming the windy and overcrowded streets of Kathmandu, sleeping in the cheapest beds we can find, and a couple of days later - whoosh - we find ourselves in a luxury apartment, on the 31st floor, by the Gulf of Thailand, with this flippin' view:

I can see my house from here!

If you wanna know how we got into this situation, sit tight and follow us as we describe our new beginning: Thailand!

Little did we know what adventures were in store for us when we arrived in Bangkok on Thursday afternoon. As we came out of the baggage claim area, we were a little confused. We were supposed to be picked up at the airport but we couldn't see anyone. Luckily, our doubts were soon extinguished as a beaming Thai lady magically appeared in front of Thomas and gave us a big welcoming hug! Dear blog-readers, meet Sarawanee Jinayon:

She's the one in the middle.

Sara is a close friend of Thomas' mother, they met while studying together in Portugal. Though we had never met her personally, she instantly took us under her wing, like we were old acquaintances, and we have been her very voluntary hostages ever since. She has been accommodating us in Bangkok, showing us ancient ruins, giving us a thorough introduction to Thai cuisine (with great consideration to my still weak stomach), and generally just made us feel incredibly at home in this totally new and strange place which is Thailand.

First things first - the ruins: Half an hour's ride from the city is Ayutthaya, a historical capital of an old Siamese empire. It is named after the domain of the fabled hero Rama from the epic story Ramayana. Sara took us there on our first day in Thailand so we could bask in the historical splendor of the old buildings, which are scattered around the now modern town. Conquered and razed by the Burmese in 1765, only ruins and rubble remain, leaving the imagination free to envision what it must have looked like in its heyday.

Thomas midst another ancient civilization.

After a lovely riverside lunch we hopped on a longtail boat and roamed the rivers and canals which tangle through the area. Though we did not encounter many ruins on the way, we got a good chance to see the locals' way of living - in harmony with the waterways. After this, more sightseeing followed, and we got to see a fully overgrown head of Buddha, underlining the mysteriousness and ancientness of this place.

Peekaboo! He even sits under (or inside) a Bodhi tree -
the same Buddha sat under to achieve enlightenment. 

As a contrast to the day's ancient sights, we decided to check out the bustling modern metropolis which is Bangkok that evening. After a reassurance from Sara that it was perfectly safe, we hopped on a metro to the city center. But we soon witnessed, as we emerged from underground, that Bangkok was not its usual self. The busy intersections of Siam square and Asok were now reduced to peaceful anarchy with the local protesters occupying the area. The main streets had become little communities themselves, with food stalls and tents lined up. This town within a city, sprinkled with T-shirt and trinket vendors (all effects carrying the slogan "Shutdown Bangkok, Restart Thailand"), gave us a true vision of good Thai sense of business - just because there is anarchy doesn't mean you can't earn some money off it.

With the Skytrain looming above it, the stalls in the main streets of
Bangkok did have kind of a post- (or pre-) apocalyptic feel to them. 

The speaker is one of the leaders of the protest.
"We are right in the middle of it!" Alex exclaimed. 

After seeing these peaceful demonstrations we can't help but feel the good intentions of the protesters. Even though we don't have a grasp of the entire picture it does seem like these good-willed people genuinely fight against corruption and inequality. Nevertheless, it sure was a unique experience seeing world news being made first hand.

On a non-stop-fun schedule, we were leaving Bangkok the next day (oh we'll be back I assure you, dear blog-reader). Sara offered to bring us to her friend's apartment were we could stay "as long as we want". We were told it was situated close to the beach near Ban Phe, a fishing village in the vicinity of Rayong, overlooking Samet island. After a three hour drive, sure enough, we arrived at the beach - which of course went on for miles with blue, crystal-clear water.

Looking for the apartment we saw a tall building emerging from the marshes. "Is it this one?" Sara said uncertainly. Sure enough, it wasn't! It was the even taller building a bit down the road. As we rolled onto the parking lot behind the enormous skyscraper Thomas and I exchanged glances, both thinking we must be on the wrong planet. But no, an elevator beamed us up to the top floor, and we were both dumbstruck as we glanced around on what would be our home for the coming week. We even have a piano!

Still in awe as we ate lunch on the beach under palm trees, we both pondered upon what we did to deserve this paradise. That was Saturday - we still don't have a clue. Sara has gone back to Bangkok after the weekend, but not before she took us snorkeling on the nearby idyllic island of Samet.

The sunset of course is beautiful too! 

Now we are living the good life for a couple of days and I have signed up for a diving course - only fitting that I get my diving license before my driving license. We both know this luxury won't last forever but we are enjoying it immensely as a break-away from the rustic backpacker life we've been living for the last month.

To finish: a little before and after, and a little project we've been working with today. Go ahead, laugh and enjoy :)

Skeptical bearded man, and unhappy but diving-ready clean shaved man.

From one adventure to the next

Our last days in Nepal are up, and oh my, there were way too few. Yes. this time we really mean it. We're glad we got to see more of Nepal this time around. but seriously, it feels like it's over before it even began. We've enjoyed ourselves immensely here - both the pampering of Pokhara, the spectacular trekking, the exhilarating Chitwan adventure, and our last days here in the delightful capital of Kathmandu.

We've re-done some sightseeing here in Kathmandu (we may or may not have seen some of the same sights when we were here with our folk high school four years ago), exploring the historical Basantapur Durbar Square and the Swayambhunath "monkey temple", where an enormous Buddha stupa stand on top of a hill with a great view of Kathmandu (or what can be seen below all the smog). We've also spent plenty of time just wandering around in the
fascinating streets of Thamel, the trekker's and traveler's quarter.

The monkey part is almost as much fun as the temple part.

Durbar square had a neat, medieval feel to it.

Since we came to Nepal with no guide book, we decided to do Kathamndu as recommended by a friendly guy we met at a restaurant in Varanasi. He wrote "Must stay @ Alobar 1000", so without researching any more, that's where we told our taxi driver we wanted to go. It turned out to be a wonderful hostel, with friendly staff, a good rooftop restaurant and a lovely vibe. He also gave us more cryptical tips, such as: "Off Freak Street. Small cafe. People sitting on steps. From steps you will see opposite wall which is blue,  with a bearded man. Ask for 'big sandwich'." The buried treasure-feeling we got when we stumbled upon the blue wall with the drawing of the bearded man was awesome! And yes, they were the best sandwiches in Kathmandu. Dark bread, everything organic, goat's cheese, yum.

People sitting on steps! Blue wall! Bearded man! It all fits!

For the last day we decided we wanted to go rock climbing again, as there was a popular climbing area in a national park surrounding Kathmandu, just 20 minutesn from the city. We booked a day with "Hardcore Nepal", and it was just great! We were just three guests, us and an Irish lady named Karen, and three climbing instructors came along, all of whom were super friendly and very clever. They would give us lots of good advice and teach all of us new things, depending on our level of experience, which was really nice. The limestone wall was great to climb on - full of nooks and crannies giving great good hand holds, and so smooth that you don't even get your skin torn off! The only downside with that is that you don't have much grip with your shoes, and the rental shoes had rather worn rubber as well. But the climbing was great fun, they sent us up maybe 8 or 10 different varied routes, easy enough that beginners could climb most of them, but still plenty fun and challenging. Especially the last climb up a narrow "chimney" was cool - very technical climbing, and entirely new to me! Altogether it was a very fun day out. As we got back to Hardcore Nepal in the afternoon, we agreed to meet Karen later on for dinner. An art therapist working as a volunteer with Tibetan refugees, she had a lot of interesting stuff to tell. We exchange e-mails and promise to keep in touch. Fun!

Thomas doing like Santa: Up the chimney!

the Edward Scissorhands (as the chinese call it) on the top. 

And so ended our stay in Nepal; the next day we just set aside plenty of time for airporting - from what we could remember Tribhuvan International Airport was one of the more messy and time-consuming ones, but it all went very smoothly and before we knew it we were in the air, looking at Mount Everest and the Himalays one last time.

Nepal has been such a positive reacquaintance. Besides the overwhelming natural beauty, both of the Himalayas in the north, the midland mountains and river gorges, and
the jungle Terai in the south, it's a great place to be a backpacker. In comparison to India the main thing you notice is that it's so much less chaotic. There were as many people in the markets of Thamel, but here you could actually hear what was going on - there wasn't constant cacophony of car horns, shouting and cows. And it's cleaner: You can walk around in the narrow streets looking up at all the sights rather than down at your feet to make sure you don't step in cow poop. And it's just so much easier. People tend to tell the truth rather than make up lies when asked questions, and people tend to want to help you rather than get your money. Meeting so many great fellow travelers in both Pokhara, Chitwan and Kathmandu has been so much fun, and the deeply hospitable hosts we've had at... well, actually every single hostel, lodge, resort and hotel we've stayed at, have all cared for us in a whole other way than in India. Thinking back to Nepal now puts a huge smile on my face, we just can't recommend it enough.

Nepal Revisited

We were told, urged and advertised that the next stop on Nepal's golden triangle was Chitwan National Park, home to rhinoceri, tigers (much more than at Ranthambore), wild elephants, cheetahs, crocodiles and more. Located on the Terai, the lowland southern stretch of Nepal, it made for an interesting visit after the mountainous north. As a contrast to our backpacking henceforth, we accepted an offer for an all-inclusive two night / three day package for a decent price. Our travel agent (the very friendly proprietor of our hotel in Pokhara) hand-wrote a letter to the hotel in Chitwan of the style "Please provide Messrs. Haaland and Borg with a deluxe room and your full tour package, all meals, transport and tickets..." and we enjoyed feeling rather distinguished as we were ushered in to a pre-paid taxi taking us to the bus station. However, our illusions ended there, as the bus was already packed full, and we were assigned 1 1/2 persons worth of backwards facing bench space up by the noisy driver, for the full five hour ride. But we met our Hong Kong friends from the lodge in Ghorepani again on the bus, and the mountain and river gorge scenery was amazing the whole way.

The view from Hotel River Side's deluxe rooms. On the far bank: Chitwan National Park.

Nicely situated on the bank of the exceptionally biologically diverse river Rapti, arriving at our aptly named Hotel River Side was a pleasant surprise. The management was super-friendly, there was a nice garden and chairs all the way down to the river, and our top-floor room had a great view over the river, banks, grass and forest beyond - perfect for wildlife watching, and we were constantly waiting for the rhino to come and have a drink! After (a sub-mediocre) lunch shared with a friendly danish family, we went for a short walk through the village and surrounding woods, learning about the culture of the local Tharu tribe, and visiting the elephant stables. In the evening we were sent to a Tharu cultural dance show.

Just as we turned in to the hotel driveway after the show, we met the danish family storming out in to the street. "There's a rhino up on the bank!" They were just going to look for crocodiles by the river, when the first rays of the nine-year-old's flashlight struck a rhinoceros! We hurried excitedly after them, and surely enough, right below us on the river bank (we were just up on a raised walkway) was an enormous Greater one-horned rhinoceros. What a magnificent animal! We watched it munch peacefully on the grass for probably ten minutes, before lowering itself into the river and swim across, out of flashlight range. An amazing experience, and worth the entire visit alone!

Wooow! Worth the entire trip!

Exhilarated, we returned to the hotel late for dinner. Alex couldn't get down much of it, though, he's been feeling worse since the trekking, and that night he got real sick. He stayed in bed the next morning as I left for the day's busy program, promising to call the doctor if he wasn't any better.

With Alex in the safe and caring hands of the hotel staff, I was treated to a morning with a private nature guide, consisting of a bird- and crocodile-watching canoe trip (dugout canoe) down the Rapti river, an exciting jungle trek and a visit at the elephant breeding center, which also had a small museum about the government's elephant breeding project. Especially the jungle trek was neat. As it's Chinese new year these days, most attractions are brimming with Chinese tourists, which if you don't mind our saying are for the most part noisy, crabby and brightly colored, and I didn't have high hopes of seeing much wildlife in that kind of company. But since it was just me and the guide, he took us a long loop through a less-visited part of the jungle, and we didn't meet or hear anyone else the whole walk and saw lots of wildlife.

A ride in one of these offered storks, egrets, kingfishers, cormorants and migrant ducks from Siberia.

An Asian elephant mother with her 7 month old son. They start training at one year!

I returned to the hotel to hear that Alex was at the doctor's clinic, and I was driven there immediately. It was to great relief I found Alex smiling in the office of a very professional and helpful doctor, who had diagnosed him with a common traveler's stomach infection and given him antibiotics and electrolytes. Alex was feeling much better, and pleased that the doctor said it was okay for him to join the afternoon's elephant-back safari!

For the safari we were stuffed four at a time in to a tiny wooden cage strapped to the back of an Asian elephant. The uneven rolling and humping with the elephant's step felt absurd at first, but we got accustomed soon. We got an exciting new perspective of the jungle, walking above the bushes and low trees, crossing rivers, and we saw lots of animals, including three species of deer, lots of monkeys, peacocks and even a wild boar. No rhino, but we were still flying high after yesterday's unreal encounter.

Successfully mounted in our elephant-back cage and ready for safari.

Our Danish friends crossing a river. Their elephant wasn't friends with ours!

The next morning (yesterday) we were sent on by bus to the capital city, Kathmandu. Alex is feeling much better, sticking to plain and easy food. We've enjoyed seeing Kathmandu again, which we also visited in 2010 with Seljord Folk High School when we were studying music there together. Today has been an impressive day of sightseeing and city-wandering, and tomorrow we're going rock climbing again! 

The monkeys at the monkey temple were more interesting than the alleged
festival in honor of the Hindu goddess of education...

On a high Kathmandu hilltop stands this impressive Buddhist stupa.