Category: <span>Asia</span>

Adventures

Ocean Swims and Jellyfish Stings

After two months of travelling, and not having had yet been to a beach I was eager to get down to the south of Cambodia and visit some of those beaches.

But I hated Sihanoukville. It was raining basically the entire time I was there and the beach down there was so incredibly dirty. It was a bit of a reality check discovering this after hearing so many wonderful things about the beaches in Cambodia and seeing so many incredible photos. Every morning I woke up it was grey and raining, so I didn’t even make it out to any of the islands. Honestly though, what is the point of going to an island for a day when it’s just raining the whole time?

After two days in Sihanoukville, I decided to head East to Ream National Park. And here it was: a small piece of paradise. I stayed at the Monkey Maya in a 16-bedroom dorm with mosquito nets covering the bunk beds and the sound of the ocean lulling me to sleep every night. The hostel/ resort is located on a private beach with beautiful (and clean) white sand surrounded by the Cambodian jungle.

It was stunning here. And peaceful.

Being off season, there weren’t many people at the Monkey Maya, which made it all that more relaxing. It was a nice spot to just not do anything other than read and snooze in some of the hammocks.

The area is also known for plankton. I’ve never seen plankton before so needless to say I was in awe. It looks like stars have fallen from the sky, getting trapped in the ocean and lighting up beneath the surface of the water with your every touch. Their fluorescent blue twinkling on the waves beneath the inky black sky.

My last night at the Monkey Maya, there was small but solid crew of people and, after a few shots of whiskey, swimming in the ocean to see the plankton was agreed upon. A few of us didn’t have the foresight to put on our bathers so we just stripped down naked and ran in.

This night, the plankton was even brighter and more magical than the previous night. It was darker and we swam further out and, being naked, it was surreal to watch my body shimmering blue with every move under the water. The waves crashed loudly around us, bringing a sparkling plankton filled foam with it. We could only really tell where one another was in the water from the dark, shadowy human forms that were surrounded by the faint blue glowing plankton.

After about thirty minutes of twirling and kicking and splashing to watch the plankton, two figures hurriedly exited the water, their little white bums shining out through the darkness.

It’s not just plankton in the water but jellyfish too. One of those little white bums had the unfortunate pleasure of being stung by one… On the tip of his manhood.

The poor guys spent the res of the night with his dick wrapped in a cloth of vinegar, trying to soak out the stung while his friends stayed awake with him in case he had a reaction.

I hope he can laugh about it now.

Adventures

A Day at The Killing Fields and S-21

I didn’t do much planning or research before heading to Cambodia. All I knew was that I wanted to volunteer for a week at the Cambodia Wildlife Sanctuary and, of course, visit Angkor Wat.

What I didn’t plan for was the Killing Fields or S-21. This mostly came from my own ignorance and not researching or reading into Cambodia and the history of the country before arriving.

Beaches and Angkor Wat, right? I was completely unaware of the country’s dark and recent tragic history. We didn’t learn anything about Cambodia in the school back home [in Canada]. It’s just not included in our history classes.

It wasn’t until one of the volunteers I was working with at the Cambodia Wildlife Sacntuary mentioned the Killing Fields and how I needed to include it in my trip that I added it to my itinerary.

She was absolutely right. The Killing Fields and S-21 is an incredibly important visit to make. It was a horrific and difficult day, learning about this dark past of Cambodia, that left me in tears. I think the most shocking thing to me though was the fact that I did not know this had happened. It wasn’t even that long ago – 1973.

For those of you who don’t know about the Killing Fields and S-21, they are essentially memorials for the mass genocide that occurred in Cambodia in the early 1970s.

According to the audio tapes I listened to in S-21, while the world was focussed on the War in Vietnam, there was a secret war being waged in Cambodia. More than 110,000 tons, or more than 2 million bombs were dropped on Cambodia during this time. Still to this day, Cambodia remains the heaviest land mined country in the world.

So when the Khmer Rouge Regime marched in to Siem Reap, the people were happy to see them. They thought this meant freedom and an end to the bombings. The terror was just beginning though as Pol Pot, the leader of the Khmer Rouge Regime had extreme communist views, forced everyone out from the cities into the outlying villages, and then forced them one again even further out. He demanded rice production be increased to a number that was simply not attainable but had people working themselves to death.

Anyone intellectual was viewed as a threat to him – if you wore glasses you were screwed as this was viewed as a sign of intelligence. Pol Pot questioned and tortured thousands and thousands of people, including his own army generals when he felt threatened by them, leading to the execution of more than 1/4 of the population.

The Killing Fields and S-21 are set up in an informative and impactful way.

I started the day at S-21, one of many schools turned prisons during the Khmer Rouge Regime. With the entry ticket, you are given a headset that guides you through the prison, recounting what happened there and teaching visitors about the Khmer Rouge Regime. It’s a sobering walk through the buildings, seeing the different torture tools that were used on the prisoners and the horrendous conditions in which they were kept.

It was a school and it very much looks like it once was a school, making it all the more chilling because you can practically hear the sounds of children bantering in the classrooms while you learn that barbed wire was strung up across the balconies to prevent prisoner’s attempting to jump to their death.

S-21 was a good spot to start the day as the tour here gave a lot of background information on the Khmer Rouge Regime, as well as included personal stories of survivors and testimonies from members currently on trial for their crimes against humanity.

From S-21 I went over to The Killing Fields. The Killing Fields is known for its five-storey high memorial to the victims of the Khmer Rouge made from skulls that have resurfaced from these mass graves during rainy season.

Still to this day, during rainy season, bones of people murdered at Pol Pot’s orders are turning up as the heavy rains push the bones up from below.

The tapes here walk you through the different areas where mass graves were found, explaining the different ways that people were executed. The whole tour finished with an audio recording of the propaganda that would loudly play over the speaker phones in that area, which had an incredible and lasting chilling effect on the tour.

The visit is a difficult one. As I said, it left me in tears. I don’t understand how we can treat one another so horrifically. However it is an important visit to make. Out of respect for the country and their past, but also out of respect for history. History needs to be studied and recounted so that we can learn from the mistakes of the past. Hopefully we can learn from this tragedy moving forward. If we can’t learn from this tragedy, then hopefully we can learn to respect the value of life.

Adventures

From Battambang to Phnom Penh

This is a four part story about my first harrowing bus experience in Southeast Asia.

Anyone who travels Southeast Asia has at least one story about a terrible journey from Point A to Point B.

Don’t get me wrong, while travelling in Nepal, I took a few busses that left me praying in my seat that I would make it without flying off the cliff that was an inch from the tires of the bus whipping around the corner, or that the driver playing chicken with oncoming traffic would merge back in time. However my worst travel experience didn’t come from the windy, bumpy journey from Kathmandu to Pokhara, but the unnecessarily long and frustrating trip from Battambang to Phnom Penh.

Part 1: The Six Hour Wait

For those who do not know, Battambang is a small town between Siem Reap and Phnom Penh. It’s an interesting stopover between the two major cities because it was once a French port in Cambodia. All the buildings there are French colonial style and the contrast between the beauty of the architecture in the area with the surrounding poverty is shocking.

It’s not hard to get to and shouldn’t be hard to leave, so I don’t know where I went wrong.

The bus I wanted to take out of Battambang was the 2:30 p.m. bus to Phnom Penh, which would have me arriving around 8:00 p.m. Travelling on my own as a female, to a city that does have warnings to take extra care in, I had no desire to arrive later than that.

At 2:00 p.m. (sharp) a tuk-tuk driver pulled up to my hostel to take me to the bus station, as per the pre-arranged agreement with the place that I bought the bus ticket. I hopped into the back of the tuk-tuk, hauling my 20 kilo bag up on the opposite seat and off we went.

When we got to the “bus station,” essentially just a table with an umbrella and a bench beside it, the driver took my bag out of the tuk-tuk, put it on the bench, said something in Khmer to the man at the desk before turning to me to say “right stop. 2:30.”

I checked my watch and it was 2:20 p.m. Perfect timing.

But 2:30 comes and goes. And no bus showed up. The guy at the “desk” didn’t speak English, but nodded when I asked if the bus was coming before motioning for me to sit back down. It’s Cambodia though I simply thought the bus was running on Cambodian time.

Fifteen minutes later, there still wasn’t a bus. Then it’s 2:50 p.m. and even for Cambodian time standards that’s a little excessive. So when a new man shows up at the “desk,” one who spoke English, I was happy to be able to find out how much I had to wait.

“Oh! No bus!” he exclaimed.

“I’m sorry, what? But my ticket says the bus is leaving at 2:30.”

“No. There’s no bus at 2:30. The next one is at 4:00!”

Well shit. So there I was, at this bus station that wasn’t really a bus station, in the middle of the city, with this massive backpack of my stuff, weighing in at 20 kilos. At least it’s only one more hour until the 4:00 bus though, so I settled in with my book and waited.

Part 2: From the City Station to the Chicken Station

4:00 p.m. rolls around. A man with a motorbike pulls up to the bus station.

Not a bus. A motorbike.

The man said something to the guy at the “desk,” who replied to him before motioning for me to get on the motorbike.

The last time I was on the back of a motorcycle I wound up with a second degree burn on my calf from the exhaust. That’s a story for another day but obviously that was what I was thinking about when I was looking at that motorbike. And how were we going to do this with my 20 kilo backpack PLUS my 7 kilo carry-on backpack?

Obviously the driver put the big bag in front of him, straddling it between his legs. Why didn’t I think of that?

So with my big bag nestled safely in the front between his legs, I hopped on the back of the back, side saddle because I am a lady after all. And I don’t wan’t to burn my leg on the exhaust.

The driver then took off, whipping down the road, swerving potholes and other drivers, waving off tuk-tuks that were pointing and laughing at the ridiculousness of us. And probably also at the look of pure terror on my face.

After 20 minutes driving North of the city, we pulled into a bus stop with plenty of chickens and stray dogs to welcome us. My knuckles were white from holding on so tightly that I could barely unclench them before climbing off the back of his bike.

The driver then walked over to the man at the desk there, said something in Khmer and turned me to say “wait here” before jumping back on his back, tearing off down the dirt road.

It was 4:30 by the time we got there. At least now I’m somewhere that looks like an actual bus station however, there still wasn’t a bus in sight.

Once again, I waited, thinking “Cambodia time… Relax.”

By 4:45 though I feel as if I have been patient enough so I went and asked the man at the desk where the bus was, showing him the ticket I had made the other guy re-write to say the new bus with the new time.

“Oh… No… Sorry. No bus at 4:00,” he said. “The next bus is at 6:00.”

And I lost it. My patience has completely worn out. I was supposed to be on a bus at 2:00 p.m., ensuring I would arrive in Phnom Penh by 8:00. There was no bus at 2:00 and the next bus I was told I would be on doesn’t actually exist so now I feel as though I am being jerked around. On top of that, I don’t speak Khmer and no one spoke English so there was no way for me to figure out what was actually going on.

This poor man got the grunt of my frustrations… As in a sweaty, tired girl bawling in front of him. Let me tell you, even with a language barrier, this man understood my tears. And it doesn’t matter which country you are in, a woman crying will always make a man uncomfortable.

But what could I do? I made this man issue me a new ticket for the next supposed bus, sat back down in my chair with a chicken running around my feet and settled in for a two hour wait. I couldn’t go anywhere because my massive and heavy bags, nor was there anywhere for me to go to because I was in the middle of nowhere.

6:00 p.m.: there is still no bus.

“Oh… No… It’s at 7:00!” the man exclaimed when I went over to inquire, looking slightly scared in anticipation of my reaction.

Wonderful, I thought. I would now be arriving after midnight. That made me very uneasy.

Finally, at 6:30 p.m., people began to show up to the bus station. I had been sitting there with no one but the bus station guy, a half naked Cambodian man cooking on a nearby grill, and chickens running around and squawking every five minutes. People showing up on their motorbikes with bags was a huge relief.

Three busses stopped and let people off after 6:30. Each time, I looked at the man at the desk and he would simply shake his head no at me. Until finally… A bus arrived, I looked at him and he nodded yes with a smile on his face. He was just as happy for me. Or just really happy to see me go because he didn’t want me crying on him again.

By the time they got the bus loaded up with everyones motorcycles, mattresses and fresh produce, it was 8:00 p.m. and we finally hit the road for Phnom Penh, me jammed in the back with all the Cambodian men staring at me, sitting on a bag of onions.

Part 3: The Journey

Being the only tourist on this bus, I spent most of the ride being stared at. Until I fell asleep and then my eyes were shut so I don’t know if people were continuing to stare at me.

About two hours into the ride, a baby started to cry. As you do when you’re a small child on a six-hour bus ride.

The child’s mother got up as the bus lurched around, soothing the baby, bouncing him up and down on her hip trying to calm him down.

Suddenly, a woman in front of her turned around and starting speaking very sharply to her. And the she started to yell at her.

Keep in mind, this is all happening in Khmer and she was speaking way too fast for me to understand what she was saying to the mother. Regardless, I could understand the tone and volume of her voice and this woman was not please with the mother.

The mother simply stood there calmly, continuing to bounce her baby, not even dignifying the woman’s shrieking with an answer. Another lady though, was not having it. From what I assume, this lady ended up defending the mother, yelling back at the woman.

Now, all the men that I was with at the back of the bus were sitting up in their seats, staring at the squabble that broke out, commenting to one another and smiling, clearly finding the fight humorous.

The two women continued to yell at one another, their voices getting louder and louder, and their tone getting more aggressive. The bus driver pulled over and stopped the bus because, I can only assume, he couldn’t concentrate on the road with the insane shrieking occurring behind him.

It was a good thing he did though because the fight escalated even more and the first woman turned around and began hitting the second lady with her umbrella.

Meanwhile, the crying baby? He was done. He was over it. He realized he was getting his mother yelled at and had stopped crying. He was just sitting in his mother’s arms, watching the whole thing with this expression on his face that looked like he was saying “what? I’m done crying. Calm the fuck down.”

Part 4: Two A.M. Arrival

This was exactly what I was trying to avoid by booking a 2:00 p.m. bus: arriving at an odd hour, in a new and unknown city that has a reputation for being slightly more dangerous. Plus, at that point, I had been travelling for 12 hours, trying to get somewhere that shouldn’t have taken more than six.

I had arranged for the hostel to send a tuk-tuk to pick me up at the bus station, however upon arrival, there was no tuk-tuk waiting for me.

Of course, being the only tourist coming off that bus, all the drivers there pounced on me.

There was one man who spoke a little bit of English and offered me a decently over-priced ride to my hostel. However it was on the back of his motorbike. Seeing no other options, I took this man up on his offer. I repeated at least five times to him my destination, and he repeated the destination back to me every time, nodding his head, laughing and smiling the whole time.

We agreed on a price to get me there, agreed on the destination, and shook hands about all this agreeing.

So off we go. Second time in 24 hours on the the back of a motorbike with more than 20 kilos of my stuff, being driven by a man who I’m sure was slightly drunk. The whole time he was trying to talk to me but his English was so broken I couldn’t understand him. He spent most of the ride saying “ok, ok, ok” and laughing, which made me more nervous. What on earth was he laughing about? I still have no idea.

After about 15 minutes on the back of his bike, flying through stop signs and swerving last minute to avoid other drivers, he dropped me off at a hostel… The wrong one. It was his friend’s hostel obviously, and he wanted to stay there because then he would make commission off my booking. I already had a place booked for the night and I had told him this multiple times.

Upon realizing I was at the wrong spot, I went back out and told him I did not want to stay there. I had a booking elsewhere and we had agreed before I got on his bike that he would take me there.

“You don’t want to stay here?”

“No sir, I do not want to stay here. I want to go to the hostel I pre-booked, the one we agreed that you would take me to.”

“Okay I take you there.”

So I got back on bike with my load that is my current life. As we took off for the correct destination he said: it’s ten more dollars.

I literally have no words for this. I was exhausted and furious and tired of being jerked around. But I was also on the back of his bike, with all my stuff. I debated jumping off the back, calculating how badly I would get hurt and if it was worth losing my big bag which has everything I need for the next six months. It wasn’t worth it.

For the next ten minutes, I was fuming as he continually said to me “ten more dollars.” But being on the back of a bike is no time to be arguing with your driver about how much you will pay them. So I sat quiet and prayed that he was actually taking me to my hostel.

He did. We arrived at my hostel and this time I saw the actual name of what I had booked. I got off his bike and took my stuff from him while he held out his hand expectantly for his payment.

“I’m just going to check that this is the actual place I told you to take me to before I pay you,” I told him.

“It is! It is!” he exclaimed, pointing at the hostel name on the wall.

“I just want to check for myself since you initially took me to the wrong place.”

I rang the buzzer, waking up the poor nighttime receptionist sleeping on the couch, took all my stuff inside with me, checked in for the night and booked an extra night because, after that day I wanted to do nothing more than lay out by the hostel pool tomorrow.

I then went back outside with the cash ready in my hand. No digging around in my wallet in front of this guy. I presented him with the amount we first agreed upon.

“This is what we agreed upon when I got on your bike so this is what I’m paying you.”

“No!” he said. “Ten more dollars! I had to use more gas!”

“I’m sorry but it’s not my fault that you decided to take me to a different spot than what we had agreed upon. I said the name of this place multiple times to you, and you repeated it back to me. This is the amount we agreed upon for you to take me here so this is what I am paying you.”

And that was that.

 

 

 

Adventures

Chan’s Story

This is the story of Chan… One of the most amazing people I have ever met.

Chan has a beautiful round face that lights up when she laughs or smiles… Something she does quite often. Her shoulder-length hair is dark as liquorice and her deep brown eyes twinkle when she is happy. But behind that twinkle there is sorrow. A sorrow so deep it is constantly hiding under the surface of those beautiful brown eyes.

Chan sees her face like a pancake. she doesn’t realize how her laugh brings joy to those around her. She thinks her eyes look like poop and she wears a turtle neck under a button down, three pairs of pants, and a wide-brimmed straw hat to keep her honey almond skin from getting darker. She thinks she is too skinny and is constantly trying to put on weight to be more appealing to Cambodian standards but, all the weight goes to her face which she thinks makes her look even more like a pancake.

Chan is one of the hardest working individuals I have ever met. Never seeming to tire and putting all the boys to shame. She is a little energizer bunny, always giving 110% even under the sweltering hot Cambodian sun. She taught herself English and can chew threw sugar cane quicker than an elephant. She never takes vacations and gives her mother 100% of her earnings.

Her mother has one of the farms in the area surrounding the Cambodia Wildlife Sanctuary. Every ten days, when Chan gets paid for her work at CWS she gives the entirety of her earnings to her mother so that she can buy whatever crops she needs for the farm. Chan keeps nothing of what she has earned for herself, nor does she even think about keeping any of it. Her mother needs it for the farm, so why wouldn’t she give her all of her wages? She is that selfless and that hard-working.

Chan’s mother is also very sick. Most likely from malnutrition although I never found out what with. Any extra time that Chan has, which is incredible that she even finds extra time considering she is always working at the sanctuary, she is helping her mother out.

Chan is truly one of the most beautiful people I have ever met – inside and out. But she is filled with insecurities and a sense of sorrow… A sorrow that seems to be constantly hiding behind those twinkling brown eyes.

She credits Lek, the lady who runs the Elephant Nature Park in Chiang Mai, Thailand, with saving her life. The Cambodia Wildlife Sanctuary is one of ENP’s projects and, until CWS opened up, Chan wasn’t able to earn any money.

When the sanctuary first opened, Chan worked with some of the other girls in the kitchen, constantly eating the leftover food to try and gain weight.

But she was already suffering from a slew of stomach problems… Stomach problems that, in all likelihood, stemmed from serious malnutrition.

When Chan was younger, to curve the hunger pains, she would eat anything she could. Including dirt from the forest ground. Food, and nutritious food at that, wasn’t easy for her to come by.

Finally, after so many years of not eating properly, and consuming dirt to make herself feel full, her stomach had had enough. So she took some rice, went out to a hut in the jungle, and settled in for death to join her there.

Chan was dying. She had accepted her fate and went off to die in a way that wouldn’t bother anyone. Alone and in the jungle.

But Lek happened to be visiting that weekend and she noticed Chan’s absence. After asking around for her, she learned that Chan had, uncharacteristically, asked for time off. I imagine as well that Chan’s medical state would have been guessed at.

Lek wandered around the jungle looking for Chan and, somehow, found her in her little hut of death. I’m not sure how Lek found Chan, but she did. Upon seeing the condition that Chan was in, and where she had gone to have her final moments, Lek took her to a hospital and paid for all her medical bills.

Chan credits Lek with saving her life. From the story she tells about this time, Lek did save her life. And what a wonderful soul Lek saved.

While Chan’s story is one that I will never forget, it is her spirit that left a lasting impression on me.

Thank you, Lek, for finding Chan. And thank you, Chan, for being such an incredible person. You truly inspired me in the short amount of time that I got to know you.

Adventures

One Week, Four Elephants

My experience at the Cambodia Wildlife Sanctuary was fantastic.

But by the end of the week I didn’t feel good about myself. I felt like I hadn’t done enough, nor like I had been utilized adequately by the sanctuary.

I went into the week expecting (and honestly looking forward to) scooping a shit ton of poop. We definitely did scoop a lot of poop (I’m real good with a pitchfork and wheelbarrow now), however I felt like the sanctuary could have better utilized our eager hands to contribute to the long term goals of the sanctuary.

Yes… The elephant poop needed to be scooped. And yes, I would have been disappointed if I didn’t get to scoop that poop. But I was expecting to be doing more work than what we were assigned.

One of the other issues in Cambodia that I was completely unaware of was the country’s problem with deforestation. According to CWS, Cambodia used to be 70% forests and now only has 3% left. The sanctuary sits right on top of the land that has been affected by the deforestation (one-million acres to be exact).

Going into my week volunteering at CWS, I was expecting to be spending a lot of time planting trees in the jungle. I imagined something similar to the tree-planting out West, back in Canada. However, instead of contributing to rehabilitating the deforested land, we spent time helping with the sanctuary’s garden… Something that was already being done by some of the local girls who work there.

Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely loved spending a week with elephants, scooping poop, cutting sugar cane and going for jungle walks. However I wanted to do more. I wanted to contribute more to the park and have the work that I was doing there have a longer-lasting, beneficial effect on the sanctuary. CWS has an amazing vision and goals but I think the steps to attain these goals needs to be better executed.

At the end of the day though, even if I didn’t feel like I had been utilized to my full potential, the knowledge I gained at the sanctuary about elephants and Cambodia was eye-opening.

Plus I fulfilled a lifelong dream of mine to take care of my favourite animals.

Adventures

Volunteering at Cambodia Wildlife Sanctuary

I decided to spend my first week in Cambodia volunteering at the Cambodia Wildlife Sanctuary (CWS) just outside of Siem Reap.

I found information on the sanctuary when looking into volunteering at the Elephant Nature Park (ENP) in Chiang Mai, Thailand. The Cambodia Wildlife Sanctuary is one of the other projects that ENP has available on their website and was more in line with the amount of time I personally wanted to spend volunteering.

Finding CWS through ENP also allowed me to trust that I would be helping out at a park with an ethical practice.

CWS is a newly opened park (founded in 2004) that aims to provide a safe spot for rescued wildlife, from dogs to monkeys to elephants, while rehabilitating the jungle and habitat of the one-million acres of land that it is on.

Every day of volunteering at the park was scheduled by the current project manager, while executed by our team leader, a wonderful and hard-working young Cambodian lady named Chan. I truly enjoyed my time spent at CWS and being in such close proximity to the park’s elephants was a dream come true for me.

One of the most fantastic things about CWS was how much information they provide the volunteers about elephants. From their genetic makeup to issues surrounding the mistreatment of elephants, I was constantly learning at the sanctuary.

Every day though, I had my heart broken as I learned more about these beautiful intelligent creatures and how much abuse they suffer in a lifetime. I had no idea that mama elephants will try and kill their babies, knowing what terrible future awaits them. Or that, when an elephant is being trained, mahouts tie up their trunks – not as a torture method, because the nails and whips are torturous enough, but to prevent them from committing suicide by standing on their own trunks.

Nor did I know that you can approximate the age of an elephant by the depth of their temples, or that elephants squeak like chipmunks when they are happy, or that they can feel the vibrations of the earth with their feet to sense where the closest source of water is. This incredible feat is also a curse though for those who are forced to be in city centres as the sounds and vibrations of cars confuses them.

The park has four elephants that have been rescued from the logging industry. My favourite girl was 75 year-old Kham-Lin. Being so old, she has digestive issues so we prepared a special, soft meal for her daily that included fibre pellets to help her poop. The poor thing was blind in both eyes, a milky film secreting from them constantly, and it is believed by the full time volunteers that her mahout blinded her to create dependance on him when walking through the jungle during her logging days. Kham-Lin was such a beautiful majestic creature and seeing her blind eyes made me want to cry.

It’s a tragic shame that, after elephants spend their lives being tortured for tourism or forced to use their strength and power in the logging industry, they have to be taught that freedom is okay. They have to learn that they will not be harmed if they do not have chains around their legs. They do not know they are now safe from abuse and they end up needing constant care and protection once their freedom is bought from places like CWS.

It pains me to think that another living creature can be treated so terribly and abused so much in a lifetime… Especially one that is my favourite animal.

Adventures

From Nepal to Culture Shock

Before leaving Canada for Nepal, I was warned by many people that I was in for quite the shock. I grew up in a suburb north of Toronto. Drinking water is not a problem for us, when it’s hot I wear clothing that shows my legs and shoulders and, we definitely have never had to deal with the aftermath of a deadly earthquake.

Kathmandu was unlike anywhere I have ever been. Incredibly dusty (an effect from the earthquake apparently), and very loud (the city implemented a honking ban a few days before I left), with cows everywhere (literally just hanging out in the middle of the road).

The most shocking thing for me was the drive from the airport to my hostel. Nepal doesn’t seem to have very many traffic laws. Instead of checking blind spots before merging lanes, drivers simply honk to let people know they are coming in. If someone is where your car is going, then that person honks to let you know they are there. No one seems to actually check for other vehicles, just listens for the honks.

Pedestrians are just as bad. Walking out into the middle of traffic with their hands up to stop the cars. It’s honestly a miracle there aren’t more accidents (I didn’t see a single one while I was there).

I actually had mentally prepared myself for some serious culture shock before leaving Canada but I was fine. After spending some time in Kathmandu, I even learned how to be a pedestrian there, crossing streets without looking, hand up to stop traffic. The few times I came close to being hit by a motorcycle was when I was being cautious. Looking both ways before crossing seemed to cause more harm than good and moments of hesitation at seeing a vehicle fast approaching almost ended terribly for me.

It wasn’t until I was on route to Cambodia, with a stop over in Bangkok, that I experienced a bit of culture shock. Although I don’t know if I would classify what I felt as culture shock, but more of “big city” shock.

After spending a month in Nepal, including two weeks on a mountain trekking to Annapurna Base Camp, seeing the bright lights of Bangkok and the tall buildings of the city was incredibly overwhelming.

The fact alone that I took a subway from the airport into the city was shocking to me. I hadn’t seen infrastructure like that in a month.

There were no more mountains looming in the background. Just tall buildings – buildings that exceeded five stories – looming all around.

And the most shocking thing of all? Bangkok has McDonald’s. And Starbucks. Nepal has Oreos and, even that, I’m not too sure of the authenticity.

I didn’t even realize until I was in Bangkok that part of the beauty of Nepal is the lack of big Western chains. All the Western influences that Nepal did have were aimed towards trekkers and even that was known to be “Nepali quality.” Meaning it was the best damn knock-off you would ever see but the product wouldn’t last.

It’s funny how going from Toronto, a big city in itself with Starbucks on every corner and buildings taller than five stories, to the dust and rubble of Kathmandu didn’t affect me. Everything in Kathmandu was so interesting to me because it was all so different from what I was used to in Canada.

But going from Kathmandu to Bangkok was entirely too overwhelming.

Adventures

Lessons from Nepal

Nothing is as scary as you think it is.

Nepal was my first real big trip by myself. It was the furthest I had ever been from home and the furthest I had ever been from what I was accustomed to. I was terrified before I left my home in Toronto. I knew this was the most uncomfortable situation I had ever put myself in. Yes, it was scary. But it was also exhilarating and exciting. While I do think having a little bit of fear is a good thing, it made me more cautious. This is a good thing because when traveling on my own, there is no one looking out for me, but me. I realize now that nothing is as scary as I thought it would be. Had I let my fears overtake me, I would have missed out on a lot of beauty.

Don’t eat the cucumbers

Or any raw fruits and vegetables for that matter. Unless you can peel it. Yes, I know. Rookie mistake. But after three weeks of eating nothing but Dal and curry all I wanted was an uncooked salad with raw vegetables. Should have let it go.

Fleas can bite humans

And it sucks.

I completely understand now why dogs scratch as much as they do when they have fleas. My final week in Nepal, I had flea bites on my feet and ankles, but had no idea what these bites were. The bites looked like red bulls-eyes (unlike any mosquito bite I had ever seen) and didn’t have a pattern to them (so bed bugs were out of the question). They also had gotten infected from the amount of scratching I was doing, so my feet were swollen and red with puss oozing out of the spots. Disgusting I know. And not knowing what they were was very unnerving.

I called my mom in tears one night because one of the bites felt like an insect was trying to scratch its way out of my leg. The itchiness was uncontrollable and, literally took over all my thoughts. Two weeks later, with three different antibiotic recommendations, I’m still trying to heal the bites (although, thank goodness, the itching has gone away and they do seem to be improving).

A new sense of direction

I don’t mean this in some sort of deep, philosophical way. I literally mean that I gained a better sense of direction.

I am amazing at getting lost. It’s a hidden talent really. If I can’t see the North Star or the movement of the sun in the sky, it is guaranteed that I will go the wrong way. Left instead of right, North instead of South, West instead of North. Wait… Which way is West again? That’s left, right? Even following Google Maps does nothing for me.

So spending two weeks hiking up to Annapurna Base Camp on trails that take you so far from where you started seems impossible, and was so confusing to me. Spending one week in Kathmandu where Google Maps says to turn left on Tri Devi Marg but you cannot find a street sign anywhere because, apparently Nepali people don’t believe in street signs, left me walking around in circles half the time.

And then I figured out that the temples, stupas and shrines were a good way of finding my way around the city. Next thing I knew, I was going left when I was supposed to be going left. I was walking by temples that would lead me home and shrines that told me I had to make a right. I wasn’t getting lost anymore! I knew where I was, how to get to where I wanted to go, and how to get home.

Maybe that was just because I was spending a decent amount of time in Kathmandu and Pokhara, but (knock on the North Star) I haven’t gotten lost once yet in Cambodia.

Adventures

Travelling Nepal – My Personal Guide

#HeyJo let’s go to… Nepal.

Nepal is very much an adventurers country. The grand majority of people that I met in Nepal chose it as a trekking destination.

It also has deeply seated roots as a stopover (or the final stop) on the hippie trail from Europe to South Asia. According to history, many hippies chose not to leave Kathmandu because they fell in love with the landscape and the relaxed attitude of the people. They also appreciated the free-thinking attitude there towards marijuana. Freak Street was known as the spot to go to and, although that area is no longer a destination for modern day hippies, there is still quite an impressive hippie culture in the north of Pokhara.

I’m writing this travel guide to give advice to anyone who wants to go to Nepal based on my own personal experiences, both good and bad. There are spots I loved and spots I disliked and spots I wished I had gone to, had I known about them ahead of time.

Kathmandu – In Two To Three Days

Kathmandu is loud, seriously dusty and busy. Many people I met during my time in Nepal chose to avoid Kathmandu as much as possible, myself included once I ventured out of the city. Kathmandu does have some impressive tourist sites though and they should not be skipped over.

I spent my time in the Thamel district of Kathmandu. It has pretty much everything you could need while in Nepal: pharmacies, shopping, trek-outfitting, and plenty of opportunity to find a guide to take you on the mountain.

It also has a lot of temples and stupas but, I found that after visiting quite a few that they begin to look the same after a while. A few stood out and have made it to my recommendations of places to go.

I would encourage you to go to the Garden of Dreams, the Seto Machhen-dranath Temple (Jan Bahal), and Swoyambhu Temple (the Monkey Temple). If you have more time, then you should also check out Tri Devi Temple and Durbar Square. All of this can easily be done in two days.

Garden of Dreams

The Garden of Dreams opens at 9:00 a.m. and it’s a nice spot to go to escape the city. The dustiness from the street is kept at bay because the garden is surrounded by high walls. It’s like walking into a calm, lush oasis. I personally spent an entire day at the Garden of Dreams. I wasn’t in a rush and had an infinite amount of time so I was happy to spend the day reading there. The garden can easily be seen within an hour (less if you’re not taking massive amounts of photos).

The entrance fee to the garden is 200 rupees (about $2USD).

I would recommend going for its opening at 9:00 a.m.  There are very few people there at that hour. In fact, there were three others when I first arrived at its opening. With so few people you can truly appreciate the calmness and peacefulness of the garden, admire the flowers and the stone elephant statues, all before the sun starts beating down.

If you choose to stay for the whole day, as I did, there are benches and grassy lawns to relax upon. Once the sun gets to its hottest point, shelter can be found at the cafe in the grounds, or under one of the many trees in the garden.

Seto Machhen-dranath Temple (Jan Bahal)

Before leaving on my trip to Nepal I had read that Jan Bahal was a great temple to visit, but when it came to my day walking around the city exploring the different temples, I completely forgot about it. I would have been disappointed if I had missed out.

Seto Machhen-dranath Temple is glorious for multiple reason. One is that it is massive. The second reason is that it is hidden away in a courtyard with no way of finding it or stumbling across it.

Looking back, I think I was very lucky to have stumbled upon this place.

I was taking photos of a different temple that was situated on a very busy street corner in Kathmandu, with tuk-tuks and motorbikes on one side and vendors selling fruits and flowers on the other. A lady came over and “told” me to go to the backside of the temple and walk through a teal archway.

Not sharing the same language, communication with her was very challenging, but her enthusiasm about where she was telling me to go (and her big camera) convinced me to follow her pointed finger to the other side of the temple.

I walked through the teal archway and came out at the Seto Machhen-dranath Temple.

There is no way of knowing there is a temple here because it is in the middle of a courtyard surrounded by eight-storey high buildings, which are very high for Nepal. The temple is completely hidden, and you have to walk through a teal archway and down a small alley to get to it.

It is incredible though and left me with my mouth hanging wide open. There’s so much going on outside of the temple, with motorbikes and dust everywhere, that it’s shocking to stumble into this serene place for worship. There’s still so much going on inside this courtyard but, in the calmest way possible. Locals praying and pigeons flying everywhere, different offerings being presented at every shrine, all in as hushed a manner as possible. And so much beautiful gold coloured decoration and architecture.

If you can find this temple, visit it. It is so worth it.

Swoyambhu Temple (Monkey Temple)

The draw of Swoyambhu Temple, for me, was that it was nicknamed the Monkey Temple.

It did not disappoint in being true to its nickname. The whole area of Swoyambhhu should be nicknamed “the monkey area” because the whole region has the little guys running about.

The temple itself is massive and, in a way, it’s unfortunate that the monkeys are the point of interest. The stupa is huge and sits on top of a hill overlooking Kathmandu, which is shockingly large. The temple covers a few blocks. There are so many different areas to the Swoyambhu Temple as well – different shrines, stupas, and places of worship scattered throughout the temple’s massive area.

It’s scale makes it big enough to be a small village and, with the clapboard buildings at the top selling knick-knacks to tourists as well as a coffee shop for snacks and refreshments, it very well could have been at one point. There are even stalls set up at the entrance with people selling trinkets. So as soon as you enter you have the feeling of it being a pseudo-village.

The temple also clearly suffered substantial damage from the 2015 earthquake and it is pretty shocking to see the rubble and broken down bits of structures surrounded by new bricks for the rebuild.

In terms of the experience with the monkeys at the temple (the whole reason I wanted to visit this temple in the first place), there were monkeys literally everywhere.

And they are aggressive little bastards.

I had been warned ahead of time to be careful of the creatures and to not have any food with me. They’re aggressive in the Swoyambhu area! They are accustomed to people. Not only that, but they are smart and will essentially perform tricks to get food from you.

Heeding the warnings and horror stories, I made sure I went over to the temple with nothing but my camera and some money.

It was pretty trippy to see people praying at the top of the temple with monkeys running around everywhere. You would be walking along and all of a sudden there was a monkey at your feet. Or one just hanging out inside a shrine, scaring you if you looked in. Who would expect to see a monkey chilling in there? Or swinging from the structures overhead? Or jumping from stoop to stoop?

Swoyambhu Temple is an incredible temple to visit simply based on its size, but the monkeys turn it into a unique temple experience.

Extras: Tri Devi Temple and Durbar Square

Tri Devi Temple is a temple dedicated to three goddesses. It’s across the street from the Garden of Dreams with no entry fee. Since it is very small, you don’t need much time to explore. I personally was a fan of Tri Devi Temple because of its dedication to “girl power” and, the lovely sense of calm and peace that washed over me during my visit. There are three little houses there with the statues inside, as well as a large bell you can ring to announce your presence to the goddesses. It is very small in comparison to some of the other temples and stupas I visited while in Nepal, but that’s also part of the beauty.

Durbar Square is a massive area with multiple temples scattered throughout. Many of the temples were damaged in the 2015 earthquake and look like they are being held up by pieces of bamboo, while others have been completely condemned. There are so many temples here that you literally need a map to navigate your way around. If you are willing to venture further into Durbar Square, you will come across Freak Street, the area of Kathmandu that used to be home to hippies making the overland pilgrimage from the UK to Thailand.

Durbar Square is also where the Living Goddess resides. She makes an appearance twice a day from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. and again from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. My trekking guide informed me she is chosen by a selection committee, and then stays in the Durbar Square temple house with her family until she has her first period. She is only allowed to leave the temple house to make her twice-daily balcony appearances, and for religious ceremonies.

Pokhara – Three Days

Pokhara is the second largest city in Nepal, second to Kathmandu. I stayed in the Lakeside Pokhara area which is a smaller, tourist area of the city. It was a welcome change after the loud, dustiness of Kathmandu as it was much calmer and serene. I spent a week in Pokhara however, three to four days would have been more than enough time.

When in Pokhara I would recommend visiting the Peace Stupa and the north end of Lakeside Pokhara, with a stop at the Movie Garden or for a little paragliding adventuring. I found that the caves or Devi’s Falls were not worth the effort. And it’s definitely worth taking advantage of the calmness while you’re there!

The Peace Stupa

I know, I know… Not another stupa. The Peace Stupa is worth it though, I promise. It’s located across the lake at the top of a hill so even the journey to get there is pretty magical.

You can rent a boat for half the day and paddle yourself for about 700 RPs or you can rent a boat with a driver so that you can just enjoy being rowed across the lake. Once you get to the other side, it’s about a 45 minute hike up to the stupa. After a two week trek I couldn’t believe I was doing those infamous Nepali steps again, and this time simply to see a stupa. Upon reaching the top though, I realized it was worth it.

The views from the top up are pretty incredible, including the unobstructed sight of Pokhara. Again, it was shocking to see how big the city actually is. I realized again how much of a small pocket I was staying in at Lakeside Pokhara.

The stupa is big and white and gold. It’s glorious in its beauty, and at its height, it holds true to its name by being surprisingly peaceful.

There are four statues in the round walls of the stupa, each facing a different direction and representing different events related to Buddha. People can be seen sitting around the stupa meditating. It does seem like a fantastic spot to meditate as the energy there is very calm and peaceful.

After the visit, it was nice to hike back down and row across the lake in the calmness of nature.

The North End of Lakeside Pokhara

I stayed at the south end of Lakeside Pokhara but would walk north every day along the lake. I wish I had ventured further north though because I had heard there was an interesting hippie community in that area — kind of like the new Freak Street of Nepal.

The furthest north I ventured was to the Movie Garden, which I would recommend going to one evening.

Simple in concept, it’s essentially a big screen with a video projector, set up in a tropical garden, playing movies at night. It’s similar to a drive-in movie, minus the cars but with alcoholic beverages available for purchase at the bar.

The night I was there they were screening The Grand Budapest Hotel. It was pretty nifty watching it under the Nepali night sky, surrounded by tropical plants.

Paragliding

The adventure tourism industry in Nepal is pretty big and this includes Pokhara. Every morning, if you looked up towards the mountains, you could see the sky littered with dozens of people paragliding.

I regret not having had gone paragliding while I was in Pokhara. I can imagine it would have had some amazing views with the Himalayas not too far off. Plus it was only 6000 RPs and that included photos.

Where I wish I had visited

You would think that spending a month in a country would have given me enough time to see and do everything I wanted. After two weeks trekking, and one week in Pokhara, my flight out of Nepal was quickly approaching and that’s when it hit me that there were still quite a few things I wanted to do before leaving but, unfortunately, no longer had the time for.

For a return visit, I would include another trek (because you can’t go to Nepal and not do a trek), visit the birthplace of Buddha and spend some time in Bhaktapur. And of course, I would go paragliding in Pokhara either before or after the trek.

The Trek

One thing I learned doing the Annapurna Base Camp trek is that I actually really enjoy trekking. As much as I may have hated parts of it at the time, it’s quite enjoyable.

Doing another trek in Nepal and with limited money to spend, I would not use a tour company. I probably wouldn’t even bother with a guide or porter to be honest (although the porters were incredible and made the trek so much more enjoyable).

Nepal is pretty well set up for tea house trekking so there are plenty of spots to stop for food along the way, as well as “hotels” on the mountain. I met a lot of people who didn’t have previous reservations or bookings at the hotels and still managed to get rooms upon arrival. If there are no rooms available, you are put up in the dining hall with the guides and porters for the night or, you have to trek back down to a different hotel.

Returning to Nepal, I would choose to do either the whole Annapurna Circuit, which is about 18 days or, the Langtang trek north of Kathmandu.

The Birthplace of Buddha

I didn’t even think about it until I had booked my flight out of Nepal but, Nepal is known to be the birthplace of Buddha.

Now I’m not religious in any way (which is probably why I didn’t think of it), but that’s still pretty monumental.

The birthplace of Buddha is in the south of Nepal in Lumbini and, had I thought about it beforehand and planned my “after-trek” better, I would have included time to visit the birthplace of Buddha in my itinerary.

It’s possible that it’s a huge tourist trap, but I also imagine it would be a pretty interesting thing to see while in Nepal.

Bhaktapur

Again, had I done more research into Nepal, instead of spending a full week in Lakeside Pokhara recovering from my two week trek and all the ensuing illnesses, I would have included a couple days in Bhaktapur. After about three weeks in Nepal, I heard from quite a few different people, tourists, and locals, about its beauty.

Bhaktapur is one of the three royal cities in Nepal and was founded in The Medieval Times in the 12th Century. It also has a Durbar Square filled with temples, monasteries, religious sites and palaces. It also has monuments made from terracotta.

Summit Adventures

Dal Baht Power 24 Hour, What Goes Up Must…

A.B.C. to Bamboo

“I can’t believe the trek is over,” one of my trekking mates said.

Oh, it’s not over. We have to go back down the mountain now, descend the 4,130m we just climbed. And going down is just as hard, if not harder than going up. I came to the realization during my 14 day trek that going up is hard on the muscles while going down is hard on the joints.

The Soundtrack of Descending: Mountainous Moves

Waking up at Annapurna Base Camp on this morning, revealed a clear, blue sky with big, majestic mountains. So those past six days, with all the trials and tribulations and challenges of hiking up 4,130m, proved to be worth it. A.B.C. is situated at the bottom of the Annapurna Mountain Range, right in the middle so, again, it feels like you are in a bowl, surrounded by mountains. And the mountains are so big you can’t help but feel like a tiny ant. It was a humbling experience.

After last night’s fresh snow on the mountain, everyone was in a playful mood. Groups could be seen throwing snowballs at one another down the mountain while others were running and sliding down the slope. There was less and less snow the lower we got, and the weather quickly warmed up as we passed back through the bamboo forest.

It was a very strange feeling to wake up in the shadow of the Annapurna Mountain Range, bundled up to combat the cold at that higher elevation and making snow angels in the freshly felled snow, only to walk down to a lower elevation where the mountains look, smell and sound like a tropical jungle.

 

Bamboo to Jhinu (Hot Springs)

Everything from here on down feels like it moved so fast. One minute we were at A.B.C., surrounded by these incredibly large and humbling mountains, the next minute we were back in a jungle, and then all of a sudden we were down below 2,000m, heading to a local hot spring.

The hot springs in Jhinu are right by a big, rushing river. With two pools, there’s plenty of space for trekkers, porters and guides to all splash around together. And the springs themselves were incredibly, well, hot. I honestly did not expect a natural hot spring to feel like a hot tub but these did.

After such an incredible (and exhausting) journey up to A.B.C., finishing off the trek (we only had a day and a half to go from Jhinu back to Pokhara) with a visit to the hot springs was a very special way of ending the journey. It was nice to see all the porters and guides having fun in the water with one another, and the springs felt amazing on the now, eight-day sore muscles.

Back to Pokhara

The final two days of the trek were pretty uneventful. The A.B.C. trek took us a different way down the mountain so we had different views to entertain us as we trekked along. At this point though, I was pretty sick (I developed a sinus infection at A.B.C. and was blowing snot rockets the whole way down the mountain) so by the time we passed the hot springs, and there were no more promises of amazing views, I was ready to get off the mountain. Having two blisters at this point and getting bitten by three leeches as well didn’t help matters.

While the trek was challenging (I definitely had no idea what I was getting myself into) and, especially towards the end as I got sicker and sicker, had more and more bug bites, and slept less and less, I think I should have hated the experience. I should have been miserable, especially during the last three days. My muscles definitely hated me (again, I learned I’m not as fit as I like to think I am). But I was happy. And pleased. And proud.

Hiking the Himalayas is something I’ve always wanted to do. Probably ever since seeing the movie “Vertical Limit” in 2001. I know. But after almost 15 years of wanting this experience, I’ve done it. And even though, two weeks later, I’m still recovering (my sinus infection turned into a cold which I just got over and I’m still trying to heal the infected bug bites that I got on the mountain, I would do it again in a heartbeat. I would do it differently. I’m an experienced trekker now after all. But I would do it again.

So… Everest here I come!

My A.B.C. Experience Summed Up Like A MasterCard Commercial

10 days on the mountain
3,500 steps climbed in one day
160kms traversed (approximately)
4,130m climbed
19 “bridges” crossed
7 Dal Bhat lunches (Dal Baht power, 24 hours as the locals say)
3 sunrises
1 waterfall swim
1 hot spring
3 monkey sightings
2 mule crossings
3 goat crossings
1 bamboo forest
1 rhododendron forest
53 unknown bug bites
3 leech bites
2 blisters
2 rainstorms
1 hailstorm
1 snowstorm
1 snowball fight
2 snow angels
9 sleepless nights
1 sinus infection
2 glasses of whiskey