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Da Nang, Hoi An, and Hue
Da Nang Since we were rapidly fleeing Cambodia because the heat and humidity were too much to bear, we decided to skip the similar climate of southern Vietnam, start in the middle of the country, and finish in the north. Our Vietnam travel plans were thrown together at the last minute (again, because of our sudden intolerance of the weather), so we paid a travel agent in Siem Reap to handle our Vietnamese visa, then flew from Siem Reap to Da Nang, a mid-sized city home to Vietnam’s third largest international airport (after Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi). Our…
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Third Time’s a Charm in Cambodia
This post will be short and sweet as I’ve written about Angkor temples twice before and this trip wasn’t much different: temple-hopping during the day, chill time in the evenings or on days off, and classic Cambodian fatigue-inducing heat and humidity. Our temple-hopping schedule was: The only real item of note is that we scheduled our trip to align with a friend who wanted to see the sunrise over Angkor Wat on the equinox, which is evidently significant. Honestly, I didn’t notice anything markedly different other than the fact that there were several thousand people more than usual, creating a…
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Nepal
Kathmandu Before arriving in Kathmandu, we were already amazed by Nepal simply from the view from the plane during our approach to the airport: massive green hills, rivers lining the floors of valleys, terraces cut into the lush countryside, and homes sprinkled throughout the landscape. Once on the ground, we realized just how different the weather was going to be as we walked across the tarmac to the main airport building. Goodbye to wearing shorts and tank tops in the sunny heat; hello to wearing jeans and multiple layers in the cloudy cool weather. We went through the usual immigration/customs/ATM/currency…
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Annapurna Trek: Day 5 (Ghandruk – Nayapul – Pokhara)
After an excellent night’s sleep, I had my usual breakfast of Gurung bread, fried eggs, and green chili sauce, this time washed down with a mug of French pressed organic Nepalese coffee. I grew quite fond of Gurung bread on the trek and now I wish I had easier access to it. The morning of the last day left me with a lot of bittersweet feelings. I was growing a bit weary of the trail after four days and was very much looking forward to going back to a proper hotel in Pokhara. But I had also grown accustomed to…
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Annapurna Trek: Day 4 (Tadapani – Ghandruk)
After going to bed early and getting a great sleep, I was up early with the sun and the noise of the kitchen and other trekkers starting their days. After a late (8:00!) breakfast of eggs, Gurung bread (very airy and flavorful and similar to Tibetan bread), and coffee, we set off for the day. This day’s trek was relatively short – only three hours – but we moved quickly to avoid the large, loud groups of European trekkers that apparently need to roll a dozen deep to enjoy nature. Though short, the trek was very engaging: as I inhaled…
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Annapurna Trek: Day 3 (Ghorepani – Poon Hill – Tadapani)
We all woke up by 5:00 the next morning, greeted by a dark coldness that permeated every layer of clothing I was wearing. We set out fifteen minutes later and began ascending the staircase that would take us another vertical 350 meters to the top of Poon Hill. The physical activity negated the freezing cold and within a few minutes I felt pretty warm. Every trekker within five miles was on those stairs, going up in a long train, illuminated by the occasional LED headlamp and the full moon. Once at the top, the hundred people or so alternated between…
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Annapurna Trek: Day 2 (Hile – Ghorepani)
Not surprisingly, I slept incredibly well (about ten hours) after a day of forcing semi-strenuous exercise on my relatively unconditioned body. Since breakfast would be at our usual time of 7:00, I was up at 6:30 to torture my body by blasting it with freezing cold mountain water as I brushed my teeth and washed my face over the outdoor drain. Breakfast was customary, but delicious and very filling: eggs, potatoes, toast, porridge with oatmeal and sugary milk, and tea. We left Hile at our usual starting time of 8:00 and began the hardest day of the trek: ascending 3,500…
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Annapurna Trek: Day 1 (Pokhara – Nayapul – Hile)
One of the primary reasons for any visit to Nepal is trekking, so once Ayu and I were committed to going there after India, I started researching treks and trekking companies. I was initially discouraged as most popular Nepal treks are rather lengthy (2+ weeks) compared to what I wanted to do (3-5 days). After some research, I decided that the five-day Ghorepani-Ghandruk (a.k.a. Poon Hill) trek was perfect, as it fit within my time limitations, left from and returned to Pokhara (where Ayu was doing her six-day yoga retreat), and offered plenty of natural beauty. Since I didn’t feel…
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Gokarna, Goa, and Mumbai
Gokarna Upon arriving at the train station in Karwar, we hired a taxi to take us to Gokarna, about a one-hour drive away. The drive through the countryside was similar to the other taxi rides we had taken (more on that in a bit), but for the first time in India, we were witness to the concept of stray cows. A bit unnerving at first, the sight of lazily lumbering bovines interrupting traffic with their slow road-crossings and zero-fucks-given attitudes has since become quite normal. While in Gokarna, another pleasant beach town with minimal crowds, we stayed on Om Beach,…
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Kerala
Trivandrum After saying goodbye to Chiang Mai, I started a 24-hour travel day: a quick flight to BKK followed by a six-hour layover, a 3-hour flight to Sri Lanka followed by a 9-hour layover (most of which was spent sleeping in an impressively uncomfortable position in airport lounge chair), then finally a short flight to Trivandrum. Getting out of the airport was a challenge as I had to wait to get my visa on arrival (a very recent program within India’s immigration system), leave the airport building to use the only ATM, reenter the airport, break the large, effectively unusable…
