New Adventures In Backpacking

When I first saw a local walking down Khao San Road with a sandwich board advertising ‘His fish will eat your feet,’ I thought it was yet another of the many weird and tacky gimmicks that you find along the Khao San Road. So when I went north to Chiang Mai I was surprised not only to find numerous fish spas, but they were also full of local people(and not the Euro trash types you find in Bangkok). If it was good enough for the fair people of Chiang Mai then it was good enough for me.

However, I waited until I returned to Bangkok before getting my first ever fish spa. It really is catching on to the point where you don’t have to go to a specialist fish spa. Bars, restaurants, hairdressers, as well as random opportunists with a padding pool are getting in on the act. I chose a fish bar which was also showing Scottish football knowing that if I did not enjoy the fish action then I could still be reminded that worse things are happening in the world.

The spa cost 100 baht, which is roughly two pounds, for thirty minutes. Fish therapy originated from the fish called Gara Rufa in the river basins of Turkey. Gara Rufa are the original species used for fish spa skin pampering and nibbling treatments. The idea is that they work together as a team to improve foot skin condition through natural exfoliation by removing dead skin (nibbling it away). This also allows newer skin to regenerate by releasing the enzyme, diatanol.

You lower your legs into a large aquarium and the Gara Rufa start attacking your feet. At first it is excruciatingly ticklish and feels like you are having thousands of little electrodes poked at your feet. Watching hundreds of fish sucking at your feet whist they move in-between your toes is not for the squeamish, but after five minutes of the treatment I got used to it and enjoyed a coke and had some chat with curious passers-by.

Once my time was up and the fish returned to the bottom of the tank satisfied with their efforts I cannot say I was that impressed with the immediate results and my first thought was that I would have been much better served going for a pedicure. However, the following day I noticed my feet looked much healthier than normal, and since the fish spa have remained so, which given the wear and tear of donning flip flops everyday and walking on the beach for days on end I’m surprised how well they are holding up.

Whilst I’m 100% convinced by the powers of these fish, I wont be rushing to get my own little fish slaves in New Zealand, but it was quite good fun and made for an amusing tale. You should try everything at least once, and it is certainly much less painful than watching Scottish football!

Tags: Backpacking Bangkok, Fish Spa

All roads, as a backpacker in South East Asia, lead to Bangkok.

Backpackers flock to Bangkok’s Khao San Road, attracted by cheap accommodation and a mass of bars, street food, knock off clothes and pretty much every illegal DVD you could wish to buy. At night it turns into one massive party street with extra mobile bars brought in to compliment the already bustling bars.

I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with Bangkok and had never been able to make my mind up but I’ve firmly decided after this five-day stop: I love Bangkok; I hate the Khao San Road.

To me Khao San sums up the worst elements of backpackers/tourists from every country. Chavy British/Irish guys walking about with their football tops on and the mandatory white socks and trainers, Euro-trash / fat Germans, the stereo-typical Aussie male with his sleeveless vest or beer logo t-shirt and Israeli girls getting their hair braided and wearing cheese cloth trousers, going on and on about Thailand like they were the only people to have ever come here. Also, before I came to Khao San the American word “doucebag” is not a term I used because I was never sure what one looked like. A few days here and I can spot an American Doucebag a mile away!

There are however streets close to Khao San that offer a somewhat nicer experience. I stayed a few minutes away on Soi Rambutri which also offers a fairly nice nightlife, and the best street Pad Thai you will find. It costs a little bit more, but in return you will get to sleep at night, rather than sweat to death in a non air-conditioned room.

Sukhumvit is the other tourist area of Bangkok. Based a little more in the centre it caters for people on package holidays, or flash-packers that don’t want to have to deal with Khao San but do not want to pay to stay in the Hilton either. On the plus side it’s much cleaner and quieter than Khao San and you’re not likely to bump into guys called Stevo and Shane from Sydney.

The only draw back for me about Sukhumvit is this is the area all the sex tourists stay in to be close to the famous Soi Cowboy. So if the sight of a fat, bald, blinged up 60 something male walking around with a Thai girl half his size and a quarter his age makes you want to vomit, then this is not the area for you.

Sex tourists look exactly as you would imagine, and are easy to spot. They are not ashamed of what they are doing so you will frequently see the aforementioned males walking around Sukhumvit, proud as punch with their rented entertainment for the night. Whilst they are doing nothing illegal in Thailand, I would feel a whole lot better if their names were on a watch list somewhere in their home countries.

Sukhumvit is also located next to Bangkok’s excellent Sky train service, the roads here are very congested and it’s the quickest way to get around town. Just three stops down is the famous Siam Centre where you will find MBK, Bangkok’s premier shopping mall where you will find all the cool Thai teenagers and cool people like me at the weekend. MBK is a shopaholic’s dream with floor upon floor of cheap designer labels and electrical goods. It’s a good job my xmas presents had been deposited in my bank account a few days earlier! For those who are weak in the wallet Bangkok is not the place for you. Temptation is everywhere and I estimate after quite the shopping spree at MBK I must have spent easily 350gbp in four days, and this time I did not take advantage of the many cheap tailors on offer!

What I like about Bangkok, and what sums up what a great city it really is, is that every time I come here I find a new way to spend time. At this rate I will make an excellent tour guide for someone new to the city. This time it was the river taxi ride down the Chao Pharaya River. For a mere 11 baht you can sail down it passing all the major Bangkok landmarks at a nice pace, avoiding all the hustle and bustle of the roads. I also highly recommend stopping off for a drink at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel and seeing how the other half live before getting asked to leave for not obeying the dress code.

Bangkok really does have so much to do, great bars, clubs, shopping, amazing temples, riverboat rides, floating markets, Thai boxing and even the odd ping pong show if that’s what floats your boat. Bangkok is a fantastic city. You just have to look further than Khao San Rd to see it.

One of the highlights of my trip to Chiang Mai was finding a little café named Juicy 4 U. I do love those cheeky suggestive Thai translations! As the name suggests they make a host of fresh fruit and vegetable drinks as well as providing a host of healthy veggie goodness meals on the menu. Be it with a beetroot, apple, celery and ginger juice, a wheatgrass shot, a veggie breakfast in the morning to start my day or a delicious Thai mixed veggie and tofu stir fry in a satay sauce, and my personal favourite Khao Soi Soup for dinner, Juicy 4 U never failed to make my stomach smile.

As well as providing amazing food at a low cost, they also looked after their regular customers like me. To be fair I was ensuring a good pension for the owners, but they ran a promotion that allowed me to take part in a lucky dip for every 500 baht (10gbp) spent. Given that I was running that up every two days it was no real surprise that I eventually won the big prize: one free night at the owner’s home-stay farm. So at the end of my stay in Chiang Mai I took the one hour journey north to the estate that I dubbed ‘The Juicy Factory’ to see where all the healthy goodness came from.

Kitty and her husband Tommy from England own the cafe. Kitty has the ideas and is the face of the company whilst Tom works from the farm providing all the hard work, labour and common sense (according to him) that go into living the organic dream. Both had lived in Thailand, then moved back to England whilst Kitty brushed up on her veggie cooking skills as well as experimenting with traditional English dishes like Yorkshire puddings and making them Thai veggie friendly. Whilst staying in England they became avid viewers of the C4 show ‘How Green Are You?’ and felt inspired enough to make the effort to try and live entirely organic, and needless to say it was made a lot easier with a move back to Thailand!

Their house is just amazing as is the home-stay. A renovated old farm house, with high ceilings and wooden floors to give it the old fashioned barn house feeling, decorated with an eclectic mix of old typewriters, tv’s, cameras and bicycles used as planters all around the house. Literally nothing goes to waste in their house, and whilst giving me the guided tour, Kitty proudly boasted the price of her finds in second hand junk stores. My favourite was a 60’s style television that doubled as a small table. This was the type of luxury that a backpacker like me simply does not come across too often on my travels.

The farm is 3.5 acres, filled with all the ingredients I had come to know and love in the café. As well as a duck pond and hen house and the all important outdoor spa, strolling around are two of the luckiest cats in the world. It really was inspiring hearing Kitty and Tommy’s story. Tommy had no experience in farming and basically learnt from scratch from books and the internet and to my eyes is making a darn good job of it. He works long hours in the hot Thai heat on the farm and there is still lots of hard work to be done, but watching the sun go down from his beautiful new handmade porch overlooking his farm certainly explains his motivation.

I think deep down I would love to own my own little café, just like Juicy 4 U serving veggie food that most of you would turn your noses up at, making fresh juices most of you could never afford and playing snobby art music that none of you are sophisticated enough to like. It might only last two months, but it’s my dream right? It was very nice to see a couple living their dream first hand, but also to see how much hard work goes into running such a niche styled café.

In the morning I was given the job of picking the fresh eggs from the chicken coup which were so fresh they were still warm, and then cooking omelettes with tomatoes, mushrooms, and basil all picked from the juicy farm. Delicious! As I mentioned in my previous blog I quite fancy coming to live in Chiang Mai one day and used this as my audition for a job in the Juicy kitchen one day. Whilst I’m sure Kitty was very impressed, omelettes don’t exactly have the wow factor. Next time I’m coming back with veggie haggis in the backpack.

Tags: Backpacking Chiang Mai, Backpacking Thailand, Homestay, Juicey 4 U

As I’ve mentioned previously, there is a wealth of things to do in Chiang Mai, but the most popular activity to take part in whilst you are here is to take a Thai cookery course.

The food in Chiang Mai is more than enough reason to come visit, it’s just so good and there are so many places to sample it. What sticks out the most for me is the amount of yummy dishes you can eat here that you will not find on any menu in Bangkok, on the islands or any of the other popular Thai backpacker destinations. Visit any Thai restaurant in your home country and I am happy to wager you will not find Khao Soi soup on the menu. If they have it, order it and you will not regret it.

Once you are here there are numerous cookery schools to choose from. You can take courses from a one day introduction class to a four day advanced school or there are vegetable carving courses for those of you who want to be popular at Halloween. The courses range from about 850 baht (17gbp) to 3,000 baht (60gbp). Already being a massive Thai food fan and being a bit of a whiz in the kitchen, I knew quite a lot of the dishes being offered on many of the courses, so I picked “Perm’s Thai Cookery Course”, who looked like they could offer to teach me more new things than the others.

I was picked up from my guesthouse at 8am and taken to a local market where your course starts. This is where we met Perm, the owner, who gave us a guided tour of the market, pointing out and explaining the differences between the various vegetables, rice, and tofu, we would be cooking with. Perm has owned his own cookery school for several years, which explains why Perm is an accomplished performer, and could easily double as a stand-up comedian. He giggles like a small child on cue at every bad joke he makes like it was the first time he has ever delivered the line and in turn my fellow class mates and I laugh on cue at every ‘same same but different’ comparison. Such ‘highlights’ include him telling us his parents gave him the perfect name as in the Thai language Perm apparently means ‘strong and handsome’ and that he feeds his wife coriander before bed every night as it makes women horny. Given my skills in the kitchen and knack of telling unfunny dad jokes I think I may have missed my calling in life.

All the other cookery schools are also at the market, which gives all the schools a chance to show off to the others, such is the competition between them. Perm seems visibly delighted to see that his two brothers’ classes have attracted less numbers than his and bragging rights for today are his. Sibling rivalry runs very high in that family for sure.

At the class we are all stationed behind our cookers with Perm in the middle orchestrating. We were then introduced to Boom, his assistant. It’s a real good-cop, bad-cop routine, Perm with his plump face, big smile and terrible jokes leading the class and Boom with her hair tied back, serious face, walking around the class barking instructions and bossing around those who cannot follow Perms instructions. I enjoyed this act, as it was quite clear in Boom’s case it was not an act and she did not suffer fools gladly. Later in the day Boom told me she gets lots of unwanted attention from older men on her course that see her as the ideal women. Attractive, bossy, and can cook. Says a lot more about them than the delightful Boom, whom I became good friends with and who was responsible for many of the highlights of my visit to Chiang Mai

I learnt to cook six dishes, Tom Yom Soup, Spring Rolls, Papaya Salad, Sticky Rice with Mango, Panang Curry with Tofu, and Pad Thai. I already knew the last two but they are so yummy I could not resist a little refresher course and to pick up a few tips on how to improve both dishes, so it was well worth it.

Along the way there were plenty of photo opportunities for my master chef application form, including the flaming wok picture, which I would imagine is a staple of any Thai cooking school. My flame was not so big, but it’s what you do with it that counts! I hope anyway…….

Last but certainly not least is the feast at the end when you get to eat your cooking efforts. Very yummy, even if I say so myself. There is such a quantity of food that you may not need to eat again for the rest of the day so that alone justifies an already very modest price.

I would highly recommend anyone go on the cooking courses. You don’t need to be a whiz in the kitchen, nor really enjoy cooking as Perm and Boom practically spoon feed you, if you pardon the pun. It’s a really fun and relatively cheap way to spend an afternoon learning, taking goofy pictures and chatting with fellow travellers.

A fun day out. Now I’m off to find myself some coriander

Chiang Mai.

Chiang Mai is an eleven-hour bus journey from Bangkok. Whilst it would be untrue to say that Chiang Mai is ‘off the beaten track,’ as it does attract a large number of tourists, it is fair to say that most backpackers in Thailand do not stray any further north than Bangkok. This is a real shame, as for me, Chiang Mai is the best backpacker destination in Thailand.

Certainly to the naked eye there is nothing special about it. It’s not the prettiest city in the world. In fact I’d go so far as to even say it’s a pretty ugly town and lacks all the characteristics that you associate with Thailand. It doesn’t party like Bangkok and it doesn’t have the blue seas of Kao Tao, or the golden beaches of Krabi. It’s the welcome respite from the usual backpacker attractions that makes Chiang Mai what it is.

Chiang Mai is the town where people come to chill. There are endless ways to spend your days there: from taking Thai cooking courses; trekking in the nearby jungle; mountain biking; and the famous Flight of the Gibbon, which has the world’s largest zip line. Then there is the food. There are more dishes on the average menu here than in any other Thai destination, including many that you simply cannot get anywhere else, like the super yummy Khao Soi soup. Not a day passed without my trying a new dish and washing it down with a fresh fruit juice or wheat grass from my favorite café—the wonderfully named Juicy 4 U.

It’s incredibly easy to come here and detoxify and leave feeling healthy and full of energy. Being a vegetarian has never been so easy. That’s not to say you cannot live it up here, with a host of cool bars and clubs, including several mobile bars popping up all over the place, Chiang Mai has it all.

So how did I spend my days? Well after the craziness of India, and the physical tests of Nepal, I was more than happy to come and sit here and do nothing but eat myself into a healthy goodness coma. However, I spent my time between taking Thai cooking courses (more soon) and taking up yoga, which I have meant to do for a long time. I was a little apprehensive at how I was going to be at it in my first class, but I really wasn’t that bad and learned that it’s not all about who’s the most flexible and more to do with where you are and not where you want to be. Despite the fact that I hurt like hell after my three-day course I really enjoyed it and look forward to taking it up on a full time basis once this trip is over.

One of the other great things about Thailand in general is how cheap Thai massages are. Having enjoyed the odd couple of hundred over the years I thought it was about time I learnt how it was done and enrolled in the Nittaya Family massage course. The course was instructed by Nittaya herself, who despite being nervous at first, was a lot of fun and made the course a bit of a giggle as well as highly valuable. I was surprised into how much of a work out it is to be the masseuse. Given the state of my chosen profession and my lack of passion for it, I’m thinking if things get desperate in NZ, I now have something to fall back on. Working the hostels and giving Thai massages at a backpacker rate of course!

I met several nice people during my time here. Mainly through a wonderful woman named Boom who I met through my cooking course. Most nights we meet for dinner, with her bringing along someone new every night who she had met during her classes. It led to a nice eclectic bunch of people getting together most days and after the isolation of India it was nice to be hanging out with some new people and having the occasional boozy evening.

Someone recently asked me, ‘What type of traveler are you?’ I told them I had only been drunk once so far this trip. It simply has not been that type of trip and, to be honest, I am quite pleased about that and have enjoyed doing and learning new things rather than spending my time sleeping off hangovers. I’ve been there, done that, and I would feel a little sad chasing former glories. So the answer to their question is, ‘I’m the sort of traveler who wants to develop as a person,’ and there is no better place to do that than Chiang Mai.

The biggest compliment I can pay Chaing Mai is that I could easily see myself living here one day. I really fancy it. It has everything I would ever want. I just need to figure out exactly how I do it.

I spent eleven nights here, I did not want to leave, and if it was not for a promise to meet a friend in Bangkok I would still be there. I don’t need to be too sad; I will be back for sure. It will be interesting to see in what capacity!

On the lead-up to my trip I was constantly told India would be the cheapest place I would ever visit and it turned out to be true! So when I decided to go to Nepal I must admit to not looking forward to the prospect of having to spend some “real money”. I knew a few people who had been there recently and they assured me it was cheap. However, people’s opinion of “cheap” differs so here is a backpacker’s guide to how cheap Nepal is.

At the time of my visit, the exchange rate of 1 GBP equaled 120 NPR. I will put the cost in both.

Accommodation

The price of budget accommodation varied from area to area. It was possible to find a room at anything around 400-600 NPR (3/5gbp). It is hard to find a single room so if you are travelling on your own it is fairly pricey. Splitting the cost with someone makes all the difference. For that price you will get a double bed, private bathroom (hot water not guaranteed) and a fan. In peak tourist season in Nepal air con is not necessary. In fact, neither was a fan as it was freezing!

Food

Like in all countries it is much cheaper to eat the local dishes in Nepal. Unless you have eaten veggie momos while you are here you have not been to Nepal as far as I am concerned. A typical meal of a main curry dish, rice and naan should cost you about 300 NPR (2.5gbp). As in India, Western food is easy enough to get but fairly expensive. A trip to the amazing Pumpernickel German bakery will set you back 150 NPR (1.5 gbp) for just a bagel and coffee, but it is worth it.

Alcohol

Unlike India, alcohol is easy to find and pretty much any type you like is available. Most beers are European and slightly expensive at 200 NPR (1.75 gbp). Cocktails tended to start at 300 NPR (2.5gbp).

Water/Soft drinks

A litre of water will cost a mere 10 NPR (15/20p gbp) and depending on where you are a soft drink with your meal costs anything from 50-70 NPR (0.4-0.6 gbp).

Travel

There are no trains in Nepal so all journeys are made via bus or shuttle taxi. Those who like me are of a scared disposition should always take the shuttle taxi!

The journey from the Indian border to Kathmandu (six hours) cost 560 rupees (4.60gbp). The local bus would have cost 400 rupees (3.3 gbp). However, if you ever see a story in your newspaper about Nepal it will normally contain the words “bus”, “mountain”, and “dead”. They don’t even bother removing the wrecked vehicles from the side of the mountain. It is probably a ploy to try to scare tourists into paying the extra 160 rupees.

A journey between the two major cities in Nepal: Kathmandu to Pohkara, takes seven hours and costs 500 rupees (4.60gbp).

That’s the basic information that you need to know for Nepal. It’s up to you what you wish to spend your money on. From trips to souvenirs there are endless ways to spend your cash in Nepal, the main cost being on trekking in the Himalayas and buying fake North Face gear. Here’s a brief insight on how I spent my money and the costs involved:

- Poon Hill Trek (six days)……………20,475 NPR / 175 GBP

- Thermal clothing for trek…………… 800 NPR / 6.6 GBP

- Flask for trek ………………… 300 NPR/ 3.3 GBP

- Thermal gloves for trek…………………………… 150 NPR/ 1.3 GBP

- Thermal socks for trek ……………………… 200 NPR/ 1.8 GBP

- Cashmere scarves……………………………… 375 NPR / 3.2 GBP

- DVD box set …………………. 500 NPR / 4.2 GBP

- Hour of internet………………… 75 NPR/0.60p

In a whole it’s fair to say that Nepal is the perfect budget backpacker location, probably more perfect that India in a lot of ways. In fact, it’s the perfect holiday location regardless of the budget. If you have it, you could spend a lot of money in Nepal and not just on trekking gear.

Tags: Backpacking Nepal, Kathmandu

Somewhere in between xmas and New Year and my marathon blogging session from the Poon Hill trek, my website had its 100,000th hit. Not too bad as I only started the website three months ago. Whilst the website is only in its infancy and will hopefully evolve into greater things in the near future, I’d like to thank everyone for their support, especially those I have never met but are just interested in travel adventures.

One of the more interesting things about hosting your own website is the stats and figures that are provided to you by your host, such as who’s looking at your website to the origin of country. It was from this info that I know that hit 100,000 was from someone living in Croydon. I certainly don’t know anyone from Croydon so if it was you, drop me a line and I’ll send you a postcard.

One of the more interesting services that my host provides is a list of the all the keywords that have been typed into to Google, which has then directed someone to your site. Now I would love to think my biggest draw would be travel, backpacking or even an individual location that I have blogged on. Sadly it seems my biggest keyword hit is Japanese Girls in Delhi. In a blog from Delhi I reported that there were a couple of Japanese girls in my hotel who never left the reception and from that I have had more than two thousand individual hits from people looking for Japanese girls in Delhi. So it seems my biggest appeal to Google are sex tourists. Not exactly what I set out for.

If I have learnt one thing so far as a blogger, it is that you do not piss off alternative medicine fans. The blog on my one day Reiki Master session is by far and away the most looked at item on my website. I can only presume it was copy and pasted on many Reiki message boards and in turn outraged Reiki fans seemed to descend on my website to send me hate mail by the bucket load. I found this quite amusing at first, but the other day I alone had 74 spam emails sent to me by Reiki people. I will soon print a positive article of ear candling in a hope you win back the alternative medicine crowd.

One of the features I like is seeing what countries my website is most popular in.

Here is my current top 10.

1. United States
2. Great Britain
3. Russia
4. Taiwan
5. Sweden
6. Australia
7. Germany
8. China
9. Singapore
10. Holland

Big in Taiwan! Yay.

Thanks to everyone for checking out my site. Hopefully the next three months will prove as fun to write about as the last ones.

Day Five was a short day also. Once again downhill, but with the aid of my ipod and some of my favorite albums of this year it was a little better than the previous day. I was a little disappointed that we did not walk a little further, but understood it once Basu led me to my accommodation for the night. A bunch of log cabins all joined together, each with their own little porch and rocking chair and a small garden with all sorts of veggies and herbs. Teetering on the edge of the cliff I could look up at the blue sky, feel the heat of the daytime sun, and yet see snow covered mountains everywhere whilst looking down into the valleys and watching the river flow. I had to stop myself into breaking into ‘Doe a deer’ every time I looked around. Simply stunning scenery. I was very happy just sitting there reading my book and taking in the surroundings.

At night I found my friends staying in a guesthouse not too far from me and went up to visit them. On the way up I stopped to watch the young porters performing a dance round the bonfire. It was their tour party’s last night, which was made up of entirely elderly Japanese people, so they were keen to leave something in their memory. It was tip day the next day. To watch these teenagers bouncing all over the place showing such energy and laughter after the hard day’s work they put it in really was hard to believe, but made me smile.

Up next was the Japanese who were less sprightly, but put the effort in all the same. Easily the best Japanese version of ‘If your happy and you know it’ I’ve ever heard. I mock a little but if I am 60+ and still dancing round the fire on the last night of a Himalayan trek, I’ll be very happy.

Somehow or other I found myself dragged into it all, with all my friends there too, dancing round the fire, with Japanese grandmothers, teenage porters and drunken guides. It was the type of random evening that money could not buy.

Day six was a lovely walk down the mountain. It took a mere three hours, and could have been quicker, but I was in no rush for this trip to finish. No words or pictures I take express the beauty I saw on the walk back. One of things I struggle with is to enjoy what I have now. I’m always looking forward to the next thing, but on this occasion I wanted to soak up every last little bit of the trek. A wonderful experience that has filled me with nothing but love for Nepal and it’s breathtaking landscape.

It has also given me a taste for trekking. I really got into this trek in a big way. So hopefully there will be more of the same in New Zealand and when I return home to Scotland one day. But it will all be in preparation for my new goal that I would like to achieve in the next ten years. It would seem a little silly a few weeks ago, but my guide assures me I have the fitness for the 13 days it would take, and now that I have done this, I am determined to return to Nepal to trek up to Mount Everest.

Who’s with me?

Tags: Backpacking Nepal, Poon Hill Trek

As I was leaving Ghorepani the sun was now fully out and there was not a cloud in the very very blue sky. With several snow topped mountains all round me, I simply couldn’t walk thirty seconds without turning round to take it all in and smiling. Then another thirty seconds turning round quickly just to make sure it was all still there. It never failed to fill me with joy every time I looked. It was roughly at this point that I decided that this trek was the best experience I have had on the road.

This was also the day that I discovered that I am much better at going uphill than down. I have terrible balance and took every step with a little trepidation. Such was my lack of pace, that people who were only seeing me as a spec in their horizon on the way up were now making me eat dust on the way back down. I was even overtaken by a bunch of Japanese tourists! The shame. My guide informed me that Japanese tourists are any guide’s dream. ‘Weak in the heart, strong in the wallet.’ Made me chuckle.

Day four got off to a bad start. Not only an awful 4:30am start, (I didn’t even know there was a 4.30am) but I had gotten too hot during the night, slipped off my thermal trousers, then left half of my left leg out of my sleeping bag and woke up to the sensation that my upper knee was missing. It remained like that for a good two hours.

The sole purpose of getting up at that God-awful hour was to be able to watch the sunrise at the top of Poon Hill Mountain. To say the walk uphill for thirty minutes in the pitch dark was rough for me was an understatement. I’m a fit person and had breezed up the highest climb the previous day. But anyone who knows me will understand that I do not like even talking first thing in the morning till about 10am, so you can imagine how awful I felt to be climbing to 3210 meters at 5am. Several times I had to stop in fear of vomiting, and when I got to the top I lay on the ground on my stomach like a snake. I felt better when a couple, who the week previous had gone to Everest base camp, came up and were both weasing and gasping for air just as much as me.

After I finally got my breath back and assured the previous night’s noodle soup was not going to revisit me, I started to take in my surroundings. The entire Annapurna mountain range was surrounding me in perfect panorama vision. Then slowly but surely the mountains crept out of the darkness, providing me with a view that will live with me forever. I will never pretend to be a good writer and I simply could not do this sight justice in this blog. You will just have to check out my pictures but here’s a little example of how good it was.

We spent a good two hours up there taking it all in, then posing for pictures and generally having some fun whilst staring at the 10th, 8th, and 6th highest mountains in the world. I decided to start taking some of my clothes off to test how cold I was. Not an experience I would wish on my worst enemy.

On the way back down to Ghorepani, I walked down with a girl, Jen, from Edinburgh. It’s extremely rare to meet other Scottish people backpacking, for reasons I will never understand, as Ireland has a similar population yet they get everywhere. Feeling all healthy and full of life with my love of the great outdoors restored, we started talking about Scottish treks and outdoor activities. It really hit home to me that I have done literally nothing in Scotland and made me quite ashamed. Whilst I have spent the majority of the past few years not living there, I did spend an entire year there last year and still never went up to the highlands and islands. Of course you are always keen to explore more foreign shores, but I don’t have an excuse as I spent most of my weekends loitering around Edinburgh doing the same things, in the same bars, with the same people. I did not see a return to Scotland anytime soon, but after this trek I feel a deep desire to go home and see why everyone raves about what my own neck of the woods has to offer.

I returned back to the guesthouse for a nice warm cup of tea and a huddle round the fire with the rest of my group. I got chatting to a middle aged Australian women who I’d spotted up at the Poon Hill peak with her very young daughter and made a mental note to talk to her when I got the chance. It turned out her daughter was only eleven. What a wonderfully cool thing for a girl of that age to do, but even more so, well done to her mum for bringing her along. A lot of people use their kids as an excuse for not going on more adventurous holidays or locations, but it’s nonsense. It just means they won’t go out of their way to entertain them more. It’s much easier in Spain or Greece to send them to the beach or the kids’ club. Not only that, but what an experience for the child. Plus, she’s surrounded by travellers and locals, giving her a taste of adventure, as well as opening her eyes to the rest of the world. When you’re eleven, no one exists outside you and your family, so seeing how children in Nepal and India the same age as her have to live she could not have failed to grow as a person.

The mum actually impressed me even more once I got my gushing praise out of the way. She told me that her school had kicked up fuss about the mum taking her out of school for six weeks and threatened to report her to the local education authorities. This is the only time of the year the mother could get off and told the school that she will learn and remember more from her six weeks in India and Nepal than anything they will ever teach her at school. As she was telling this her daughter was sitting on the other side of the room with a bunch of local guides and a few groups of many different nationalities, all gushing over her and telling her how cool she was for getting to the top of the mountain. I wanted to hug her mum. She’s my new hero.

We were supposed to set off at nine but I knew we had a shorter day ahead of us and did not see the point of leaving so early. Especially since we got up at 4am! I told a slight white lie to my guide about having a stomach bug and returned two hours later fresh and ready to go.

Tags: Backpacking Nepal, Ghorepani, Poon Hill Trek