Chad and Catherine's Adventures in London

and more Kathmandu

July 2010

Day two in Kathmandu.  We woke at 5:45 am and met downstairs to head back to the airport for our 45 minute flight to see Mount Everest.  Allyson downloaded a chapter from a tour book on Kathmandu and we’d both read in extensively.  It never mentioned this tour.  However, with all of the people trying to pedal you anything the minute you stepped out of the hotel, this tour actually seemed like something very cool to do.  We hooked up with a Brazilian woman named Valaria – visiting on business from Washington DC where she works for the World Bank – and the three of us found ourselves on a 16-seater prop plane taking off over the city of Kathmandu and headed north east toward the Himalayans.  The trip was amazing. 

After take off, we climbed over green mountains (the ones I was looking for yesterday) above the clouds and within 20 minutes, we were staring at the tips of not just as the famous mountain, but four or five of its closest neighbors.  My favorite was actually “holy mountain” which is about 23k feet - - but no one is allowed to climb.  Totally worth the money paid for the tour.

View of Mt. Everest:

We went back to the hotel simply to scarf down breakfast (tried some really tangy Yak cheese), pack our bags and grab another taxi to try to see as much as possible in the four remaining hours we have in Kathmandu.  A private car for the four hours with transfer to the airport was $70 split between two of us… and totally worth it. Unlike our taxis from yesterday, this one was actually a little bit bigger (think Honda Accord) and had air conditioning.  Instead of breathing in exhaust fumes and all of the *wonderful* smells of the city, we rolled up the windows and sincerely appreciated A/C. 

Our stop this morning was the Swayambhunath temple on the east side of the city… a sprawling mix of Buddhist and Hindi icons and statues tucked up into the side of a mountain.  Once again, we beat our way through throngs of peddlers and begging women with babies and started climbing up a VERY steep staircase to the top of the “monkey temple”.  We were not disappointed.  About half way up, we came across our first family of monkeys completed with about 6 little babies.  Allyson and I were busy taking photos when she got a little love “bump” from one of the larger ones.  Nothing serious, but enough to make us back up a little and use a little more zoom :)

The earliest recorded history of this temple was in 460 AD … and in the 14^th century, Mughal invaders from Bengal broke open the “stupa” in search of gold.  The locals restored it and continued to expand the complex over the following centuries.   We wandered through the complex, taking in the bright colors, waving prayer flags, trying hard to breath through our mouths to avoids some of the pungent smells!  After seeing many churches and cathedrals in Europe, it was really interesting to take in such a different religious setting and architecture.

With the time remaining, we stopped through a neighborhood called Lazimpat which is known for having several fair trade stores and galleries.  There really isn’t a sure way to determine if those cool masks in the square are made in Nepal or really made in China and shipped in to sell to tourists!  We wanted to stop at some of the fair trade stores to ensure we were really getting local items as well as that the money would go back to the local craftswomen (and men!).  We saw a range of silk scarves and pashminas, masks, Hindi statues, ceramics, prayer wheels, ornate beaded textiles, jackets, beads made from yak bones, paintings and woven mats.  We only had time to browse three stores but really enjoyed the experience. 

By one o’clock, we were back at the airport – sweaty, dirty, sticky and ready to begin our series of flights through Delhi down to Bangalore.  I took a few minutes to reflect on our twenty-four hour trip to Nepal and briefly wondered why I hadn’t simply relaxed for two days in a nice hotel in Delhi or Bangalore.  Well, life is just too short.  And like my friend Kim Horner says, “You can sleep when you die!”   Kathmandu is a crazy, dirty, amazing place… and I’m very glad I went.  

More pictures in the album below:

Singapore

Chad and I were talking the other day about how much we need a vacation.  I don't mean traveling... which is what I consider most of our holidays - - roaming around, rapidly taking in the sights, exploring, hiking, diving, etc.  I mean a sit on a beach and do absolutely nothing for three or four days holiday. Chad mentioned he thought we did just have a holiday... to Singapore.

 

Well, I wouldn't call the stress of running around an unknown city trying to figure out if you are going to move yourself around the world to live there a holiday.  But, we did get a chance to do a little bit of unwinding and it WAS an adult only trip.  Made me remember that I did take a few pictures that I thought others might enjoy of the town of Singapore.

In fact, many westerners do stop over in Singapore when traveling in Asia for vacation.  It is a hot spot for lots of Asian travelers as it is so modern and westernized... and has great shopping.  Since we weren't really viewing it from a tourist perspective, it's difficult to comments on what that vantage point.  What I can say is that Singapore is a vibrant, pulsating, modern Asian city.  Here are some photos for you to enjoy.

Link to the slide show

Szechenyi Baths

Most of you know me as a self professed, type-A personality who doubles as a massive planner.  Therefore, going on vacation with me generally means I've read one or two guide books in advance and have a packed agenda thought through, including contingency plans for if it rains, etc.  After all, I would never want to leave a place feeling like I missed something big and important! :)  Clearly, this is pre-motherhood.  I've chilled out considerably and learned that you just don't accomplish as much with a toddler in tow.  I fought this for a while, but now I've adapted and understand if you just pick one thing you want to do each day (verses 17), you will not only make that happen, but can find great satisfaction in just focusing on the joy of that one activity.

For our first full day in Budapest, that activity was the Szechenyi Baths in City Park.  According to my favorite travel guide writer - Rick Steves - this is THE top attraction in Budapest.  The city evidently has 123 natural hot-water springs and some two-dozen official thermal baths.  The baths are actually operated by the same government system (left over from communism) and get this - are part of the health care system in this country!  I'm in heaven.

 

There are fancier baths in town, but Szechenyi is where the locals go and is also family friendly.  So we found ourselves soaking with the "Magyar" locals in this massive complex.  The day couldn't have been more beautiful and the people watching was at peak.  I even saw two rather large, grandfather-age men in tight black speedos walk up and warmly bump bellies with one another as a friendly greeting - no hand shake, no hug - just a little belly rub between friends.  Hilarious.  What a mix of people - fine young things clearly on the make, couples, grandparents, even chess players were all soaking up the sunshine and different mineral waters.  In our photos, you'll see massive outdoor pools.  There were also about 9 indoor pools - from cold dunk to massively hot - all crammed with people. 

William had a blast.  He attends swim lessons weekly at home, but this was an entirely new adventure.  There was a lazy river, spouting fountains and jets, wading pools and lots of friendly people that really found him entertaining.  We were there for about 3 hours total and he was simply wiped after all the hard playing.  Chad took him back to our apartment and Margaux and I had thirty minute oriental massages to top off our bath experience - for less that $20 each! 

Thanks Rick Steves.  This was our top experience in Budapest.

Greenwich, England

The weather this past weekend was amazing. Simply amazing.  On Sunday morning, we decided to take  a day trip to Greenwich which is just to the southeast of the City of London, right on the Thames River. Surprisingly, it only took us about 45 minutes on the tube to arrive right in the heart of this beautiful and historic waterfront town.

Greenwich is packed full of history.  It is best known for two things: (1) it's significant naval history and (2) the birthplace of Greenwich Mean Time which we all know as "GMT".  Much of the House of Tudor originates from Greenwich (see plaque below) and it was awe inspiring to stand at the "Royal Steps" where Royalty from hundreds of years back would have stepped off their various elaborate boats from a trip from "the continent", Windsor castle or even the Tower of London.

The Royal Steps

 

House of Tudor:

 
 

Our full Greenwich photo album: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/TrIyVk2XiZVnP7qnqIlrKg?feat=directlink

From Greenwich

More info on Greenwich from wikipedia:

Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is a term originally referring to mean solar time at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich. It is commonly used in practice to refer to Coordinated Universal Time(UTC) when this is viewed as a time zone, especially by bodies connected with the United Kingdom, such as the BBC World Service,^[20] the Royal Navy, the Met Officeand others, although strictly UTC is an atomic time scale which only approximates GMT with a tolerance of 0.9 second. It is also used to refer to Universal Time (UT), which is a standard astronomical concept used in many technical fields and is referred to by the phrase Zulu time.

As the United Kingdom grew into an advanced maritime nation, British mariners kept at least one chronometer on GMT in order to calculate their longitude from the Greenwich meridian, which was by convention considered to have longitude zero degrees (this convention was internationally adopted in the International Meridian Conference of 1884). Note that the synchronization of the chronometer on GMT did not affect shipboard time itself, which was still solar time. But this practice, combined with mariners from other nations drawing from Nevil Maskelyne's method of lunar distances based on observations at Greenwich, eventually led to GMT being used worldwide as a reference time independent of location. Most time zones were based upon this reference as a number of hours and half-hours "ahead of GMT" or "behind GMT".

Wadi Mujib

It seems a little strange to actually set an alarm while on vacation.  However, getting up at 6:15 am was totally worth it to hike the beautiful Wadi Mujib Reserve.  This reserve was created in 1987 by the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature and protects over 300 species of plants and most notably, is a breeding ground for the endangered Ibex.  10 years ago, there were only 20 Ibex in Jordan.  Now, there are over 400 in the Reserve. 

The Reserve is only open a few months of the year... and when open, the majority of the trails allow a maximum of 25 hikers per day.  We made a reservation several weeks back to hike on the Canyon Trail which is known as a "wet hike", requiring the ability to swim and also that each person wears a life jacket for a good portion of the hike.  The first hour and a half was straight up into the mountains through amazing terrain.

 
Just when we thought it would never end, we started descending and came right up to a wonderful river running through the mountains.  This is where the "wet" seriously came in.  We started hiking into the siq, which is the very narrow canyon the river flows through... and probably has for hundreds if not thousands of years.  The canyon walls at times were 300 or 400 feet tall.  And at times, we were wading with the flow of the river up to our thighs.  They told us that the water level was actually low for this time of year, and often hikers were literally swimming for the second half of the hike.  Then we came up to a huge waterfall - 65-70 feet high.  Only one way down folks.

 

Of the twenty-five of us, Chad went first.  I quickly followed - repelling down through two separate streams of blasting, cold water into the river below.  It was exhilarating!  The worst part was having to wait about another hour for everyone else to come down, one-by-one.  We finished the hike sliding down smaller waterfalls and continuing to hike downstream to the edge of the reserve.  We rested in the sunshine, drying out and enjoying the feeling of an amazing experience of this beautiful and unique place.