Backpacker Diaries

July 2
Greetings all,

I'm back in the Khao San road in Bangkok checking my mail again. This street is pretty nuts - its backpacker land all the way with every second shop an internet cafe or an agent selling cheap flights, mixed in with a bazaar of Thai food-stalls and street sellers. We're staying in a room here for about 3.50 each.

A pretty chilled out day today. After showering I went down for a Thai massage. There's parlours everywhere here. For an hour and a half she went to town on me, and I felt great afterwards. Its a pressure point massage, similar to shiatsu, where they stretch you out and work the meridians to get the chi flowing. Pretty painful at times - they use everything from full-nelson headlocks to standing on your legs while they pull your arms out of your sockets to stretch you out, but it is very good. It sorted my back out, and at 4 quid for an hour and a half its well worth it. I reckon I'll be a regular! Back tomorrow anyway. Had a Thai meal then for 20 pence. Not bad.

Starting to get into the frame of mind now for travelling but its a big reajustment from back home. We spent an hour on a boat touring the rivers of Bangkok yesterday, and it was only when watching the shanty houses on stilts interspersed with palm trees that I really started to feel I'm away. Up until that we'd been visting the more affluent parts such as temples, which is great but less exotic.

The tuk-tuks here are a real laugh. They are those 3 wheeled taxis you see in movies. They can be very cheap when you bargin them - yesterday 4 of us took one for about 2 miles for 80 pence - but first you need to tell them 20 times that you are not interested in visiting every tourist attraction in Bangkok with a stop over at 10 different shops!

Pat and myself have spent the last few days with two Irish girls that we met off the plane when we arrived, Caoimhe and Ciara. They're heading south so we're probably going to travel with them for a bit.

Tonight myself and Pat are going to the sports stadium to watch some professional Muai Thai (kick boxing). Its supposed to be a real spectacle, though the girls won't be along - a bit violent for them!
Then off south tomorrow night on a sleeper train to Chumpion, and a 7 hour boat trip out to the islands. We'll probably stay on Kho Tao or Ko Samui island for a week and get the scuba in.

Thats it for now
Slan

July 9
Hi all,

We've been on the island of Kao Tao for the last 4 or 5 days, off the eastern coast of South Thailand. Just finished the PADI open water scuba course. Its a great place to do it here as its a lot cheaper than back home, plus you get to dive in 30 degree water with tropical fish everywhere! The island itself is magnificent - the classic steriotype of the paradise island. Sandy beaches lined with palm trees, azure blue seas and people just chilling. The whole place is very replaxed. I've been saving on my laundry bills by living in my swimming togs and shorts for the last week. I haven't worn a shirt in nearly 3 days. Been taking it easy with the sun though, so haven't managed to burn myself yet - slow but steady tan. The resturants and bars are right on the coast and none of them have walls - just a roof. One of the resurants shows movies every night - the last 3 have been 'The spy who shagged me', 'star wars episode 1' and 'the matrix'. All legal copies no doubt! Each evening the sun goes down at 7, so everyone ends up on the beach around small fires, drinking a beer. Chilling out is very much the order of the day.
The scuba itself was grand. Saw barracuda, groupers, bat fish, rays and a host of other tropial fish, so that's more interesting than doing the course in a swimming pool! I'm staying on another 3 or 4 days to do the advanced open water course, as its only an additional 5 dives. With that licence I'll be sorted for diving over the year. Pat is just logging more fun dives in the meantime - he'll get about 10 in. Taking a break from diving tomorrow (seeing as its such a hard life!), so I won't start the next course until Sunday. Tomorrow is just relax, get myself a Thai massage and catch up on some reading.

I can safely say I haven't thought about work once in the last two weeks. Starting to get used to this life of leisure. You should all try it!
That said, these first few weeks have been fairly touristy, as we were in Bangkok and then doing scuba. After leaving Kao Tao we'll try and go a bit more 'native'. Won't have much choice - the budget can't support a year of scuba courses. If I'm not careful I'll have to get a job! Can't have that.

Not really sure where we'll go next - we'll play it by ear. Hope you're all keeping well at home and its always nice to get the emails with the news (though no jokes or attachments please!).

Talk to you later
Ciaran

July 14 Hi all,

Back again. Myself and Pat are still on the island of Koh Tao, in Thailand. I finished up the second scuba course on Monday but we're staying around a few days as this island is a great place to hang about on. We spent our time in Bangkok running around looking at temples and we were scuba diving for 7 straight days in Koh Toa, so now we're just taking a few days to relax and down the pace before moving on.
The scuba around here is good, with great visibility and a lot to see. Each day we grab our gear and pile on to the back of one of three jeeps, and then off along the 'road' to the pier. The road is more of a dirt track and you spend the journey just hanging on for dear life. All the tanks are on the boat which is cool - no lugging around of heavy gear. Saw some large barracuda feeding on a night dive. The biggest fish I say was a grouper of about 1.5 metres. On the second last dive we came up through thousands of jelly fish - couldn'd avoid the little bastards. I got stung 9 times, but the stings go away withing the hour. My only mishap on the diving was getting too close to a sea urchin when swimming over up a rock face - I brushed it with my leg and got about 10 of his spines in my calf for my trouble. Still haven't gotten them out yet.
All in all the scuba is cool enough but it doesn't really grab me in the same way as say mountains. Nice to do but I much prefer skin diving to scuba.

The first of the monsoons arrived three days ago, coming o0ut of nowhere. One moment the weather is fantastic and two minutes later there's a mad wind with torrential rain. We got caught out in it on the last dive, and came back through swelling seas with waves breaking over the boat - great craic but there were a few sick stomachs after.

Yesterday was our first totally chill day then. Just hung around on the beach - found myself a hammock and read for a while. Then spent an hour or so playing volleyball. Today will be more of the same and then we'll head off south probably tomorrow.

I've started back meditating again, along with regular stretches and exercises to see the auras. It was nice just to spend some time in the hammock yesterday observing the auras around the trees and plant-life.

Next stop was supposed to be Krabi to try rock-climbing but Pat is still having problems with his ankle, having twisted it last month. So we'll probably just work our way down through Malaysia towards Sumatra. By the time we hit Sumatra his ankle should be back to normal and we'll be able to try some trekking.

I'm doing a little work on my Thai but haven't really had to use it yet - a few greetings is as far as I've gone. Reading up now on Thai language and history.

Food here is good and haven't had any problems yet. Even the mosquitos are leaving us alone.

That's about all for now. I hear the weather is great back home. You'll be happy to know that its pissing rain here right now - though I expect that'll pass within the hour.

July 19 1999 Malaysia - Penang island

Back again. We've been in north-west Malaysia for the last three days, in Georgetown on the island of Penang. Haven't really gotten up to much - just a bit of exploring. Coming down from Koh Tao in Thailand was a bit of a journey, and customs at the boarder was really tight. The biggest concern though was just keeping an eye on the driver as he was close to nodding off at the wheel several times! Myself and Pat took turns to watch him.

Georgetown itself is not bad. Its a real melting-pot of cultures. Along with the standard Islamic Malays there are large Chinese, Hindu, Sheik and Rastafarian communities. Especallially Chinese though. Big mix of architechure too - mostly Chinese and British Victorian colonial.

Haven't really done much these last few days. 2 days ago we met 2 Australian army guys and went on the beer all day with them, while we played pool. They beat us 6-5, on the black-ball. We've been drinking very little since the trip started so that was our first session in a while.

Tomorrow mornng we leave for the Cameron Highlands, which is a hill station in the centre of peninsular Malaysia. A chance to get away from the city. I'm hoping to go trekking in a place called Teman Negara soon, before we leave for Sumatra, but its a bit awkward to get to. We'll probably have to stop-off in KL (Kuala Lumpar) to arrange transport. But they do have a lot of jungle trekking there.

Pat is still having problems with his ankle though, so he's not ready for a long jungle trek yet. We'll do a few short ones in the Cameron Highlands but if I do a longer trek in Teman Negara then we'll have to split up for a week or two. Don't have to decide for a bit yet.

The Cameron Highlands are a bit remote, so I'm not sure if they'll have email. But we'll almost certainly be passing through KL in about a week.

Aug 3 1999 KL

Back again. Just arrived in KL (Kuala Lumpar) so still in Malaysia.

There wasn't a lot happening on the island of Penang so we headed inland to the Cameron Highlands about 12 days ago. Its basically a hill station at 1500m, so its about 10 degrees cooler there - a nice change! Jungle treks are the thing to do in the Cameron Highlands, but its pretty tame trekking. You base yourself in the town and so return there each evening. Its not bad though - you only have to walk 10 minutes before getting into the jungle. There are 'paths' winding through the forests but some of them are such that you might as well just be slahing through the vines. Not well indicated at all so just as well we brought compasses with us - without them you have little sense of direction unless you happen to see the sun. In fact we were completely overprepared for the treks. As well as state of the art hiking boots we also had medic kit (better stocked than a first-aid kit!), compass, whistle, swiss-army knifes, rain gear and litres of water. Still, no harm in carrying it as it weighs almost nothing.
We took it really easy for the first trek as Pat is still having problems with his ankle, but the next few treks were better - 5 or 6 hours through pretty tough terrain. Guaranteed to get a sweat going. Didn't see much animal life though - one small snake and a lot of birds was about it.
Took out the mountain bikes for one day. Good countryside to cycle through and the roads are great, but we had a nice 12 km continuous climb back to the town to finish - oh the joys of being in the mountains!

After all that hard work we reckoned we needed some chill-out time, so off to the beach. Hard as it may be to believe, we'd only had 2 or 3 chill days to date, as up 'til then we'd been running around seeing temples or doing scuba. Very tiring! So off to a small island called Pangkor on the east coast. We'd only intended staying a few days but the beach was great so we stayed a full week. Did absolutely nothing for the week except swim.
Met two Irish girls, Laurna and Pamela, the day after we arrived. Spent much of the week with them and with an Irish couple we met on the day we arrived. Between the 6 of us we constituted nearly half the travellers there - it was very quiet!

I spent some serious time in the water. There was a small uninhabited island about a half mile from shore, so I'd swim out there most days. Pat came out with me just the once, as he was trying to avoid getting too much sun. True to his ambition to return home just as white as when he left, he swam over wearing long-sleaved shirt, shorts, socks and gloves. And he still got burnt! I'm tanning well though so haven't had any such problem, and have been lucky enough not to get any sun-burn at all.
The region between the island and the beach has good coral at 3-4 metres, so a lot of time was spent skin-diving there too. Viz was only 2 or 3 metres, but there was a lot of tropical fish to be seen. The biggest problem when swimming was jelly-fish - gauranteed to pass a few on any decent swim. Always avoided them thanks to the diving mask I brought. Most of them where medium size, but I saw two monsters of about 2 and a half feet diameter. I'd never seen jellyfish even close to that size before.
A typical day would be to swim over to the island and then either chill on the beach with the girls or chill back in the apartment, playing chess with Pat. The chess is taken very seriously, and 2 hours for a game is not unusual. Mid-afternoon is spent avoiding the sun which is very strong at that time. I'd usually spend a bit of time each day looking over Indonesian. Then back for a swim before dinner and a few beers, followed invariable by a few beers on the beach around 11pm and usually a midnight swim.

There was another island further out, about a mile from shore, but I only swam that once.

So, completely chilled-out now and ready to hit the road again. We'll go from KL to the port of Melaka, from where we can catch a ferry to Sumatra. Don't expect to spend much more time in Malaysia but we'll see. We'll take a closer look at the KL twin towers tomorrow (tallest building in the world) and stock up on a few books.

So, that's generally life in Malaysia. Food is good and I'm being forced to expand my palate to a range of strange and exotic foods. Flies are a pest sometimes but we take care to avoid eating at rock-bottom resturants so no problems so far. Getting a fair bit of exercise so getting fitter and that Guinness-belly so lovingly crafted in my year in Galway is slowly but surely fading away.

Weather here is good. In Thailand you could usually get away with 2 showers a day but its been hotter and more humid in Malaysia. Its not too bad though, as we avoided the strong heat in the highlands and when on the beach its always easy to cool down.

I hear the weather has been great back home? July in Galway must have been pretty good with the Arts festival and all.

Hope you are all enjoying the good weather back home.
Slan libh
Ciaran

Aug 21 1999 Living with the Mentawai

Just back from a jungle trek which was pretty cool, so catching up on the news from home.

So, last global email was sent from KL. Taking up from there...

Spent a couple of days in KL (near 3 weeks back). Basically just a a big city, on the lines of America - big skyscrapers everywhere. Called in to the KL Twin Towers, the tallest buildings in the world. In fairness the Twin Towers in New York do look a bit taller but I much prefer the KL towers - the architecture is much weirder. Finally caught the new Star Wars movie in the cinema which was good.
Down then to the town of Melaka in South Malaysia where we had our first mishap. We were walking past a bar at about 6 in the evening and decided to pop in for a 'quick pint'. 10 pints and one blackout later we stumbled home to later discover that Pat's video camera had been left behind. Major bummer - he had bought it specially to make a video documentary of the trip, and we lost all of our footage to date. Over a 1000 pounds of digital camera - ouch. So only photos of the trip now I'm afraid.

Got the ferry to Sumatra (Indonesia) about 2 weeks back - talk about a nightmare journey. The inefficency here has to be seen to be believed. The first things you notice coming to Indonesia from Malaysia are that the bugs seem bigger, the 'roads' are very poor and the country in general is less affluent. I prefer it though.

We went straight to the hill town of Bukittinggi in west Sumatra, just south of the equator. Its a pretty relaxed place where trekking is the thing to do.
Went to see a bull fight. Interesting but I don't think I'd become a patron. Two water-buffelo bulls are put together and they flight each other until one gives up and runs away. They say that the bulls are never injured but I find that hard to believe - in the two fights we saw the bulls seemed to be doing their best to gore each other to pieces. All the spectators (almost entirely Indonesians) gather around the bulls and run when the bulls make sudden moves - a couple of the spectators recieved kicks from one of the bulls on the second fight though none were badly injured.
Later that night we did a night trek to the top of a volcano. That was pretty good. We started at 11pm with torches, and climbed until about 4am, at which stage we had breakfast. We went from about 1400m to 2850m, so it was a nice climb. Then up to the volcano to catch the dawn. You get a really good view from there. Only problem is the smell - there are clouds of sulpherous gases coming out continuously, and naturally we just happened to be downwind of them.
The volcano did have a small eruption the week before - not so much an eruption as a venting-off. Three people up on a night trek were hit by molten lava - nothing too serious but a few burns. The volcano was much better behaved for us though. Then we climbed down to finish by about 10am. A good night.

My back was a little stiff around this time so I decided to get a massage to loosen it a bit. Enter Doctor Pain. I don't know where they got this guy from but I'll never forget him. He did a house call to the hotel room. He specializes in accupressure and reflexogy. He went to work on me for an hour and I swear I've never felt such pain in my life. Talk about a knack for hitting the nerves! I spent the whole hour trying not to scream out loud while Pat was breaking his sides laughing in the background. I must admit though - I did feel great afterwards.

Then off on a 10 day jungle trek to Siberut. Ah now that was good! Siberut is an island about 120km off the west coast of Sumatra. Its about the size of Bali but only 30,000 people live there, and they live as they have for thousands of years - in loin-clothes living in deep jungle. No electricity, roads or fancy technology such as the wheel - fire is state of the art there. The people themselves are called the Mentawai, and we got to live with them for over a week.
Overnight boat to the island followed by two hours up-river in motor-boat to reach the start of the trek. Then we trekked overland the rest of the day to our first tribal house where we met our two local guides - two shaman (medicine-men). They were with us for our entire stay from then on. A typical day would be spent trekking trough jungle for 4 or 5 hours to get to a house, though we did stay at two of the houses for two days each before moving on. We were there in the dry season which was good, as the mud was only up to the ankles instead of to the knees, as it is in rainy season. As an added bonus, we didn't have to worry about leeches. Had a lot of river crossings, which involved wading up to the chest, so needless to say we did get pretty wet and muddy. The biggest 'village' we stayed at was two houses. All the houses are built on stilts, with the pigs and chickens living below. They were a pain in the neck as they would invariably start squealing at 4 in the morning, but we got used to it. The Mentawai wear nothing but loinclothes, tattoos and necklaces. Very sociable people.

They chopped down two trees for us and stripped of sheets of bark to be used as loin-clothes. Then down to the river where they gave us wooden mallets to bash the bark with until it was soft enough to wear and hey-presto - our very own loin cloths! There were 10 of us on the trip altogether, not including guides, so when the 3 girls went fishing in their banana-leaf skirts, the lads went off to the local pools in loinclothes wielding bamboo staffs, to swim and chill out. By this stage we were all wearing beaded necklaces and rattan braclettes woven for us by the medicne-men, so we were starting to feel pretty native. Strange actually, you would think that you would feel a bit stupid wandering through the jungle wearing nothing but a loincloth but on the contrary it seemed like the most natural thing in the world. 'Civilisation' such as cars and work seemed a strange and far-off concept then.

The next day 5 of the gang decided that they liked the tribal tattoos so much that they wanted to get them themselves. Not to worry - Pat and myself did not partake! The 'ink' was made from soot taken from the cooking pots, mixed with water. The tattooing itself was done by one of the medicine men, using a piece of wood with a safety pin attached. I was feeling pretty native by this stage but not so much as to partake of that ceremony!

In two of the houses we visited (we were at 5 in all), it was the first time for our medicine men to visit too. As a result to bless the house chickens were sacrificed both times - usually 4 at a time. I got the inmpression the chickens were still alive while being plucked because they were squaking and flapping their wings, but that could have just been delayed nervous reaction.
The chickens intestines are pulled out and examined to read the future of the family, after which all the medicine-men chant a tribal song to the chicken spirits. After a week of being woken by chickens at 4 in the morning, we had no sympathy for them. We also got chicken features to add to the bead necklaces, though I had discarded mine by then. Each house is decorated by pig and monkey skulls, but chickens don't contribute more than feathers.

Saw a lot of interesting things there - one of the medicine men was making poison and showed us how it was done - mixing berrys with bark. After extracting the juices he then applied the poison to his arrows - the poison is lethal in one to two minutes. The Mentawai used it on the Japanese in the second world war! Moving pigs from village to village was also interesting. They truss the pig up and trap it to a backpack that they weave from leaves, and then they walk with the squealing pig attached to their backs!

The first aid kit got its first bit of serious usage on this trip too. We were 3 days from civilisation in the most primitave culture I have ever seen so not a good place to be ill. On day 8, 6 of us fell ill - probably from the water. With everyone else it passed very quickly but I got a really bad dose, vomiting and running to the jacks non-stop. I couldn't keep anything down - not even a sup of water, and the basic medication I tried at first was useless. Had to hit the antibiotics. They sorted me out, but I had a really tough trek on day 9 back to get the boat. Thankfully we'd already trekked one day back before I got sick, so it was just a 3 hour trek to the motor-boat - but I was sick every half hour on the way. Sorted now though - the antibiotics did a great job and I'm almost back to normal - I ate today for first time in 2 days, apart from a small snack last night.
I also used the first-aid kit to treat one of the locals who'd sliced his foot open 3 days previous and hadn't dressed it. Infection was setting in so I gave him some stuff for it.

Funny when we got to the river to catch the motor-boat; the boat had just delivered the next group of 6 trekkers. They were all dressed in long sleaves and trousers with not a speck of mud on them. We must have looked some sight, as we were all in shorts only, half us bearfoot and all completely covered in mud from head to toe. 10 days beard growth on all the guys, tribal tattoos on half of us not to mention bead necklaces, chicken-feathers and rattan braclettes. I don't think they knew what to make of us.

All in all a most excellent 10 days (in spite of the sickness) and a real privilage to be able to share in the lives of a tribal people - there are few other places in the world where we can do that. If we get to do it again on this year-trip we can count ourselves very lucky.

Got back into Bukittinggi today and decided to really splash out on a mad-fancy hotel with hot showers. Ah, magnificent! My first hot shower in nearly two months. And such luxuries as toilet roll and a toilet you can sit on! This extravagance cost us about 2 pounds each, which might not seem much but considering we were paying 50 pence a night each before that! Had a big steak and chips too, also for 2 quid. Anything to change from rice and noodles.

We're going to chill here for the night and have a few beers with the other trekkers before going our seperate ways - the antibiotics did such a good job that I reakon I can handle a few beers tonight. First though I have a Swedish massage booked fot 7pm - after 10 days of rough living I'm determined to pamper myself today. We're off north to Lake Toba tomorrow, a 12 hour bus journey. Lake Toba is a large lake in north Sumatra with an island in the centre about the size of Singapore. Not much to do there except swim and chill which suits us fine.

A long email this one - my longest to date. Time to go now and see about my massage....

Talk to you later
Ciaran

Sep 15 1999 Tioman islands - chill-time par Excellence

Sep 15, Tioman Island, Malaysia

Back again. Chilling on an island off east Malaysia these last two weeks. But I run ahead of myself..

Last mail out was on Aug 21, from Bukittinggi, Sumatra, just after our trek with the Mentawai. From Bukittingi we took a bus north to lake Toba. 16 hours. What a nightmare. Lake Toba is really nice though. Its a lake in an old volcano, 69km wide with an island the size of Singapore in the middle. Very quiet there, with little to do except relax and enjoy the scenery. Which was just what was needed after the Siberut trek. We booked into the best hotel on the island (which still only cost a couple of dollars!), as after Siberut we were badly in need of some basic creature comforts for a while. Ah, the luxury of a clean bed and hot water.
I saw sheets for the first time in two months. Great stuff altogether. And after two months of Asian food I suddenly took a major craving for pizzas, steak, chips... Spent a couple of days there doing nothing much at all. I had been doing meditation regularly enough on the trip but I got very Zen in Toba.

Then on to Bukit Lawang, north Sumatra. Its a very small 'town' on the edges of a national park for orang-utans. There are only 4 such parks in the world where orang-utans run wild, three in Sumatra and this one. Did a two day jungle trek to see the apes. Just myself, Pat and two guides, though we did meet up with two Swiss girls at camp that night.
The orang-utans were class. They dropped down from the trees to take bananas from us - mothers with babies. Great stuff all together. I'm looking forward to seeing the photos.
After a couple of hours trekking we stopped for lunch by a stream. I started stipping off for a wash when I had my first encounter with leeches. I took off my left boot to find my foot covered in blood. I'd taken three bites on the left foot and one on the right. Never felt a thing. Although the wounds are small, because of the anti-colagulant they inject you with you bleed for hours afterwards. From then on we all kept a close eye out. You need to check your body every few minutes as they drop on you from leaves. I pulled another 5 or 6 leeches off my body that day, and about 10 the next day. Pat and the guides the same. Nasty little bastards they are two - you see them on rocks standing on one end while sensing the air for blood with their other end.

Also saw a lot of gibbons - two different species. They stay in the upper canopy, about a 100 feet from the ground. The jungle itself was magnificent. The big gum trees reach 200 feet. Lots of big thick vines dropping 20 or 30 feet down (we swang from them) and big twisted knarled threes that look like some sort of nightmare scene from an Alien movie. Real Tarzan stuff. I went for a piss and stopped in between two trees. After a moment I looked up to see this ENORMOUS spider about 6 inches directly in front of my face, sitting on a web that must have spanned 1.5 metres. I hadn't seen him in the poor light. I thanked Buddha that I hadn't taken that extra half step!

I was 'attacked' twice that night in my sleep by some animal. Something jumped on my feet at 11pm (we were sleeping in the open). I thought it was probably a monkey as there had been lots around, so I went back to sleep. A few minutes later something else jumped on my feet. I jumped up in time to see it scurrying off into the jungle. I can't be sure but I think it was a large rat. I slept with one eye open that night!
Thats the problem with the jungle. Its truely beautiful with incredible life, but you spend much of your time fighting off leeches and insects, and you always need to keep a close eye out for scorpions and snakes. Lots of nasties in the jungle. Still, a great place to trek.
Meet two Swiss girls that night at camp and came back the next day in a 'raft' made from tyre tubes, down the rapids. Nice rapids, not too wild but fun. About level 2 I guess, maybe 3 in places.

After the trek we back flew to KL (Kuala Lumpar, Malaysia) to meet up with 4 friends who were coming over from Ireland for a two week break. Spent a couple of days in KL - big city, not too much to say there.
Then we flew to Tioman Island, off the east coast, where I've been ever since. Spent the last 2 weeks or more in a chalet by the beach. Visibility in the water is not as good as on Koh Tao, but its still about 15m which is pretty good. Did a couple of scuba dives with Pat (saw my first turtle!) but for the most part I've just been skin diving. Had a really good 10 days with the gang from Ireland. Didn't do much except chill.

The life in the seas here is incredible. Even very close to shore you can see very big fish snorkeling or skin diving. I was skin diving yesterday only 30m from shore when 3 bumperhead parrot fish cruised right past me. Massive fish, well over a metre long. The day before I swam right by a trigger fish, also over one metre. I steered well clear of him though - they can be very aggressive. Lots of sting rays here, I've seen up to 5 in a half hour.
I haven't seen any sharks though. There is a beach about a mile from here where you have a good chance of seeing black tip sharks. I've been there twice looking for them but haven't seen any yet. I just found out about a better place a little further on so I'll check there today. (The sharks grow to about 1.5 metres and are not dangerous. Even if you slit your wrists, thrashed about in the water and hit them over the head they'd still leave you alone. They look cool though, so I'm told).

This island is very unspoilt, and there is a lot of life in the jungles here. On a daily basis you can see eagles, fruit bats and monitor lizards, up to 5 feet long. Pythons are very common too, but I haven't seen any yet.

So, all in all a great place. There's so much animal and plant life there that its like living in a game park. I've reached new levels of chilling in this last week.

Pat left for Thailand last week. I was supposed to go to but decided at the last minute to opt for a bit more chill time on the beach. I'll be here another couple of days and then I head for Nepal, where I'll meet up with Pat again. Flights are a major problem though as everything is booked out. Still, something will crop up. I'm hoping to be in Katmandu (Nepal) in about a week.
Right now Pat is in Phuket in Thailand, doing as much scuba as he can get in.

That's about all for now.

Oct 10 1999 Kathmandu valley and the Kali Gandaki

Backpacker Diaries: ~Sep 16 - Oct 11

Back again. Its been a while since I last wrote so be warned - this could be a long email!

I left Tioman island around Sept 16, travelling overland up through Malaysia and Thailand to Bangkok. Nearly 40 hours travel! But you get used to it.
Pat had managed to sort me out with a flight to Kathmandu on Sept 24th, so that gave me a week to kill. I had hoped to leave Bangkok in this time but a puncture wound that I got on my leg just before leaving Tioman got infected and flared up, with the result that I had to spend 3 days on my back in Bangkok. Bit of a pain. So I took it real easy that week and did nothing except catch up on reading and movies. And of course Thai massage - every day. There are some advantages to being in Bangkok :-)
I also took advantage of my trip to the hospital to check out a rash I'd picked up a month previously while jungle trekking in Sumatra. According to the dermatologist, it was caused by brushing against a plant! No doubt about it - plenty of nasties in the jungle. She gave me stuff to clear it up so that's sorted now.

Met back up with Pat in Bangkok on Sept 23rd and we went on the beer all day- ouch! He'd been trekking in Chiang Mai (north Thailand).

We flew in to Kathmandu (Nepal) on Set 24th. Kathmandu is completely nuts. The most exotic city we've seen on the trip so far. Noisy, dirty with the most INSANE traffic I have ever seen. Rickshaws, bicycles and taxis weaving in and out of people with horns blaring, beggers with major deformaties and a blaze of colour everywhere. A real assult on the senses. A cool place indeed.
The driving here has to rank among the worst I've ever seen. South East Asia is atrocious but Nepal....
The rule is to use the horn at all times, never the breaks. He who beeps the horn loudest has right of way. The 'roads' even in the centre of the city are so full of holes that they look as if they've just been crater bombed. And as for the intercity driving.....
Its as if the Nepalese believe that the hour of their death is fixed, so why bother with breaks or watching where you are going? If its your time then that's fate, so using breaks etc makes no difference. Interesting theory.

Some of the women here in Nepal are truely beautiful, dressed in saris and punjabi suits with the tikka dot in the forehead. Very exotic looking - far more so than the women of South East Asia. Some of them are very striking indeed.

Ray, one of the lads from home flew in around the 28th and the three of us booked a 4 day mountain-biking trip around the Kathmandu valley. We hired a Nepalese guide which was handy, as he was able to bring us off-road to places we never would have found otherwise. On the first day for instance we spent a few hours biking through paddy fields, while the locals harvested rice beside us. Then through the smallest villages in the middle of nowhere. Any time we stopped, invariably a group of up to 30 people would gather around us to watch the 'white folk'. Even the old folk would pick a seat by us and sit and watch without budging while we ate. One yound girl burst out crying when she saw me!

We did a lot of hill climbs over the four days - it was pretty physical. Unfortunately the monsoons were running a few weeks late, so we got completely soaked each day. Not good. On day three we descended about 800m off-track on some really hairy terrain. Suffice it to say that you wouldn't attempt it with anything less than perfect breaks!

After the cycling we met up with two other Irish from home, Sean and Caoimhe, who'd just arrived. All 5 of us took off then to Pokhara, Nepal's second city.

We booked a 3 day rafting trip on a river called the Kali Gandaki. 'Kali Gandaki' is Nepalese for 'Goddess Kali', Kali being the Hindu goddess of death and destruction. An auspicious start!

There were 3 rafts in all, with 5 safety kayakers. The standard raft took 8 plus guide, but we had a smaller raft which took 6 plus guide. It meant that our raft was far more manoverable than the other two - but it gets thrown around a lot more. Also, because of the late monsoons the river was raging far higher than normal, so the rapids were wild. Although its only a 3 day rafting trip, the Kali Gandaki is a great river because its non-stop big rapids all the way. The longest rest between grade 3 rapids or higher was only ever about 5 minutes, and there are plenty of grade 4 and 4+. Pure adrenaline guaranteed - just add water!

Within 300m of starting on the river on day one, we hit our first grade 4. Ten minutes later we hit grade 4+.Talk about an introduction to rafting! I'd done rafing and kayaking before a couple of times, but only on level 2s, possibly 3 at most. Nothing complared to this! The secret to getting through the big rapids was to head straight into them, and row as hard as possible. If you flinch you're gone. The guide would first call 'forward' followed a bit later by a scream 'hard forward' and we'd row like our lives depended on it. The raft would be thrown about so much that often you'd be just catching air with the paddle, so as a result you'd have to wedge your foot hard against the raft for support and lean far overboard. Then you'd row your heart out. I was almost always in the front, usually with Pat opposite, as that's the best seat. (The others weren't pushed). When in front you see everything with unobstructed view, but you get the full force of all the waves crsahing into you. Great stuff altogether.
At one stage we were ploughing through some big 4+ rapids and I just burst into laughter, soon joined in by Pat and Ray. The elation was superb. One of the best adrenaline rushes I've had in many years. We did almost capsize the raft twice that first day, having to throw ourselves to the side to prevent the raft from flipping.

The second day was also completely nuts. We'd camped on the beach overnight, and the first stretch of water was a big class 4+. We walked down to it to plan our path through it before going back to the rafts. Two hours of completely nuts rafting brought us to lunch time - what an incredible buzz.

About a half-hour of rafting later though, we flipped the raft completely as we went through a big 4+. We'd just changed position so myself and Pat were in second place, and the two in front were leading for the first time. Those in front set the pace and rythem for the rest - if they lose it, everyone loses it. It takes a bit of time to establish a proper understanding and rythem, but we hit the level 4+ straight away. I don't know if it was a factor, but a big wave caught us broadside and flipped us over in a second.

I hit the water and went straight under. There was no light at all under water, it was pitch black from muddy water. As soon as I found myself submerged, I did the first thing I always do when I find myself in a hassel situation - RELAX! Take a second to calm the mind and orientate myself. Then I headed for the surface. Right from the start my biggest problem was air.The raft had flipped so suddenly that not only did I not have time to take a fresh breath, but my breath was knocked out of me on impact with the water.
I thought at first that I must have been under the raft as I could see nothing but black, so I swam up with my arms outstretched, trying to feel the raft. Nothing. I kept swimming for a while feeling in all directions but still I couldn't feel anything. Then I realised I must be in a 'hole'.

A 'hole' in white-water terms refers to the vortex in the leeside of a big boulder in the river. As the water flows over the rock, a backsurge is greated, similar to a whirlpool, which pulls anything it can down and keeps it there. Its a blackspot to be avoided.

I'd already been down a while at this stage and my lungs were starting to burn. I was thankful to have done so much skin-diving before, as the diaphram exercises for the breath came in useful now. Now that I knew I was in a hole I started swimming with all my strength upwards.I swam as hard as I could for about 10 seconds - still nothing. Not a pleasant feeling, to have your lungs on fire and desperate to take a breath, but to be held down helpless against the power of the river.
I felt a sudden stab of fear then, as I thought to myself "Is this it? Am I going to lose it here in Nepal, at the bottom of a river?"
Just then the river relented and I was able to get my head above water. Ah, sweet fresh air and beautiful sunlight!
Hard to know exactly how long I was down. Because of the burning in my lungs it felt like an eternity, but it was probably only about 20 seconds.

I could see the overturned raft far downstream, being swept along by the current. I could also see that although the river was flowing swiftly by on both sides of me, I wasn't moving at all! I was being held by the hole. I only had a quick glance to take all this in though, as about 2 or 3 seconds after making it to the surface the hole sucked me back down again.
"What the.....?" I was wearing a life-jacket and swimming as hard as I could to stay on the surface, and yet I still couldn't prevent myself from being pulled under, back into the pitch black water. Still, it wasn't nearly as bad the second time around. I had taken a fresh breath at the surface which took the pressure off my lungs, and that made a huge difference. Also, confirmation of exactly where you are (i.e. in a hole) means that you can work a strategy to getting out. I decided to make for the surface for about 10-15 seconds, and if that didn't work then to try swimming horizontally to get pact the down-current. In any case I didn't have to worry about it too long, as I was only under for about 10 seconds this time. I came to the surface to see one of the rescue kayakers only a metre away. I grabbed the kayak and he started back-paddling, pulling me clear. Just as well, as I felt the river trying to pull me down for yet a third time.
Once we cleared the hole the down-current stopped instantly and we were swept downstream. Ah the relief, I had nothing to do but hold on and relax. After a few hundred metres the rapids calmed right down to level 2 - positively flat in comparison! I was picked up by one of the other boats and dropped back to my own raft.

Of the others, only myself and Ray had hit the hole. Ray hit the side and was pulled under for 5 seconds, but then spat clear. All of the others were thrown clear when the raft capsized, so I was the only one that had a problem.

We rested about 10 minutes and then set off again, for the last hour of rafting before camp.The two girls on our boat had transfered to the larger rafts, as they're a lot more stable and the girls were a bit shook.
I was a bit spooked myself, and didn't really enjoy that last hour. The river was completely nuts for this stretch with several class 4+, and we came close to capsizing twice more. Whereas before I had faced these big rapids with anticipation and pure andrenaline, now I had an undercurrent of fear when getting thrown about over the 4+ holes.

Still, I had a few beers and a good night's sleep that night and was right back to normal the next day. Pat and myself were back up front and we worked really well as a team, effortlessly riding through the 4s. My confidence was right back and the spooked feeling of the previous day was behind me.

So, would I recommend the rafting? Absolutely! My somewhat melodramatic story above might give the impression that its not safe, but that was a pretty isolated incident and the safety record is very good. I'd thoroughly recommend it - great craic altogether!

We're back in Kathmandu now, having got in today. Ray flies home tomorrow morning and Pat and myself are booked to raft the Sun Kosi river starting Mon 12th. The Sun Kosi is ranked as one of the top ten rivers in the world for white water, and the trip itself is 10 days long. 10 days rafting - heaven itself! Sun Kosi starts with 'small' level 3 but on the last day there's a 30km stretch of almost continuous grade 5. Should be nuts.

After Sun Kosi we're going to do a big trek in either the Annapurna or Everest regions - we'll decide when we get back.

Well, I told you it would be a long email! A distraction from work for a while.

Oct 23 1999 Sun Kosi

Backpacker Diaries, Oct 12 - Oct 23

We got back to Kathmandu the morning before yesterday and have been chilling since. Seem to spend a lot of time doing that, chilling...

The last email left off with us getting back to Kathmandu from the Kali Gandaki rafting trip, about 2 weeks ago. We had a couple of days to kill before our next trip, which was to descend 273km over 7 days down the Sun Kosi river, ranked amoung the top ten rivers in the world for white water rafting. The Sun Kosi is ranked as a grade 5, compared to the Kali Gandaki's 4+ (which was nuts), so we were expecting it to be pretty wild. It wasn't that bad though.

There were only 12 rafters in all, not including guides and safety kayakers, so that made a pretty intimate, social group. Compared to the 30 rafters on the Kali Gandaki! We had two rafts, so naturally myself and Pat went straight for the smallest one and reserved our seats up front. Better craic that way:-)
We shared our boat with three Irish girls, all nurses, and a Swedish guy. It was a great mix because we all got on really well. 5 paddies on a raft for a week - great laugh. Anders, the Swedish guy had some problem with the accents but we got on really well with him too so the athmosphere was great.

We started on the 14th and had our standard briefing, which was fresh in the minds of Pat and myself after the Kali Gandaki. The safety briefing was a bit worrying though as they informed us that 2 people had been killed on the river the previous week, a safety kayaker and a rafter. Not too encouraging. But the river had been raging higher then as the monsoons were just finishing off - it the meantime the river had subsided a bit.

The girls didn't really want to go up front which suited us, as Pat, Anders and myself had pole position for most of the trip. The front of the raft is the best seat as you get to see everything up close, though it is also the wettest and the most physically demanding. The Sun Kosi starts very tame, with grade 1 to 3 for the first three days. As we progressed though the week the river was joined by more and more tributaries, and so got more wild, but the start was very relaxed.
Our guide took his role very seriously and took advantage of the first day to really grill us in the commands. He'd scream commands at us in quick succession even though the water was calm, but Pat and myself already had the drill well ingrained after Kali Gandaki, so it was smooth sailing all the way.

Those first few days were a real laugh. The weather was fantastic - too hot even, and the rapids were pretty trivial so there was plenty of time for jokes and play-acting. A big favourite was to catch other raft members unawares and throw them in to the water. Water fights were big news indeed, both on our raft and between us and the other raft. The weather was so hot that it was a great way to cool down. Jokes and craic were to be had by all, and we couldn't resist the odd sing-song - well, I couldn't anyway:-) A few bars of Christy Moore were thrown in with anything from John Denver to Bob Marley. Altogether a very different experience to Kali Gandaki. There we never had time to speak - it was non-stop rapids. No play-acting either as the rapids there were really challenging and it was a contast battle just to stay in the boat. Sun Kosi was more Zen. The biggest rapids we hit those first three days was 3, hardly enough to break sweat.

I was somewhat amused by people on the boat wearing watches. My own sense of time on a trek is very simple - get up with the sun and go to bed when you're tired. If the sun is low its morning or evening and if its high then its noon. Pretty relaxed stuff.

The setup of the trip was very similar to the previous one. Each night we would set up tents on a beach, grab lunch and perhaps make a bonfire. I didn't bother with tents most nights, prefering to sleep outdoors. There's no light pollution at all there so you could get some good views of the stars and Milky Way.

Each time we stop there would usually be a small village nearby, so we'd have a few spectators down to see the show. Time and again I'd be struck by how good-looking a race the Nepali are. Some of the people are stunning. These villages would be very remote, often with no road for 3 or 4 hours walk. We'd be rafting our way through great canyons and you would often see a house half-way up a mountain with no visible neighbours of paths. Must be tough getting the paper delivered in the morning!

One of the safety kayakers, Krishna, miscalculated and got pulled down a hole on day three, losing his paddle and flooding the kayak. It was only a small rapid though, about a 3, so he was able to get out after 5 to 10 seconds. We picked him up then in our raft.

We had our one and only scary incident the next day, day 4. We had been working our way down a series of continuous grade 3+ rapids - nothing difficult but enough to keep the concentration firmly on the job, when out of nowhere we hit the most vicious rapid I'd ever seen. I was in the second seat back this time and I never even saw it coming. The name of the rapid is "Dead Man's Hole", so called because in the monsoon its noted for holding down dead buffelo and debris that have floated downstream. Its the most dangerous rapid on the river and is not-raftable - there is a safe channel off to the right that everyone is supposed to take. For some reason we missed the channel, carried into it by the stretch of rapids just before. This was the same spot that the kayaker had died in the previous week and I could see why. Very nasty indeed.

One moment we were working our way calmly through 3+ rapids and then a huge wave came crashing over the side from nowhere, spinning the raft. The next few moments were a total roller coaster. Unlike a 'standard' hole where the rapids come from one direction, this was a whirlpool with no sense of direction to it. The waves would crash over us from all directions with no sense at all to them. Just after entering the whirlpool the raft was tipped violently to the left. "Over right!" screamed the guide and we all threw ourselves to the right side to stabilise the raft. Then the raft tipped precariously in the completely opposite direction, forcing us all to dive to the left. We were blessed that the raft didn't fip. The guide's commands came fast and furious, changing every couple of seconds as the waves crashed over us from different directions. We dug our paddles in hard and then, in an instant it was all over - we had made it out of the turbulence. We rowed like hell to make it to the bank and then took a break. It was a close call that we didn't flip, as this was not a rapid to be pulled down in - a lot nastier than the one I went swimming in on the Kali Gandaki.

All was well though and no-one had falled in. Rather than risk missing the safe-channel again the guide decided to portage the boat up river about 500m. Very tiring. Then we rowed like hell to make the other bank, and then walked the raft down past the blackspot using ropes. The safety kayakers were waiting on the other side and were well relieved to see us - they can't venture into that level of rapid themselves so they couldn't help us.

An interesting few moments indeed.

There was no other incident on the trip, with everything else going very smooth. We had to portage around two class 5s as they were not runable on the day. Apart from that all the rapids were quite tame. We hit several class 4 on the last 3 or 4 days but no higher. A bit disappointing as by that stage class 4 was no longer challenging. We were working very well as a team. It is very satisfying indeed to take several class 4s head on in succession. Then to see a new wave rising up on the side and to turn into it at the last moment to take it just right. Satisfying indeed. But these rapids were much easier than the Kali Gandaki ones, even though the Sun Kosi is ranked higher, so it was fun without being too difficult.

The weather turned foul on days 6 and 7, so we had to row in the cold with constant rain and often wind. Not quiet as much fun as the previous days but in between rapids we sang Bob Marley's "Three little birds" to keep the athmosphere light.

Got back to Kathmandu the morning before yesterday and have been chilling and drink beer ever since. Chilling between treks is very important!
We have booked a bus back to Pokhara tomorrow morning in order to do the Anapurna circuit, which will keep us busy for the next couple of weeks. It consists of a trek through the Himalayas around the Anapurna region, taking 2.5 to 3 weeks to complete the circuit. The scenery is said to be spectacular. So a few weeks of plesent walking in the mountains coming up, which should be a relaxing break from rafting.

We're going to be a bit remote for the next while so I'll probably be out of email contact for the next 3 or 4 weeks.

Catch you then for the next installment:-)

Nov 15 1999 Annapurna Circuit

Backpacker Diaries ~Oct 22 - Nov 15

I'm still in Nepal, having arrived back from the Annapurna circuit trek three nights back. Just catching up on email now.
The Annapurna circuit refers to a classic trek through the Nepali Himalaya, taking in some truely spectacular scenery. We did the trek in 20 days, though 4 or 5 of those days was spent chilling. The trek starts in a town called Besi Sahar, at about 800m, and climbs steadily to Thorung La pass at 5416m, some 10 days later. Then back towards civilisation, another week's walk. The circuit passes around the Annapurna range, and takes in great views.

Myself and Pat started off some time around Oct 22nd. Arrived in Besi Sahar with rugsacks on back, hiking boots on and started walking. Its pretty impossible to get lost as the path is well marked all the way. And I do say path because once you leave Besi Sahar you don't see roads for another 3 weeks. There just aren't any. Apart from two airfields and a helicopter service, the only way back once you start walking is either on foot or by donkey! All along the path you see porters (Sherpas) carrying massive packs on their backs, supported by a strap over their heads. All supplies to villages a week's walk along the circuit get carried by foot, or if lucky, by donkey train. Trains of donkeys are a common site. Of course all this means that food and supplies get much more expensive the further in you go - a fanta or coke is 4 times the price at the pass as it is at the start!

The start from Besi Sahar was pleasant as the weather there is subtropical (only 800m). (Actually the weather for the entire trek was fantastic, with clear skies and blazing sun every day). We started hiking through rice paddy-fields, water-buffelo wallowing by the sides. The first few days walk are by a gorge with a raging white-water river storming by. The scenery is beautiful with a real kalidiscope of colours- the yellow of the paddy fields, the green of the low hills, brown on the high hills and the clear blue of the sky. Add in the gleaming white peak of mount Manaslu (over 8000m) up ahead, numerous high waterfalls and the raging river below and yes, it was fantastic. I half imagined myself taking up art just so as to return to Nepal with paintbrush and easel and while away some days here!

The bridges over the raging river were very impressive. All are suspension bridges built in the last 40 years with steel cables. The impressive thing about them is that all the materials for them were carried to site by Sherpas and donkeys. When you conside that some of the bridges are over a week's walk at high altitude that's impressive indeed!

Our first night's accomodation was spent in a kitchen, while the Nepalis cooked around us. Not the best, but accomodation improved after that. We'd stay in small hotels called 'tea-houses' - they're scattered along the route every couple of hours walk. Accomodation was cheap - the cheapest we paid was 12 pence a night! - but they'd make the money on food and drink.

I managed to lose my trousers after a few nights which I wasn't too happy about. By this stage we were over 2000m and the temperature was dropping. Eating out was freezing, so I had to wear my sarong over my shorts. Great for beach wear in Indonesia but not the best for the mountains. Got a great photo of me in my boots with the sarong though:-) Anyway, picked up some leggans next day.

Cold was a problem all right, as myself and Pat were doing this trek on the cheap and didn't want to buy fancy gear. If memory serves you lose 1 degree for every 150m gain in altitude, so we ended up losing about 35 degrees by the pass. Burrrr! Most tea-houses had no hot water (half didn't have electricity) so it was about this time I stopped taking showers and started to grow my beard. Ah yes, personal hygiene has been know to suffer on treks:-)

Pat and myself have different walking paces, so normally he'd scream on ahead and I'd catch up with him later. I prefered to saunter along and stop and maybe do a bit of meditation every now and again. So when I got to Manang at 3500m, I arrived alone. Amazing looking place. By this stage the architecture had become decidedly Tibetan, with prayer wheels and prayer flags at every town. The roofs were flat in the Tibetan style and the Hindu people of the low valleys had been replaced by Tibetans. There are many of them there now, particularly since the Chinese military occupation of Tibet. Many refugees live in Nepal now. By the time I arrived in sight of Manang, the subtropical lush greens of the valleys had given way to a brown dusty landscape, ringed with high snow peaks. There was no-one in sight as I climbed the steps to the walled city, past the rows of prayer-wheels. I felt a bit like Heinrick Harrer entering the forbidden city of Lhasa in ''7 years in Tibet"!

Chilled there for a day and then up, up, up towards the pass. The days before the pass we slept in the base-camp hotel at 4500m. Talk about freezing! I wore every stick of clothes I had that night - 4 T-shirts, a long-sleeved shirt, a fleece, shorts, gloves, leggans and 2 pairs of mountain socks - all inside the sleeping bag. Still freezing though. After several months in jungles and beaches above 30 degrees, I freeze now at anything below 25! We got up at 8:30 for breakfast to find the place deserted - all trekkers had left 3 hours before! (Almost) everyone leaves mad-early on the day of the pass because its pretty tough. The good thing about us starting late though was we had the place to ourselves. Pat raced on ahead, determined to set a new record for clearing the pass. The guide-book recommends 4 to 6 hours to reach the pass, and 3 or 4 hours down. Pat reached the pass in 2.5 hours! Pretty impressive, though my progress was a bit more sedate!
Its a 900m climb to the pass, at 5416m, followed by a 1600m descent - murder on the knees. I took it easy but really noticed the altitude once I hit 5000m - at that altitude the air pressure is one half of that at sea-level. And as I didn't have a hat I had my T-shirt on the head - it worked really well!

On clearing the pass the scenery changes completely. On one side its all snow and majestic peaks, but once you clear the pass its a new valley devoid of snow. An amazing valley, fairytalesque. From magestic peaks the valley drops down thousands of metres to a a flat valley, split in three by a mighty gorge. The whole thing has an unearthly quality about it, as if the gorge and valley were chiselled from the rock by an unsteady hand. All brown and dull yellow. At the base, 1600m below me was a village straight out of the middle ages. In the mountan light it had a very sureal quality - all magic and mystery. The pass was also deathly silent - I don't think I have have ever been in such an absence of sound. A transcendental moment indeed!
Some hours later as I got further down the pass, I though that the town must indeed have been magic - as it seemed to keep getting further away!

I met up with Pat for a few beers and then the next day we dropped another 1000m to Jomsom. Everything is barren here and similar to the plains of Tibet, so we were told. If anything it looked something like what you'd expect in the Grand Canyon (without the millions of tourists!). As the path disappeared we trekked along the river bed, though dust storms and intermittant dust devils. In the distance was a great view of another 800m plus giant, mount Dhaulagiri, with its 'smaller' neighbour Nilgiri. Again as I walked along with Pat I was reminded of Heinrick Harrer and Peter Aufschatner in "7 Years in Tibet". Our trek wasn't quiet in the same league though, as thousands of people trek the circuit each year! In Jomson, a major town (i.e. more than a few huts!), we splashed out on a fancy hotel with hot water and showers! Ah, such bliss! I was starting to get quite fragrent!

One thing that we did notice on the trek was the open sores, on donkeys, dogs and people. The worst we saw was a donkey with a hugh seeping, gaping open wound where its left eye had been - very rough. The donkey was still being used to carry supplies. We had seen similar things before, such as the baby boy with open sores on its behind when rafting the Kali Gandaki. Very sad when you consider that such sores could be easily treated for trivial cost in the west, but here there are no such facilities.

We continued to descent to the town of Tatopani. At only 2000m it almost felt warm. We stayed a day here to chill, and to take advantage of the hot springs! These open-air natural springs are piping hot. Myself and Pat spent a few hours soaking up the heat. Very nice, as you have a view of high peaks in the distance and mountains all around. The Kali Gandaki river (that we'd rafted previously) passed just beside us. I had an ice-cold beer in the springs and then treated myself to a shave from one of the locals.

Actually the Kali Gandaki passes through the deepest gorge in the world. It has this honour because it is nestled between two 8000m+ giants, Daulagiri and Annapurna. We got great views of both the next day as we climbed 1400m in one day, and descended 1900m the next!

Ironically, after 20 days without injury I managed to pull a muscle in my right leg only one hour from the finish! Ah, the tragic irony of it all! Still, nothing major, just a minor sprain. A couple of days rest will have it at full strength.

We caught a local bus back to Pokara, riding on the roof with about 25 others. I'd always wanted to sit on the roof of a bus - a life's ambition fulfilled:-)

All in all then, a great trek. If you have a spare month with nothing to do I'd recommend it.

We met back up with Sean and Caoimhe (friends of Pat's from Ireland) 2 days back in Pokara. Myself, Pat and Sean started a 4 day kayaking course today. Today was just spent on the lake, learning to roll. Tomorrow we head off to the Seti river for 3 days to complete our 3rd river trek. Nothing wild this time though - the Seti river is very, very tame, as its only used for learning. Grade 2 rapids are the most we could possible expect, so this one is about as dangerous as splashing around in your bath! The beauty of this trip is in learning the techniques of kayaking.

As soon as we get back we're all booked in to a meditation course for a few days, followed by a course in Reiki massage, here in Pokhara. Both are given by a Buddhist monk from Kopan monestary - looking forward to that one. After that we'll play it by ear. Have to start thinking about leaving Nepal soon. We'll probably leave in about 2 weeks, maybe back to South-East Asia? Next mail will be from there I guess.

Talk to you then
Ciaran

Jan 2 Flying monks, rabid mice and sunset over Koh Chang

Backpacker Diaries Nov 15 - Jan 2

A great and prosperous New Year to ye all! I'm in Bangkok now, having arrived in last night, and I'm pleased to see that email is still working (more or less) and the sky never split open to reveal 4 horsemen riding through on ICBM warheads.
Actually I'm pretty depressed just now, because I just finished a 2 hour-long email to bring you up to date on the adventures over the last 7 weeks, but the system crashed when I was checking the mail for typos just prior to sending it. I had saved it to a buffer but to no avail. I almost couldn't face sitting down to retype this one but if I don't I know I won't bother again for another few weeks. So here goes...

Backpacker Diaries : Nov 15 - Jan 2

My last global email was sent from Nepal on Nov 15th. Pat and myself had returned from our 3 week trek around the Annapurna range and had just met up with Sean Mullens and Caoimhe again, at which time myself, Pat and Sean booked in to a 4 day kayaking course on the Seti river. For some reason I had it in my head that the Seti was only a level 2 river, but it actually transpired to be a 3+.
Day one was on the lake in Pohkara, so early morning we threw the kayaks on our shoulders and off with us down past the Indian snake-charmers to the lakeside. Our 'instructor' was a young taciturn English guy called Tom, who had about as much teaching ability as a brick wall.
All he did was show us how to do a basic roll and then he left us to it for the rest of the day. Needless to say none of us got the role out! We'd flip the kayak and try in vain to flip ourselves back up but to no avail. After trying a few times the air would get low so we'd just slip out of the kayak, swim to shore and start again. That first day was depressing for me as I was totally incapable of rowing in a straight line. Needless to say Tom had never explained the technique! I keep everyone waiting when I tried to row across the lake as no matter what I did I just kept going around in circles.

We started on the river itself the next day, camped at a bank where the water moved so slow it was essentially flat. There was a small flow of 'white-water' coming around a bend that could barely be called a trickle - just a few ripples really. Not in your wildest dreams could you really call it a rapid. Most of our day was spent trying to master a few basic techniques there. We spent a lot of time just rowing into that 'trickle' and then trying to turn around in it, but that was a Herculean challenge for us! If we managed to make it through the trickle 50% of the time without capsizing we were doing well. Thankfully though we had a different instructor this day, a French man called William (strange name for a French man). He was superb, both in technique and in teaching skills, and he was none too impressed when he found out that Tom had shown us almost nothing the previous day!

On the morning of day 3 we finally set off, rowing downstream with the current. The first rapid we hit was level 2, small by normal standards but for us it seemed like a battle of epic proportions. In the small unstable kayak I had as much of an adrenaline rush on level 2 as I had on my first 4+ in a raft. Amazingly enough I not only successfully navigated that first rapid but every other one that morning, including some 2+s. Everything just seemed to come together for me which was reassuring, as I had been completely useless up to day 2. Pat however had the opposite experience to me - he had done well the first 2 days but it all fell apart for him in the rapids. He did a lot of swimming that day!

It was a great day to be alive and battling against the river. At our standard of complete beginner, level 2 was enough to be really challenging and to get the blood flowing, but still not big enough that it would cause any problems if you fell in. All the thrills but no danger.

My confidence fled quickly though when I realised that we were going to finish the day on a 3+. I had no idea that there were such big rapids on this trip. They'd be trivial on a raft but for novice kayakers...
So I gritted my teeth, psyched myself up and rowed like the devil. I visualised myself screaming through the rapids. Yeah, right! I got about 10 metres, went into a 3+ hole and didn't last more than 2 seconds there. I pulled myself out of the kayak and it just took me a few seconds to work my way out of the hole. A 3+ hole is big enough to pull you down for a second of two but not big enough to cause any difficulty. I turned around just in time to see Sean's inverted canoe hit me in the head! Thank Buddha for helmets! Myself and Sean swam for shore dragging his canoe behind us - mine was gone downstream. We thought we were safely in an eddy but then Sean slipped and was pulled back out into the rapids. He had a bad run down as he seemed to hit every rock and get pulled in by every hole on his way, so he was a little shaken afterwards. But at least I managed to save his canoe :-)

Pat had at this stage capsized and managed to find himself sitting on a big rock in the middle of the river with rapids all around him and his canoe carried downstream. He said afterwards that it was really strange to be in that position without a canoe. So knowing he was going back swimming one way or the other he jumped back in and floated down though the rapids. Not one of the 8 or 9 of us made it through that series of rapids. The 3 safety kayakers were kept busy. William was very impressive indeed, seeming to defy the current as he'd speed along at full pelt, swing his kayak around at an impossible angle in a hole while at the same time grabbing a floundering kayaker, drop him off to safety and then scream back into action to rescue someone else. He seemed to be everywhere at one.

Day 4 was much like day 3, with plenty of small rapids and another 3+ to finish on. Again nobody made it.
Although I loved the trip, when we got back I was really in the mood to avoid adventure sports and chill for a long time - like a couple of months! It seemed like the last few months had been spent continuously running over mountains and through jungles, so it was time to take a break. Pat too was in the mood to chill.

I had been hoping to go on a retreat in Kopan monestary, in the Kathmandu valley. I'd called in there 2 months previously to check it out and chat with some Tibbetan monks, and I was well impressed. Unfortunately though there were no retreats or courses running at that time. Not to worry - we just spent the next 2 and a half weeks in the Buddhist Meditation Centre in Pokhara. The timing was perfect, as just after we returned from the Seti river there was a two day course in Buddhist meditation followed by a course in Reiki, both given by an Italian monk called Stefano. Stefano was one of the first westeners to study at Kopan, and had lived in Nepal as a Buddhist monk for 26 years.
Pat, Sean and Caoimhe were also interested in doing the courses, so we enrolled en masse. It was the first time any of them had done meditation or massage, though I had done some previously.

Stefano proved to be adapt at story-telling, and each evening after the courses we'd all sit around in the Gompa (temple) and listen as he'd recount stories from the early hey-days of Kopan monestary. The stories were filled with cases of reincarnation, spirits and paranormal events (including one of a monk flying around in lotus position!), though most centered on the extraordinary feats of some of the Tibetan lamas, particularly lama Yeshe, who was to feature prominently. It transpired then that several others in our meditation group (we were about 8 in total) had had their own paranormal experiences, including out-of-bodies, visions and clairvoyance. I guess Buddhist centres attract the New Age type.

I found the Reiki massage very interesting and was pleased to feel the energy flowing strongly through my hands on my first attempt. Reiki is an energy-body massage in which the healer does not even have to touch the patient - he just holds his hands on or above the body and 'channels' in universal healing energy. We were fortunate indeed to have another Reiki master sitting in with us on the course in addition to Stefano. Incidently, she also had highly developed auric vision.

After the courses myself and Pat stayed on for another 10 days. This was a time of retreat for me. Each day I'd practice Reiki and pop up to the Gompa a couple of times to meditate. It was a good opportunity to catch up on reading as there was a small library there that we could use, so I read a lot on Buddhism and Tantra. Pat was devouring books at the rate of one a day!

We flew out to Bangkok on Dec 4th, after 2 and a half months in Nepal. I was sad to leave, as Nepal is truely a magnificent place. Indeed I had been in two minds about staying on a little bit longer as Stefano had suggested I postpone my flights to meet him back in Kopan. He wanted me to meet an enlightened being and seemed to think that it might be in my karma. But anyway, I didn't go.

Pat and myself only stayed in Bangkok one day and then we hit a small island called Koh Chang, off the east coast of Thailand. I was still in Zen mode and wanted to spend another few weeks in peace and quiet, though Pat was originally supposed to stay just a few days before moving on to Cambodia. He actually stayed the month, though he got his own hut a few minutes down the beach from me.

Koh Chang is less well known than the islands down south Thailand, so it was pretty quiet. I had a small hut right down at the quiet end of the beach which was great. Very tranquil. In the evenings if I wanted more action I'd stroll up the beach to where it was more lively. My hut was a small, thatched affaire right on the beach, about 2 metres from the sea. Pretty basic, with electricity an alien concept (no Y2K problems there!), but they did have electricity in the resturants and in the 'fancy' huts. Pat fell in with a crowd and I was still in retreat mode so I didn't see him that much during the day, though we'd meet up for a bite to eat in the evenings.

I can't say that I got up to much - in fact I seem almost to have lost track of the month of December. All I did was laze on the beach, catch up on meditation, Reiki and auric viewing techniques and read. With the practice in Reiki I was able to get more sensitive to the energy flow, which is nice.
I also used the time to catch up on Spanish, which I've been working on in preparation for the South American leg of the trip, which is coming up in the next couple of months. But generally I just relaxed. Every few days I'd get a Thai massage and I'd pop in to the sea for the odd swim. The highlight of the days was always sunset though, as the beach faced west and sunsets were always good. There were also a lot of Irish around that we met up with, including the 3 girls that we'd rafted the Sun Kosi with in Nepal. Strange that there were so many Irish - we met several groups - in the previous months we'd met very few.

I did have an encounter with a vicious mouse in the first few days on Koh Chang that I suppose I should relate. I was still sharing with Pat then - he hadn't got his own hut at this stage. Pat woke me in the middle of the night to tell mt that there was a mouse in the hut, on the mosquito net. "That's nice" says I going back to sleep. But oh no, Pat wanted the mouse out and he was making no move to get him. I thought it would only take me a minute - after all, how long can it take to grab a mouse by its tail and throw him out? - so up I got and into mouse-hunting mode. I backed him into a corner and was moving in when suddenly the little guy lept at my throat - straight for the jugular! (Well, actually it was my chest, but I use poetic license). I was really surprised and jumped back instinctively, which Pat seemed to thing was gas. Again I cornered the mouse and again he jumped me. I'm taking him real seriouly by now! I finally got him back in a corner and put my hand in to grab him when suddenly he ravaged my hand, almost ripping my fingers off and covering the hut in blood! (ok so I exagerate, he only bit the end of my finger, but I was shocked that he'd drawn first blood).
I was going nuts that I'd been bitten though Pat seemed to think this was absolutely hilarious. By this stage I was on a mission. It was the mouse or me - kill or be killed. I wasn't Zen at all then! I did get the little guy and none too gently threw him out but by that stage I was a bit worried about whether or not it was possible to catch rabies from a mouse bite. I had a vision of being the first ever man to be killed by a mouse. Ah, the utter indignation of it all, to have survived jungles, mountains and rapids only to be lain low by a mouse.
But happily, 4 weeks later I still haven't started frothing at the mouth so I reckon I'll survive.
The mouse episode was the biggest adventure of the month, so you can see that things were quiet indeed.

Christmas was quiet though enjoyable. I swam and took it easy. New Year's was a bit more wild. Pat and myself met up with a load of other Irish and we sat on the beach supping beers watching the sun go down. Then in for the first of several midnight swims and a few mooners pulled from the sea (so that the people on the beach could watch the moon go down on the 20th century, just as they had watched the sun :-) ).

I left Koh Chang early on the morning of the 1st to get the ferry and bus back to Bangkok, nursing my hangover all the way. I'm booked into a 2 week course on Thai massage up in Chiang Mai, north Thailand starting tomorrow morning at 08:30, so I'll be getting a night bus tonight - 12 hours on the bus and then straight to the hopital where they're giving the course! I'm looking forward to the course - I've had so many Thai massages now that I've decided I might as well learn how to give them. And this is a good place to do it - 2 weeks studing at the hospital. Timing is perfect - I finish on Jan 14th, just in time to fly out of Bangkok on Jan 16th for Bali. Pat is still on Koh Chang but he'll be heading up to Chiang Mai in a few days to do a course in Thai cooking.

So, on that note I'll leave you. I still have a few things to sort out before I get the bus, not the least being my Thai visa which expires today.

Once again, a great New Year to ye all!

Stretching out in Chang Mai

Jan 2 - Jan 13 Backpacker diaries

Hope you've all started to recover from the excesses of the New Year hols. Must have been tough going back to work. I can sympatise - I've been 'working' a 9 to 4 day for the last 2 weeks, with homework! Very tough life indeed.

The last 2 weeks have been spent in the town of Chiang Mai, in the very north of Thailand, following a course in Thai massage at the Traditional Medical Hospital. Its a 10 day course with the last day tomorrow (14th), but today is a day off for the Buddhist holiday.
Getting here was a bit of a rush to make the start of the course. After the crazy New Year's night on the island of Koh Chang, it was off to bed at the ridiculously early hour of 03:30 to catch a couple of hours kip before the morning ferry and bus to Bangkok. Then an overnight bus on the 2nd to Chiang Mai, arriving at 6am. Time to check in and get 2 hours sleep before going straight to massage school!

The course itself is really superb. Its a 10 day course and very intensive. We were lucky in that there are only 13 on the course, which is only half the usual. 3 or 4 Thais and the rest are westerners. Of the westerners we have a physiotherapist, an acupuncture student and a professional masseur. Of the rest that I spoke to, all have a background in energy-work - yoga, reiki, tai-chi, chi-qong, hapkido.....
Just the usual buch of New-Age hippies that you always find at this type of course :-) Some real characters as well - especially one crazy Italian called Nicola who looks just like Billy Connolly but laughs even more. We've had a few good sessions in an Irish pub I managed to find here.

But I digress.
The course is held in the Old Traditonal Hospital, which bears absolutely no semblance to a hospital in the west. Here they treat with massage, herbs and saunas. We start at 9am with about 10 minutes of 'prayers', which involves all the Thais chanting to invoke the healing spirits. I just try and look pious!
The first hour is theory from a Thai with a really strong accent. Here we learn that the body is really composed of earth, wind, fire and water - none of that carbon, hydrogen and modern science stuff here! Then theory of pressure points, enery lines, herbs etc. Great stuff.
Upstrairs then to watch the great Mr Sutat demonstrate today's technique, which he does over nearly 2 hours until noon. He's a great teacher and goes into everything in great detail. When on the first day he took a pen and started tracing out the energy lines and pressure points on his 'victum', I was reminded of the Spartacus movie where Kirk Douglas gets covered in paint lines in gladiator school to demonstrate the 'kill zones'.

After lunch we get to practice until 4 or 5. The first few days were a real headache as there are over 100 techniques to learn and its tough putting them all together. After a while though it starts to flow. You pace yourself with your breathing, which falls into the same rythym as the person you're massaging. When you keep your mind clear and focus on breathing then its very similar indeed to meditation.
As well as pressure points and energy lines, Thai massage is superb for stretches. You bend, twist and stretch the limbs in all sorts of weird directions. Very interactive stuff - you use your body-weight a lot and as well as your hands you're also using your feet, elbows and knees. I was really impressed with the course - very intense and the level of instruction is superb.

We have written homework each day too, which we do at breakfast before class. Just like being back at school! And daily tests for the last 6 days where we have to massage the instructors.
The last 3 or 4 days of course covers therapy for specific ailments, which I found really interesting. Because of the holistic approach that they use, you end up treating pressure points on the ankle for eye problems, points on the calf for insomnia and points on the big toe for backache! If someone complains of headache, you spend more time massaging their feet than their head!

The approach here is so different to the West, where we tend to be neurotic about touch. At home, if someone says that they have a headache, people just say 'how sad - take some drugs'. You say the same thing in Thailand and you'll have a Thai come over and start massaging away!

But again I ramble.
Today is a holiday, with the last day of course tomorrow. Then straight to a night bus to Bangkok (ouch) as I'm flying out to Bali (Indonesia) on the 16th.

Chiang Mai itself is a pleasant spot - a lot quieter that the hustle and bustle of Bangkok. The old city is still borded by a moat and it has a lot of charm. I stumbled onto an 'Irish' pub my first day here and I have to admit I've been a regular visitor since, often going in with some of the heads from the course. But sure its so hot here that you need a beer to cool down :-)
This is only the 2nd Irish bar I've seen since July. I hadn't missed them in the slightest before but this was like coming home! Tonight they have a quiz night so we're all heading in for a few scoops. (Quiz nights on Thursday - Damo and Fiona will remember that from Flan O'Brians!).

Pat came up to Chiang Mai a few days after me to do a Thai cooking course. I met up with him after course for a few nights on the beer. He's off in Laos now, having left a few days back. We'll meet up again in Bangkok airport on the 16th for the flight to Bali, and I'm sure he'll have a few tales to tell then.

Well, that's about it I reckon. A fairly quiet couple of weeks for me. After all the stress of 2 weeks of school I reckon I need some more serious beach-time now!

catch ye later
Ciaran

Dancing dolphins and smoking volcanos

Backpacker Diaries : Jan 14 - Feb 3

I'm in a small town called Ubud now, in central Bali, Indonesia. Got a couple of days to chill before hitting Sydney. The last email left off in Chiang Mai, just coming to the end of the Thai massage course.....
I finished the Thai massage course in Chiang Mai on Jan 15th. A wee ceremony with 'diplomas' and all, where we got tikkas on our foreheads in benediction from the head dude. We did look a bit weird mind with big marks on our foreheads but the course was full of hippies anyway, so no-one noticed!
I got the night train down to Bangkok that night and met up with Pat at the airport on the following day, ready for our flight to Bali. Pat had been off galavanting around Laos while I was in Chiang Mai, scooting up the Mekong river by speedboat. I would have liked to check out Laos myself but, so much to do - so little time. Sigh....
We'd been really blessed with good weather for the previous 7 months, and could hardly remember what rain looked like. That was all to change when we arrived in Bali (Indonesia), right in the middle of the rainy season. On that first night we had so much rain that within 2 hours of the first drops falling the main street in Kuta was flooded up to my knees! Pretty mad. Fortunately there just happened to be an Irish bar (Paddy's Pub) 2 minutes from where we were staying, so we took refuge there. Advertised as the only 'Irish' pub in Indonesia (though myself and Pat where probably the first Irish to ever set foot in it). Yeah, I guess we have a knack for sniffing these places out.

Kuta itself was a nightmare. Its the most touristy beach on Bali and is full of tacky souvenir shops and hawkers, with peroxide-blond surfers strutting about. Aarrrgghhhh! Two days was more that enough there. Then Sandrine flew in so we collected her at the airport and made plans to leave Kuta.
Sandrine is one of the girls I worked with while in Nortel France - she was taking two weeks holiday in Indonesia so we'd arranged to meet up with her. The big plan had been to hit Lombok and the Gili islands, and then to work our way to the other islands further east - Flores and Komodo. No could do though as riots broke out on Lombok pretty much on the day we arrived in Bali so the whole zone was a no-go area. Pity - its supposed to be really nice there.

We screamed up to north Bali and hung around at a quiet beach called Lovina. Up at 5am to potter out to sea on a small out-rigger to see the dolphins cavorting off shore. That was pretty cool, especially when a group of dolphins decided to do a few spins in the air right beside our small boat! I think I got a couple of good shots with the camera. But it was annoying to see the tourist boats charge after the dolphins every time they surfaced - I'm sure it must be a pain for the animals. I was glad to leave them in peace.

Got a couple of really good dives in at a marine park with Pat, while Sandrine snorkled. Swam over an 'eel garden' with hundreds of eels in the sand, and saw some pretty cool fish - especially a few really big bump-head parrot fish that must have been close on 2 metres.
We'd booked to dive a reck the following day - a WW2 American ship sunk by the Japanese - but alas the weather was against us so they had to cancel. Oh dear oh dear.

So straight on a plane and off we fly to Yogyakarta in Java. (These 2 weeks have all envolved running around like mad things - not a moments rest!).
Yoyga is pretty cool - some really good temples close by (Borobodur and Prambanane) and the Ramayana ballet was interesting but difficult to follow for Philistines such as ourselves. The bird market was really cool though, as as well as birds they sold everything from vampire bats and snakes to monkeys and cockroaches.

Then off to Mount Bromo. Ah, now that was cool. Its a big crater with a diameter of about 10km, in the center of which are a couple of smaller volcanos, including one really nice smoker. The advantage of being there off-season was that the place was almost completely deserted - we had the volcano pretty much to ourselves. From the top of the smoking volcano you get a really good view into the mouth of the beast, with clouds of white, sulpherous fumes being belched out with gusto. Pat and myself had the brilliant brainwave of walking around the rim, along a narrow path, barely a metre wide in places, at the apex of the knife-edge ridge. Seemed like a good idea at the time but we hadn't realised how slippery the path was, covered as it was with volcanic clay. We got a good 20 metres before Pat went flying on his arse, thankfully landing safely on the path. Hummm, perhaps not such a good idea after all. Suddenly that drop down the crater into the volcano's mouth inspired a little more respect. We were a lot more careful as we gingerly made our way back!
Then we had a really good trek around the base for several hours. The terrain changes from scrub-land to Tibetanesque brown desert to a moon-scape which could have been used as a film set for the flick '2001-A Space Odyssie'. (How do you spell that anyway??). This was my favourite spot in Java and Bali.
Back then to Bali where Sandrine and myself hit Sanur beach (nice but too much of a 'package-tour' place) and then the island of Nusa Lombogan (really nice but just had one day there). Pat meanwhile had shot off to Ubud.

So, a lot of running around the last few weeks. We got a lot in. Sandrine flew back to Paris today and Pat went on ahead to Sydney yesterday, to get in a few early sessions on the beer with some of his buddies there. I've just arrived in Ubud myself which is nice and relaxed. A couple of days to chill here and then I fly out to Sydney on Saturday night, where I'll meet back up with Pat.
Ubud is closer to the real Bali, and I've got a pretty cool room at the side of some paddy-fields. I plan to do nothing but chill for the next two days - in preperation for the onslaught in Sydney!

It'll be nice to leave Asia now though. The last 7 months have been great but time for a change, so starting to really look forward to the next leg of the trip. We have the month of February split between Oz and New Zealand, before hitting South America on March 1st. It'll be a bit of a shock getting back to Western civilisation - I suppose I'll have to shave off my 7-month old beard and trade in my loincloth! :-)

My next global mail will be from Oz or Kiwi-land.
catch ye then
slan
Ciaran

Blue Mountains, Blue Skies

Backpacker Diaries: Feb 5 - Feb 26

26 February 2000

In New Zealand now, soon to fly out to Chile for the South American leg of the trip. Looking forward to that. The last three weeks have been spent in Australia and New Zealand - that makes a nice break from the squalor of Asia but my budget has gone bananas here in Australasia. Good job I'm not staying that long! Ah, but it was nice to get back to western civilisation for a bit - soft toilet paper, carpets, hot showers, aahhhhhhhh............

I left Bali Feb 5th, flying in to Sydney on Sunday morning. Straight over to Fiona's, a collegue from Nortel Galway. It was great having a place to crash. Straight down to an Irish pub that night where we met up with Fergal Hynes (another Nortel Galway head), Keith (Malahide head) and Rachel, Pat (who'd arrived in Sydney a few days before me and had been steadily destroying his liver since), plus 6 or 7 of Pat's college friends. Half of Ireland seems to have settled in Sydney! And so began the first of the alcohol onslaughts. Ouch indeed.

(Late) next day, Pat and myself jumped on a train for the Blue Mountains, just north of Sydney. Ah, now that was nice. I took a day to hike around the cliffs while Pat went mountain biking. The scenery there is absolutely fantastic. Beautiful stuff. One of the things I love most about mountains and forests is that no two are quite alike. Each has its own inherent beauty and the Blue Mountains is no exception! Sheer limestone cliffs over lush forested valleys, and a distinctive blue haze over the distant mountains.

Far be it from us to spend time in such a setting without getting right into the action so Pat and myself booked ourselves on a day of abseiling. The instructors were really good, going through the techniques with us on a small 3 metre blousey drop until we were comfortable, after which we hopped onto the 18m drop. This was more fun, but a bit more scary. 3 times on that and we were ready for the big one - the 58 metre drop. Its 35m of vertical rappelling down a cliff-face followed by a 23m free drop past the overhang. When you stand on top though its really impressive, as you cannot see the ledge 60m below that you end up on - you can only the see the valley far below, so you get the impression that the drop is several hundred metres! The ledge only comes into view after you go over the edge.

This one was definitely intimidating. I don't generally have a problem with heights but my left knee was wobbling violently as I went over. After dropping down about 10 metres I stopped to admire the view - bad move! Woh, deep breaths Ciaran! But, after a couple of times it all came together, so by the 3rd descent I was rappelling down fairly comfortably as opposed to just walking down as I did on the first descent. It was a great introduction to abseiling as the scenery was breathtaking and the weather perfect.

With that bit of abseiling behind us we were now ready to canyon "Claustral Canyon", which we did the next day. This canyon is reputed to be the best in the Blue Mountains, and it lived up to its reputation! Neither of us had ever canyoned before, so this was a great introduction. Canyoning involves following the path of a river through a canyon, wading and swimming when the river is flat, jumping into pools to clear small waterfalls and abseiling down the larger waterfalls.

There were 4 of us in all, including our guide, who drove us far into the mountains. A few km of hiking through a forest brought us to the edge of the river, where we donned our wetsuits and abseiling harnesses. The canyon is only a few metres wide in places but the walls on either side rise to about 40 metres. We kept to the river all the way. The scenery was great until the river disappeared down a chasm - then the scenary became truely spectacular!
The river literally disappears down a hole called "The Black Hole of Calcutta". It drops about 12m to an underground pool, and then there are two further waterfalls of about 16m each to successively lower levels.

We set up our ropes at the top and abseiled down through the first waterfall. From here the river drops almost immediately down another natural vertical shaft to a deep pool in an underground cave. Its magnificent down there, with a view of one waterfall coming down and yet another shaft to descend. The last 16m waterfall was the best, as we had to crawl through a one metre-wide hole to start this abseil. Its another world down there.

From the bottom of these three successive subterranean waterfalls we swam through underground caverns that can only be described as gothic, before coming into a deep canyon that looked like a setting from a Speilberg movie. Enormous ferns and prehistoric-looking vegatation gave the impression of having gone back in time to the Cretacous era - you'd almost expect to see a T-rex or King Kong make an appearance.
After finishing up on the river we then had a pretty strenuous few hours to hike back out of the canyon. Truely a great day, and the scenery has to rank as among the best I've ever seen.

Back then to Syndey to meet up with another bunch of Pat's friends that he hadn't managed to meet the previous weekend - so the beer was flowing! But I also got to stroll around Sydney and take in some more touristy things like the aquarium. Sydney is a nice place - very clean. It reminds me of Boston, but it doesn't have the stress of big American cities.

We left for Auckland, New Zealand on the Monday. I'd only spent 8 days in Oz which seemed ridiculously short.
We headed straight down to Rotorua where we meet up with yet more of Pat's college friends, Keith and Bebhinn (how many college friends does this guy have anyway??). We checked out a few things in Rotorua but the best was a volcano one hours drive away that we all hiked up. This volcano was dormant and after a few hours hike we were rewarded with some spectacular views from the crater rim, but the best treat was not the view - it was the 'scree run'. The scree-run refers to a 140 metre descent down a scree slope to the bottom of the volcano. When you arrive at the volcano rim, the scree slope is directly opposite. This doesn't inspire confidence as there's an optical illusion at work here - the slope looks to be near-vertical - at 70 or 80 degrees! "That's impossible!" we all said, but when we got to the other side we saw that the slope was only 40 degrees - steep but totally safe.

I went first. Running on scree is pretty unique, as its really a combination of running and sliding. Your feet sink to the calves in the loose stones and you go down at a right fair pace, but its easy to stop yourself so you're always in control. As I ran down I started laughing (hysterically?) all the way - I felt just like a big kid. It was easily one of the best laughs I've had in years. I thought it was just me - until Pat and Keith launched into it - all I could hear from the crater floor was their shreiks of laughter all the way down.

We checked out another few things (including a speedboat that does 0-100kmph in 3.5 seconds) and then up we went to Taupo. Neither Pat nor myself was in the mood to move around much so we found ourselves a parachute club and settled down for the week.
To say I was rusty would be something of an understatement, as I hadn't jumped in 5 and a half years. I'd finished at 'A license' level, which means I could do basic freefall manouvers but had never done any relative work (RW - jumping with others and linking up in the air). Pat has the 'C license' and had been jumping just prior to the trip, so he'd already done a fair bit of RW.

We spent 5 days on the dropzone (DZ), but the weather was against us so we didn't get up until the 2nd day. Amazingly they let me jump at 12,000 feet even though I was sooooo out of practice. I dived out headfirst just ahead of Pat - and went straight into a uncontrolable spin. What the hell? I tried adjusting my body-position and waving my arms and legs about, but whatever I did I just kept whirling around in a helicopter spin. To hell with this - I wasn't getting out of it so I pulled early at 5000 feet. Yep, I guess I was a bit out of practice all right :-) Still, the landing was fine.
A quick debrief with Pat and I figured out my mistake, so on our next jump we decided to attempt a 2-way formation, with Pat flying just in front of me. A bit ambitious considering my last jump, and the fact that I wasn't licensed for RW, but we neglected to mention that to the club!

Jump 2 - yahoooo! Out of the plane and straight onto my back - that wasn't in the plan. Managed to recover quick and had a nice stable freefall - but I still couldn't turn properly. Pat flew over my back but then we lost each other. Still, getting better.

Jump 3 - I've remembered how to turn by this stage. I'm on base (i.e on the fuselage outside the door) and Pat is in the doorway on dive exit. "Ready, Steady, GGOOOOOOO!", and off we go together, as I flip straight onto my back yet again. But then I flipped back, saw that Pat was too far from me so I just practiced my turns and drifting - everthing works now. Ah finally, its all coming back to me! This was one of my most enjoyable dives of all time. Great view of the lake and volcanos - I'd missed that in my first jump as I was spinning so much.

Ok, jump 4. I'm back on base again. "Ready, Steady, GGGOOOOOOO!!". This time my exit was perfect, but Pat flipped! Unusual for him. Not to worry, we quickly leveled off with Pat 30 feet above me and about 50 feet out. We compensated our fall rates and got back on the same level, and then flew in. Got to only 7 or 8 feet away from each other, but before Pat could dock I lost it. Balls anyway. Still - almost!

We'd have gotten it next time but I only got 4 jumps in that week because of the weather. Pity - that's very few jumps for 5 days on a DZ. We had blue skies for the most part, but high winds.
As a result, we spent a lot more time sitting around than jumping that week. I didn't mind too much though, as it gave me a good opportunity to practice Thai massage on the DZ crew. I'd give a couple of massages a day on the nearest victims while waiting to jump - it helped pass the time. It also meant I didn't have to pack my own parachutes afterwards:-)

So, back to Auckland now. We're heading to the north of New Zealand tomorrow morning to try and get some scuba in before leaving for Chile on Wednesday, so only a few days left in NZ. As of next week, we'll be working our way back towards Ireland - on the homeward leg now!

Adios a los Andes

Backpacker Diaries Feb 25 - Mar 9

Buenos dias, compadres.

Well, I�m afraid this will be my last mail on the backpacker diaries. Yep, its true, with just two-thirds of the planned trip behind me I�ve decided to cut the trip short. I leave Bolivia tomorrow for Santiago, and I should be back in Dublin just in time for Paddy�s day (next week for the non-Irish amongst you). Ready for a few scoops of the amber nectar.
The trip has been great but I reckon I�ve been on the road long enough now - I woke up one morning in Santiago last week and reckoned it was time to head back. Kind of surprised myself with that one but yeah, time to take a break from the travels.

Not too many mad adventures since the last email I�m afraid. Our last few days in New Zealand were spent in the Bay of Islands, where we got a few dives in on the �Rainbow Warrior�, the Greenpeace ship that was sunk by the French in �85. My first wreck dive. Pretty cool as there�s a real sense of history about the ship, especially when swimming inside the cabins and holds.

Didn�t really get up to much in South America. Hung around Santiago for a while and watched the celebrations/demonstations for Pinochet�s return to Chile. 41 hours by bus up to Bolivia and have been checking out La Paz ever since. Easily one of the most unusual cities I�ve ever seen, nestled in a crater at 3500m up the Andes.
I�ve another mad bus journey back over the Andes tomorrow and then another 2000km south to Santiago to catch my flight to London on Monday - ouch.

No such early retirement for Pat. He�s off to Miami in the next few days, where he plans to buy a motorbike (Harley?) and cruise around the States for the next few months. So, changes of plans all around.

Well, I�ve enjoyed sharing the adventures with ye over the last 8 months or so. Hopefully I didn�t put ye off work too much with my Monday-morning emails :-)
It�ll be me following Pat�s adventures in the States now.

I�ll be based in Dublin for the next few months - time to remember what rain looks like and try to get my Guinness-belly back...

adios amigos
Ciaran