After yesterday's relatively chilled stroll downhill, today was pretty much when we were somewhat brutally reminded that the majority of this trek would be of the upwards persuasion as we made our way from 2640 to 3440 metres. To be fair though our general pace could be described as more of a shuffle than an [...]
Tag: India And Nepal 2014 to 2015
Everest Base Camp Trek: Day 1
Lukla is probably the world's most dangerous airport. The runway is 527 metres long which is essentially two tenths of fuck all in actual real life runway terms and it slopes at a 12% gradient because if it didn't, shit would crash. There's no margin for error, you can't just decide halfway through landing that [...]
Kathmandu Highlights
Aside from purchasing enough prayer flags to sanctify the air in a mafia strip club and trying to stop "Om Mani Padme Hum" from crawling round your braincells like an earworm on crack, there's not huge amounts to do in Kathmandu itself unless you're particularly fond of temples and stupas and knock off outdoor gear [...]
This Is My Last Resort
So back in 2009, me and my sister did our very first bungee jumps together in Queenstown, New Zealand. Since then I've needlessly thrown myself off various structures in the name of adrenaline but Nat hasn't and as soon as we'd confirmed that we'd be meeting up in Nepal to walk up a massive fucking [...]
Aaaand That’s India For Now
All over India when you catch a train, sometimes a group of transgenders, or hijras, will board and ask men for money. They clap loudly, touch men on their heads and the men are expected to give the transgenders โน10. I've seen them enter shops or restaurants and ask for money. What I've never seen [...]
Heaven On Earth
So these living root bridges we'd come to see are actually located in a valley which is easily accessible from Cherrapunji. You can do it in a day and domestic tourists from Shillong do indeed do this, but we'd heard you should really spend a night or two down there to get the most out [...]
Dipping Into The North East
I'd first heard about the Living Root Bridges of Cherrapunji on Atlas Obscura's website and tucked that little nugget of awesome away in the back of my mind for when I finally made it to India. It's one of those places that folks either haven't heard of, or know of it and desperately want to [...]
Just When You Thought Tea Was Just Tea
I love tea which is slightly stereotypical given my nationality, but then again I'm lesbian with short hair, several P!nk albums and a penchant for Superdry underwear so stereotypes are kinda my thing. I was totally thrown by chai when I first arrived in India though. When I was handed a tiny plastic cup of [...]
The Queen Of Hill Stations
Seriously, Darjeeling. You better be worth the Hell Train I endured to get to you. Okay, actually the train only went as far as New Jalpaiguri, affectionately known as NJP because New Jalpaiguri clearly has way too many syllables, then it was a shared jeep from there to the town itself. That's fine though, that [...]
Holi Hai!
When I was planning this trip I planned the timing around two things; the Nepal trekking season and Holi. Initially I thought, Varanasi. Yeah. That seems like it'd be a cool place to celebrate Holi, and indeed it is. Unless you're female because it all gets a little bit rapey. One bloke I was in [...]