Day 481 - The return to Nepal

We woke up on the train in the middle of lush farmland - such a complete change from Dehli. From the window we saw water buffalo lazing neck-high in the muddy ponds, children running playfully along the mud banks or hitting cricket balls in the fields, and adults biking their way between the huts that make up the rural villages.

We arrived in Gorakhpur and 10 minutes later had managed to tie our packs on the roof of a bus headed to Sanauli, the border town between India and Nepal. We bumped along in a full bus much like local buses in China, and passed a dynamic display of Indian life - for once we kept the camera away, satisfied to simply absorb the sights for ourselves and tried to digest the vast differences between life at home and and the worlds we find ourselves in as we adlib Asia. We navigated our way through Indian and then Nepali immigration with Clayton, another traveller we met on the bus, and before we knew it we had a three month visa (for the extreme price of US$100 each) and were eating lunch in Nepal with our hands.

The buses the Kathmandu didn't leave until 6pm, so we spent the next few hours wandering around, trying to negotiate a share taxi, and drinking lots of cold drinks!! At 6pm the traffic coming from India was still as backed up as it had been all day, so we made the decision to walk past all the traffic and cover the 3km to Bhairawa, the next town, despite being choked by the exhaust fumes. We arrived in the dark but still managed to locate the bus station and purchase tickets for 120 rupees less (thanks to our walking efforts) before boarding the bus.

The bus was an antagonising 11 hours of stop-start movement - when we were moving, the wind came through the windows and cooled us down, but on the frequent stops our clothes became soaked depsite it being the middle of the night. The reason we stopped was because areas along this road are only open at certain times, so we spent ages waiting to be let through another checkpoint.

Adlibing it back to where it all began ...

Day 480 - Rickshaws, forts, mosques, tombs and mobs

As our train to Gorakhpur doesn't leave until 8pm tonight we spent the day seeing some of Delhi's sights - the only problem being that most things are closed on Mondays so our options were limited!

We caught our first rickshaw in India and weaved our way through the traffic to Purana Qila, an old Afghan Fort. Here we were surprised at the absolute peacefulness and lack of people at the fort set in a green manicured garden, so we enjoyed wandering through the tombs and the mosque of Sher Shah (now under intense, but not so authenic renovation) almost by ourselves.

We then waved down another rickshaw and made our way to Humayun's Tomb, a beautiful Mughal tomb made from white and red sand stone and marble in the 16th Century.

The Taj Mahal is even supposed to be modelled on this amazing tomb and garden!! We were basically spellbound by the magnificent piece of architecture and took our time wandering around allowing our eyes to absorb all the details despite dripping in the almost 40 degree humid heat!

Back at the main Bazaar we settled in for a lesuirely lunch and savoured the icy cold drinks and yummy Indian food.

While we were eating dinner we experienced our first blackout with many more to come ...

As the day slipped away we made our way to the New Delhi train station where clusters of people sleep on the floor in any space they can find. We managed to get to the right place after a lot of walking up and down the crazy busy platforms, and had to wait almost an hour as our train was running late (seems to be the norm in India). We weren't starved of things to look at while waiting though, as we had thousands of people to observe: porters carrying gigantic loads balanced on their heads, bare footed women in gorgeous bright saris, and of course a lot of noise to add to that! When our train arrived we watched in amazed horror as guards used sticks to beat away passengers desperate to claim a spot in general section where there are no allocated seats. We were grateful to have allocated beds in our air-con carriage!!

Adlibing it to the train station.

Day 479 - In the middle of hectic Delhi

We woke up to beeping, shouting and general chaos that consumes the small alleys between the crushing mass of buildings that make up Paharganj (the budget area of Delhi). Despite limited sleep we rose early and set off to the train station battling the masses for a place to put one foot after the other!!
The train station was remarkably efficient and easy - there's a special booking office for foreigners which we took advantage of and found things almost a little too easy now that everyone speaks English - and we were just starting to get the hang of Russian!! We walked away with 2 tickets on a train to Gorakhpur tomorrow night, and then set about going from hotel to hotel for a cheaper (but still decent) room for tonight.

After an hour or so we found one we were happy with, returned to our hotel for our bags and checked in to our new hotel (for 1/3 of the price, but possibly also 1/3 of the standard!).
The budget in check again we made multiple trips up and down the exotic streets - well, if you consider bright colours, noise, dirt, wild cows, elephants, mangey muts, touts, and suicidal rickshaws exotic. We stopped in for our first Indian curry: we are now officially in Liv friendly territory, with every second restaurant offering 'pure veg' food! We also managed to buy a second hand (3 weeks of use!) Lonely Planet from another traveller for a steal, so now we have some clue of what we're doing ...
After another delicious meal in a much more bustling streetside restaurant we strolled the busy markets and weaved down back alleyways where suddenly we couldn't see another foreigner and the dodginess increased. Luckily we broke out of the maze and into familiar territory and continued our bazaar trip.

Adlibing sights, sounds and smells of Delhi.

Day 478 - Up, up and away to India

The morning was spent reallocating weight in our packs for our flight so Adam's pack dramatically decreased in weight while Liv's increased! We managed to pick up a souvenier from Kazakhstan (Adam's justifying the huge cost by calling it his birthday present!), and find a fast internet place to upload some photos.

At 2pm we made our way out to the airport and hung around for our 6pm flight, which went without any dramas.

When we arrived at Delhi International airport after our 4 hour flight we grabbed our bags and joined the long queue to wait for a pre-paid taxi. Here we stood for almost 2 hours, but we managed to make friends with another traveller who gave us some good accommodation advice. Our friend Brad had already warned us that arriving late at night in the cheap part of town normally meant paying triple the price you should. So armed with this info we shared a taxi with Alan who took us to Hotel Godwin where we got a nice room for not too bad a price!

On the way we went via Main Bazar road where we checked out a few of the dodgier places (including the one we had planned to go to) but the prices were really high, so we ended up paying about $6 more to stay in a nice place with air-con, and crashed out about midnight!!

Adlibing it by air.

Day 477 - Return to Kazakhstan

The sole purpose of today was to make a border hop back to Kazakhstan. At the border we waited an antagonising 2 hours as our marshrutka driver battled to get through the backed up traffic at customs, and at 5pm we rolled into a familiar Almaty in an unfamiliar part of town. We did what the adlibers do best and found a public bus going our way and jumped on with our packs.

We made our way to the same hotel we stayed at last time, where the friendly owner greeted us with a smile of remembrance and we were soon settled in our room - the 4000 Tenge price (over $NZ40), though cheap for Almaty, is a big jump from the $10 we were paying in Bishkek. We then changed some money, got a doner kebab for dinner from our 'local' across the road, and made our way to push through last minute research for our descent into India tomorrow.

Adlibing expensive Almaty again.

Day 476 - Last day in Kyrgyzstan

Today was a day full of typical but boring travel stuff - showering, hand washing, internetting and planning, oh and of course eating. With only 2 days until we fly to India the reality that we're leaving Central Asia and hitting a new country is setting in ... a new country always means new adventures and stresses!

It was really nice to relax in the guesthouse with Stasa and Luka tonight, enjoying a cold beer, trading travel info and advice and not being the only ones packing by torchlight when the power cut out!!

Adlibing .... aah, nothing.

Day 475 - Wheeling our way home

Our day started in the submarine bus which bumped its way to Kara Jigach, from where we had to catch a taxi to Tashkomur as there were no public buses running through today. In Tashkomur we went to the bus station but it would have been better to have been dropped off at the bridge that leads to the main Bishkek road. From the bridge we negotiated a good price back to Bishkek and then had a yummy lunch at a roadside cafe with Stasa and Luka, as well as with a French Canadian cyclist who's cycling the world as part of an environmental project of his. At lunch we also got to people-watch (and animal watch), taking in all the interesting people and their surroundings.After lunch we got in our taxi and retraced a familiar path, only this time the haze from our original journey had drifted away and the view of the mountains and plains was even more spectacular than a week before.It was amazing to come over the large pass and see Toktogul Reservoir in its true bright blue glory.

Seven hours later we were back in Bishkek for the 4th time, where we caught the familiar 132 marshrutka all the way to the South Guesthouse where we let ourselves in with our key, dropped our bags and walked back out to a restaurant for our first real meal in days - Stasa and Luka making great company once again!

Adlibing it back ... again.

Day 474 - A 15 hour mission

After knocking back breakfast that would provide us with much needed energy for our intended mission, we set off armed with the hand drawn map our guesthouse owner had given us - this map showed us how to avoid the ticket gate where we would have had to pay an astronomical fee and then led us on a mammoth journey past five gorgeous alpine lakes. We started our walk following the river that runs through the village and made our way through a walnut forest where the locals were going about their business picking walnuts. After we had successfully passed the ticket office we headed onto a less-than-clear track that we hoped would lead us towards Aram Kol, the first watery destination of the day! Luckily we passed a couple of guys and a shepherd who pointed us in the right direction and after 3 hours we made it over the massive hill obstructing our journey and were rewarded with a beautiful lake below. Here we decided to have a break and a snack and Adam ran up another hill to see what he could see. Soon he was hailing the others to join him for magnificent views of Kla Kol and Sary Chelek shadowed by mountains in the distance. With the day heating up we made our way along a narrow horse track to the edge of the lake by which point Adam couldn't resist jumping into the clear, inviting water, where he splashed around with the local resident frogs.
From here we made our way to Chuychok Kol, where if it is possible it was more beautiful than the previous lake - the water was so clear you could see fish swimming around the reeds and the mountains above us cast perfect reflections on the mirror like water.
At this lake we came across a pack of wild horses who all seemed very afraid of us - it was the baby of the pack who had enough courage to approach us and let us pat him, the elder members of the pack cautiously following suit. We made our way along the edge of the lake where we passed a forest of apple trees and indulged in some fresh snacks. We found a path that followed the edge of Iyri Kol, a long moon shaped lake that was made up of a multitude of colours from deep ocean blue, to turquoise, to green. After following the lake we avoided climbing over some mountains by staying on the track, but we paid little attention to our map - had we taken the time to stop and look at it, we might have turned around here and avoided the two-hour hike up and over a thorn covered, rock littered hill that was over 2000m high! On the positive side we got amazing views of Sary Chelek from the top that we would have otherwise missed! After another hour of hiking we finally made it to the shore of the stunning Lake Sary Chelek where we found a spot to relax, have lunch, and take a commando bath / swim (the boys anyway!). Sary Chelek is 7km long and 234m deep and is hidden away in the Fergana Valley where there is supposed to be lynx, deer and bears, but we didn't see any of these!

At 5.30pm we decided we should make a start back down the the village as we supposed it would take us between 2 and 3 hours to get back - and at just before 9pm (pitch dark by this time) we arrived back at our guesthouse, with a bag full of fresh organic apples!

Adlibing 5 beautiful lakes.

Day 473 - The road to Arkit

6.30am came and so we all made our way past the now deserted bazaar to the old bus station where we found a marshrutka heading our way. Our destination is a small village called Arkit from where we will head to Sary Chelek lake - the easiest way to get here from Osh is by marshrutka to Kerben (Karavan) (early - our's left by 7.30am) and then catch a public bus to Arkit from there, which is exactly what we did today!!

The drive to Kerben was uneventful until we broke off the main Bishkek-Osh road we had come down on several days ago and turned onto a dusty road still in the process of being made. The most interesting thing was that we were skirting the edge of Uzbekistan where armed guards wandered along the road to prevent people crossing the border - this was the closest we will get to Uzbekistan until we return in the future!!

We arrived in Kerben with a few hours to spare before the bus left to Arkit so along with Stasha and Luca (both from Slovenia) we had some lunch and tea in a small cafe, before getting some food from the bazaar. Our bus to Arkit must have been from the 1950s it was so old, but it definitely had a lot of character - how it managed the two and a half hour journey with seemingly hundreds of passengers we don't know! The character on the bus was intensified by the beautiful locals, intrigued by our presence. The rounded windows at the back made us feel as if we were riding a submarine, only going the wrong way! When we arrived in Arkit around sunset we were grateful that Stasha and Luca spoke Russian as they were able to negotiate us all a good price in a home stay - the only thing we added was extra bargaining power to the table! By 7.30pm we were sitting in our room with tea and noodles where we chatted until the power cut out at just before 10pm.

Adlibing it along Uzbekistan.

Day 472 - A day at the bazaar

Even though Osh is the second biggest city in Kyrgyzstan and the mix of cultures here is intriguing (a mix of Kyrgyz, Uzbek, and Tadjik), there's not much to do except go to the huge bazaar and take in the sights and smells of a real Central Asian city. Osh is a really old city (older than Rome according to the locals), and with the abundance of history and culture it makes up for the fact that we can't make it to Uzbekistan.
At the bazaar we pushed our way through the throbbing crowds through the many different sections: clothing, shoes, food, household goods and traditional wear. To be honest anything and everything you could possible need is found here, but we just enjoyed watching the people and browsing through the different stalls.
Later on while Liv rested back at the guesthouse Adam went back in search of some cool photos and enjoyed a few bites to eat here and there as friendly sellers handed him things for free. It's amazing: you ask to take a photo of someone and the next thing you know you're feasting on yoghurt balls and having a conversation where no one understands each other!! One model hoped the photo could be printed now so she could sign it like a star! Even after another couple of hours lost in the sea of colours from the dried fruits and vegetables and engulfed in the smells of freshly made cookies, naan, and samsas - Adam could have happily stayed for hours more. After some time on the computer we made the hat trick trip to the bazaar where we indulged in all sorts of food purchases for dinner: salads, bread, fruit, and dumplings. Buying the food is quite an experience with the ladies all holding out food for you to sample before you buy - if you wanted to you could probably eat a meal just by sampling them all!!

Back at the hostel we ate our food and hung out with the other travellers, including Stasha and Luca who will come with us at the ungodly hour of 6.30 tomorrow morning as we make our way back north.

Adlibing the bustling bazaar.

Day 471 - Arslanbob to Bazaar Korgon to Jalal Abad to Ozgen to Osh

The title pretty much sums up our day as we hopped from taxi to marshrutka and wound our way to Osh. We had intended to stay in Ozgen, but after walking around in the midday heat for over an hour we decided to just see the sight we came to see and then move on. The reason we came was to see an old Minaret and three mausoleums side by side - these structures were built before the times of coloured tiles that enthralled us in Turkestan, but the terracotta carvings and patterns were just stunning. We enjoyed seeing a structure that showed its age but also a respectful maintenance. When we arrived a young boy literally sprinted up the street to meet us and then blew us away with his phenomenal English skills. We talked for 20 minutes and he understood everything - he even translated to his friend, an old man, and a teenager who had gathered around to hear the chatter. He was stoked to receive a NZ coin, hopefully proof to his teacher that the thing that caused his late arrival back at school was at least something constructive.

We finally arrived in Osh in the late afternoon an picked our way around the edge of the busy bazaar to make it to the Osh Guesthouse where we hope to convince some travellers to come with us on a power mission to a lake up north.

At the guesthouse we joined in a great few hours of conversation - most of the travellers were mad cyclists from all over the world, some ranging from weeks on the bike to a Spanish guy who has been on the road for almost 3 years! We heard stories, made contacts and got great info - all the things you benefit from by staying in a dorm over a hotel.
For dinner we headed out to a cheap laghman dinner with some of the travellers, where the good conversation continued. It's nice to be with like minded travellers all heading out for a cheap feed!

Adlibing too many vehicles.

Day 470 - A rocky riverside rest

As we had spent all day walking yesterday, today we decided to have a day relaxing. After an early breakfast with Simen before he left, we went back to bed, and finally got up just before lunch to find a spot beside the river to read the afternoon away. On the way we took a twisty route through the village peaking over fences and being met with happy faces and waves. This is without a doubt one of the friendliest and most welcoming places we have been to in a really long time - Arslanbob gets the Adlibing approval! As we made our way along the streets we passed a young boy who after every 100m would put down his heavy sack full of apples for a rest - Liv commented that Adam could carry both the boy and his sack for less effort than the poor boy carrying the sack, so Adam was soon carrying the sack and following the wee boy through the village. He eventually led us to the river where he ripped of his shoes and rolled up his suit pants and walked through the icy clear water. On the other side mum waved her thanks to Adam and soon the boy was running back to Adam with some apples as a thank you!
We found a small rocky island in the middle of the river where we plonked ourselves down for some serious reading.

Back at the guesthouse (CBT Guesthouse Number 5 - ph. 94-89-20) Adam distracted the children from their potato picking by taking photos of the family doing his best to communicate with the limited language skills on both sides. It's amazing how much fun a kid can have taking photos on a digi camera and then seeing the results! The variety of traditional meals continued for dinner, which is great after we have been self catering for the last week or so cooking up pasta most nights.

Adlibing a helping hand.

Day 469 - Wandering to the waterfalls

Bed and Breakfasts are our new favourite thing!!! We woke up to bread, homemade apricot jam, pancakes, cookies, chocolate, nuts and tea - what a start to the day! Once we finished eating (which took us nearly an hour and a half) the three of us set out for a day of walking around the village. We first headed for the Big Waterfall that began with a wander along the riverside before we cut into the hills to weave our way past the homes that dot the land outside the centre of the village.
Along the way we were steered in the right direction by helpful locals, always waving and smiling at us - the women dressed in colourful dresses and headscarves while doing the gardening and other chores, and young boys and their heavily-laden donkeys traipsing down the stony path. The river is such a large part of life here as it plays a vital role in nourishing the lush gardens and forests, and the amazing irrigation system makes sure that almost every home has a small stream running into or past - creating the need for cute bridges at many front gates. After a couple of hours we made it to the 80m high waterfall and clambered our way up the gravelly mountain for close up views. It's not one of the waterfalls with a nice pond at the bottom, which disappointed Adam as he was ready for a swim, but he and Simen climbed even higher up the cliff face beside to get a view down the sheer drop that the water tumbles over.

On the way down Adam managed to climb an apple tree to pick some apples, at the same time putting a massive rip in the bottom of his pants - yet another rip for Liv to sew up tonight!
Back in the village we headed for the smaller waterfall, and once again the friendly locals who at every chance posed for photos made sure we were going the right way. Along the path we watched a couple of young boys throwing stones to gather some sweet apples as treats (not the kind of sweets us westerners would search for). At the waterfall we ate our lunch of cheese and bread and lazed on some rocks in the sun, drifting off to sleep to the sound of the water splashing its way down the rocks to the pool below.
After our rest we climbed up a hill hoping to find ourselves in a walnut forest, which we eventually did, where Adam especially enjoyed helping a woman gather nuts. The process of walnut collecting is quite cool - it involves a monkey-like man climbing to the top of the high trees and stomping and jumping to cause the tree to release their payload to the ground. Here mum takes over and collects the hundreds of fallen nuts!

We spent a couple of hours in the shade of the gorgeous forest, its leaves slowly changing colour, all the while smashing open the occasionally walnut to snack on. With the evening approaching we made our way to a vantage point to look out over the Uzbek village we currently call home!

We followed a donkey and its owner down the hill, one of us slipping every few minutes down the steep, slippery slope, until we made it back to our guesthouse, and of course were welcomed like we were family. With the night falling we did just as we did the night before - it's nice to hear new stories and get some travel tips.

Adlibing the walnut village.

Day 468 - A long taxi ride

After making it to the bus station by 8am, it wasn't until 10am that our taxi driver found 2 other passengers to share the ride south with us. We found the last 2 passengers while waiting at the Osh Bazaar where Adam entertained himself by checking out the locals in their traditional Kyrgyz hats going about their everyday lives that would count as an exercise programme for someone back home.

Our destination was Arslanbob, an Uzbek village famous for its walnut forests in the south of Kyrgyzstan, and the others in our taxi were going to Jalal Abad - the problem with this was that we had agreed with our driver on a price to Arslanbob, but he didn't want to take the 2 hour detour and then have to get the others to Jalal Abad!! After some rather forceful arguing (with the help of one of the other passengers who spoke some English) the driver ended up paying for our taxi to the village!!

The drive from Bishkek was quite beautiful, and we made our way over two passes both over 3000m, which spoiled us for views of the dry golden plains below, sprinkled with white yurts. The LP advised the drive to Arslanbob would take about 12 hours, but with the speed our driver was going we made it there after 8 - and that's including arguing times and a lunch stop!

In Arslanbob we followed a German tourist to his homestay, where we were greeted with smiles by the lady house owner, who later cooked up a storm for our dinner! Meals were cooked off woodfires while we relaxed enjoying views of their gigantic garden full of apple, pear and walnut trees, as well as vege patches and roaming chickens and dogs. Arslanbob is a very welcome change from the hustle and bustle of the Bishkek we left this morning.

We spent the evening chatting away to Simen and hearing about his time in Russia and after such a huge traditional dinner we could barely move to our room for sleep. But since it had been pitch black outside since 8pm and with nothing much to do in this sleepy village at night, there was nothing we'd rather do than chill out and chat.

Adlibing it to Arslanbob.

Day 467 - Shopping!

Today we wandered around the familiar city of Bishkek stopping in at CBT (Community Based Tourism) and a map store for some information about our upcoming trip to Aslanbob in the south of Kyrgyzstan. We then made our way to some shops to buy some mementos of our time here - after a couple of hours we walked away with a traditional hat (ak kalpak) and carpet (shyrdak) for ourselves (you can see a colourful version of a shyrdak in yesterday's photo), we also managed to sneak a gift in for the youngest members of our families. Being so concerned about space and money, it always feels odd to buy stuff, but we plan to do a send home from Nepal and it's so nice to have something special to remember a country by.

Along the way we stopped to watch the change of guards under the flag pole. Everytime we wander past the guards standing still and silent under the flag pole we mention how boring a job it must be - at least now we know that they don't have to stand there all day!

We got some takeaway samsa, stocked up on some food for when we head into the mountains tomorrow and then made our way to the Kazakh Embassy to pick up our transit visas.

Adlibing away money.

Day 466 - Back to Bishkek

This morning we sat on the side of the road waiting for a Bishkek bound marshrutka, and for the third time so far we drove into Bishkek this afternoon after a 6 hour bumpy ride. The trip was less than fun with a poor wee kid vomiting continuously into bags and onto the floor - for some unknown reason whenever he was fine Mum decided to give him food, which meant that 20 minutes later the kid would puke again - nice. In Bishkek we returned to our guesthouse to the smiles of momma Bishkek!! It really is starting to feel like home when you have a key to someones apartment, can cook dinner, sit at a dining table and have your gear waiting for your return.
After a quick zip to the supermarket for pasta, fruit and veges we cooked up our dinner to eat on the deck with a beer in hand and settled in for the night.

Adlibing a marshrutka.

Day 465 - A day at the beach

After a lazy start to the day we slowly made our way down to the lake, only about 20 minutes away from our house. We took the scenic route there, wandering along the dusty roads past quaint little cottages, their gardens full of ripe apple trees and colourful flowers. Near the lake we heard meows coming from a bush and soon a tiny kitten came out wanting cuddles and gobbling up the pieces of bread we offered it. The lake looked even more beautiful in the daylight, and with sand between our toes we made our way around the shore to a perfect secluded spot - our own private beach! For the rest of the day we lazed in the sun, listening to music and reading our books - Adam was the only one brave enough to dive into the crystal clear lake. Sparkling under the sun and lapping at the beach front it seemed like Issky Kol was calling.
The sun slowly faded into the distance so we reluctantly surrendered and made our way home along the tree shaded path. Once again little kitty crawled out of the bush and bounded after us, it was heartbreaking to keep walking but we've been coming across stray animals in large numbers since we left NZ, and we know we can't save them all ...

Back at hour home stay we had more 2 minute noodles supplemented by a fresh apple sneakily picked from the garden - just as good as the pear that happened to fall into our bag as we left this morning!

Adlibing the crystal clear lake.