Jakey Jake

Thursday 31st March
Another early morning start. we were doing a trek through Chitwan. some of the talk at the drinking session centered around one of the tour guides telling one girl that 30 people had been eaten by tigers in the last week. The girls started to freak out and it was now time to see who would be cat food. after walking for over 4 hours and seeing a peacock and a deer i was utterly disillusioned, and completely buggered. So i went to sleep for a while before we had to get up for an elephant ride through the same park. i felt sorry for the elephants seeing as they had to carry around half a tonne on their backs, then again i also felt sorry for me seeing as the ride was bloody uncomfortable. It took a while but we eventually got used to the confort factor and we started to see some pretty amazing things, we ran into a rhino with a baby rhino that felt threatened by all the elephants. after 3 hours we arrived back at the hotel and we promptly went for dinner down at the beach again. we ended up having drinks with the other group and met up with all the nepalese tour guides, who were having a good old singalong, so we all decided to join in and have a dance.

Wednesday 30th March
After waking up well before the wake up call we eventually headed down to the bus stop to catch a local bus to chitwan national park. The journey took us through some massive mountain ranges with some incredible scenery and some incredible drops off the side of the road. I wasnt sure if the bus driver had previously missed his vocation as an airline pilot, it seemed he wanted to drive us straight off the cliffs. it was very f*&$ing scary. Somehow we managed to make it safely to chitwan although it took about 3 hours longer than our tourgide had said. The reoad had been closed for the last few days due to heavy fighting, and funnily enough there was an article in the paper talking about maoists torching a tourist bus. we hooked up with another group when we arrived, some of their group was to be joining our group for the tour through india. We all decided to have a few drinks down along the river, which had a lot of seating on the banks, giving it a real beach feel. We all got along pretty well and had a good laugh until our leader came down and said we should get back to the hotel as the army was coming though.

Tuesday 29th March
Woke up too early, 6 am for an 8am flight. for some reason they wanted us to be there an hour early. once we got to the airport there were no signs or announcements, we had no idea if we were going to miss the flight or what??? Eventually we were called forward and we jumped on our plane, about 20 minutes late. finally we were up in the air, it took a little while to get above the cloud cover but once we were there it was truly amazing. this massive mountain range stretched as far as i could see, rising far above the clouds. I cant imagine how peaceful and the solitude and satisfaction you would get from trekking around these mountains. I think its defniately on for my next trip. as we came to Mt Everest i went up to the cockpit for a view straight out the window. Surrounded by massive mountains i cant even begin to describe what it was like, youll just have to check out the photos. after everest i went back to the hotel for a nap.

Monday 28th March
Today i woke up fairly late, and decided to walk around the town and see the sights. Tahmal in Kathmandu is the touristy area, its dominated by jewellery shops, which have the most amazing necklaces, Internet cafes, restraunts, photoshops, trekking shops and tourist tour shops. The nepalese people are fantastically nice and very good natured. This is definately my favourite place so far. As i was walking around and taking pictures, one of the locals started talking to me and offered to show me the city for a small fee. We walked around looking at some interesting temples and he was telling me about some of Nepals history. 2 years ago the royal family was murdered. it was said in the media that the eldest son comitted the murders, however the locals dont entirely beleive this as the kings brother has now become king. There is a lot of unrest in Nepal, the Maoist activists have started a civil war and daily there is lots of fighting between the maoists and the police and army. On saturday around 2000 maoists attacked an army base, apparently there were over 150 army deaths and an unknown number of maoists. they also had a few bombs around tahmal, about 500m from my hotel, that destroyed a building but didnt kill anyone. Its amazing how friendly and happy the locals are even under such a threat. Apparently the maoists were fed up with the very expensive fees for education, even primary schools, and for health cover, as well as the city centered development, leaving rural areas starved of much needed resources. anyway we found ourselves at Durbar square, with about 40 temples around the old palace, very pretty area, but i have to admit im just about templed out. although there was one temple for the karma sutra, with intricate wood carvings of numerous sexual positions all over it pretty kewl. then we went to lunch atop one of the older guesthoses, with the oldest lift in nepal. after this i went back to the hotel to meet the crew. it was s different mix to the other tour, should be interesting to see how it goes. but im not touring with them tomorrow as im flying over the himalayas after lunch we went to the monkey temple, which is 2000 years old, and i was buggered after the stairs. it was the first building in kathmandu, as kathmandu valley was still covered with water. after i met up with the new tour group. We were supposed to meet for dinner somewhere called paddi, but even the locals didnt know where it was. so i found myself wandering around and i found a nice mexican place and got some fajitas and sucked down a few vodka and oranges that were truly lethal, with cafe del mar playing in the background. then i found an irish bar, that was playing english soccer and i began talking to an american. hehehehe pretty cultured out eh? had a bit of fun there but i needed to be up early for the plane.

Sunday 27th March
Decided i couldnt be bothered travelling into Delhi when my plane was leaving at 7pm and i only woke up at 11am. My Pack weighs something like 21 Kilos and my handluggage is probably close to 10. Lugging that around delhi didnt seem all that appealing so i decided to rock up to the international airport. One thing that stuck out clearly was the military presence. on the departures ramp there must have been about 4 concrete forts with around 4 MPs in each carrying some kind of automatic weapon. Kind of off putting when you know you have to get on a plane. I spose im only really a coutry away from Afghanistan though, and there is an election looming in india, and a horde of very unhappy Indians….. OHHHH and guess what??? apparently Nepal has had a few bombs go off, apparently in Kathmandu too… JOY out of the frying pan and into the fire. still i have this feeling that everything is going to work out ok. HEHE always the optimist. i really need to run a spellchecker over these pages….. Anyway from what ive seen of delhi (approximately 2kms around the airport) its pretty shit with a lot of military. HMmmmm lets hope things are going to improve.. otherwise PETE here i come

Saturday 26th March
after spending two and a half hours in transit at hong kong international between bangkok and Delhi, i finally touched down in India at 2am. Reading recently that a Sydney Author was hacked to death here after getting taken for a ride in a cab, i was pretty nervous, i decided to approach the delhi tourism center to be sure. After a short cab ride (and a long cab wait) i arrived at this little indian guesthouse called the r blues. stayed overnight and was inducted into the inidan culture with indian cable TV. Not to mention the power failures that kept turning all the power off every 20 minutes or so.

Friday 26th March
Heres hoping that this is the last day of my trip in SE Asia and im not sitting in a hospital being sick… woohoo everything is ok and im going to india. Anyway i havent really said anything about thailand. It was once an absolute monarchy, which turned into a democratic cappitalist societey, whose population is mainly buddhist. Clearly you can see the effect that not going through a communist era (compared to Vietnam and Cambodia) has had on the structure of the country. Much more modern and flourishing economy. Anyway enough of that, im about to jump onto cathay pacific and go to hong kong and then to Delhi, yes i know, 1 step back 2 steps forward, but think of the frequent flyers .

Thursday 25th March
Said goodbye to everyone at breakfast, im not much for goodbyes so i got out of there as fast as i could. My elbow was much better and i decided to put it in a sling so it would heal faster. after brekky i checked out the sky blue tower with its observation deck on the 77th floor. Bangkok is a massive city, you cant really tell from the ground but it seems to stretch out forever, although you couldnt see that far as there is a lot of smog. I grabbed my stuff and headed down to koah san road, i found a nice little cell that they called a room, with no airconditioning for 200 baht, hey its got a bed thatll do. then i decided to walk around town, boy did i walk, probably around 20 kms. saw lots of temples and stuff and people pushing their food stalls the wrong way down main highways with oncoming traffic, but by now that was fairly normal. finally got to gullivers on the corner of koah san road to meet Lucy and Nicole who were on the tour and were sticking around as well. we had a nice dinner and found a nice little bar but it wasnt airconditioned so the girls decided it was time to move on. We kept walking and nothing much seemed to be happening in the clubs until we stubleb on this refitted combi van that was turned into a bar. very kewl indeed. wonder what it would cost to get a liquor license in australia for one of these??? we decided that we were too buggered after that and it was time for bed. Lucy and Nicole invited me back to their place in siam city tomorrow for a swim and to use their high speed interent. DONE

Wednesday 24th March
woke up and it seemed that the ice had certainly helped, but not enough. we jumped on a boat for a cruise down the river which was absolutely insane, before getting off and transferring to a Tuk Tuk which was even more insane, a three wheeler bike going 2 wheels around the corner… anyway we arrived at What Pho temples, wghich were the oldest temples in Thailand. There was some pretty amazing artwork in these, however the Grand Palace clearly topped even these striking temples. However my pain was growing and i really needed to get to a doctor. My tour guide threw me in a taxi and sent me to Bumrungrad hospital. I dont think ive ever been so impressed with a hospital ever, except maybe epworth which is really a 5 star hotel camouflaged as a hospital. Didnt take them long to get to me, and the doctor decided i had left olecranon burstitis (also known as fluid in the left elbow) and he needed a fluid sample to see if it was infected, in which case i would be stuck in the hospital for 2 weeks. I dont think ive ever seen a doctor freak out before, i dont think hed performed too many blood samples. He was jabbing the needle around and twisting it to get as much fluid as he could (me being used to needles didnt feel a thing) and here he was i thought he was going to faint on me hehehehe. anyway he siad i would get the reults of the test at 1pm on friday, considering my flight was at 4 i was going to be pushing it. Hopefully everything would be clear otherwise it was hospital for ages… bleh… anyway it was our last night as a group together and everyone was going out, but here i am typing this while everyone is watching thai fighting, singing karaoke, visting the notorious ping pong shows and partying in kho san road. Bummer I really wanted to go but i really felt like i was going to end up DOA at a bangkok hospital if i did, not just my elbow was hurting but i had a crook stomach and chest pains… YAY still everyone was taking good care of me which was very much appreciated

Tuesday 23rd March
Couldnt wait to get on that bus to the cambodian/thai border. What an incredible change it was over the border, just a short 500m walk. Suddenly we were in civilization, with 7 elevens and KFC, WOHOOOOO. what a much needed break from the beggars and the hoplessness of poverty in cambodia, whos only real possibility of redemption is tourism to angkor. Anyway we took another bus from the border to the bus depot where we switched to a taxi for the rest of the trip to the hotel. “20 minutes to the hotel”. For anyone who has been in bangkok traffic you will realise that this roughly translated into “one hour unless the car breaks down or overheats”. when we got to the hotel i noticed a funny bump on my elbow. after checking in it was time for dinner, so we grabbed a taxi to kho san road (the main backpackers area). they had been doing some roadworks and there was mess everywhere, but you can certainly feel the life of the city, theres a tonne of energy here. we stopped in one of the restraunts at the side of the road for a dinner, most people ordering curries only to have their heads blown off suffa, spicy food sux then i went for a stroll in the market before heading to an irish bar on the corner. I have to say its utterly gross to see ugly fat balding old western men taking advantage of poorer thai women who are so clearly disinterested in their partners, and more in their partners cash. its not just the older men as well, it seems to be most guys, its vile. get a grip. anyway we left this dump for another bar called lava, which was relatively dead but we were assured by Bond, our tour guide, that it would get packed. And sure enough it did, it was also about this time i noticed the bump on my left elbow had swollen to the size of half a tennis ball, and it F^&*ING KILLED. i thought i would go home and put it on ice and see what the deal was. Kho san road was still packed at about 1am.