Over the last year and a half, we have explored some of the regions best natural attractions including national parks, reserves, and remote wilderness regions. The explorations have been made on foot as well as by jeep, canoe, kayak, camel and elephant.

To recall our adventures, we have put together a pictorial, a sort of photographic trophy wall to share a tiny bit of the regions diversity with you. All of the animals included were photographed by us in the wild. Since we do not have a 600 mm lens and a fifty pound tripod, that is much more challenging than it sounds. While the big game may seem the most impressive, one shot in particular should be considered our ultimate trophy, the photo of the two camouflaged nightjars. Believe it or not, they were actually spotted by our guide from a moving jeep!

Seeing Kangchendzonga is also a milestone for Thomas and me. This means we have seen 8 of the top ten highest mountains in the world. The remaining two mountains, K2 and Nanga Parbat, are both located in northwest Pakistan, and we obviously won’t be heading there right now.

To celebrate the eight, we have put together our own pictorial list of the world’s ten highest mountains, respectfully leaving blank spaces for K2 and Nanga Parbat. We’ll get to Pakistan some day!

Where did you go on your honeymoon? When Jeff and Jennifer are asked that question in the future, they are going to have one hell of an impressive answer. “Oh, we went to Fiji… and New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Bhutan, Myanmar, Vietnam, Nepal, India, Austria, Hungary, Israel, Jordan, Turkey, Croatia, Slovenia, Italy, France, Spain, Brazil, and Argentina.

Yep, that’s right, a 13-month, 26 country extravaganza to celebrate their nuptials. Yikes, that puts pretty much everyone to shame! They have so many stops on their around the world ticket, they couldn’t use an e-ticket because the computer program can’t handle that many destinations for the same trip! Their paper ticket looks like a small phone book!

When we met them half way through their adventure, they were planning a mid-summer trek in the Annapurnas. Not your typical Honeymoon activity, but very cool and challenging with the monsoons.

Of course, I asked them about their decision to pack 26 countries into a 13-month period. They responded that they wanted to start a family when they get back to their home city of San Francisco, so it’s pretty much now or never. They sat down and created the ultimate what-I-want-to-see list and went for it.

Clearly, the marriage is destined for success. When asked about the highlights of the trip, they both immediately thought of Inlay Lake in Myanmar. Interestingly, they visited Myanmar a mere three weeks after the cyclone that devastated the Irrawaddy delta (another wow-inspiring piece of honeymoon trivia.) The cyclone had little effect on traveling in the country, but they clearly couldn’t visit the delta.

Around the world in 13 months – now that’s the way to celebrate a marriage. (And if you make it through 13 months in the same hotel room, you can make it through anything.) Good luck you guys, keep in touch and let us know how the wedding adventure turns out.

To find out more about Jennifer and Jeff, visit their travel blog.

Well, during the past year, we’ve ended up spending quite a bit of time in Kathmandu (about two months to be precise). Whether it has been to take care of bureaucratic processes or rest up after long treks, we’ve come to feel quite at home in the city. Yes, it’s polluted and chaotic and many people hate it, but I would go so far as to say it is one of my favorite cities in the world. Layers upon layers of culture lodged between the crumbling brick buildings. So isn’t it about time that we put together a pictorial on the city? Absolutely! Click here to view the pictorial.

Grand pronouncements were made by their supreme leader. The army clapped in wide-eyed jubilation. The females squealed and bounced in titillation at their leader’s perfection. Euphoria.

Hotel guests retreated to their rooms and watched in horror as the musical Koreans from hell gathered in formation in the hotel courtyard. They burst yet again into song, and sang and sang and sang late into the wee hours of the mourning. A concert of Korean pride forced on the unsuspecting neighborhood.

But the troop’s musical movements had just begun. Gathering at sunrise, hotel guests were awoken by the sounds of robotic clapping and manic laughter followed by a nationalist opera set to the rhythms of the streets of Kathmandu.

Singing at night, singing at dawn, the invasion lasted for days, eventually driving sleep-deprived guests from the hotel. And with all the nationalistic euphoria, there was no flip-card show that North Koreans might have provided as some slight compensation for the suffering they caused.

Yes, the hotel emptied quickly, but they couldn’t drive Tony and Thomas from their citadel featuring cable television (with BBC and CNN), boiling hot showers, and a beautiful sun-filled balcony. Nope, they couldn’t drive us out.

Breakfast in Kathmandu means the Northfield Cafe. And after the forced vegetarianism of India, I’m ready for my steak and eggs special. (I’m a practicing carnivore again!)

Just as I was starting to sip my bottomless cup of coffee, I felt our little friend, the Northfield tortoise, bumping up against my foot under the table. He’s the restaurant mascot/comic.

But don’t worry, if he wanders past the security guard out of the Northfield gardens into the dangerous streets of Thamel, he has the restaurant’s address clearly written on his shell, so he can be safely returned to his home

There are mountains of trash 100 meters (100 yards) long and 4 meters (12 ft) wide along the congested road leading to Thamel. Kids are playing in it, and beggars are digging through it fighting dogs for anything edible. It’s quite shocking!

But trash strikes are not out of the ordinary. When we were in Nepal last time, a strike ended the day we flew to Lukla to start our Everest trek. To get rid of it all, people set the heaps of garbage on fire, and from the air, it looked like Kathmandu was burning.

For the sake of my lungs, let’s just hope for rain this time.

We left India screaming our lungs out at the Jeep driver who had been racing one of his buddies on the busy road to the border. As we were stepping over the invisible line into Nepal pursued by Indian rickshaw drivers and touts, the Nepalese border officials welcomed us with a big and knowing smile. It was good to be home.

Unfortunately, the ugly reality of bureaucracy quickly caught up with us when we went to renew our Indian visa in Kathmandu. After the ordeal of getting our first visa, this wasn’t something I was looking forward to.

Meaning well, the embassy had installed a “proper” numbering system in the meantime, but with the electronic display showing non-existent numbers and windows (there was no “Window F”), most tourists and embassy employees were left utterly confused. The situation quickly deteriorated into survival of the fittest.

But the real challenge started when we were told we could only get a 3-month visa. For some bizarre reason, the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu would not grant a 6-month visa to those who came back to Nepal for a renewal. Because we haven’t seen the north or the south of India, 3 months just wouldn’t cut it.

So, we had to talk to the big boss. After making our case and repeatedly praising India, all puppy-eyed, there was a long pause before the visa master started venting about everything from Russian prostitutes to dope-head Israelis flooding into India. Then he launched into a tirade on how difficult it was for Indians to get a visa for the United States.

Clearly, the man had issues. He just couldn’t understand why everyone would come back to Nepal for a visa with countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh or Sri Lanka around (none of these countries are really good options with Pakistan and Sri Lanka politically being on shaky grounds and Bangladesh being flooded by the monsoon rains this time of year).

In the end, we got our 6-month extension but only after we promised we wouldn’t come back to Nepal to apply for a third Indian visa.

How ironic is it that we ended up begging to be let into a country which we had just fled in disgust.

When we mentioned Contemporary Nomads Rebecca and Jonathan last September, they were just about to leave Lhasa and bike across Tibet to Kathmandu in Nepal while Tony and I were going on a Jeep tour to Mt. Kailash. Because we are traveling so slowly and have spent so much time in Nepal, they eventually caught up with us in Kathmandu where they volunteered as English teachers just outside the city for a couple of months.

Becca told us over dinner that the bike ride was one of the hardest things she had ever done. Temperatures close to freezing, dusty conditions, a lack of oxygen due to high altitude, and the constant fight to keep their weight made biking across Tibet a real challenge. (Weight Watchers would be so over if people spent their money on hiking or biking trips instead).

Unlike Tony and I, Becca and Jon did not come out of Tibet necessarily loving the people. After biking to Everest Base Camp where they narrowly escaped being fined by Chinese authorities for not having a permit, they took the most direct path along the Friendship Highway into Nepal. Contrary to what the road name may suggest, people threw things at them, kids tried to break their bikes and someone even stole their bags at one point – which, luckily, they were able to recover after bravely chasing down the thief. We have heard similar stories from other bikers in Tibet, although we never experienced such behavior ourselves.

The two of them finished volunteering in Nepal just before Christmas and flew back to Colorado to visit Becca’s family. After returning to Kathmandu, they excitedly announced their engagement to us. I was so sure the family had laid the pressure on, but Becca reassured me that they had been thinking about it for some time and that they had sprung their plans on her parents just before leaving for the airport.

The above picture of the two lovebirds was taken at the elephant sanctuary just outside Chitwan National Park where we spent a couple of days with them. They have temporarily left their bikes behind while they travel in India (a very good decision) but will return to Kathmandu to pick them up before flying to Southeast Asia where they are going to continue their wild ride.

… from an elephant.

One of the highlights of Chitwan National Park was our incredible elephant-back safari. What I at first dismissed as a touristy gimmick, turned out to be a real adventure once our elephant pulled away from the crowds of tourist-laden elephants and found its own piece of jungle.

Our elephant was a MAMMOTH towering four feet above other elephants – unfortunately, this meant we were continually dodging limbs and branches during the two-hour safari. It was also nerve-wracking as our giant pachyderm rather awkwardly made his way up and down the steep, muddy slopes. (We were praying he wouldn’t slip.)

With the noise from elephants crashing through the forest and the mahouts (elephant drivers) communicating by screaming at each other, I assumed we wouldn’t see a thing – but I was wrong. We saw an enormous amount of wildlife including 4 more rhinos! In one environmentally questionable yet highly spectacular moment, as a rhino mother ran under a tree to protect her young calf, our elephant under orders from the driver walked over to the tree, ripped the entire thing out of the ground and threw it off into the jungle exposing the mother and her calf. Although I was later quite angry about the move, I will admit that at that moment I was in pure, stunned awe at the elephant’s strength and intelligence. How had the elephant known what the driver had wanted?

We continued to dodge branches, thorn bushes, and tree trunks as our elephant pushed his way through the dense growth through swamps and over streams to a jaw-droppingly beautiful meadow. The timing and the setting were perfect! The sun was starting to set and the surreal orange light illuminated a large herd of spotted deer grazing in the clearing. Sambar deer nibbled tree leaves off to the left and a hog deer shot past the front of our elephant as we approached. Just ahead several wild boar were digging for roots as a couple of wild peacocks milled around pecking for insects. A scene straight out of National Geographics.

After the safari, we got to ride the elephant all the way back to town. As we passed a collection of mud huts, a woman ran up and yelled, “Buy bananas for elephant.” Annoyed at our guide for his questionable move in the forest as well as his aggressive behavior towards our elephant (not at all typical of the mahouts), I decided to invest tip money in the elephant rather than the driver. I dropped down some rupees and the woman tossed a bunch of bananas up to me. I handed the bananas to Thomas for just a moment, so I could shoot some pictures. When I turned around, Thomas, looking very guilty, was munching away and half of the bananas were gone!

Can you believe he actually stole bananas from a hard-working elephant? Some of you who know Thomas well may immediately think of the scandalous story of Thomas eating 32 bananas by himself in one sitting in Ethiopia. Typical!!!

Check out this rhino I photographed during our walk in Chitwan. I was standing behind a tree clicking pictures when he noticed the clicking sound and turned right towards me! Great photo, but when he noticed me, he started grunting and snorting, so I had to slip away back into the bush.

Having seen a total of 12 rhinos in Chitwan, our previous postings may have left the impression that rhinos are a dime a dozen here. They aren’t! There is an all-out war going on between countries desperately trying to protect their rhinos and poachers who can sell the rhinos’ horns (primarily to the Chinese) for enormous sums of money. Nepal is no exception. Because this war has become so violent, Nepali troops have been positioned in Royal Chitwan National Park itself to help defend their wildlife. (Their tiger population is also threatened by poaching.)

It is no small miracle that Nepal, a developing country which actually borders China, has managed to keep rhinos alive in multiple parks. Unfortunately, the government’s ongoing fight with the Maoists puts the rhino population at risk. When the government had to withdraw troops from Chitwan to fight in other parts of the country, more than a hundred rhinos were killed. But tourism is helping to stop the slaughter. Visiting the park and viewing the rhinos can help fund the fight to protect them, so if you are in Nepal, save a rhino by seeing one.

Having pushed our way through the dense elephant grass, we emerge into a sandy river course, our guide suddenly whispers that we are in the territory of a known tiger. Listening intently for even the slightest sound around us, we move along the river bed through a tangle of trees and overgrowth. All of a sudden, we come across a tiger paw print, and realize the print is still fresh – our hearts start racing – the beast is somewhere close by.

This feeling of being in the wild and the thrill of encountering wildlife on foot, are exactly what make walking safaris so much more exciting. Sitting in a Jeep pressing your nose against the window is simply not the same. Unfortunately, there aren’t many parks on the Subcontinent where you can get out on foot and explore – this was our chance. Although we (or I should say “I”) had been hesitant to walk through such dense foliage with rhinos and tigers around, we knew this would be the best chance to view wildlife. And so, we set out on a 100 km (60 mile), 4 1/2 day walk through Chitwan National Park.

Not what you would consider classic “jungle,” Chitwan is drier, covered in sal forest interspersed with riverine forest and open stretches of elephant grass. In the denser areas, spotting animals can become quite challenging but our two guides, who carried bamboo sticks for our protection (good luck…), made sure we could see as much as possible taking us way off the beaten path, following tiger and leopard paw prints, and even using their noses to smell our way to rhino hideouts.

At the end of a 10-hour day, we always left the park and stayed in small villages just outside the park boundary, as the safari lodges inside the park would have robbed us blind. Tony really wanted to stay at Tiger Tops Lodge, but after seeing that a 2-day package was over $600, we decided to have a Coke at the lodge’s bar instead. Our “suffering” was soon forgotten though and was replaced by sheer excitement of all the animal sightings.

During our walks, we spotted plenty of wildlife including 8 rhinos, a sloth bear (similar in size to a North American black bear), four different kinds of deer (Sambar Deer, Spotted Deer, Hog Deer, Barking Deer), langurs, Rhesus Macaques, Marsh Muggers (wide-mouthed crocodiles), gharials (narrowed-mouthed crocodiles), birds such as the Giant Pied Hornbill and the Jungle Owlette (I love that name – it sounds so glamorous), and, finally, plenty of ticks, eight of which had attached themselves to us.

Although we didn’t see a Royal Bengal Tiger (and I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to see one) on this exciting walk, we aren’t giving up yet. There will be plenty more chances in national parks in India.

TRAVEL TIPS AND INFORMATION

Highlights
Chitwan has more than 50 species of mammals including tigers, leopards, sloth bears, rhinos, monkeys, deer, and hyenas. You will definitely see deer and monkeys. You have a good chance of seeing Indian rhinos and a fair chance of seeing a sloth bear. Viewing a tiger is a matter of luck. Bird watchers will be more than satisfied with the 450 different species present in the park.

Costs
For the 4 1/2 day, 4 night trip, we spent about $87 each including guides, park fees, canoe trip, and accommodation – definitely worth every penny. Accommodation during the walk is only available in very simple guesthouses or very pricey high-end lodges; however, a range of accommodation is available in Sauraha, the entry point for the park.

Recommendations
For budget travelers, we can highly recommend staying at the Holy Lodge & Restaurant in Sauraha. We paid $5 for a double room with bathroom per night. Organize the walking safari with Surya (Sunny) Achanya, the fantastic manager of Holy Lodge. He also arranged for the guide, Januwa Chudury (also called Tarzan), whose 25 years of experience in the jungle absolutely shows.

In theory, the procedure of how to apply for a visa seems clear enough if somewhat labour-intensive. On your first visit to the consulate, you fill out a telex form which is used to get security clearance to travel in India. Three days later, after you’ve been cleared, you submit your application in the morning and pick up your visa in the afternoon. So far, so good.

The number of people applying for a visa, however, versus the number of people helping you at the consulate are in no relation whatsoever. This makes the whole process painfully long and unnecessarily frustrating. Granted, someone had the brilliant idea of implementing a number system, but failed to understand the Nepalese economy. Locals come in as early as 4 AM and claim the lowest numbers which they later try to sell to speechless tourists who are lined up outside the consulate gates.

Unwilling to walk to the consulate at 4 AM or pay for a prime spot in the line, we ended up waiting for over four hours on our first visit while Tony, with the help of an Italian chef, fought off French and Norwegian tourists cutting in line. (You haven’t seen anything until you’ve seen Tony yelling at a seven-foot tall Norwegian dressed in white knitted robes and a pearl tiara.) We left the consulate exhausted and dreaded having to return three days later. The night before we had to go back the second time, Tony got food poisoning. How I envied him. Why couldn’t I projectile-vomit all night and have a lame excuse to stay in bed? He was so LUCKY, still retching as I was leaving the hotel and heading for the consulate where I was going to stand in line again for hours on end.

We hoped this process was specific only to the Indian consulate in Kathmandu, but soon learnt, after talking to a British girl, that it is no different in London, “You line up outside for hours and once you are in, it’s a free for all.”

Well, we are now on our way to India only stopping at Royal Chitwan National Park in southern Nepal before venturing into this brave new, bureaucratic world. India, here we come.

Bhaktapur, a showcase of traditional Nepali Newari art and architecture and UNESCO World Heritage Site, is one of those rare places in the world that has escaped the scars of hurried 20th-century development. Lost in the decaying side streets, visitors discover Read the rest of this entry and view pictorial »

A 360 Panorama to enjoy the incredible view from Kala Patthar! When the 360 opens, you’ll be looking at Nuptse with Everest peaking out to the left. As you pan around, you can see the Khumbu Glacier and the Khumbu Icefall off to the left. Continuing left, you’ll see Pumori rising up behind you. Enjoy your view of Everest – it’s just like being there yourself. View the 360 image.