One last hop

Our journey to the next island destination Koh Phangan involved a ferry - bus - ferry
as it is located on the other side of the mainland in the Gulf of Thailand. We had considered bailing Phi Phi a few days earlier for what would have been a bigger full moon party scene, although happy with our decision to check out the more intimate Phi Phi (except for maybe Simon).

Each of us rented beachfront air conditioned bungalows for a little over $30 per night, with sweeping views across a sea dotted with small islands. At Lucky Resort I had booked the Stone bungalow which entailed living inside a large cave like room with an entrance that opened up to a large waterfront balcony. There's nothing quite like drifting off to sleep at night with the gentle waves lapping up against your front deck.

With hopes of a decent squidding session we took up positions along the rocky shore, armed with our travel rods and new squid jigs, we battled the heat in search of a new champion. Contrary to the resorts name, we did not see a single squid the entire fishing session. In fact the only catch was a sole fish by Ben, who was given the benefit of the doubt to end Simon's long standing championship reign.

A small stairway behind our bungalows led up to our resorts restaurant, serving an array of quality Thai food and some of the best fresh shakes, which made it hard to stop at 2, 3, 4 or more per sitting. It's not hard to get caught up drinking endless fruit shakes when you have million dollar views and super friendly staff always on hand.

Tucked in between Haad Salaad and Haad Yao bay, we were located roughly 20 minutes from the town Thong Sala where the ferry's arrive and was easily accessible by tuk tuks, which are a motorbike with passenger seating carriage attached or you could rent a scooter from the resort (which I did manage to come off on one of the sketchy dirt tracks). We did not have much need to head in to town as a mighty 7-11 was located just down the hill on the main road near our resort. For anyone that hasn't been to Thailand before, 7-11's are EVERYWHERE and stock  multitude of bizarre Thai snacks and drinks, rather pot luck purchases make for interesting consumption when many don't have a word of English on them, all shopped for in a clean air conditioned comfort.

One night I took the boys to Amsterdam Bar which is perched up on a big hill with breathtaking views across the ocean. We arrived just before sunset and the big wooden decking was already packed with tourists sprawled out on Thai triangle cushions. Whilst its a great place to drink in the evenings, the steep exiting decline is nothing short of treacherous.

Simon picked himself up a bamboo tattoo at one of the beachfront parlours, a horse designed by his sister to honour her significant obsession. Unlike conventional machine tattoos, fine needles are attached to the end of a thing piece of bamboo with cotton, placed in a line instead of a bullet and tapped in to the skin. The skin is then punctured, not torn, which results in a significant reduction in pain and bleeding.  As there is no blood to push the ink out of the skin, there is no need for touch ups and a much faster healing time.

The Beach

Luck would have it there was a morning ferry during the off season, direct from

KohLanta to Phi Phi(Don) and even included transport down to the pier from our hotel. This saved us the 90 minute mini bus ride back up to Krabi, taking us straight to where the Majestic cliffs rise from the sea. Phi Phi is also where the infamous monkey incident took place 5 months earlier, banishing my Samsung Galaxy deep in to the jungle (or some clever monkey training locals pocket).

Not wanting to endure any further discomfort for our extremely sun burnt backs, we grabbed a longtail boat over to Viking Resort, located 20 mins hike from town with its own private beachfront. The restaurant lets you eat literally on the beach (when its not raining) and they put on a selection of 'sample' dishes each night, or a free buffet as we enjoyed it.

I booked the same room as my last visit, with a faint hope the monkey might return so that I could confront him about the terrible crime committed only months earlier. Simon had another similar bungalow next door, with ocean glimpses through the thinning jungle and a decent hammock, perfect for a Sangsom recovery. A slight mix up of sorts with the room allocations meant that Ben was relegated to a lower standard of bungalow, that happened to be located next to an extended family of roosters who were keen for a chat every early morning / morning / afternoon / evening.

We signed up for the night Plankton Tour which left mid afternoon on our second day for Phi Phi Leh, made famous from the movie 'The Beach'. After checking out a few of the bays and strapping on a mask to say G'day to some of the local marine life, we were dropped at Maya Bay right as a tropical storm thrashed its way across the island. Usually this bay would be lined with longtails and the actual beach sprawled with tourists, however on this occasion we were lucky enough to have the whole place to ourselves!! Albeit so bloody cold that we had to sit in the water to keep warm and face away from the torrential rain if our eyes were to survive the onslaught. Having been previously to the bay, it was surreal to have our tour group being the only ones there to enjoy it.

As it started to get dark we headed back to the boat for a mean feast of chicken curry, fresh fish and Thai fried rice, washed down with Sangsom buckets ( a 300ml bottle of local Thai rum, can of coke and a bottle of redbull syrup). There was a few in the group who had planned to sleep on the boat overnight as staying on the island was no longer permitted, they made the wise decision to bail on this idea given the weather. After it got real dark we all put on masks and jumped over board in to the pitch black. Each movement in the water brought to life the amazing glow plankton that seemed to swirl all around us, definitely something you must experience at least once in your life.

The following night was the full moon party and although its nowhere near as big as the 30k people Koh Phangan gets at its peak, the beach is still filled with party goers dancing around covered in glow paint and drinking more buckets than they are likely to remember the next morning. Slinky is where the main action is alongside Woody bar which also captures some of the overflow. Personally I prefer Phi Phi as the party is more concentrated and only a short walk back to the accommodation, rather than a possible long ride home in the back of a random ute (theres also no cars on Phi Phi).
Simon unfortunately did not have such a pleasurable wake up as mine, when he found himself sun baking on a random beach with no wallet, phone or thongs to be seen again.

Ghost Town

We had known that Koh Lanta was going to be quiet in the off season, but struggling to find an open bar to serve a beer or a decent restaurant for dinner makes this island one of the less favourable outside of peak times.

Luckily we had anther agenda and departed for a camping trip early the next morning, managing to entertain ourselves on the debris littered beach of closed bars that otherwise looked to be lot more fun once populated with backpackers in the meantime.

Our initial camping itinerary was to cover three islands, but due to unpredictable weather conditions this time of year we had to drop two, including the 'secret beach' on Koh Mook where you must first wade through a pitch black cave that opens out on to a stunning beach on the other side.


There's an ongoing 'comp-off' between myself, Simon and Ben, which awards the winner of a particular fishing outing as champion including all associated bragging rights and exceptional worship from the other two, should anybody bring up the topic of fishing. Simon was in usual baffling form when he stumbled out of his tent (feeling a bit rough after picking up a stomach bug and spending most of the night dealing with it) just as I picked up my first and only fish of the session. Being a late started did not phase the jammy bastard, who still managed to retrieve two fish from his three casts, leaving my fish as the only other for the morning. I guess he is still the king.

We spent the rest of the time being dropped at various snorkeling spots bursting with small tropical fish and enjoying fresh cooked Thai food from the lads on the boat. Simon may not have been well enough to enjoy it but we still downed his fish barbecued and green curried.

Lets hope the other islands provide a bit more action.

Off to the sea

The islands of Thailand would have to be about my favourite destination in the world, especially when it involves kicking back in a beach front hammock with a fresh coconut shake. Last time we got to Koh Phangan a PB of 9 in the first avro set a decent benchmark.

Unlike the flight to Kathmandu, we wern't sholder to sholder with a whole bunch of people who sound like they had just contracted bird flu. This time we had 3 seats each (sky beds if we had been faster), perfect opportunity to hack and slash through Ocarina of Time.

Spotting the jungle topped cliff faces poking out of the sea was enough to get all 3 of us excited for what is sure to be a crazy couple of weeks.

Chilled out in Pokhara

Pokhara is one of those laid back destinations which gives you a sense of relief after departing a tourist trap like Thamel, certainly leaving no desire to return to the hustle and bustle of the over polluted, dull streets of Kathmandu. Word from the boys was that they had made it safely back from success on the mountain, opting for a chopper from Lukla due to the weather conditions restricting planes.

Here life is at a much slower pace with the main area of town etched along the side of a large man made lake. Theres not a whole lot to do other than eating and drinking or maybe renting a small boat for the day. For  the more adventure inclined there is one of the fastest ziplines in the world and also a nearby mountain thats popular with the paragliders.

I decided on spending the morning of my only whole day in Pokhara renting a small paddle boat and going fishing. The small area on the other side of the lake where I was recommended to try, was very popular with local fisherman sending out their numerous long lines with kayaks making it too difficult to flick lures. The morning ended with no fish, maybe because I had the wrong lures or maybe I should have taken the advice of going before 8am more seriously than when I set out at 10. The whole sky was littered with brightly coloured paragliders sailing over head, 58 was the most counted at one time.

The rest of the time I spent kicking back with a Tuborg (local beer) trying various
dishes at the restaurants including Buffalo Burgers and a Sizzling Medium Rare Steak, which can all be had for no more than a few Aussie dollars. I did have to repress the memory of what the local butchers back in Kathmandu looked like..

Poon Hill Trek

With time to kill until the boys get Back from EBC, I took off to Pokhara where the Poon Hill Trek begins just over an hours drive from town. This trek takes place over 51km of mountainous terrain and is usually completed within 5 days. Many of the 36 trekkers in my group (split in to 3 sub groups) had purchased the trek online through a daily deal site and were quite surprised by the difficulty, given the beginner / intermediate rating online.

Our guide was very proud that this was one of the top 10 treks in the world, covering part of the Annapurna Circuit, it attracts around 100,000 people each year. Majority of the time is spent venturing through misty rainforest's with spectacular snow capped mountains towering above the tree tops.



As with the EBC trek, accommodation was in Teahouses at the small mountain villages, providing a degree of luxury with basic hot showers and plenty of meals to choose from. I opted for the vegetarian option containing fresh locally grown produce, rather than the meat which is carried up from Pokhara in less than sanitary conditions. After the infection which ruined my last trek, it just wasn't worth the risk.

Altitude sickness was not of much concern on this trek as we only climb to a maximum altitude of 3,200m. Although the previous evacuation was at 2,800m I have now completed the antibiotic course for my throat infection and will be starting this trek at a much lower altitude. Day 2 provided the most hectic climb of approximately 1,400m and gave the legs a decent workout on the never ending stairs wound up the side of the mountain.

Day 3 showed us some beautiful scenery amongst the Rhododendron Trees, which bloom the national  flower of Nepal. As we begun the descent through the jungle, our passage was littered with the pink flowers creating a scene that could be straight out of a fairytale.


Winding down in the evenings was accompanied by a big mug of hot chocolate Khukri rum, which is a local Nepalese brew. The final night was the most rewarding as we arrived in the village moments ahead of a thunderstorm and gave the legs some much needed recovery in the natural hot springs along side the roaring river.

Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the trek even though

most picked up some form of minor health discomfort. Upon reaching the end we were bundled up to 10 people per clapped out 4WD, which was fitted out with racing slicks and suspension that was most likely purchased second hand back in the eighties. Nothing like a 45 minute white knuckle drive on a single lane dirt track which drops off  to a sheer cliff face to keep to old heart rate maxed out.

Hunting the BFK

After consulting my mate Google, it turns out most of the massage parlours in Thamel are a front for brothels and would offer a mediocre massage at best.

That's when I stumbled across the Seeing Hands Massage Parlour which had some excellent reviews. The place is owned and operated by blind members of the Nepalese community with all proceeds going to support the blind.

Laxmi was highly recommended and luckily once I found the place in the maze of tourist offerings, she was able to book me in for the afternoon. This girl was on the serious hunt for BFK (Big Fucking Knots) and was easily the most painful 90 minute massage I have ever endured.

Well worth a spending the bit extra for a professional and painfully satisfying experience!!

Whats up doc

Much to my disgust I was admitted to a third world hospital on the night before my Birthday, not quite how I had planned on celebrating :(

After some initial tests the doctor reported that I had a throat infection (most likely from one of the roadside food vendors) and some altitude sickness. As I am not a fan of needles at the best of times, especially in a country like this, I opted for a saline water solution to try recover fluids that I was still having a lot of trouble keeping down fluids.

The lovely nurses escorted me to my room which was better than any private suite I've seen back in Australia!! My own queen size bed, mini fridge, flat screen TV, wifi, any food I want on order and an endless horde or nurses making sure you stay is entirely comfortable. Apparently this place is a stark contrast to the local hospital which is not somewhere you would want to end up.

On the day of my Birthday Mr Rajan from Earthbound brought me in a cake to celebrate and informed me that there would be another 6 day Anapura trek near a town called Pokhra (about 6 hours drive from Kathmandu) if I felt up to it in a couple of days, I signed up straight away. He stayed for a bit to explain about his company and his plan over the next 20 years to increase tourism in Nepal and try to bring some money in to this desperately poor country.
Business is not easy over here with bank lending rates around 16% and no help whatsoever from the dysfunctional government.

Later in the afternoon my doctor appeared with another Birthday cake and champagne, which we celebrated with about 10 of the nursing staff in my room. He was going to get me some beers too but decided it may not be the best idea given my condition, guess you cant have it all.

The insurance company phoned and asked plenty of questions about what had happened, luckily I had a good read of the policy as the girl kept trying to pick up on things that may exclude my cover, the trick is to know the wording well and question them on anything they suggest which seems excessive. Theres no way I was ready to fork out what I had heard was numerous thousands for the chopper evacuation.

Get to the chopper

So after 20 hours resting in bed I woke up still feeling like I'd been hit by a steam train. Struggling to make it down to breakfast I ordered apple pancakes which would hopefully help me conjure up some energy to press on. Again with the communication barrier, I was served plain pancakes and barely managed to get a few mouthfuls down.

Convinced I was probably building things up in my head to be worse than they really were, we set off towards the climb up to Namche Bazzar. Not even 10 minutes down the road I was hunched over emptying what little contents my stomach had left.

Not wanting to hold up the trek any more, I told the boys to keep going whilst I went back to the previous nights accommodation with the guide for what I thought was some more recovery time. He then delivered the terrible news, it was time to call in the chopper before things got any worse.

Feeling devastated I packed up my gear and moved to the helipad at the other end of the village, where I waited for the chopper that would take me on the hour ride back to the international hospital in Kathmandu.

On the plus side I did get a birds eye view of the Himalayas, albeit on a cloudy day. Lets hope the boys don't go all Brokeback while I'm gone.

Down with the sickness

People have spoken about altitude sickness creeping up unexpectedly, although I have always half dismissed it as one for the weaker trekkers who cant handle a bit of mountain air.

Previously my highest altitude was 3,400m on Mt Kinabalu, limited only by bad weather for reaching the peak. As this was completed in a day, I had assumed the height would not cause potential problems until maybe 4,000m+, out of a maximum 5,400m for the EBC trek.

I did still take precautions by starting my Diamox (altitude sickness tablets) course with a half the night before the trek and then moving on to a full tablet twice per day.

As we drew closer to what was to be the hardest part of the trek (an 800m incline in 2 hours), I mentioned to Simon that I was starting to feel a bit odd..
Within minutes I had to sit down for a short rest as my head was spinning and colors started to fade, eventually in to a complete white wash. I was feeling the sickest I had ever felt in my life.

At this point I still had no idea what was going on and heard the guide mention something about altitude sickness, surely not at 2,800m!! Still there was none of the back of head ache which I have heard people associate with altitude sickness. I moved in to the shade to try and cool down and then staggered back to the sun to avoid freezing shade, all the time worrying that my sore jaw could be something like rabies (left the shots for this too late), also wondering if this be some averse effect of a donkey dropping its guts directly in front of my head an hour earlier?

Not wanting to hold the lads up as we were close to the ascent
 (which would end with a rest day), I stood up even though every bone in my body was telling me to lay down and sleep right there in the dirt, ultimate fatigue had kicked in. All standing up achieved was causing me to drop to my knees and chunder off the side of the cliff.

Another 15 minutes passed and we made the decision to press on for 20 minutes to the next town, with the guide kindly carrying my bag given I felt far to weak and dizzy to manouver the rocky path as it was. At the small mountain town we would need  to assess our options.

When we reached the final incline I could tell this was going to be tough and I don't think I made it more than 15m before hurling my guts up another 4 times, with plenty of associated dry reaching. Our guide suggested it was probably time to call in an evacuation chopper due to my deteriorating condition, however I strongly disagreed and wanted to wait out some time in the upcoming town to see if my body would adjust. I had asked the boys to join me on this expedition and it was something we would complete together.

We finally arrived in town and set down on a table out on the grass for lunch, with my serving being some famous garlic soup that was rumoured to help me recover. After an enjoyable ginger and lemon tea, I took one spoon full of the soup and made the judgement that there was no way my stomach would keep it down. Straight to bed for me at 11am where it was time to try and recover from complete exhaustion.

Walking the Himalayas

If you ever wondered where the most picturesc place on earth is, I'm pretty sure we just found ourselves in it. The Everest Base Camp trek starts at Lukla airport and in our case makes its way up to the camp in 8 days then back down again in 4.

The scenery is absolutely absolutely amazing with sheer mountain cliff faces all around and snow capped peaks off to the distance just teasing you to explore. Eagles are constantly scouring the sky above with trains of donkeys and mountain yaks weaving traditional ethnic headgear given right of way along the path.

Our path followed a mountain stream which is running down from the melting snow caps. We had come prepared with travel rods ready to catch some kind of exotic Himalayan trout but our doubts were raised when we saw how cold and fast the water was flowing, this was later confirmed when a little Nepalese man came running down to tell us there was no fish here, backed up by plenty of strange looks an snickers from the locals.

I can highly recommend this as one for the bucket list!!

No turning back now

Upon meeting Mr Rajan of Earthbound Expeditions, who are a local trek organisation that a lot of the bigger international tour companies contract through, we were required to sign the obligatory life waiver forms just incase there was any last minute doubts to the safety of our mountain walk.

We were then introduced to our guide 'Sundys' (or at least thats what we heard and proceeded to call him from then onwards) and were bundled into a mini van for a walking tour of Nepals Buddhist historical sights.

The day was filled with giant temples, ancient prayer rituals and even the famous burning of bodies in the river which we were lucky enough to witness whilst walking by. Don't get me wrong, it was an interesting experience however we were very mindful that we had not finished gearing up for the trek and the tour was quickly looking like dragging on until the evening. Much to the tour operators disgust we bailed in a taxi at 3:30pm to sneak in a few last minute purchases.

Very early the following morning we were picked up for our flight to Lukla, the most dangerous airport in the world. It turns out the early morning departure was a good thing as many flights get cancelled after the first few due to weather concerns.

I had googled up the airport at Lukla which only has a 450m incline landing strip built in to the side of the mountain and leaves no room for pilot error as the end is a big solid rock face. The planes have to throw the propellers in to reverse before touching down and gun the engines if they want any chance of stopping in time. Certainly not a place you would want a last minute gush of wind and explains why so many flights are cancelled due to bad weather (check out the below video).

We then settled in to a local mountain cafe for some coffee and a quick altitude adjustment.

Gearing up for the trek

The fact that we had each come to Nepal with little more than a pair of trekking shoes was of little concern by the time we reached Thamel. The plethora of trekking shops was endless and could satisfy everybodys requirement for the ultimate outfit.

I had done a little prior research and was of the undestanding that Shonas was the most reliable and also the goto place for rental gear. Whilst they were a little more expensive than other shops for some items, these were of a higher quality made in house with the materials / ratios apparently accurate. Everything is a fixed price with the knockoffs at about the standard price you will get around town after a little barering.

My two purchases from Shonas were a 3 season -10c XL Goose Down sleeping bag which was filled with 900gm of genuine Goose Down for $80 (apparently they retail for $500+ back home) and a Duck Down jacket for $50. Other knockoff items of various popular trekking labels included;

- Trekking pants x 2 $8 each
- Trekking shirts x 3 $4 each
- Outrageously cool trekking beanie $3
- Thermals x 4 $4 each
- 1L bpa free water canister $4
- Polar fleece jumper $6
- Polar fleece gloves $2
- Other beanie $2
- Silk sleeping bag liner $9
- Trekking poles $8

I am now confident to conquer the mountain, however less so about being able to fit this all in my bag and will be organising a shipping box after the trek.

Nepal so far

Excitement for Nepal was off to a slow start while the hour long wait for our Visa issue at the airport was backed up by the onslaught of expecting faces as we ventures across the sea of Nepalese bag handlers who were all expecting a tip (still not quite sure how it took 8 people to carry each bag).

Our ride down to the tourist area of Kathmandu called Thamel, was a bumpy one as we bumbled through the maze of traffic on a semi dirt road. The potholes were large enough to swallow a wheel, which proved difficult to avoid in the haze of dust and mayhem of cars, weaving in every which direction. As a developing country I am now sure that they are yet to introduce any kind of comprehensible rod rules and simply rely on the horn to indicate every traffic manouver.

 Hotel Family Home as recommended in the glowing reviews on trip advisor provided us 3 'deluxe' rooms with ensuites. Mine was on the 8th floor and featured a single bed for each of the 3 nights we stayed before the trek. Breakfast was up on the rooftop terrace an was an open menu included in the very reasonable room price ($27aud), the only setback being a slight language barrier resulting in varying degrees of accuracy such as 3 full breakfast servings when Ben asked for 3 eggs on his meal.

The undisputed winning dish so far is Momo's which we had read about being a popular serving in the guesthouses (or tea houses as they are referred to) on the trek. Each dish is a small bowl of some orange spicy sauce surrounded by dumplings filled to order. Our favourite to date was a spinach pastry filed with a chicken mix, seriously tasty and has our hopes high for trekking meal time.