Life in black in white

My last selection of photos from my recent trip are now for your viewing pleasure, just over to your left.

I got the prints back from the developers this morning.

The link is B&W Nepal.

There are a few shots amongst them all that i'm really pleased with. I hope you like them too.

I have one very big panoramic which needs stitching together. If it works i'll add it to the collection soon.

In the meantime, i hope life is keeping you all entertained.

Mat

Getting on outa here...

I eventually got on that plane with some excitement.
Hanging around New Delhi airport for what felt like a whole day.
Well, in fact it wasn't that far off.
Now i don't know what'll happen to this blog.
I don't know if i have anything to say.
Or what purpose this site can bring in the future.
I'm sure i'll come to some decisions soon.
I know for sure that i want to do some sprucing up of what i've managed to cobble together over the last 9 months or so.
So i'm back in the UK, and how this place changes during my time stuttering around overseas.
The Labour party seem to be in freefall.
The housing market in even more of a freefall.
A Tory becomes London mayor.
An Italian in charge of the national football team.
murder murder murder in the news.
Man Utd clinch the European Champions League a couple of hours ago.
Life continues.
And on and and on and on.
How does one come to a good conclusion of any piece of writing.
If only i could come up with some classic Brett Easton Ellis type of ending.

Anyway...

The journey begins. Or continues?

He sits at the back of the bus, Carlsberg-sponsored cap pulled low over his eyes, wrapped up in an old ski jacket even though the morning's temperature is pushing the high 20s. Arms crossed he sleeps unconcerned about the rutted roads and vertiginous scenery.

His whispery beard, or perhaps more accurately bum-fluff, gives him a passing resemblance to Ho Chin Min.

Who is he? Sitting at the back, separated from the rest of the Nepalis on board, keeping all the bags company?


Joining me are Gerry, her son Tadgdh, their neighbour Julie and friends Penny and Iain. So in some respects it feels like i'm joining there party, rather than them mine.

This should prove an interesting trip i feel.

At our first night's stay is at a guest house just a short walk from where our bus dropped us off at the start of the round Annapurna trek, we come across the first of a surprising high number of locals with obvious learning difficulties. This chap, helping out his family run the guest house had an ever-present grin on his face. he rather endearingly breaks out in to spontaneous laughter upon seeing you.

Or maybe it was only me that had this affect upon him.

A big smile on his weathered face proves to be one of the jolliest i see upon these travels. He limps about in an archetypal Quasimodo fashion, adorned in his great big lurid green t-shirt and traditional Nepali furry hat.



The man at the back of the bus turns out to be one of the porters. The quietest of the three. It transpires that they will each carry two holdalls , packed full of our respective gear, and they'll also place their own meagre -sized bag on top, and then proceed to carry the approximately 35kg load on their backs, with the main support coming from a rope with some added cushioning against their forehead.

Now i've never used porters for any hiking activity and find all this, well, a little strange. One, handing all my gear over to someone else, leaving me with a relatively small day pack with just my wet weather gear, camera equipment and any other essentials, and secondly, it feels like you have employed servants. As a fairly liberal minded bloke, the thought of perpetuating a servile, hierarchical order on things, weighs heavy on my mind.





The beginning of the walk proves to be a very trying hot and sunny experience.


....actually, balls to this recount.

It was a good walk. Beautiful scenery, great exposure to the land its peoples. Bit of a challenge. Took some nice photos etc etc etc. I imagine any readers out there will have already taken a look at the photos i have posted of the walk, alongside which i include a few lines of explanation.

I could spend hours, days even, writing up a detailed account of the trip, but i'm struggling to see what purpose it serves right now.

I'll jump to the end and skip out two and half weeks...Upon arriving back in to Kathmandu we were greeted by Dawa, the dude who runs the show and who was originally going to be leading the trek, but had stand aside at the last moment. Check out his website. Highly recommended. A great experience was had.

Adventure Thamserku

I shared a very lovely meal with him and his family on my last night. We discussed many topics, be it his friendship with the late Scott Fisher, a renowned expedition leader who lost his life during the Mt. Everest tragedy of May 1996 that claimed the lives of a dozen climbers, has been recounted in great vivid detail Jon Krackaur's 'Into Thin Air' and Anatoli Bukreev's 'Climb' amongst others, or having his youngest son sit with me and me help him with his English vocab. Plus being compared to Harry Potter. Who'd have guessed?!

It was a lovely end to my time in Nepal, a country that is easy to fall in love with.

One of many great deeds Dawa is doing some great work in his home town of Lukla, where he is plowing the profits from his business in to trying to build a new school for the community. A remarkable man.

And one who is tempting me with the prospect of summiting a mountain or two in 2009...Do i take the challenge on to climb Chulu West? I dunno. We shall see. Check out his work, it's of far greater importance than anything i can write here and now in this blog.

is there anybody out there?

I really should get on and write up my last entry or two.
There's propbably no one out there still looking at this site, as people know i'm back in the UK.
I guess it's more for me now.
Tidy things up and wrap this story for the time being.
I'll get on and do it soon.
before then, i've posted a few more photos up - accessible on the left.
Enjoy.
Hmmm, feels like i'm talking to myself.
So i will
ta ra.

Wish you were here - i can here a live band play the floyed classic from across the street...apt.

Hello

If you don't already know, i'm back in the land of the living in Kathmandu after a successful trip around the Annapurna region.

I'm pleased to report no injuries, no problams with altitude sickness, everything went pretty smoothly and the whole experience was fantastic.

I've posted a few of my early developed colour snaps over in the left frame - do please have a browse. My black and white films, and my digi shots will have to wait till next week or so...

Annapurna colour snaps...

Some of the shots i'm really pleased about, and will enjoy getting printed up from the negatives - i think the scale of some of the landscape shots will struggle to be comprehended on a little computer screen so you'll have to wait for me to bore you with a photo album or slide show presentation!

Anyway, it's my last full day tommorw, and i guess i need to pack my stuff up for one last time. So i'll write up a log of some of the more interesting aspects of the trek and and final thoughts no doubt when i'm back in the land of the UK.

Really looking forward to catching up with everyone soon,

Mat