Uphill Both Ways

Port Havelock, Andaman Islands, India

Well hello everyone. Its been a long time. Sorry about that. A lot has happened since I talked to you last. Daysha and I have been trekking on the Annapurna Circuit, safariing in Chitwan National Park, and snorkelling off beaches on the Andaman islands. But most of that your going to have to wait to hear about(unless you write me back personally), because I've decided to write about our adventures only after you can see the pictures of what I'm writing about. You can always check out pictures of our trip at http://www.flickr.com/photos/moemntm/.
So with that said, sit back, relax, and let me tell you about our trek on the Annapurna Circuit, in Nepal. The Annapurna Circuit is a three week trek around the Annapurna mountain range crossing the 17,500 foot Throng La pass half way through. It's definetly not a small hike, but you don't realize the magnitude of it until you actually do it. We started on January 3(god, it has been awhile!), I had just gotten over being sick with what I had thought was a bacterial infection, traveller's diaharrea. We thought about waiting for a few days until we were sure that I was better, but it was already January and we were worried that if we waited much longer it might snow on us. So Daysha and I along with a small Nepalese man named Krishna that we hired as a porter, started our hike. The first few days went fantastic. We were feeling like we were still in good physical shape from a small trek in Northern Thailand, and exercising in Ko Tao;. We followed the stunning Marshiandy river gorge, the days were sunny and hot and the nights cool. As we wandered during the day we saw water buffalo grazing in rice paddies, and army trucks blown up by Maoists. At night we stayed in tea houses run by toothless old men drunk on rice whisky and hard working women with grubby, crying children. Everything reeked of the adventure we were looking for. On the fourth night, however, my sickness came back, I was up all night on a, hmmm, well I would like to call it a toilet, but it was more like a hole in the floor. If you don't know, Asian toilets are not built like Western toilets. Their built sunken into the floor, so you don't sit on them, you squat like a catcher in a baseball game, and even as Asian toilets go, this was not a good one.. Unfortunately, my body is not really meant to squat(which explains why I played first base) and so Asian toilets are not my favorite. On this trek, I had to go without three things that are close to my soul: Beef, Beer, and Sit down toilets. I really missed the toilets. So, needless to say, I had a very uncomfortable night, with virtually no sleep.

This did not make for a good hike the next day. As Daysha ooohhhed and aaahhhhed at the mountain vistas, I aaahhhhhed and ooooohhhhed from stomach cramps. I made it, though, and after a good nights sleep was just fine the next day. I continued to feel fine right up till that next evening when I again was sick, but the following morning, I was a trooper and kept on going. Meanwhile the landscape was changing. We were still following the Marshiandy river valley, while it was still sunny, it was getting quite a bit colder. Yaks replaced Water Buffalo, and herds of goats roamed the countryside. We finally stumbled into Manang, the Northeast Annapurna region's metropolis(pop. 6,000 or so). At this point we had been hiking six hours a day for seven days, we were also at 12,000 feet and starting to feel the affects of altitude sickness. For these reasons its recommended to stay an extra day in Manang to rest in acclimatize, but I was still sick as a dog so we stayed two. Luckily we finally figured out what was wrong with me,(I've already been graphic enough, so I won't tell you how) I had Giuardia, a stomach parasite. Thanks to Daysha's preparedness(I never would have thought of it) we had the proper anti-biotic to treat it, and after two days in Manang we were ready to go again.

We hiked about four hours, and thought about continuing on to the foot of the pass, but because of the altitude we decided to stay where we were. When you're up at high altitudes you want to take it slow. The weather had been perfect up to this point, but as we started the next day we saw some snow clouds gathering. We hiked to Throng-Pedi, the foot of the pass, and had lunch. It was too late in the day to go all the way over the pass, but we decided along with a Dutch couple who had joined up with us, to hike the most difficult part of the crossing that afternoon, and stay the high camp, a cluster of tea houses only 2 hours from the highest point, that night. Luck was not with us. As we started up the steep incline the first flakes of snow fell, and by the time we made it to the high camp it was coming down hard. At this point, we were at 16,500 feet. That's 2,000 higher than Mt. Rainer in Washington. That night while we slept bundled in just about every piece of fabric we could muster, the snow contiued to fall. The next morning we woke up to four feet of snow, and it was still falling. After wearing out all the expletives in three or four different languages, we came to the conclusion that we had to go back down. We were simply not prepared to make a hike through that kind of snow, through terrain that we didn't know. And if we stayed put, the way the snow was falling, we could still be there. So, after 10 days of hiking, we had to turn around and go back. You would think that going down would be easier than going up, but going downhill in waist deep snow is quite a bit harder than going up with no snow. The snow stayed with us for four days on the way back down. The cool thing was that the snow transformed the land so we barely reconized it. It was just as beautiful, but in a different way. When we finally made it back, we had been hiking for 18 days with only two days rest. I lost 15 to 20 pounds. Its amazing what a little exercise and a smidgin of giuardia will do for you. Well, that's enough for today. I feel better now that I've finally gotten that story off my chest. All righty, talk to y'all later, Moe

The Morning after...

Koh Phangon

You wake up... No.Wait. Wake is a strong word since you were never fully asleep. A better word is rouse. You rouse, your mind snaps back fully from a dream that was dreamt with your eyes open. Wait, was it a dream or a memory. You become conscious of your surroundings. Your in, what amounts to, a shack in Koh Phangon. Your lovely girlfriend is sleeping blissfully next to you. A distant bassline still thumps, it seems to be syncronized with the pounding in your head. Ahhhh yes, you remember now... the full moon party. You try to recall exactly what happened last night, but your memory seems to only give you glimpses. You remember the thump of trance, mekong whiskey and coke served in buckets, milkshakes(you wince...oooh the milkshakes), people fire dancing- their faces bathed in the eerie glow of the flame attached to the chains that are being whipped about, a beach three quarters of a mile long with 8,000 dancing, drinking, exstatic people.

You look at your watch, shit its only 8:30, you've only been in bed for an hour and a half. You try to wake the sweet and innocent next to you, but she's not having it, even though she got a couple of more hours of sleep then you, she still went to bed way past her bed time.

So you lie in bed another hour, strands of your recollection slowly coming together. Finally, your girlfriend wakes up, and in a daze, you tramp off to find breakfast and a bathroom(since your room doesn't have one). As you get closer to the beach, the pounding music gets louder, and when you turn the corner and step on to the sand you think to yourself that you might have gone to bed a bit too early, over half of the people from last night are still dancing at 9:30 in the morning. And then you get closer and when you see the hollowed eyes, and green complexion, you realize how they did it. You've seen the same look in the mirror many a morning, and you know, as bad as you feel, it could have been much worse. You and your love sit and eat breakfast, watching the zombies stagger by, some stopping in and buying water or asking for breakfast("I don't care what you bring me, just make it greasy"). Later, you stop and say goodbye to the two swedish girls, and the german couple that you've been hanging out with and make your way to the taxi stand for the bumpy ride back to the wharf. The taxis are small pick up trucks that have benches in the back to sit on, and are covered by a hard canopy with a rack to store your luggage. You both jump in the back and sit next to a bunch of very hung-over brits. As soon as your under way, one climbs out the window of the canopy and sits on top of the truck still clutching a large Chang beer. After twenty minutes of steep hills and pot-holed roads you make it to the ferry dock. You step out of the cab, and look up and there's the brit passed out lying, on top of the luggage rack, his beer still clasped in his grubby fingers.

Finally after waiting an hour on a hot and very crowded pier, you climb on to a hot and very crowded boat for the two hour ferry ride back to quiet, comfortable Koh Tao. Another party, Another hang over, Another really long email. talk to y'all later... moe

Trains, Planes and Boats in the Rain

Ko Tao, Thailand

Good morning everyone, or I guess Good evening to y'all since your nine hours ahead (or more accurately 15 hours behind).
Well, its been an interesting couple of weeks so far. Daysha and I headed out on Halloween morning, on a 25 hour flight from Seattle to Bankok, via San Fransisco, and Seuol, Korea. All things considered, it wasn't to bad of a flight, not too many crying babies, or flight delays. Still we were two very tired travelers when we got in to the Bankok airport at around Midnight or so. We spent two days in Bankok, ricocheting around the city on tuk-tuks, taking in some of the sights. The Grand Palace, and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha among them. But the hustle and the bustle of the city didn't prove too satisfying, so we hopped on a train south to a beach town named Hua Hin. There we rested on the beach, and ate good seafood(you haven't lived until you've tried fresh fish-ska-bobs, or squid on a stick). Hua Hin, however is extremely touristy, and we soon tired of walking through town, pushing our way through merchants hawking wooden elephant statues and hand held hookas. Also most of the tourists who come here seem to be very stressed out, because there are two or three thai massage parlors on every block (the girls who run these places are really friendly though). So, after four or five days, we caught a bus running further along the south east coast to a town called Champwon. From there we were going to go back up about ten miles north to a secluded beach for a couple of days, but a couple that we met on the bus told us about a midnight boat out to the island of Ko Tao. Ko Tao was going to be our next stop anyway, and it was proving difficult to get to the beach where we wanted to go, so we decided go ahead and wait for the boat. We were very proud of ourselves for this decision, because we would save money on a hotel, as the boat ride was to be six hours long, so we would get there the next money. There was an express boat during the day that would only take two hours, but it was a little more expensive, and besides we were going to sleep on the boat anyway, right?

Well, it started off all right, when we boarded the boat, the downstairs was full, but the upstairs was almost empty. The floor was covered in mats, and we were protected from above by some tarps. So we set up our bags and layed back against them and got ready for a restful night, when a couple of english guys climbed up as well. Oh cool, I thought to myself we'll have someone to talk to if we get bored. But then a couple germans came up as well, then some aussies, then more germans, soon we were so packed together that we couldn't even stretch out our legs. Finally the boat started to move, and just as I closed my eyes to go to sleep, the heavens started to spit. I opened one eye, and thought hmmm good thing we have those tarps. Of course this was not the end, oh no. Ten minutes into the trip, it started downpouring. It was then that I realized that we didn't have a tarps, but a funnel for the water to drain on to me and my backpack. So to make a long story, uh... not quite as long, it was a wet, sleepless night on the boat. We finally rached Ko Tao at about six in the morning, just as it stopped raining, and found a beuatiful island, with amazing beaches, and cheap little bungalows. We like it so much that we're going to hang out at least a month. For a 150 bucks we got a nice little bungalow about 50 feet from the beach. So that about brings y'all up to date, I hope I haven't bored anybody, remember that you don't have to read these and if I get filtered into your junk mail, I won't be offended. Alrighty then, Peace, Pizza, and Peaches, moe

Costa Rica to Columbia Ramble

Cartagena, Colombia

I believe the last time I wrote one of these long cursed emails it was all the way back in Leon Nicaragua. So from there we went out to a town called Polynoya a beautful beach on the Pacific side of Nicaragua, and for the first time all trip we actually had some sun at the beach. So we spent a couple of quiet relaxing days on the beach, and headed on down to Grenada Nicaragua, a bustling colonial town on the coast of Lake Nicaragua(the tenth largest fresh water lake in the world, bet you didn't know that). We found a little hostel called the bearded monkey that was so steeped in comforts from home(couch, TV, pool table) at cheap prices that we stayed a few days more than we probably should have, but we had a good time none the less. From there we went to another beach town, named San Juan del Sur, which was also nice. It had a good mixture of a relaxed atmosphere during the day, but also lots to do at night. There we met a couple people, a girl named Peggy from Holland, and I guy named Pier from Sweden, and they travel with us a few days into Costa Rica, first to another beach town called Playa de Coco, where on the last night Kevin met his long lost, star-crossed latina lover. Unfortunately, we were staying in a tent at the time, and I had long since gone to bed, and was snoring contentedly. Poor, poor Kevin after working all night to break the language barrier with the girl he loses her on the account of cheap accommodations and my nasal symphony. So the next day we moved on to the Monteverde Cloud forest. Beautiful, Beautiful, way up in the mountains where it doesn't really rain much, the clouds just move through the forest, the moisture leaving the flora and fauna every different shade of green, with scores of interesting animals that we never actually saw, but looked cool on the little laminated guides they hand us before our hike.
In Monteverde, we met a couple of girls named Michelle and H’rina who want to travel with us through Venezuela and Brazil, but first Kevin and I had somethings to do in San Jose (the capital of Costa Rica). I had to get my yellow fever shot, and we both had a couple of other errands to run. So the girls went to Venezuela instead, and we'll probably meet them there later. Anyway, so now we're in Cartagena, which is an incredible town filled with beautiful cathedrals, old forts (and guys who want me to smuggle Cocaine to America, but we won't talk about that, Columbian jails don't sound to appealing to me). Supposedly its pretty safe here, although you still need to use common sense. We're only going to be here for a couple of days. We haven't had a chance yet to explore the City, but I do know it’s hot as hell.
Cartagena is one of my favorite towns that we've been in. It reminds me of cities in Spain. We walked around today through the old part of town looking at cathedrals and whatnot, then later we went to the huge fort Castilla San Felipe, which was very impressive, although it didn´t look like the fort in romancing the stone. Maybe we went to the wrong one.

San Pedro Trip

Flores, Guatamala

Hola Hola everyone.
How is everybody doing? Kevin and I are doing fine, at the moment we re in a small town named Flores in Northern Guatamala, but wait I jump ahead of myself, lets see where did we leave off, I believe we were still in Antigua(I really need to start saving these messages for my own reference). So from Antigua we took another harrowing bus ride to a place called Lago de Atitlan(Lake Atitlan). The bus dropped us off in a town called Panahachel, which was very touristy so we to a boat to San Pedro on the other side of the lake. By the way this isn t just any lake, its probably the most beautiful lake I ve ever seen. The lake itself is squarish and about 15 miles across. Ringed around the lake are very large mountains 3 of which are active volacanos, this is somewhere I definetly want to return to. Anyway, so we get across the lake and walk into a restaraunt next to the dock and sit down. Along with the food menu the waiter says"All right man, I ve got pot, coke, acid and exctasy" Kevin and I looked at each other thinking to ourselves Hmmmmmm. (by the way those of you who don t approve of my occasional drug use, uh sorry) Anyway so we buy an oz of pot(for 12 bucks) and a couple hits of acid, thinking we ll probably have to hang out for a half hour or so, or even come back later for it, especially with the acid(this was the first time we had seen anything but pot or coke, and we don t like coke), but no the waiter pulls the oz out of his pocket and tosses it nonchalantly on the table. Then he walks over the little cardboard box containing straws on the bar. Grabs the straws, walks over to our table, turns the box upside down, and out comes a little package of acid. Meanwhile, Kevin and I are looking around just waiting for the handcuffs to fall, but no one seems even to notice. So we look at each other, look back "uh, thanks." So later after we dropped our stuff off in the hotel we walk into this small bar, and we re talking to the canadien guy who owns this place and he says "Yeah there s a table out back if y all want to smoke anything or do whatever" Ok this is my happy place.

So Kevin and I decide this would be a perfect time to take a week of spanish school. Where we caught this train of thought I have no idea. Lets see party town, lots of drugs, lets wake up every morning and take spanish class for 4 hours. So we did, and it was alright, I had this cute little guatamalan girl for my teacher named Flora(I like the way she said it better). She was (unfortunately) very traditional, which means very catholic and she wore the traditional dress which leaves WAY to much for the imagination. But she was fun and I think that I even learned a little, she didn t speak any english so I had to use what little spanish that I had the entire time. One night a local bar threw a full moon party, on a beach away from town. They had a dj and a bar set up(I don t know why since everyone was tripping) also a bunch of bon fires. It was pretty cool. Out of the 150 people there we probably met 12 or 15 that we had met before in other towns, including 4 as far back as San Cristobal. A good time was had by all, except for us because we didn t leave the party until 5am and we had class the next day. Try describing the imperfect preterite tense to somebody with a head full of acid in a language they don t fully understand anyway. I felt bad for Flora. Finally after our school was over, we felt that we had to get out of there(although not without buying a little more acid for the road, its the easiest drug to conceal) before our heads exploded. So we went back to Antigua for a couple of days, Kevin has been a little sick lately so we let him get over that, and then yesterday we took a bus up here to Flores, a little town on a island in the middle of a large lake. The big attraction here is Tikal, which is a large mayan ruin, supposedly the most impressive in central america. We re thinking about renting a tent and camping up there tonight, but I guess I ll save that for the next letter rather than speculate. Anyway, if your still reading thank you for bearing with me. I will talk to y all later Buenos Noches. Moe

HueHue-what?

Well good morning everyone, I am writing you from Antigua, Guatemala. Kevin and I finally left Playa Del Carmen and took a overnight bus to Planck, Mexico where we planned to go over the border, but found that we couldn't and so we moved on to San Cristobal, Mexico, but only after seeing the absolutely incredible ruins in Palenque first. We got there in there at 8 in the morning and saw the morning fog rolling up off the huge temples and into the dense jungle. Afterwards, we took off to San Crisobal, and stayed there for a couple of days, we really liked the town, but there was anything that stood out. From there it was on to Guatemala. After taking a short bus ride to the border, and passing through customs we boarded a bus headed for Huehuetanago (pronounced waywaytanago), and this turned out to be quite the adventure, the bus (as are most busses down here it turns out) was a converted school bus, that by looking at the leg room was probably meant for kindergartners. However, they somehow managed to fit three people to every seat, my seat included, although my legs jutted out into the isle which was also crowded with people standing. If you have a problem with claustrophobia, the busses in Guatemala are not for you. My personal bubble was definitely popped. Also they put your bags on the roof which always has me a bit nervous. The scenery was incredible, at least what I could see of it with everyone's heads in the way. We were in very mountainous area that was covered in jungle it was all very beautiful. The one bad aspect of this area is that they don't seem to invest in guardrails, and as close as the driver liked to drive on the edge this can be very disconcerting. Maybe it just me but I like to be able to see the edge of the road, instead all I saw was trees and houses, 300ft down.

Anyway after a night in Huehuetanago, it was off to Chimaltanago (by the way I feel much smarter writing these name than when I try to say them) Now this bus ride was the most scariest of my life (with one obvious exception). The bus was very full, but the driver drove like he was suicidal. The bus driver look like a reincarnated Indian chief very stoic never showing any emotion except to swear at the drivers in front of him who callously driving in front of him at a safe, reasonable speed. Luckily, there were bumperstickers all over the inside of the bus saying, that god blesses this bus, god blesses this driver etc. I often looked at these stickers while we were passing somebody around a blind corner, with only a 3 or 4 hundred-foot cliff, to escape an oncoming car. I was just hoping and praying that the piousness of these stickers would outweigh my agnostic beliefs. The funny thing is nobody else on the bus seemed worried besides Kevin and I. It certainly didn't stop the couple who were making out in the seat in front of me. After the blood was completely drained out of my knuckles we finally made it to Chimaltanango, and on we went to Antigua.

Antigua is a town that has more foreigners living here than Guatemalans. Everyone comes here to learn Spanish. But we are having fun, and yesterday we climbed an active volcano, which was all right, the hike for the most part was easy, except for the last 600 yards or so which was pretty much straight up climbing in shin deep little magma rocks, which made you slide a step for every two you take, with wind whipping at us at about 70 miles an hour. We also seemed to be in a cloud, which made it hard to see anything, once we finally did get to the top. But it was an experience, and coming down the top incline was a lot like skiing because as you slide the whole mountain seems to move with you. Alrighty that about brings you up to date, please forgive my being so long, but I had a lot to talk about and a morning with nothing to do. Moe

Mexico to Brazil - The Beginning

11/12/00 – Seattle, WA The Beginning

Hello, hello, once again,

I know that a lot of you have not heard from me for a very long time. I am very sorry about that. I've been in hibernation for the last eight months, on a very isolated steamboat. To those of you who I've lost contact with, I'm very sorry, and although I may have not been communicating with you, I have not forgotten you.(not yet) Anyway, I am a few short days away from once again starting on a journey. This time, to south america. There is a difference between this trips, and trips in the past, as that during this trip I will be doing as little work as possible. Now I, know most of you are saying to yourselves, "I don't see any difference". But this time I will not actually be holding a job as I travel.

Allrightythen. For those of you who haven't been paying attention in the last few months let me give you a bit of a background on the story that is about to take place. (Remember, if any of this, or any following messages, bore you, DON'T READ THEM. Just hit the delete box without even opening the message, like I've been doing with most of you lame-o group emails. However if you do find them at least slight bit interesting, and happen to respond I will try to respond back, in a if not prompt, but leisurely manner.) Anyway, where was I. (scroll up) Right background. For the last eight months I have been working on the American Queen,(THE STEAMBOAT, get your head out of the gutter) trying to make enough money to take a trip to south america, for at least 4 or 5 months. In this task, I'm pretty sure that I have been successful. Along the way, on the boat, I met a lot of cool people, however, none more important to my future than Kevin Pile, and Jessica Morris. Kevin Pile, is a kid from Brewster, WA,(where??) who I've somehow convinced to come along with me to south america. He is super cool, and I know will be a perfect traveling companion. Whether he is naive, or cunning, for listening to me is yet to be seen. Jessica Morris, is a girl from Pratville, Alabama.(where are you finding these people?) who has fallen in love with me, and I vice versa. Those of you who know me already know me know that the verdict came in on her long ago, on the cunning or naive question. But it's OK, we can't all be wolves. Anyway, here's the deal. Jessica, and I leave for Mexico City on Wednsday the 15th of November, and we'll take either a train or a bus for playa de carmen for the 19th. Those of you who know the story of what happened last year at this time in playa del carmen, might ask why I would risk going back there. It just so happens that I was on the internet one day, and oops I bid on a five day all inclusive vacation to playa del carmen in a e-auction or whatever. I wasn't expecting to get it, but these things happen. Anyway, so the lovely miss jessica and I will be spending five days there and then she will be flying home, and Mr Kevin, will arrive and our adventure will start.

OK for those of you who are still with me, I appreciate your patience, as I know this is a longer than normal email, but I figure while I still have free email at my mom’s house, and I have a few beers in me what the hell. Y'all will be hearing much more from me in the future. Hasta la pasta Moe