Home from the Himalayas

Well I've just returned back to Vancouver from an amazing adventure in Hong Kong, Nepal and India. Hong Kong was just a stop over on my Cathay Pacific flight, but I had 12 hours to kill in between my flights so ventured into the city and explored. I highly recommend this option if you're going. I took the train to Hong Kong Island, and then the Star Ferry to Kowloon. With limited time, this was a good itinerary to see a few of the sights.

Then it was on to Kathmandu, Nepal to spend some time zipping through the country planning the route for our newest BikeHike Adventure. I'm happy to say that we will be adding Everest Base Camp, as early as November 2008. This date is planned around a festival in the Khumbu area, which will be an exciting time to be there. We're also adding a multi-sport adventure that has a trek in the Annapurna Range, a few days of biking and a rafting trip.

I was lucky enough to experience some of the highlights on that trip including an Everest Scenic Flight, where I saw most of highest peaks on the earth, Everest, Cho-Oyu, Kangchenjunga, Lhotse, Makalu, etc. That was an incredible sight. Note, one of the pilots was female and Nepalese, which I thought was quite progressive in a country where men rule. I also mountain biked and hiked through remote villages, with views of stunning snowy peaks on the horizon. In Kathmandu I wandered through some of the ancient sites including Durbar Square, full of ancient places, temples, and artistic shrines and out door deities of Malla Kings. I also visited the Swayambhunath sputa, a 2000 year old Buddhist Charity and the Pashupatinath Hindu temple of Lord Shiva, renowned for its gold gilt roof and richly carved silver doors. All this was a quick preview to the upcoming BikeHike Adventure.

And then it was on to Incredible India, and incredible it really is. I can honestly say that I've never been anywhere like India. It's an indulgence in all of the senses; the vibrant colours of the women's sarees; the spicy and rich sauces of scrumptious Indian food, the sounds of the infamous horn on trucks, motorbikes, motor rickshaws and bicycles manouevering through the streets past holy cows, pigs and goats, whom are all grazing on garbage in the streets..yes, unfortunately garbage. February is a month filled with extravagant weddings, which are similar to festivals and usually celebrated over a span of a week. According to astrologists, it's a brilliant time to wed. 95% of marriages in India are still arranged, and before the two are wed, the family seeks the advice of an astrologist. For centuries, Hindu families have consulted Vedic astrology to guide them in making crucial decisions, particularly when it comes to marriage. Astrological birth charts are frequently used to decide whether a couple are suitable for each other in the first place, while an auspicious wedding date is believed to increase the chances of the marriage being happy and fortuitous.

While Rajasthan can be a touristy destination, my goal on BikeHike's India trips is to ensure that our BikeHike adventures stay off the beaten track as much as possible, but at the same time sees the important sites, i.e The Taj Mahal. We arrive there for sunrise, to avoid the crowds and see the masterpiece in the first light of the day. Some of the encounters we experienced while biking through small villages were brilliant. We were invited into quite a few family homes. One particular encounter sticks in my mind. I stopped my bike on the road to take my camera out of my bag. I happened to be in front of a village house, then the family invited me over to say hello. Initially it was just a few of them, but since I was the novelty ( a female foreigner on a bicycle, wearing a helmet) the whole extended family, friends, neighbours, passer-byers all came over to check me out with bubbling curiousity. The mother of the household was the ring leader. She showed me how she makes yogurt, on a spinning wheel. With a big smile on her face, she demanded that I take her photo. I stood beside her to capture the moment, but she thought that my angle wasn't good enough to get the best possible shot of her, so she directed me to the best location, directly in front of her. This was quite comical. She invited me to be the special guest of her son's wedding, on March 1st, but unfortunately I wouldn't be around. It was quite an honour to be invited however. Once a wedding takes place, the bride moves into the husband's family home and is expected to work in the house for his family . She must cover her face with a veil in the presence of any male that requires her respect. Coming from the west, watching this can be difficult to digest, but it is tradition and a part of their culture. It definitely gave me a sense of how fortunate I am to be born in a place where women have so much freedom.

There were so many amazing encounters on my India Adventure, and hard to summarize in this short blog entry, but just to highlight a few I went to a Bollywood Movie in Jaipur, rode elephants adorned in colourful velvet robes, jewellery and anklets, visited the Taj Majal for sunrise, took a bicycle rickshaw ride through the old district of Delhi, slept in Heritage Majaraja Palaces, rode to ancient forts on camel carts, biked through traditional villages, wandered through bustling markets, filled my belly with scrumptious and spicy North Indian cuisine (and probably gained some weight, too), attended lavish weddings and even saw a few funerals in the streets, traveled on high speed Indian trains with excellent service and visited ancient fortresses and palaces that are architectural masterpieces. It was truly a fabulous experience and one of our trips that I highly recommend.

BikeHike's Royal Rajisthan Adventure is rated easy, so physically, it's not demanding. India as a destination however can be a little challenging because of the pollution, noise, amount of people and the curiousity of the people. It's a true adventure destination for the intrepid traveller and one that I highly recommend.

For details on our Royal Rajisthan and Mountains and Monasteries of Ladakh trips, please visit http://www.bikehike.com/india/india.html

Pictures are coming asap as well.

And lastly, I read Eat, Love and Prey by Elizabeth Gilbert and Holy Cow, by Sarah MacDonald on my trip. Both were excellent reading choices for India, I thoroughly enjoyed them both.

Namaste,
Trish Sare