Day 3 - Donnalucata

Supertramp

Dear Crashpad Diary #20

About -20ºC / Nepal Fashion week / Bhaktapur and the pricey entrance / Momos, momos everywhere / Bowling for thakali Sweeeeet!! this post will be quite short cuz I already have many many things to tell yas about our incredible and epic expedition to the Annapurna Base Camp (AKA ABC)!! You know that when youre travelling you normally don´t get to choose always the apparel… you wear as you go and as the flow dictates… sometimes the laundry takes longer than it should… sometimes they burn your good and only rain coat/ parka…. sometimes… as happened with my friend while we were travelling in Peru… someone steals your clothes from the girl that was supposed to wash them heheheheh And due to the circumstances… we get to the point we just reached over here… when you pass by a mirror and realise that youre looking like a grab a blue and white beanie… black down vest… over a green down jacked… one one those indian trousers in grey, black and purple colours… to finish the best match ever… black boot and red socks…now we can declare the Nepal Fashion week opened!! hahahahah While we were waiting for my bro to get to Kathmandu and our time for the trekking to come we decided to try to get the most out of the time… even though KTM is not a huge city and there is not much to keep a traveller busy for more than 3 days, we did not have other option and went visiting other cities in the valley!! The first city was Bhaktapur… old town with wooden front houses and beautiful temples… the problem… a great problem for backpackers though…. is the price to get in the city… serious… they charge foreigners the exorbitant amount of 1500 rupees… which is around 15 euros… to put your dirty feet in the dirty streets only…. and they don’t even offer a chocolate cake or ice-cream as bonus or sth like that…. they must be crazy hahahah Sadly… this is a usual practice here in Nepal… you get the local price and the tourists prices…. the second one is normally overcharged whereas the locals pay less than 10% of that… when they do!! Fortunately, I´ve been traveling and seen stunning places around the world and I always found cool the way the government in many countries tries to provide the possibility for the local people to visit and value their traditions and history… Like in Chile where you have the prices for Chilean people (cheapest), for the South Americans and another one (a bit more expensive) for the Rest of the World Citizens…. I agree when it is reasonable…. but rip-offs are never cool! Like here…. freaking expensive for foreigners and nothing for locals…. negative point for you Nepal!!! Talking about negative…. we´ve been told that we will face freakin low temperatures during the trek…. up to -20ºC…. brrrrrrrrrrrrrrr Get the base layers ready peeps!! =) As we were in the vibe of getting ready for the trip we went down the momo road…. hahahaha If you came to Nepal you know what I´m talking about… momos are fantastically scrumptious and so hard to stop eating… they are like the Chinese guioza (dunno if they are Chinese, neither if I wrote right!! hahha) but the thing is that you find´em everywhere!! There are shops… tents…. trailers… big and small restaurants…. even a Cave… that sells it!! hahahah the other day I opened my locker under my bed and a guy jumped selling it!! hahhahha kidding…. but I don´t doubt!! hahahaha Well… that´s actually a good way to put up weight before going for the expedition hahaha Momos on any kind of flavours…. the best ones off course are the cheese and garlic… veggie…. mushroom… but I heard the potato… paneer… chicken and other ones are great too!! Easily to believe!! =) Also… you have the sauces…. ow the sauces…. they actually challenge the momos to see who is the most tasteful and favourite!! hahahaha yep.. thats our life during the days we are waiting to get to the trekking…. we decided to start on the february the 3rd… till there…. we had loads of days…. loads of momos and any sports at all…. No… in fact thats not true…. I couldn’t climb because of my ribs… but we went for a bowling competition hahaha and whoever wins would get a Takhali (another Nepali dish)…. as prize…. hahaha what else could that be?? hahahahaha Well… Aquarius was aligned with mars and Halley comet was passing by one of the 32 moons of Taurus… I was lucky enough to win by one point!! hahahahah Few more pounds for free on my bellyyyyyyyy =) hahahahaha Days later we went to another nice city that deservers mention…. Kirtipur…. cozy city where we ate Newari Khaja…. by far my favourite Nepali dish!! What a life!! =) And that way we spent the days till Luh got here…. on the 1st!! Sweeeeeeeeeeet…. off we go to Pokhara and starting the trekking of our life…. so far!! That´s it for now!!! Hope you´re great there beasts!! Enjoying life and having fun right?!?!?!?! Just wanna let yous that as Mike Libecki says… “life is good and the moment is now!!” =) Cheers, Evan

E X P L O R E por Daniel Foeller Via Flickr: 40/365 E X P L O R E: The World Awaits The core of mans' spirit comes from new experiences. -Christopher McCandless (Alexander Supertramp)

Alex Raja topping out Creaking Heights 6c - Sector: Roadside - Rocklands - South Africa

for more shots > e-supertramp on Flickr  =)

Dear Crashpad Diary #27

WARNING: this post has some fucking good and important infos for you backpacker!! (in the end... but read it entirely =)

Holaaaaaaaaaa bichooooooos!! Que onda???¿¿?¿?¿?¿?

I hope all the most fantastic smiles and great vibes are coming towards you and making your life sweeeeet!! =)

Today I´m gonna write about life haha the life on the road… the life on the edge… a thug life!! hahahahah

So.. you´ll laugh loads with sea urchins, the biggest vacation of my life, cursed rooms, wild clothing and scams!! Well… the scam part will also help you to not lose money if you´re ever in Bali! hehe

Cool… where did I stop last post?? Oh… yep… we were in Koh Phangan… having fantastic times and so on… but you know… the time flies… or in our case… we enjoyed it floating around haha

And the time to leave came… we got another night boat… thinking that this one would be the same as the previous one… haha what a pity… haha we got to the pier and saw a huge one… like the size of one of those cruises… fancy ones… but not fancy… maybe same size… I thought… yep… thats prob it… The taxi driver pointed to another one… quite small… three-trucks sized… Oh well… it will be a bit more shaky but that was the only option…

We didn’t have any idea though that ours was actually behind it… a big pick up truck sized boat where we would sleep but you could not stand tall… cuz you´d hit your head on the ceiling hahahaha we crawled to our spot and actually felt cozy there haha it´s like our studio back in Ireland…. the difference was that we had a bigger window that in fact opens in that boat… and more important… it is not overpriced!! hahahaha

The overnite adventure brought us to Krabi, city from where we´d fly to Kuala Lumpur to, then, fly to Lombok… one of the Indonesian islands that are world wide know meccas for surfing!!

I wish I had learnt how to surf earlier on in life… cuz now life and the waves are beating me so hard that I only can keep thinking… resilience ma friend… resilience is the word!! hahahahahah Luh surfs already pretty well and it is beautiful seeing that… but myself uff… I used to say that he surfs and I suffer!! hahahah At least here the water is not cold at all so I can keep floating pretty confortahbe!! hahaha  

Anyways, we got a boat to bring us to a surf spot…. both of us with our boards and all that stuff… drink water… spit almost all… look back… spot a wave forming… start praying… I mean… paddling… fast fast fast… and… stand up!! enjoy… Look around with your chin up and your lungs full of joy…. hahahaha that should be me in a perfect world… In the real world I paddled when I shouldn’t… the wave threw me freaking down and I felt like inside a huge washing machine… hahaha

My bro looking that had seen it from quite far away, said that the fall was epic hahahaha when I emerged, one of the instructors asked me if I had an instructor and I said no… so he warned me sth like… Well… maybe its better if you go with the beginners!!! hahahahah I was trying to catch the bigger ones and didn’t work well I think!! hahaha Maybe next time I´ll bring my laundry… in case I get inside another washing machine!! hahahahaha

And… by the way… I managed to step in another sea urchin!! haha now my both feet have some sea parts!! haha

In Lombok we got to know that you must pay pretty much all the beaches you go… to park… they say it´s for the community… twas quite sad going to 5 different beaches to find waves, though… they won´t let you get in for checking and pay later, if you stay… even to check you must pay… uff…. one can get bankrupted going after waves here!!

At least the room we got was balancing the equation… we were spending with the beaches but saving on the room… twas cursed but twas fine haha The first night we woke up around 4am with a freakin loud noise…. I stood up thinking twas outside… went out and didn’t see shit… got back and realised that was the mirror… it fell of from the wall and broke… haha

But it does not stop there… the second night we woke up at the same time cuz the sink fell… haha the fucking sink!!! hahahaha On the third night we were talking and wondering what would fall that night… maybe the fan or the A/C?? And we both were laughing cuz twas a bit funny… and at that exact moment my bag of food that was placed steadily on the sink fell…… hahahahahah spooooooky!! hahahaha Happily nothing else fell off the next few days!! hahahah

From the sink, though, was coming a bad smell… we let the reception know the day after… they offered us a new room so they would fix it… I agreed straight away… a new room?? Fine!! My bro asked then the most important question (as usual he is the smart guy and is always wise!!)… Does the new room have A/C?

Yep… with the negative coming from the reception about the A/C, we said that we would stay with the broken one… fixed with finger tape (hell yeah… I put my climber´s skill to work again!! In your face phantom!! ahahahah)… and slept cool with the phantom in the cursed room!! hahahaha

Well… leaving on the edge these weird times here beasts!! haha

Few days in Lombok and we headed to Bali, where we will stay longer and surf more… but the first impressions are great… the surf is cool, the food is cheap, the accommodation is great and for a good price, they have good paramedics for my days of surf… the fashion, however, is ugly… not to say worse….  we were walking on the street and I saved my bro´s life as he was passing by a girl that was wearing a snake as a scarf…. an alive snake as a scarf!!! C´mon freaking lady… it is almost 40º C… tell me why in this world would you wear a scarf??? hahahahahhahaha

As the other places in the whole world, the drugs are on the street and wherever you´re walking someone will try to sell it… the hype here is to sell it saying: “Tours? Motorbikes? (whispering) Mushroom??”. hahahaha

But by far the best experience here was bugging the guy that was trying to scam us!!

The thing works like this… they put the rate higher than the real one… the tourists will grab the opportunity right?! yep… they get the money… start counting in front of you… and then they´ll ask you some change to make it “full”… while you take the change, they drop like half of the notes back…. you give´em the change and… normally the tourists will not count it again… will put inside the bag/pocket and leave…

We realized that on the second time we changed… and checking the money we exchanged before we confirmed that those fuckers shortened us in 10 €… 

well… at least not too bad… cuz the following days we tried to exchange again and all of them were trying to cut us out in at least 50€ every single time!! But every time they realized that we were counting the money one last time before leaving, they would come with many stories like: “oh… I forgot to add my commission” or “I´m not gonna exchange for you” not giving any explanation… and aborting mission suddenly….

That happened at least 5 times… but the best one was one guy that asked me if I had some change to make the amount rounded… I said yes but kept counting and recounting and he kept dropping and dropping the money… hahahah like a game hehe and he was losing it… that bastard!! haha

In the end, he came with the idea that he was confused and he would not exchange and bla bla bla… haha so we put our money back and we were about to leave… he got his many notes and started putting them back… saying: Oh… you forgot to take this… showing few notes that were aside… hahaha That was his money he had separated as part of our transaction… hahaha I let him know that was his money and we left laughing a lot as we bugged the scammer… the guy gave us money but we did not take as it is not fair right!? hahahahahhaah

As my last paragraph of this post I´d like to give yous an idea on how you can avoid these scams when exchanging money!!

I´ll throw some actions but it´s always good to check with a trustful local too!! I´m also increasing the number of measures hehe

- Always consider sketchy if the rate is higher than the market´s one - never give your notes before getting yours - don´t let them take your notes away from your sight, cuz they can replace them with fake ones - always count the money in front of them, before leave - if possible, go with a second person (I can borrow my brother if you want... he´s already a pro money exchanger), as you both can keep your eyes on the transaction, or the scam - if you fell in a scam, well… learn from the mistake!! - unless you are exchanging in a real bank branch or money exchange place, you should never handle them your IDs… - last but not least don´t go to hidden places... - until they prove otherwise, everyone wants to fool you, when you are exchanging money!!! hehe

Sweet… that was it… We are having awesome times here and these experiences have been enriching our lives unmeasurably!!

I really hope that this text has brought something got into your life… =)

Loads of smiles and good vibes from the beautiful and warm Bali!!

Cheers,

Evan

ps... new pics over my Flickr >> https://www.flickr.com/photos/e-supertramp/albums/72157678592658452

Dear Crashpad Diary #24

First of all.... check all the pics I´ve been taking.... I´m doing it not to show off or keep the memories but to affect more and more people... plant the seed in their heart.... to become a climber... a traveler... a dreamer... a smiler!! 

So hit the link and have fun >>> https://www.flickr.com/photos/e-supertramp/sets/72157678592658452

Cool... let´s dooooooooo it!! =) 

Today I´m gonna tell you the story of a guy with some regrets, Dude where is my harness?, a bag that has the ability to fly, addictions, tractors and gyms!

Heeeeeelloooooooo beasts!! Whats the story?? been great? Good? Awesome or fantastic??

hehe hope a cool mix of everything… as we do here!! =)

So we finally made to Thailand! Hooooray!! And the first impressions of Bangkok were… “Are we in São Paulo??” hahaha It´s even funny how the metropolis look alike! Well… after so long we felt kinda good in a big city, with all the possibilities and options 24/7, you name it… you look for it… you´ll find it… does not matter what! Boobs, drivers license, divers license, rats, fried grasshoppers, weird foods, great and tasteful food, beautiful temples, gigantic Bhuddas, hidden temples… choose and have a blast! =)

The city welcomed us freakingly well… the fun started already when we left the plane and got to the bus to get to the airport… the bus was so full… like metros or subways around rush time… we were all one… I felt the lack of space between the passengers and I stopped feeling my backpack´s pressure on my back…. couldn’t understand what was going on… hahahahah So I decided take it out… first to avoid being annoying to the others as the backpack always hits someone and second, because I could keep an eye on my stuff… surprisingly, when I took it out, it kept floating… hahahahahah the space was so tight that I was not needed to keep my back up there!! hahahaha I have to admit that I felt quite useless hahahahah but so happy of having a backpack that flies!! hahahahaha Technology!! hahaha Now we need to find a way to transfer this technology advent from that packed bus to the streets… it´d save so many people´s backs hahahahahah Bye bye escoliosis hahahahahahha

Those days we had great fun and we found the best smoothie in town… eat the street food, walked loads to find a veggie street food… didn’t find… and then we found it!! hooray!! They have banana barbecue, potato barbecue, all sort of meet barbecue… chinatown is great and it´s impossible not getting lost there… the boats crossing the river are everywhere and if you see traffic it will probably be there hehe Oh… btw… we had another tractor sleeping in the same room at the hostel… but this time it came with a grater… what the fuck… the guy snored loud… but the worse was the sound he does fractioning his teeth while asleep…. the day after we were chatting and he said he knew that and he’d gone to the doctor but it would cost way too much to fix… so he kept that way…

Unfortunately, (because I´d defo stay a bit longer…) we were there for only 3 days.. and then we flew to Krabi and went to the Climbing mecca… Tonsai/Railay beaches… I´m very fortunate for having the opportunity of visiting so many fantastic climbing destinations… Rocklands, Hampi and now Thailand…. what a life!! =)

Luh liked so much bangkok that he made sure we would return soon…. he forgot few important things at the hostel and realised on the way to the airport… so…. well be back soon!!  =) fair play ma brother!! haha =)  

There is no way to not get along with the city… such a nice place… they have even open air gyms in loads of parks, and the best part… it´s for free!! hahaha I love ya Bangkok!! =)

We had the flight from BKK to Krabi… from there we´d have to get a transfer to Ao Nang (a city just by the Andaman Peninsula)… and then we would get a boat to Tonsai beach… so… there we were… Krabi… Check!

Shared a taxi as it would be the same price as the van… but we almost didn’t make!! haha The taxi driver for sure earns money by each trip so… the more trip he does daily… the higher is the income! Now you can imagine how this fucker was driving with four foreigner inside the car!! hahaha

Lara was in the front seat and Fabio, Luh and me on the back seats… we needed probably 100 metres to understand what was the vibes of the driver… he got to the car put his elbows in each side of the steering wheel and inclined his head like when youre bored to death in a philosophy class…. and then he started driving as he were in a F1 race hahahaha The atmosphere inside the car changed from hype and excitation to silence and worry in a flickr…. hahahah and suddendly we heard Fabio´s statement: This driver is not too professional tho!! hahahahahah I couldn’t stop laughing… dunno if because of his comment or because of the situation hahahah

After loads of overtakes and almost the same amount of run-overs… we got well to the shore… uff!! To commemorate life we grabbed another shake!! hahaha anything was a reason to grab a shake… sunny… shake… bird flew… shake…. smile… shake… thirst?? Shake Shake Shake…. Shake for 30 bahts… gimme five!! hahahahah

I was overwhelmed of getting to another climbing spot (I would also meet Fabi and Esther!!)… however I was simultaneoulsy sad… cuz the climbing there is sport climbing…. and smartly I sent back to Ireland all my gear,.. I kept only the shoes and some chalk for some bouldering on the way… hahahaha Getting to Tonsai the first thing you see is a huge wall… looking at that I could only think… Dude where is my harness?? hahahah

Sweeeeeeeet beasts…. gonna stop here cuz there are so many other stories that I wanna tell… I´ll leave it to another post tho!!

Hope you´re having a blast there, doesn’t matter how…. you must enjoy!! =)

All the best vibes and smiles! =)

Cheers,

Evan