Le Sri Lanka en famille

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Je voudrais tout d’abord remercier ma mère et ma grande sœur Claire pour ces beaux jours passés ensemble sur cette superbe île qu’est le Sri Lanka, c’était vraiment magique de pouvoir partager un bout de mon chemin avec vous et ça m’a redonner pleins d’énergie pour la suite de mon aventure autour de l’Asie. Claire ça m’a fait vraiment plaisir de pouvoir passer des moments avec toi, ça faisais vraiment longtemps qu’on ne s’était pas retrouve comme cela, j’ai vraiment aimé danser, boire des coups et discuter avec toi, j’ai l’intime conviction que ça nous a rapprocher tout les deux. J’espère France que tu pourras également venir me voir et pourquoi pas avec Papa ça serait vraiment génial !!! Merci encore pour tout, vous me manquez tous terriblement, je vous aime très fort !

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I also want to say thank you to Felicia and Anton (one of the best travel mates I ever met during my travel, I will never forget you guys) for all you did and for all the good time passed together. I will see you when you see me ! Tchai Tchai Tchai Tchai !!!!

Oui j’ai rédige cet article en français car j’aimerais en dire beaucoup plus que les autres et aussi parce que je suis un peu fatigué par mon anglais et par mon manque de vocabulaire Clignement d'œil

Je suis donc arrivé de bon matin a l’aéroport de Colombo où ma mère et ma sœur Claire m’attendaient sagement devant un écran de télévision entourées par des dizaines de Sri-Lankais. Ce fut court mais très intense, j’en avais presque les larmes aux yeux et Maman était elle aussi a deux doigts de pleurer. Apres les retrouvailles nous sommes allez en direction de Colombo ou Maman nous avais booker un Hôtel vraiment très chic avec piscine sur le toit, baignoire et des lits vraiment trop confortable (ça change des planches en bois et des hôtels miteux). Le soir nous sommes allez dîner dans le restaurant d’un Hôtel encore très très chic avec un buffet qui n’en finissait plus … Super soirée, merci Maman !

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Notre première destination fut Mirissa sur la cote au sud de l’ile, une petite station balnéaire pleine de touristes et de restaurants sur la plage. Comparer a l’Inde, le Sri Lanka est vraiment très chère et ce n’est pas vraiment une destination faite pour les Backpakers mais c’est une des destinations préféré des surfers. Nous avons ce soir la ouvert la bouteille de Saint-Émilion et le camembert “le petit” qu’elles m’avaient rapportées de France, je peux vous dire qu’après 18h dans l’avion et 5h dans le bus le caltos était fait archi fait !! J’en ai encore le goût dans la bouche. Et super surprise, Felicia et Anton nous ont rejoins a la fin de l’apéro et nous sommes tous allez dîner au bord de l’eau, je ne m’attendais pas du tout a les voir aussi rapidement.

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Le lendemain je me suis essayé au Surf, après une petite leçon de théorie et de pratique sur le sable avec mon prof je me suis jeté à l’eau et sans être prétentieux je me suis levé sur la planche a ma toute première vague, BG Edouard !!! C’était une petite vague je vous l’accorde mais tout de même il faut souligner la performance Sourire

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Apres deux jours passés au bord de l’eau nous avons Maman, Claire, Felicia, Anton et moi loué une voiture avec chauffeur pour nous diriger dans les montagnes vers une charmante petite ville du nom d’Ella. De la nous avons empruntés la petite voie de chemin de fer et son train qui longue toutes les plantations de thés, nous avons croisés des paysages magnifique, à couper le souffle: c’est l’une des voies de chemin de fer les plus belle au monde selon le guide du routard. Nous sommes arrivé en fin de journée en bas du pic d’Adam (Adam’s Peak) après 2h passées debout dans un bus infernal. Le lendemain, nous sommes partit a l’ascension de ce pic vers 2h du matin afin d’arriver au sommet pour le levé du soleil, 5000 marches environs et même après un mois de trek au Népal et le Yoga en Inde j’ai eu mal aux mollets pendant les jours suivants, bon peut être pas autant que Maman et Claire mais quand même Sourire

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Nous avons rejoins la ville de Kandy ou nous avons prit une route différente d’Anton et Félicia car nous voulions allez dans le Nord afin de monter le rocher de Segiriya. Nous nous sommes donc retrouver tout les trois en famille et même si pour moi le lieux n’était pas vraiment magique, les moments passées avec Claire et ma mère l’ont étés. Nous avons décidés de repartir sur la cote pour passer les derniers jours, ça m’a permis de pouvoir refaire du Surf, de revoir une dernière fois Feli et Anton et aussi de passer des super moments avec Claire, a boire des coups et a danser jusqu’au bout de la nuit.

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Je suis maintenant dans ma chambre d’Hôtel pas très loin de l’aéroport, ma mère et ma sœur ce sont envolées ce matin pour Paris, mon avion pour les Philippine est dans 8h et je me devais de finir cet article avant de partir. Je vais essayer de compléter cet article une fois arrivé aux Philippine car en me relisant j’ai l’impression d’avoir résumer très voir trop rapidement ces 10 jours magique passés en famille.

Trekking in Annapurna

Finally Moso wanted to stay in Pokhara to have some rest an wait maybe Rebecca in our hotel.
There is lot of things to do there and the quality of the air is much better than Kathmandu.
He will be fine during the next seven days.

Day 1

So Antoine and me changed our mind and left earlier Pokhara to have more time trekking.
We did our pass, stamps, photos and last shopping at 10 am and start the trek at 12 am.
The taxi driver try to cheat on us and ask us 10euros more for the drive to Nayapul when we get out his car …
After 10min of talk we decide to give him more but not what he was expecting … It’s starting F&€:€@ well …
For the drive back I hope we will find a bus or a taxi less expensive.
The road is really big and there is some motorbike and car, the first hour of walk was really hard and take back our walk routine too.
After one hour we find a spot to eat a fried rice quickly and continue our walk.
The second part was a little bit harder, just up and up.
Two hours of big steps before reaching Ulleri, a little village at an altitude of 1960 meters.
We manage to find a place to sleep for free if we stayed there and eat.
Hopefully they have also a really good shower with lot of hot water 🙂 time to rest and be ready for tomorrow.

Day 2

After a fast breakfast in the sun, we left at 9am, not really early for Trekkers ..
But it’s ok, we are really in good mood today and we start by doing two hour of walk without stopping.
We finally reach the lunch destination to early so we decide to have our lunch, diner and sleep in the final destination and do something more during the afternoon.
We finally reach Gorepabi 2899 meters for lunch and after we went to Pon Hill 3310 meters to see the sunset over there.
We spend like two hours waiting the sun, it was a bit freezing but really amazing. I think it’s the highest point of this short trek so it’s why we enjoy it.
As all nights Dharbat for diner, two time ( it’s an all you can eat meal) at 6h30 and went to sleep early to woke up for the sun rise.


Day 3

We woke up at 7am today and we take more than one hour to start our trek, we really want to go far today so normally it gonna be harder than yesterday.
At first we were walking behind the others people’s from the same guest house and I decide to go faster. We did like 30 min of fast walk going up and up and we lost them really easily.
After 2h30 of walk we were in our lunch destination Tarapani 2100 meters, I think the others gonna sleep here tonight.
After one hour of lunch and rest we leave the place to go to Chomrong 2140 meters, it’s a bit crazy but we really want to do it, we need to go down like 1800 meters and go up again.
It took us 2h45 to reach this beautiful village in the middle of all those hills. Antoine and me have no more energy but we are glad …
we did it, 35km of trek and up and down, a guide told us that for normal people it’s take two days to do it 🙂 !!! Crazy !!!
After a good hot shower and a cloths wash, we are resting ourself around a cup of coffee and some energies bars.
The guest house don’t have a heater because from this area to the Annapurna base camp it’s forbidden to cut wood so we will dry our cloths with the sun tomorrow during walking.
A good dharbat and at 7h30 we are already in our bed. For this trek I didn’t take sleeping bags and after tomorrow it gonna be colder and colder :).
We are thinking about what we did today, it’s really amazing and we hope tomorrow gonna be the same.

Day 4

Woke up at 7am as all the days, breakfast with porridge and coffee and we are ready to start.
I have some muscles pain from yesterday walk and the first hour was a bit hard. After passing the hardest part we were going down, way to bamboo our lunch destination.
Dharbat to change our habitude and charging with the sun our device because it’s gonna be hard to have electricity after.
My ankle hurt me a bit this morning, I hope it gonna be ok for the rest of the trip.
After two hour of walk I decide to stop and go down because it’s starting to be really painful.
It toke us 30 min to find a place to pass the night and to rest.
I did stretching, put in cold water my foot and massage with some cream.
Dharbat again as usual and let’s sleep, tomorrow we are going to start go down, we have three more nights.
The plan was to pass the solecist at the Annapurna base camp but I can’t go father with this kind of foot, I don’t really want that to be worth and we prefer go down slowly right now than force and break something.
We will see tomorrow after a good night.

Day 5

My ankle is better this morning but it’s hard to say without trying to walk, let’s have a breakfast and take our time before leaving. The first part was ok but after couples of hours we both felt some pain in our legs and me especially my foot.
We did all the way down without having lunch and then up to Chomrong were we spent one night before. The last uphill was really hard, we were both thinking about the pain au chocolat we had here and that’s help us to finish this part.
Here the sun is down at 14h so after the lunch we were really lazy and as all night we are at 20h in our bed. I have some pain behind my right leg, I try to do my best to heal it by doing some massage and stretching, I hope it gonna be enough to go back to Pokhara.

Day 6

Today it’s the 21/12/12, it mean the end of the word and we are going down 🙂 most of the people’s here in the mountain, locals and foreigners don’t really car about the EOW.
We don’t have Internet access so impossible for us to know what is appending in the rest of the world, I hope that is not my last write. Mam Dad Sister’s I love you.
So we are going down today, we decide to go where we can and see when you gonna be back in town. After dome hours of walk we where really close to the Jeep camp so we decide to skip the lunch and take a Jeep straight to Pokhara.
We arrived at 4pm in town and had a big lunch, some BBQ pork to change, i’m really bored of the Dharbat.
It’s really nice to come back and to see again Moso, Rebecca and BG, we have lot of stories, pictures and many good things to share with them.
I really loved this trek, Antoine was a really good team partner and we manage this one without any guide or porter very well.

Pour Antoine : Merci mon pote ce fut vraiment de très bon moments partagés avec toi, quand tu veux pour une prochaine escapade !!

Trekking in Langtang and Gosain Kund Mountain

First day, Bus to Shyaphru (1467 meters)

Meeting at 7am with our guide in our Hotel in Kathmandu to take a taxi to the bus station.
We took a little breakfast before leaving in the bus station, masala tea and some cakes we bought the day before.
We spend all the day in the bus on mountain roads with some really difficult parts, the bus look like really old and it’s definitely not comfortable, we can feel every little rock on the road.
We arrived at 4pm in the Hotel, first take a rest on the balcony and play some guitar, then we took a walk around Shyaphru and have our first feeling about the mountain in Nepal.
We had a really good night with the local peoples from the hotel, we played some Nepali songs and tried for the first time the local wine called Roxie.
I have approximatively a 10kg bag plus one classical guitar on my back for this trek, I never done trekking with that much weight in my bag, we will see if it’s too much or not :).

Shyaphru to Gumnachowk (2470 meters)

First real day of trek, we left at 9am the guest house, first military checkpoint and here we are !!
We went through some empty cannabis fields with some rest of the last harvest, all around us for few minutes it was only cannabis plants …
We arrived in the restaurant for the lunch and we already felt the first effects of the bag on our legs and back.
After a good lunch and a good rest we are back to the trek, the real walk start now, we are going through huge forest, some hard paths and some really steep ways.
The roads are full of dust and it’s starting to be difficult to walk …
Here you can cross some cows and also a lot of mules going up and down on the trekking roads with a lot of products on them.
After four hours of walk we arrived to our final destination, a little guest house in the middle of nowhere with a beautiful view point and also a really good hot shower.
We stopped here because of a Spanish couple who said to us that this place is the best around and the others are not so good.
The first trek’s reflex after a long day of trekking came: do some stretching for the legs, wash and dry the used clothes with the last sunshine and try to rest a lot the legs.
We are eating inside because where the sun is hide or gone the temperature goes down really fast and can reach easy the 0 degrees.
We are all together around the heater and Antoine and I are playing guitar, Yes we are carrying our guitar for this trip, it’s like a challenge for us so we need to play every days 🙂

Gumnachowk to Langtang vilage (3430 meters)

The second day we walk the last kilometres in dense vegetation.
Today we are going up over a kilometre in elevation, the roads are more stiff and the temperature drops considerably higher we climb.
After lunch, the forest disappeared and is replaced by desert plains where horses, mules and buffalo smugglers their days.
After a long walk we finally arrive at Langtang village, we are all exhausted and the legs are very heavy.
Another kilometre of altitude in one day for my part I don’t feel very well and I’m getting a little headache.

Langtang vilage to Kyanjin Gumba (3870 meters)

This day was the shorter but the harder for me, arrived at the destination I collapsed in my bed because my headache has only amplify and I don’t feel good at all, we probably mounted too quickly.
Normally we now have the opportunity to climb to 5000 meters but impossible for me to walk, talk or even get out of bed for dinner.
So we spend a night here, the worst of all, despite the incredible environment that is around us.

Kyanjin Gumba to Langtang village (3430 meters)

So today we descend in case of illness it’s the only thing to do and take some medication.
After three hours of descent we arrive at Langtang village in the old guest house we spend a night.
I already feel much better and after a good toilet and a walk around my headache was gone.
Tonight’s big night, we hosted in the same hotel as the Chief of Police of the District of Langtang and his henchmen.
Evening around the fire with the guitars and with the entire family and guests. We sang Nepalese songs and drank Nepalese local wine all the evening.
Compare to last night I feel really good and ready for the next part of the trek.

Langtang village to Gumnachowk (2470 meters)

We are all shaped this time, the descent was not too hard except for a few difficult passages, we arrive after 4h descent in Gumnachowk in our favourite hostel for lunch.
We spent our afternoon to rest, wash, clean clothes and repairing small injures.
We meet here many francophone this tonight, almost everyone around us spoke French.
After 4 months of travelling still now I never seen as much as French.
I love this hotel because the shower is really hot and the sun is present until very late at night due to the orientation of the lodge and then the family living here is very friendly, they are mainly Tibetans.
We play guitar and sing tonight in front of us with this family watching us with big eyes and opened mouths, this is the only night where I feel playing in front of a silent audience ..
It are not used to see young peoples carrying and playing guitar in the mountains, they are crazy those French 🙂

Gumnachowk to thulo Shyaphru (2250 meters)

During the day you can see from Gumnachowk Thulo-Shyaphru off in the hill, this morning we leave for the destination.
We are all in great shape and we all recovered from previous days.
We arrived quickly at the restaurant for lunch and rest a bit before heading back.
The second part was only climb, a very long exhausting way but and around us a beautiful landscape.
We progressively been closer to our destination, it is still in the opposite side of the hill, we have to go back down.
We went from very high and the vegetation is very dense here, it’s jungle. The last mile was very very long and very hard.
We arrive in a beautiful little town perched on the hill in a good place run by a lovely couple.
For a few days we eat more and more and our guide did a little head because we made a full package for this trek with all included and we give heart to order french fried every ten minutes 🙂
After a few days of intensive work in the mountains, we begin to see the characters in each into the effort as we all start to get a little tired.
Automatisms are created quickly: been the first to take a shower, wash his underwear and t-shirt with the last rays of sun, fill in the camel bag with a little water and little magic pill and take Nepalese.

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Today Moso mind to take a carrier because it does not expect to finish the trek with his backpack.
After a few minutes lost this morning we finally find the Lama Dai carrier a small man, not too young and already drunk at 9am 🙂
We start the day by climbing back the hill, we enter in a dense forest in which we rather continue climbing.
It becomes increasingly hard for the legs. Arrived in a clearing, the slope becomes steeper and each additional step are painful.
After one good hour ride we finally arrive at the lunch place with 390 degrees panorama, impressive!
Walking after lunch was much less tiring than this morning, so we arrived at the guest house on the other side of the hill, the sun disappears much faster here and the clothes we tried to wash are not dry yet …

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We woke up always at the same time and after a breakfast and waiting everyone’s ready we were going for a long day trek.
The first part was quite easy compare to yesterday but the two hours before the lunch destination was really hard, it was going up really hard, we left the forest for the desert, now there is nothing in the mountain just small vegetation.
From there we had a really good view but after the lunch and a quite hard walk we reach a point were from here we saw lot of mountain chain, it was the first time I saw something like this, it’s for me the best view I ever seen in my life.
Two hours more to go to the final destination: the highest point we are going to sleep on this trek, 4380 just before the Gosaib Kund point we gonna do tomorrow.
We decide to woke up earlier like 5h to have the sunrise up in the point.
So after a quick diner and some drink we went to bed.
It was the worth night I ever made in this travel … So cold and impossible to sleep near Moso, he was doing to much noise … Arg :s I didn’t sleep at all.

Gosain Kund to Ghopte 3430

Wake up at 5am as planned, I’m already half-awake so store and make my bag was very quickly for me.
Petit dej and I’m ready, now we need to wait for the others .. I am so angry for not being able to sleep that I left first the place before the others without waiting or I’ll miss the sunrise, ….. failed, it was already up, I should been there 30 minutes before.
I arrived after a 45 minute walk at the top of the peak where a cold wind was expecting me. Antoine joined me after a few minutes and stuck on the ground we wait the others so as not to be in that icy windy environment.
After a good half hour we were back to the party for a very long descent.
It took us around 3 hours before reaching the places for lunch.
It was one of the longest descent of this trip. we reach finally the vegetation and after lunch the fog take place around us.
The second part was almost as many descent as climb, we call that here the Nepalese flat.
For a large part to the end of the day, I was ahead of the others, 5min on Antoine and almost an hour on the other.
We arrived in a small very welcoming hostel but without hot shower, we have to wait until tomorrow to wash us correctly.
We still wash our socks and underwear but the hand contact with the cold water was very hard, no more sensations in the hands for 30 minutes.
Dinner, a bite of guitar and everyone in bed, we are exhausted from this long day, surely the longest of all the trek.

Ghopte to Kutumsang 2470
During the morning we had a really long walk before reaching the lunch place, it was friends of Lama Dai our porter so he was glad to see his friend again.
This day the weather was not really here and we were walking in the clouds so it was a bit cold due to the humidity, mysterious atmosphere like been in Lord Of The Ring.
We all getting tired so the rest of the day was going down and for me and Antoine this day was more a race than a trek, the landscape was amazing compare of all we saw before, lot of vegetation, we are back to the juggle.
We arrived one hour before the others so we had time to have a shower, clean our cloths and take a good tea.
We ask to eat an all chicken for diner so we saw it alive and dead after the guy cut his head.
It’s the first time we eat meat in all this trip so we had a really good diner, maybe the better after all those Dahrbat and after this a really good sleep.
Tomorrow is the last full day of walk so we need to keep some energy to finish this without problems.

Kutumsang to chisapani 2165

Last day full day of walk, we are all exited to finish this trek, like we are all tired … we have all some injures on the legs or the feet and also some muscle pain we are all dreaming about real food and a good massage when we will be back to Kathmandu.
Like all days, Antoine and I took the lead with Lama Dai, we start slowly and then faster and faster.
We reach the lunch place faster than the others and we wait almost one hour before they arrived.
Little lunch for me I’m not so hungry and I feel really sleepy, I can tell you now that I don’t have more energy back and I feel really tired, this trek is not so easy as we can thought.
As we are exited to arrived, Antoine and I goes down really fast but unfortunately the last part was a really big climb to do, a three hours climb …
After a while we were able to saw our hotel on the top of the hill, it was a really good feeling.
I was really cold this night, in the hotel there is no heater and the shower was really cold too. We almost spend all the time in our room with some candles to heat our fingers.
Here we are, last sleep in the mountain YHHhEEAA.

Chisapani to kapan

Today is our last walking morning and for the first part we were all walking together, we reach a good place and we took pictures together, it was like at the start of the trek, we have almost finish and it is the last time we gonna see the white mountain of Nepal.
This was a really short day but a really hard one, it was going down all the time and the last two hours it was only steps and steps.
Lunch place, it’s finish ! ouf .. Now we just have to eat something and wait the taxi to come back to go to our hotel in Kathmandu.
I’m exhausted, I need rest for the three next days.

Kapan to Katmandu by taxi

Hotel, Massage, Showers, Meat, Laundry and we are already thinking about the next place to go …. Pokhara and the Annapurna Mountains.

Fansipan

Nous avons booké notre trip pour le Fansipan, celui en deux jours.

Nous sommes accompagné, Pai notre guide et Mong notre porteur. A oui, j’oubliais: je dis nous car j’ai rencontré lors de ma visite des villages aux alentours de Sapa Stefan, un hollandais qui lui aussi voulais faire ce même trip. Donc nous voilà partit dans la jungle pour 3h de marche avant d’atteindre notre premier point de chute à 2200 mètre pour notre déjeuner. Ensuite encore 3h de marche, un peu plus difficile pour atteindre le campement de 2800 mètres, la ou nous allons passer une nuit.
Nous avons rencontré des Coréens super cool qui nous ont gentiment partager leur propre apéritif ( kimshi ) et le whisky. Malheureusement l’alcool à fait qu’ils ont ronflé comme des porcs toute la nuit, impossible pour moi et Stefan de dormir.
Réveil à 5h30, pâtes vietnamiennes et œuf pour le petit déjeuné et nous voilà partis pour atteindre le top du Fansipan en 1h23, très jolie score je tient à le dire :). Après quelques minutes passées à contempler le paysage, nous étions déjà sur le chemin du retour, environs 4h30 pour revenir à notre point de départ avec bien sur une halte pour le déjeuner.
Petite douche, fried spring rolls et deux Sapa thé avant de prendre le bus + le train de nuit pour Hanoi.

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