The Inca trail to go to Machu Picchu is among the most saught after tours in Peru. The booking for that trail is often booked months in advance. I was lucky I was able to get a seat only a few weeks in advance. I think it was due to the fact that Machu Picchu was closed for a while due to the severe flooding, many tourists had cancelled and I was able to get a spot. On any particular day, only 500 people are allowed to start the trail and that includes tourists as well as local porters and guides.

I arrived in Cusco  1 1/2 days before to be able to aclimate myself with the high altitude and get used to it. The day before the actual start of the trail, someone from the agency I booked the tour with came to do a briefing about the hike and also brought me a -5 degrees celsius sleeping bag (yes, sometimes, it does get that cold up there at night). Went for a bit of shopping after the briefing and bought the essentials - rain poncho, headlight, toilet paper and some snacks.

Early next day, they came to pick me up at the hostel to go to the Kilometre 82, the start of the trek. Our hiking group was 21 people - we had people from the US, England, Argentina, Spain, Belgium, France and New Caledonia. A good group of people of varying age-group. Half of us spoke English and half Spanish. Apart from us, we also had 3 guides and 21 porters.. yes 21 ! They had to carry the tents, food, cooking stuff (some had to carry gas cylinders on their backs) and misc. Each of them was regulated by law to carry only a maximum of 20 kgs. They had checkpoints every day where the porters had to weigh their bags. We had to carry our own bags, sleeping bags and mats. But on the 2nd and 3rd day, as we passed through some villages, those that wished to, could hire porters from these villages to carry their bags. The porters costed 80 soles per day and would carry a maximum of 10Kgs. A few of the girls in our group hired some additional porters to carry their bags. One of the girls in our group had a 14 Kgs Bag. I was impressed she carried it the whole way through. Mine was a mere 7 kg and I could still feel the weight on ascents.

The hike was 4 days and 3 nights. First day was very easy, we hiked only about half a day and set up our camp. The porters set up the tents and the whole thing for us before we reach the campsite. So once, we reach everything is ready for us. We also have a kitchen tent, dining tent, which is the common area where we eat/play etc.

Second day on the hike was the hardest day as it was mostly ascent and we ascended to some 3900 metres. The lack of air as we went up and just the sheer effort to climb up made it pretty challenging and we did not get lunch that day till we reach our campsite and we were supposed to reach around 2-3p.m... Good motivation to get us going through the difficult second day. Even the porters and guides were chewing on coca leaves on that day to be able to cope with the altitude. I chewed some, but I hate the taste of it, but it sure did help a bit with the ascent - like a good boost of energy each time I squeezed the juice out of it.

Third day was relatively easy as compared to 2nd day. A lot of descent and I was so glad I had bought a walking stick for that. That walking stick was the best 3 soles I ever spent. After the 3rd's day hike, we reach our last campsite for our last night. That campsite is a bit more developed and has facilities - such as shower, which we could buy for 5 soles and even had a bar selling alcohol and other drinks. The next morning, we were to wake up at 3:15a.m to start the final hike to Machu Pichu. I was glad I had brought some ear plugs, as some people decided to party the night up rather than rest. Many people were not too happy about the partiers, but it's a group with different people and we need to deal with the differences.

Fourth day, woke up at 3:15a.m and we got an early breakfast and had to get out of our tents quickly in the rain - as the porters had to pack everything and catch their train back to cusco - the train system here is weird - tourists cannot take local trains and locals cannot take tourist trains. Seems like segregation to me, but I guess it's a way to exploit tourists. We ate our breakfast quickly and waited for the checkpost to open at 5:30a.m. All the different groups were in line, in their rain ponchos, waiting for checkpoint. Once we crossed the checkpoint, we hiked to the sun gate, where we had our first encounter with Machu Picchu.

I was very lucky to get there early and all we could see was just clouds and fogs and no machu pichu and we witnessed the clouds/fog slowly moving away and machu pichu appearing out of it. It was a magic moment ! All the 4 days hike and pains were gone with that magical beautiful view !! Will post pics of Machu Picchu in the next blog entry.

I was very impressed with the planning and organization of the trip. Every day, the cook prepared 3 meals for us - breakfast, lunch and dinner and for lunch and dinner, it was usually 3 courses. Pretty impressive given that we were in the middle of the jungle. Also everyday, they had a happy hour for us - no alcoholic drinks - but popcorn (yes popcorn), cookies, coca tea, coffee etc.. On the last night, the cook had an open buffet of food for us rather than the regular 3 courses. It was so much food and such good food. Also, one great part was that every morning, the porters would shake our tents to wake us up and serve us Coca Tea in our tents. Great way to wake up :)

While I paid $340 for the trip, I think it's worth it includes the tickets to Machu Pichu ($100), the train ticket back ($50) and all the food and accommodation and porters and guides for 4 days and 3 nights. The pricing is weird though. Each of the people in our group booked with different agencies and we compared prices and it was a range of $295 to $400.

I had worked during the Thanksgiving holidays, as I don't like to travel when everybody else travels and had asked my boss if I could swap out the days off another time. So I took them out this past week and went to Tahoe from Thursday to Sunday. Had to make use of the season pass I bought for heavenly ski resort. I think that by now I have paid off the price of the season pass already from the number of times I have already gone. Each lift ticket per day at heavenly cost $84. Season pass was the best way to go.

I had bought my skis from craigslist this time and did not have to rent skis. But I also wanted to snowboard and before going, I went to Sports basement on Wednesday night and got a snowboard and boots. All their gear was brand new and the boots even had silica gel still in them. Sports basement has this awesome deal of $30 for 2-3 days (supposedly weekend), but they allow me to pick it up on Wednesday night and drop it on Monday evening. Can't be more awesome and cheaper than that.

This is my fourth and last series of pictures from Burning Man 2009.

In the last 3 pictures, you can see the extremely packed van that Kimo had packed with a lot of patience and effort (Van was packed the the max with all our gear and bicycles and Kimo had come to the city from Dublin to pick our stuff the day before and packed it all on his own so that we could leave promptly on Tuesday afternoon). In the next picture, you can see where I stayed. I stayed in the little yellow tent and next to it, we had the shade structure that Tony and Therese had graciously welcomed me to. The shade structure was a parachute that was set on top of PVC pipes. Tony and Therese had it set up like a home away from home. Under the shade structure, we had carpets, couches, coffee tables, decorations, plants. It was a really nice setup. We spent most of the hottest times of the day in there. Then the last picture is a picture of Phoenix, Kimo, Me, David and Melanie - with whom i came.

Check out part 1 of my burning man 2009 pictures

Check out part 2 of my burning man 2009 pictures

Check out part 3 of my burning man 2009 pictures

The first picture and last picture portrayed in this set is from the Temple at Burning Man. Each year they build a different temple. As read from another blog -- "The temple, which is a giant, elaborate, wooden structure designed to inspire/nudge you towards a solemn/prayerful/meditative/ transformative/grateful/introspective mindset. People leave burnable offerings at the temple, and in a quiet and mindful gathering on Sunday night of the event, the temple (and its offerings) are burned.

Offerings can represent things for which you'd like to give thanks, things you'd like to have burned away, hopes, wishes, ideas, bad habits, good habits, get-well wishes, shout-outs to those who have passed on, inspirational things, questions, requests, whatever."

Upon entering the temple, it's one of these places, that you immediately feel the spirituality and intense atmosphere.Many people are there meditating, reflecting on the people they have loved and lost.

They burn the temple on the night after the burning of the man .i.e Sunday. Unlike the burn of the man, where everybody is partying, celebrating the burn, the Temple burn is very silent and spiritual. With the few ten thousands people gathered for the temple burn, it's just amazing to feel that silence and unity in the air as we watch the temple burn and spirits flying away from it.

Check out part 1 of my burning man 2009 pictures

Check out part 2 of my burning man 2009 pictures

 

Sent from my iPhone

This year, I used/enjoyed a lot of the services that Black Rock City had to offer.

As in any city, Black Rock City has all the services a city should have - Post Office, Hardware Store, Flea Market, Ice Cream Man, Bike Repair Store, Tea House, Diner, Movie Theatre, barber Shop, Massage Place, Waffle Place, Snow Cone Man, Discotheque, Fashion Boutique, Breakfast place, Bars, Pubs, Real Estate etc.. All these services are available within the city and I used quite a few of them this year.

On the second day, I had a flat in my bicycle tire. It was a bummer as without a bicycle, it's pretty hard to do much (there are community bicycles, supposedly 1000 of them, which we should use only one way and then leave it for others to use, but it's very hard to come by). I looked around the city for a bike repair shop and found one at 3:00 and I. They were very nice and they fixed my tire - They replaced the tube with a brand new tube and asked me to spread the good and go and do something good for somebody else, rather than wanting to take anything from me.

Every night, on my way back to my tent from the Esplanade (where all the party were), I'd pass the Black Rock City Diner.. yes a Diner. We'd get in line and they'd seat us in at assigned tables and all and then they'd serve us hot grilled cheese !! Nothing better at 3 o'olock in the morning ! These grill cheese sandwiches are the best ever. Not too far from them, there is the Skinny Kitty TeaHouse. They have a great lounge with live piano performances that you can listen to, while sipping your tea. Usually after the diner, I'd stop by there, have a tea or a home brew and listen to piano laying on their couches before heading home to sleep.

For breakfast, there are quite a few places. There was the shady waffle camp very close to where I stayed that'd serve pancakes everyday, the Cereal Killers, that'd serve cereals all day and then there was a KFC -- they had decorated their booth in KFC colors and all and they served Fried Bologna on a sandwich bread with a shot of Bourbon (From Kentucky :))

For Snacks during the day, I got invited to many camps for food - I had PBJ sandwiches, Vegan Chocolate Coconut Icecream (yeah.. ice cream in the desert.. someone had brought a freezer with a generator), Snow Cones, Fresh Water Melons, Hot Dogs, Laddoos (I somehow found a hippie couple that was serving Indian Laddoos), and of course, all kinds of drinks.

This one evening, while I was walking back , someone invited me to their noodle house. They were serving Japanese Soba Noodles and Sake in a japanese themed camp, with chefs dressed in japanese attire and we were even served in nice bowls with chopsticks and all.

They also have a post office which I did not get to use. The post office would deliver mail to anyone living at an address in Black Rock City.

I heard they also had a shower camp.. where they'd let you take a shower, but I could not find that one and they have a barber shop that specializes in Mohawks.

Another service I used was the Fashion Boutique. Their motto was to dress you in something more questionable :) I did have time to prepare for costumes and all. So I went to the boutique and got all geared up in some costumes. Everything was free, but the catch is after you're dressed, you have to come out of the boutique on their catwalk :)

Check out the part 1 of my burning man 2009 pictures.

This year was my second year to Burning Man. Unlike last year where I decided overnight to just go and went unprepared, this year, I knew from before that I wanted to go I got my ticket for a pretty decent price after I posted on my facebook status that I wanted a ticket. For the ride, I had posted an ad on Craigslist looking for a ride, and I was very lucky to have found a veteran burner - Kimo.

Kimo had been quite a few times and was going again this year with his daughter Kaley and graciously offered to share his ride with me and two other persons (David and Melanie) he found on CL as well. He had a huge truck in which he was able to fit 5 bicycles and all our camping gear and food for the week. We left on Tuesday evening and reached Black Rock City at night.

We met up with Therese and Tony (Kimo's friends from the last Burn) there who had come earlier and had already set up shade structure (an actual parachute supported by PVC pipes) at 4;30 and H. Under the parachute, they had couches, coffee table, plants, carpet, great set up for the playa.

They graciously offered to camp with them. We unloaded the truck and all set up our tents in the dark around the parachute. 4:30 and H was a perfect street location. We were only 1 block from the toilets and we had the PapaLegbar camp set up on the other side of the street which had set up a cellphone tower to offer cell service and internet on the Playa (but which I only found out on the last day), the Shady Waffle camp one block away which was serving pancakes (hence shady) every morning, the free phone camp which allowed us to make calls to the outside world not far away as well. Then there was Camp New Jersey next door, which had allowed us to use their shower tub (if we brought our own water) and use their evaporation system as well.

I've added some pictures in Random Order to this entry. I'll be adding more pictures later in other entries.

Blog and Pictures from last year's burning Man.

http://nileshd.posterous.com/burning-man-2008-part-1

http://nileshd.posterous.com/burning-man-2008-part-2-pics

http://www.burningman.com/whatisburningman/

Was walking back home and saw this flock of parrots in the wild at the park on clay and drum st.. Amazing..

Sent from my iPhone

12/24/2008 - After watching and participating in the Alms giving ceremony, I went back to the guesthouse to have some coffee and wait for a tuk tuk to come and pick me up for the tour I booked for today. The tour was a day tour that included elephant riding, waterfall swimming and kayaking back to town. Tuk Tuk came and picked us up. Each of the people were signed up for different events, but we'd all kayak back together in the end. A couple was signed up for Mountain Biking and another for hiking for the first half of the day and me and a chinese guy (Bob) were signed up for the same Elephant riding and waterfall in the morning. The next half of the day would be kayaking. Picked up the kayaks in a small village warehouse and off we went the rocky roads to the elephant park, while dropping the others on the way to do their activities.

Me and Bob were on the same events. So we both geared up and kayaked for some 30 minutes to the Elephant park. Elephant park was very nice. We had a 1 hour or so elephant ride through the jungle, passing on rivers, waterfalls etc... It was a good experience and interesting to see the Mahut talking to the elephant in its ear and guiding it what to do and where to go. One thing we noticed throughout the trail, was giant elephant shit from place to place.. I guess with an animal that size, it ought to be big :)

After the ride, we went elephant feeding. They were selling a bunch of bananas for 5000Kips (50 us cents or so), that we could buy and feed the elephants. Feeding them was a thrilling experience. loved it. It was amazing to see how dexterious their trunk is, such that they could just hail it and catch these tiny little bananas from my hand. They like to play around. Got some nice pictures and some good elephant time.

After feeding the elephants, we went to the take a swim in the lake/pool by the Tad Se Waterfalls. The natural pool is shallow, crystal clear water and a bit cold.. but with the high noon sun, it was just perfect. Took a nice long dip  in the crystal clear water. was so relaxing and soothing. Swam to the waterfalls and got a nice high pressure water massage. When we finished swimming, the guides had lunch boxes for us. No fried rice this time as in all my other trips. This time it was a cold sandwich and bananas. We chilled out a bit there after lunch and went back to the Kayaks to kayak down to the city.

As we were kayaking down, we encountered a Mahut (Elephant driver) Training class going on in the river. We stopped our kayaks by the riverside to watch the students learn the different maneavures in handling elephants and play around in the water with the elephants. The elephants were pumping water at each other. It was fun to watch. I had seen brochures about that mahut training class at the travel agency the night before. The Mahut training course is mainly geared for tourists. Its a 2 day overnight course where they teach you the basics of how to ride and talk to the elephants. I think it costs around $150 usd, including accomodation and food and class. 

We then kayaked back downstream for about 2 hours back to Luang Prabhang. We did not have too many white water strong rapids. Very mild current downstream. So, had to paddle pretty hard at times to even move, in the scorching hot sun. We finally reached our ending point though around 4:00p.m and the tuk tuk took us back to town. Just in time for me to shower up, clean up and go and see the sunset from the top of Mount Phousy !

Pic 1 : Feeding the Elephants
Pic 2 : Riding the Elephant
Pic 3 : Tad Se Waterfalls
Pic 4 : Nilesh under the falls
Pic 5 : Single Kayaking down to Luang Prabhang
Pic 6 :  Mahut Training Encounter while kayaking
Pic 7 : Mahut sitting proudly on his elephant
Pic 8 : Nilesh standing with Elephants

19/12/2008 : Today, I signed up for White Water Rafting along the Nam Lik River (as I had to stay one more day in Vientiane to wait for my Vietname visa). The arrangement was that they came to pick me up at my hotel and then put me in public transportation to the Nam Lik River (of course, telling the driver to drop me wherever). I was the only person coming from Vientiane for this trip and all the rest were coming from Vang Vieng.

So, they put me alone at the back of the pickup truck (yes, that's what the local buses consist of) among locals and off we went. The ride was long - about 2 hours to reach the nam lik river, but every interesting. The truck stopped everywhere and anywhere it could to pick up and drop pasengers. All the people spoke only Lao except for one guy who spoke some English. He was a civil engineer working in Vang Vieng and was on his way there. He even bought a sandwich for me when the truck stopped at rest stop and he proposed to show me Vang Vieng when I go there. Such nice and great people !!

We reached the point where the driver was supposed to drop me. They hurriedly came and gestured me to get down and that it was my stop and they hurriedly left. I was left in the middle of a Lao Village with nobody speaking english and no sign of kayaks or any outdoors adventure agency. I was like.. did they drop me a the wrong place and even my passport was not with me (left at Vietnamese consulate). I was little starting to freak out. Tried to talk to some villagers, but of course none spoke english. So I started to walk down the road towards the bridge. While walking on the bridge, in the middle of the bridge, I saw a Green Discovery truck with kayaks on top approaching.. I was releived !! It was the right stop :)

We unpacked and met each other. There were actually more people signed up for the trip. 6 more. 3 boys and 3 girls. The guys were from Holland and the 3 girls were from Canada, Holland and US  + we had 2 Lao guides. Cool bunch of people. We were supposed to fit in 4 double kayaks and 1 single kayak. We put on our life-jackets, helmets, got all our things in the dry-bags provided and got into our kayaks. My partner in the kayak was one of the guides.. great !

The river was nice and we did some nice rapids. At the biggest rapids, as I was with the guide, we were the first one volunteered to do it while the others would watch our course. It was fun and nice and I got the opportunity to take the pictures of all the rest as they did the rapids. All but one kayak flipped over. After the big rapids, we stopped for lunch and the guides did a nice bbq for us which we ate with fried rice in a banana leaf followed by a desert of fresh ripe dwarf banana. Excellent meal. We chilled out a bit and the guide proposed if we wanted to swin in the rapids.. i.e just jump into the rapids with the life jackets and let the currents take you.. he showed us white water safety position etc..and how to do it. We walked up the rocks upstream and dropped our bodies on the rapids.

Few people went before me and they were fine. When I jumped, somehow I got pulled under water and was under water for quite a while (based on what the people told me) and resurfaced some 50 metres or so downstream. that time seemed really short for me and all I remember is i was like in a washing machine being tumbled here and there and i was desperately trying to swim up to get my head out and get some air. I finally emerged back up (I guess that's why they call it a life jacket.. it saved my life) and did the safety sign to the rest of the people (put ur hand on top of your head). I think the people were a bit worried that they could not see me for so long. I did not think it was that long while under water. Anyways, it was all safe and sound, but I think it was a very close encounter. I am glad I did not hit any rocks or anything, as along the course, there were many rocks and such things.

After that, we kept on kayaking downstream. At one point, we stopped for cliff jumping. I think out of our group, only Valerie, the canadian girl had the guts to jump off the cliff. We all just watched and enjoyed her jumps.

After that, we kayaked back to the pick up point. The pickup point was at a village. It was amazing to see so many people there taking baths in the river. Some had brought their shampoos, some their soaps and were taking river bath. At the same time, others were picking up green weeds from the river (they make delicacies out of that) and little kids just playing around. We dis-geared, filled surveys about our day and then sat down in the back of the truck on our way to Vientiane. The people that had come from Vang Vieng, were finishing up their trip in Vientiane (that's a good alternative to take a bus or truck from Vang Vieng to Vientianne).

As the truck waved its way out of the village, so many kids were out of the streets waving us 'Sa Bai Dee'. Reciprocated back. Was so beautiful.. but the dream was soon to come to an end... our truck broke down and stopped at mechanic. They were having problem with the clutch. Spent a good 30 minutes to 1 hour at the mechanic, all wet (I did not bring any spare cloth.. so was still in the same wet clothes I was while kayaking and it was getting colder as the sun was setting). We finally got the truck fixed and it went on its way to Vientianne. We reached vientianne in the dark.

As I already spent one day in Vientiane, I helped the girls find a guesthouse. Many of the guesthouses were all filled up. They found something close to where I was staying. We decided to meet up for dinner. Went back to hotel, showered, dried up, went to pick up my passport and vietnam visa (yeahh.. i got it) and also bought a bus ticket for early the next day to go to Vang Vieng (was waiting to confirm the visa before buying). The bus in the morning leaves around 9:00a.m. After that, met up with the girls for dinner before going back to the hotel to crash..

Pic 1 : Valerie and Marjo Taking the Rapids
Pic 2 : Boj and partner flipped over
Pic 3 : Stopping for Lunch
Pic 4 : Our Guides Preparing Lunch
Pic 5 : Lunch
Pic 6 : Cliff Diving
Pic 7 : Lao Kids at our endpoint
Pic 8 : Kayaking Start (should have been pic1.. i missed it)
Pic 9 : Laos Village Hut
Pic 10 : Truck Break Down with us still in there
Pic 11 : Village Transportation
Pic 12 : Local Tuk Tuk Stand