KOH KHANG, THAILAND, PAUL AND KATE NEMY

June, 2011

Kate and I split from the girls upon our arrival in Bangkok. After our adventures through India and Nepal we were just looking for someplace to just hang out. We ended up on the tourist island of Koh Chang.

After being in a country of over a billion people, we found, as a result of the end of tourist season, a place all to ourselves. A place apparently famous for it's seafood. We just pointed into the water. Five minutes later, Lunch.  

HYLA NEMY NICOLA NEMY ...without the expressed written consent...

43. (1) ....person who, without the written consent of the owner of the copyright or of the legal representative of the owner, knowingly performs or causes to be reproduced in public and for private profit the whole or any part, constituting an infringement, of any photography work or musical composition in which copyright subsists in Canada is guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding two hundred and fifty dollars and, in the case of a second or subsequent offence, either to that fine or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two months or to both.

(Somewhere in Thailand)

(Classified location)

(Undisclosed beach)

(Only James Bond knows for sure.)

PAUL AND KATE NEMY, BANGKOK, THAILAND

June, 2011

One night in Bangkok and the world's your oyster

The bars are temples but the pearls ain't free

You'll find a god in every golden cloister

And if you're lucky then the god's a she

NEMY, YETI AIRLINES, EVEREST, NEPAL

After the conclusion of our trek we spent one night in Pokhara. Then
not wanting to waste a full day busing it back to Kathamndu we opted
for a quick flight back. Long story short. When I went on-line to
arrange flights, most of the Internet search of Yeti Air came up
stories on their sketchy safety record. 

NICOLA NEMY

YETI AIRLINES

We considered where they fly

it's not bad. (A couple of times when we were trekking they flew by. In
valleys that we looked down onto the planes} I again was quite


ument with

Tikka about the existence of Yetis. I couldn't believe he argu

comfortable with anything YETI AIR in my obituary. Had long ar
ged they

ist.
didn't e
x

After our big rush to get back to Kathmandu, STRIKE! Hung out.
Next morning we were on our way to Bangkok. The one image of a cloud
capped peak is Everest.

The other is of Annapurna and region.
This now concludes the Nepalese portion of our program.
Paul

NEMY, KATHMANDU, NEPAL

MAY,  2011

KATHMANDU, NEPAL

We have now gone full circle in Nepal and I write:

Top six list of visiting Kathmandu.

6) Pray Wheels and Pray Flags

5) Patan Temple

 4) Having found our way after being hopelessly lost in the maze of alleys and back streets. Why waste money on street signs when you have four locals showing you your four options.

3) Being here in May. The busiest month of the year for Himalayan expeditions and summit attempts. Papers filled with triumphs and sadly tragedies.

2) The Hotel Kantipur Temple. Another little oasis in the heart of the city. All roads leading to and from this little heaven seem like they have just recently been or should be mortar shelled. The Inn is a beautifully walled old temple that immediately gains your respect of what possible history this place may have had. We used our inside temple voices even in the garden as we took breaks reading, writing and of course, sipping Lemon Sodas.

and

1) Meeting someone on our return home and being asked, perhaps, “Paul, we didn’t see you at the Kilman Road resident bi-annual umbrella inspection get-together”. I can pause for a second and then answer, “OH, I know why. BE-CAUSE-I-WAS-IN-KATH-MAN-DU!

Bottom 9 list of visiting Kathmandu.

9) Getting hopelessly lost. Sticking your finger in your mouth and then holding it up to the wind seems to puzzle the locals.

8) The squalor.

7) The dirt, garbage, open sewage, and all the stuff that comes with it when it’s 32C.

6) One thing that makes me feel safe is there must be a lot of doctors in this town. Every other person walks around with a surgical mask on.

5) This town has a SERIUOS water supply problem. I bet half don’t have running water.

4) The electricity is cut regularly. Many places have back-up generators but don’t get caught in a back alley @ 10pm. or watching the last five minutes of “Kathmandu- Who done it”

3) We have been here collectively for a little over three days. For two and half days there had been civil strike. No public transportation, some shops open, some closed. It only interfered slightly with our plans but there was always a feel of uncertainty.

2) I have always been mildly interested in the local politics of places we visit. Here I gave up. There seems to be a high level of politic strife here. Every ten blocks a corner is swarmed with dozens of heavily riot clad militia that make no attempt to hide their firepower. I sometimes stick my camera maybe where it shouldn’t be (that will be in my report from Thailand) but no pics of these boys. Don’t want my camera thrown in the air and used as skeet.

and

            1) The city lives up to being the capital of one of the POOREST countries in the world.

NEMY, GHANDRUK, NEPAL

MAY 20, 2011

GHANDRUK, NEPAL

We now leave Ghandruk and start our final descent to Nayapul and a mini-bus ride back to Pokhara for the night.  As the heat was building, we all took our final swim in a beautiful glacier stream.  The kind you would see on TV advertisements that they made beer from.

NICOLA NEMY

Sometimes, regardless how well you plan things they end on a sad note.  We all knew our arrival back at our hotel we part with Tikka. I most times admire it in a person when they leave but here I was sad.

Long before we left I always reference that we are going to India and all the rest. These are countries. Tikka was a connection. We got to know each other because we wanted to. We got to know a guide, the husband that took cellphones calls from his wife who called because she missed him.  A son who told stories of how he is looking after his 90+ yr. old dad. A man of the Kingdom of Nepal that told us so many stories of their superstitions, religious likes and political dislikes. Some things he explained matter-of-factly, like we should all know how karma directs our lives.

He was a big brother to the girls.  A comforting reassurance that everything is going to be all right for Kate and I. Maybe by Nepalese standards he’s doing all right but we see it’s tough. Mountain guide sounds good but! He has to farm and do whatever else he can to survive.  Through other international contacts he has been trying to travel aboard to further his personal and financial situation. What he would make in Canada in two months would far exceed his annual income here.  He strives for the one thing that I have found in every person I have met in my life, something a little bit better for himself and his family.

Above all this he demonstrated what we saw here in so many people dealing with so many things, a never-ending smile, laugh and always-cheerful greeting

As we parted I felt a slight bit like Sydney, in “The Killing Fields”, when he had to part with Dith Prawn.  We would soon be back to the comfort of the Western World. Tikka, a man of ambition left behind in a troubled Country.

Does any body know where Ancketill Brewers’ passport is?