Day 72: Ninh Binh

It was sad to have to leave such an amazing place as Ha Long Bay, but our adventures must continue. Also, the weather for the next couple of days is not at all conducive for hanging out and partying on the beaches, so we are making our way south. Unfortunately, we spent the whole day traveling. A speed boat took us to shore, then we piled on to a public transportation bus, not a sleeper bus like we were promised, for our five hour bus ride to Ninh Binh. The beginning of the ride was not bad at all, there was barely anyone on the bus. As time passed, the bus became SLAM packed with people, to the point where someone had to partly sit on me for the ride. We couldn't have gotten off of that bus any sooner.

Ninh Binh is home to an amazing river with a couple temples that were recommended that we see along our way to the bottom of Vietnam. The city was quite empty as we explored it with what little time we had to spare. Not much happened today, needless to say, not everyday can be a jaw-dropper. Tomorrow we are set off to see what all this city has to offer.

Day 71: Ha Long Bay

Today we started off early with a boat tour through Ha Long Bay. Of course, we were late to get to the boat and was holding up the whole group. To our surprise, the same group that we took the bus over to Ha Long City was on our tour. What are the odds. These guys (guys and girls) are crazy, loud, and love to drink (mind you its 8am). I have never met another group of people like them, they are always getting as drunk as possible and lets just say they all like to experiment with each other.

The beginning of the ride was a very foggy ride. While it was unfortunate to not be able to see the full bay in light, seeing it in the fog was equally as amazing. I felt like I was behind enemy lines in the Vietnam War. The large rocks that are sprinkled throughout the bay are unreal, it almost seems fake because the formations are so unnatural.

We stopped off in an area and got to paddle through the bay in kayaks. Boyd and I both got in the same two person kayak so we could get some great footage of the area. I keep saying it, but it was so unreal; this was one of the best experiences I have had yet on this trip, paddling through the bay, caves, and tunnels. We attempted to find a place where we could free water solo, which is when you climb a rock face with no ropes so if you fall you fall into the water. We were unable to find a suitable climbing spots along with a deep enough drop spots. Robbie did climb a little spot, but it wasn't deep enough for us to get that high.

After we explored the area via kayak, we all joined in for lunch on the boat. Throughout the day, the other group of travels have gotten louder and more drunk, it got to a point were it was too much. The fog has lifted, which provided for a much better view. We soon landed on Monkey Island. The name explains itself. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't good enough to go swimming, but there were a bunch of monkeys roaming the beaches, drinking and eating food that tourists leave unguarded. When I went to take a photo of one of the monkeys, he rushed towards me and took my beer and began to drink it. At first I thought he was coming to attack me, then I couldn't help but laugh at it.

As the cruise through the bay concluded, we parted ways with the our crazy friends. We headed in for an back up for our last night in Cat Ba, as our next move takes us south on a long all day bus ride.

Day 70: Cat Ba Island

We woke up to a rather gloomy morning. The sun was guarded by clouds and we were expecting rain throughout the day. We decided we should spend as much time at the beach before the rain storm hit the island. Our friend, Robbie, finally made it to the island in one piece right before we made it out to the beach.

When we got to the beach, we were upset to see zero backpackers there. The reason why we came out here on our own was because we thought that we could do what the guided tours do on our own. Cat Ba is used mainly as a hub to explore all the other small island and beaches. Cat Ba was close to a ghost town. None the less, we had a beach that was surrounded by the amazing rock cove to keep our spirits up. While the clouds were out, it was amazing to spend the afternoon on one of the islands that I had dreamt about as younger.

When I was in ninth grade, I discovered the best distraction, Stumbleupon. Stumbleupon allows you to insert many of your interests, like sports, government, cooking, beer, etc. and then you click "stumble" and it redirects you to a website that Stumbleupon thinks you will like. One of the interests the I had was traveling, and each place that amazed I wrote down and I told myself, "one day I will go here." Through out the past three months, I catch myself walking around the corner and saying, "holy sh**, I made it here." What an unrealistic day it was. Four good friends, two of which have been friends since they were kids, one that was made at the University of South Carolina, and the other just three days ago. We hung out on the beach until for the rest of the day then made our way to a place with wifi so that we could plan out our next couple days.

When we got to the bar, the group that we took the bus to Ha Long City with stumbled in. It was good to see the group and share a couple drinks with them till the night's end.

Day 69: Cat Ba Island

We got into Ha Noi at around 5am from a bumpy train ride. Once we go back to the hostel, we relaxed and got situated for the day ahead. Some of the people needed to get some things for the next could days and send winter gear home. Our objective of the day was to make it to Ha Long Bay, although, we were unsure of how to get there.

One of our friends, Robbie, was spending too much time roaming around town trying to find stuff that he told us to go ahead and catch the bus to Ha Long City and he would catch one later that day. As soon as Boyd, Crystal, an American friend that we have made from Washington State, and I got to the bus station we met another group of nine backpackers (a mix of British, New Zealand, and Australian). They informed us that the last bus to Ha Long City had already left, however, they were in the process of paying to have a bus driver take them all there. With five minutes to spare, we joined in and made our way, hoping Robbie could meet us tomorrow.

By the time we got to Ha Long City, the last ferry into Cat Ba, which is were all the famous beaches and giant rocks are, had already left. The group we made it here with kept telling us that there was no way to get across so they wanted to go find a place to stay. Boyd, Crystal, and I were still convinced that it could be done so we split off from our new made friends. We spoke with a local and arranged for boat to take us the the island. The ride is was the most unreal thing of my life. The sky was black with a tent of orange migrating from the city and the giant rocks sprinkled with trees was something of a dream. As we made our way deeper into the bay and the rocks fully surrounded us, we were all caught with our mouths open. The previous events that led to this rare moment prove that its all about the journey not the destination.

We made it to Cat Ba and began our search for a place to stay. Once we got everything figured out, we headed out for a taste of the local food and drink. We stumbled into a backpackers bar that was chopped full of people our age. Another good night to complement the day.

Day 68: Sapa

We made it into Sapa really early in the morning followed by a hour long bus ride into town. Our tour group is full of young people just like us and mainly from the UK and Canada, like the majority of the people I have been traveling with. Once we got into town, we met up with a local and began our 8.6 mile (14km) trek through the mountains and rice terraces of Sapa.

The walk was absolutely amazing, seeing all the locals farming the rice and using bulls to pull the plows is something you dont see in a John Deere ruled farming culture back home. Along long walk we got to know our fellow travelers very well. I am always up for learning about where people are from and telling others what the US is like.

Once we made it to the home stay, we were all in need of a cold beer. The meal that the family cooked us was amazing (of course), we couldnt get enough. After dinner, the family served us some of their home made rice wine. Sipping on local rice wine and gazing out to the valley below us was like something out of a movie. Wouldnt have it any other way.

Day 67: Ha Noi

So, today we actually got a few things accomplished. We started off by visiting the Hoa Lo Prison, known by some as the Hanoi Hilton. The prison was built by the French in the late 1880's but most people know it for its use in the Vietnam War because it was a large prisoners of war location. This is also were Senator John McCain, a pilot during the Vietnam War, was held captive. His pilot suit and some gear is kept there in the museum. The accomidations at the prison (for the old prisoners) was awful. They were all locked to the floor by cuffs to their ankles, so they sat and slept in the same place all day.

After we walked around the city for a couple more hours, we joined a tour with our hostel to go to Sapa. Sapa is a city farther northwest from Ha Noi and is known for its isolation, mountains, and rice terraces. We joined in for a sleeper train to to the town. Excited to see what they next couple days hold and the people I will meet along the way.

Day 66: Ha Noi

After a good night sleep and a recovery from a long night at the club, we got our day started in Ha Noi. We were not sure really what to do here, the city, which is the capital, is mainly a gateway to other hot spots in northern Vietnam. We walked around and explored the local street food. What I would usually get back home for around $10-$15 we are getting for around $1-$2 and it tastes so much better.

We eventually made our way to the sister hostel of our hostel. Why would we go to a hostel during the day? Well, on Sundays they offer buy one get one free beers ($1) until 4pm, then its free beer and $2 burgers. We met a couple girls from Norway and Germany, who helped to keep us company.

We continued to drink into the night. The hostel offered a free bar crawl, so we popped around to a few places and then parted from them to go back to the night club we visited the night before.

Oddly enough, Ha Noi still has a strong Communist grip around it. Speakers are on every telephone pole and there is always random chatter over them throughout the day. There is a mandatory curfew at midnight, everything must be shutdown and people inside, so there is not much late night partying to be done... except for the underground clubs. We made good friends with a Brazilian backpacker who knew his way around the city and guided us to one of these clubs. Lets just say, it was fun.

Day 65: Ha Noi

We have no entered a gateway into south east Asia, Ha Noi, Vietnam. Robbie and I have met up with a friend, Boyd, at an amazing backpackers hostel. The place is loaded with young people around my age with large backpacks strapped to their backs. I have been waiting three months for this, so excited. We got into Ha Noi a little late, so Boyd already had dinner lined up for us, Cobras!

We went to a restaurant called the Cobra Village where we were able to see grown and baby cobras and hold the ones that had been de-fanged. Some of the people that were in our group were a little scared, but I am blinded by my curiosity and excitement to try and experience new things. Would I want to look back on this and be that guy that didn't hold the cobra around his neck? Nope.

They started off dinner by bringing out each of us (that wanted to) a cobra. They cut a hole in the snake and then we had to eat the heart out of the snake. This is what I pictured of south east Asia, just doing the most random, ridiculous, and rare things that few people want or are able to do. Of course, I got right in there and started chewing. Not much taste at all then I chased it down with a shot of vodka. Our actual dinner consisted of the snake; they cooked every part of the snakes we ate the hearts out of. Surprisingly, it was actually really really good. We ended our meal with a shot of cobra blood. "Welcome to Vietnam."

I am so excited to be in this part of Asia. Young people everywhere, thrilling things to do, two of my good friends are with me, not to mention the food or the women. It is a great change from the past two and a half months of being in the Africa, the Middle East, and India.

Day 64: Kuala Lumpur

Our flight to Ha Noi, Vietnam had a long layover in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (the capital). The city is actually really nice, I am surprised to see how well developed it is. Unfortunately, where we stayed was quite far from the airport, so we got into our hostel late at night and we had to get an early start to our day to catch our flight on time.

Hopefully this will be my shortest post.

Nepal Wrap Up

Nepal was such a great experience. I was expecting the people to look more Asian and see bald monks walking around living with their vows of silence; to my disappointment, I saw none of that. For the most part, the people look Indian, some have a stronger hint of Asian than others.

I really wish I had close to a month to spend in Nepal. Robbie and I were both disappointed to find out that it took around 2-3 weeks to hike to the base camp of Mount Everest. I now have a good reason to come back. However, when one door is closed another is opened and our motorcycle trip to Annapurna was awesome. Like I have said earlier, it was the dumbest yet best thing I have ever done. Trying to teach myself how to work a motorcycle in Kathmandu traffic was a nightmare, learning how to shift out of first only after we got out of the city. We can't help but laugh looking back on it now. They say the best way to learn a language is to live in that language's country; I feel that the best way to learn how to ride a bike is to be thrown on one and put yourself in real traffic. May not be the best way for all people, but I can confidently say that I am really good at driving a motorcycle.

The drive up to Muktinath was beautiful. I have never seen that type of scenery in person, let alone up close and personal. I regret renting the motorcycles that we did (Avengers), we should have rented large dirt bikes. The low clearance Avengers were not suitable at all for the "roads" we had to drive on; I was constantly being bounced out of my seat. Once we got on normal roads, I felt like I was a Hells Angel, king of the road. An unforgettable experience for sure.

We were really hoping to be able to drive up into Tibet and then circle back down to Kathmandu, but non-Tibetans are not allowed into Tibet right now. There is ongoing conflict between Tibet and China with China claiming that Tibet is part of China and not its own country. One reason why foreigners are not allowed is because they do not want anyone brining in any sort of map that might show Tibet as a separate entity from China. Hopefully when I complete South East Asia and make my way to China, Tibet will have opened up. Only time will tell.

I will say that we would not have made it through Nepal without the general generosity of the Nepalese people. Everyone was willing to help and point us in the right direction. The culture is definitely a barter culture, which I have grown to enjoy. I am going to hate fixe prices when I return home. As long as you look them right in the eyes and sound confident in your pricing, you can always shed the price, especially if you are buying multiple things. For example, I was looking to buy a small gift for a friend. The listed price was more than I was willing to pay, so I walked away. She said that she could discount it. I told her half and she laughed. I stuck with half and she eventually gave in. Everything from clothes to food can be talked down. However, we did stumble upon some places where only locals shopped so there was no need to barter.

Overall, Nepal is a large trekking destination. You can spend months in Nepal and still not even be halfway done; no wonder I have heard such high reviews on the country. I cannot wait to come back

Now I am moving from western Asia into eastern Asia. South East Asia is regarded as the backpacking capital of the world, mainly for how cheap it is. I will be excited to be primarily with others my age and traveling through some of the most amazing spots in the world. What awaits me in the next leg of my journey?

Only time will tell and anything is possible.

Day 63: Kathmandu

This morning we started by dropping off our rented goods, ie., the motorcycles and the sleeping bags. When we rented the motorcycles the guy told us that we had 50% insurance (he would pay for half of all repairs and parts and we would pay the other half). Robbie's bike had some serious maintenance done to it. Of course, they guy refused to pay the full 50% saying that the battery and repair prices were too high (we saved the old parts and brought the receipt). After arguing with the guy for close to an hour, we decided to turn to the police. Luckily, most of the countries I have been to and will be visiting rely heavily on tourism, so the police are very nice and are always willing to help you. Once we told him this, he didn't budge. After the police had been alerted and on their way, he then decided to pay the full 50% if we told the police not to come.

When I was in India, one of the ladies I was traveling with complained to me that I was trying to get around 30 US cents back that they over charged me for for a meal. She was asking me if it was really worth all the fuss? If I were just traveling for a couple weeks or a month then getting ripped off a couple US cents a day is not that big of a deal; however, when you are traveling for close to a year, it really adds up. That 30 cents today can accumulate to $5 in a month. That $5 is a night or two in a hostel in South East Asia. Then in a couple months it becomes $20. If you continually let yourself get scammed and do nothing about it then that's your own fault. There is a saying that keeps me aware of this, "a penny saved is a penny earned." In other words, no matter what you save, whether big or small, you are saving none the less.

The rest of the day was spent hanging out with our local friend in Kathmandu. The weather was terrible, cloudy with on and off rain, so we didn't get to see any of the sights in Kathmandu.

We spent the rest of the night packing and preparing ourselves for the day long flight from Kathmandu to Ha Noi, Vietnam while an 18 hour layover in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Malaysia on a Friday night should be a lot of fun!

Back to no pictures until I wipe my iPad

Day 62: Kathmandu

After we left Pokhara, we finally had constant paved roads, apparently that is rare in Nepal. This allowed us to cut down on time and use our new skill in driving motorcycles to our advantage.

This part of the drive was really fun; twisting and turning with the mountains and valley as we weave around the slower traffic was the best combination of adrenaline and excitement I have ever come across.

We had to make several stops along the way, as it later became hard to stay seated, the irregular pain was so bad. This allowed us to meet some locals and talk with them. Many were very interested by my GoPro that was mounted on my helmet. "Camera?"

By the time we got to Kathmandu, it was already dark. Trying to navigate the city in the dark with intense traffic was not easy. It took us about thirty minutes to find our hostel. Once settled in, we got to talking with some other travelers and joined them at a bar. The bar was nothing special, filled with all older people. Robbie and I were looking for one of the places that kept us up both previous night, while we were trying to sleep, in Kathmandu, the loud music and sounds of excitement was definitely what we were looking for. However, by the time we finished our drinks and conversations, all the bars were starting to close, so we headed in to get some much needed rest

Day 61: Pokhara

Today was spent still recovering from the drive before. We were not really sure what to do with our time in Pokhara since the town is mainly just a backpacking gateway to Nepal.

I spent most of the morning using the Internet to connect with friend and family; this is the first time Internet has been available since we left Pokhara.

Later that afternoon, we got on a boat to the Barahi lake temple out in the Phewa Lake. There wasn't much special to see here. Lots of pigeons and pigeon poop everywhere if your into that? I did spot two pink pigeons, which was a pretty cool sight.

We then walked around town, buying some small things that we needed and then ducked into a bar to help keep us occupied as the sun set behind the mountains.

We headed in for another early night with the goal of making it to Kathmandu in one day.

Day 59: Muktinath

We were able to get an earlier start on the day for the short drive to Muktinath. Muktinath sits at 12,500ft (~3800m) above sea level, which is the highest altitude I have ever been to. The town that we were in was surrounded by snow covered mountains, so we constantly had an amazing view.

We settled into the Bob Marley hostel. Known for their laid back atmosphere, good music, and delicious food, Bob Marley gave us just what we needed to forget about our drive ahead of us. They also had gas heaters and hot showers!

We explored the town and did some minor trekking around the area. From what I know, this town is where many Hindu people go to for their pilgrimage, so we saw many Indians along our drive and as well as in Muktinath. We tried to find the Shiva temple, which is where the Hindu's pilgrim to, but we were unable to find it.

We eventually stumbled upon a small enclave of houses. As I walked around, I saw no one, the cold weather, snow, and wind was definitely keeping them inside. A lady came out of her house when she heard me walking around. There was smoke rising from her roof and billowing out of the newly opened door. She actually had a fire burning in her house with no ventilation. As she came out to speak with me, a small child stood in the doorway, both were regularly coughing. I was shocked to see a fire burning inside a house with no ventilation let alone a child constantly breathing that smoke in. Can't imagine that's good for you?!

We packed it in for an early night as we are trying to make it as far as possible back to Kathmandu as we can.

Day 60: Pokhara

Today was our earliest day yet; we were on our bikes before the sun fully rose. The beginning of the drive was so amazing. The sun was coming up over the mountain range and the sky was perfectly clear. Unfortunately, my GoPro was not charged (Bob Marley hostel barely had electricity), so I was only able to capture a few photos when we pulled over on the side of the road. Each turn was more amazing than the next, unfortunately, we didn't have the time to make all the stops.

While we are new at driving motorcycles, our time spent on tough roads and even tougher traffic has caught us up to speed very fast. We were able to make it to Pokhara just after nightfall (around 13-14 hours of driving). Needless to say, we were exhausted. It felt like I had just been punched in the butt for the past half day.

Not much was really done today except for our drive. We stuck to a strict schedule that only allowed for short breaks to eat snacks and rest. Much needed sleep!

Day 56: Unknown

We woke up a little later than expected and opened our windows to a beautiful view of the Annapurna Mountains in the distance. Seeing the wind whipping the snow off the tip of the mountain was unlike anything I have ever seen. What was even better than seeing it, was knowing that this is where our motorcycle trip is taking us, while we are unsure of exactly how to get there... That is where we are going. We packed up our motorcycles and set off for the day, unsure of the road ahead.

We have picked out a town on the map called Beni, so that is what we used as our destination along the way. The locals were always willing to help point us in the right direction when the road presented us with a fork. Winding up and down these mountains and along the valley was amazing. While my parents have always been strict against me being on anything with two wheel and a motor, my grandfather used to be big into motorcycles. After these past couple days of riding, I can see why they oppose it and he enjoyed them. Gripping the clutch and shifting the gears as we blow past a local bus or come almost to a complete halt as we made our ascent and descent through the mountains was an experience that I feel everyone should enjoy. Being able to not have to see the countryside through an sort of window is the only way to travel and simply having to pull off the road to capture any picture we wanted to was priceless; after that we were able to ratchet up through the gears and make it back to normal traffic speed. As we were driving through the mountains, at each turn I kept saying out loud, "this is so amazing." The steep mountains were scarcely scattered with small groups of houses tucked away in the hillside and covered in foliage or either displayed a huge flat rock face as though it was straight out of the movie Jurassic Park.

Along our journey, we came across many small thriving villages, filled with tractors, animals, school children, and loads of pedestrians roaming the roads, while older people carried huge bags of random goods, strapped to their heads, on their back into and out of town; everything from wood to rice. When we were in a town, we took the time to ask around for gas stations and made sure we were headed the right way. We eventually stumbled upon a gas station where we were able to fill our supplies with gas to last us to Jomsom and back.

The bikers back in Pokhara told us that Beni was an amazing town worth staying in; this place is a dump. As we were riding through the town, I kept thinking to myself, "where are we? It looks like we are on another planet." A local then confirmed that THIS is Benni. There are no roads, just hilly paths littered with sharp rocks and hills to match. My friend and I both came to the conclusion, there was no way in hell we were going to stay here.

With time to spare, we pushed on to see if we could make it to Tatopani before we lost the sun to the steep surrounding mountains. The road to Tatopani from Beni was the worst thing I have ever experienced, including my days offloading and hunting back in the states. The steep wavy roads were carved by rain runoff and large and small rocks. As soon as you would think that it couldn't get any worse, it did. We were really pushing our simple motorcycles to the limit on roads that are ruled by off road motorcycles and huge trucks, both of which made us ever more weary of the drive. At one point, as I attempted to shift down, I accidentally shifted into neutral and lost control of the bike. Due to the steep incline, the front brake wasn't doing justice. As I had to stand up to take control of the bike as best I could, I was unable to reach the back brake. The bike fell over and I broke a small foot rest off the side of the bike, luckily that was all.

We eventually came to a small village, comprising of about ten houses. We made our usually stop to speak with the locals and ask how far the next sign of civilization would be. During our stop, we could see a dark storm tumbling over the mountain tops. We decided that we should stay the night here, take shelter from the storm, and get ready for tomorrow's adventure. We spoke to a couple of the locals and they all gathered to help find a solution to my broken bike. Just shows how incredibly nice these people are. Just as we got all our gear unloaded and our bikes parked in shelter, a huge storm came through the area. This may sound weird, but the storm produced the biggest rain drops I have ever seen and was accompanied with some lite hail. With this thick rain and hard hail bouncing off the tin roof, my friend and I both looked at each other and said, "this is awesome." It may not seem like something really cool, but it was just something about being stranded in some village that isn't even on the map with a good friend that truly made this an adventure. Its not about your destination, but the journey along the way.

After the rain subsided, we began to speak with our guesthouse hosts. Since they, and most others in the village, spoke very little english, we relied on our travel book to carry on extremely basic conversations. "Hungry" "Food?" "Chicken?" and a whacking motion as if we were cutting the head off a chicken. Soon after, our guesthouse host cooked us an amazing meal, which started off with us watching them cut the head of the chicken we would eat that night; talk about fresh. They understood something I assume! Our meal was as close to authentic cooking as it gets. The only time it has gotten as close is when I have killed deer back in the states and then cooked some of it that night for dinner; it doesn't get much better than living off the land.

The rest of the night was spent exploring the village and planning out our next move, hoping that the roads will not be as fierce to allow for a quicker travel.

Day 58: Jomsom

We were supposed to get an early start to the day with the battery in full repair. The battery was not ready when promised, so we already had a delay under our belts. Changing the battery acid and recharging it did not work, so the young kids from Benni had to bring in a new battery. Because of all the delays we were not able to get going until mid afternoon for our drive to Jomsom.

This leg of the drive was worse than we have encountered thus far. Steep inclines and jagged rocks kept us in first gear and constantly using our feet to balance our bikes.

We eventually came upon a large stream that we debated crossing. I was able to get a good video of Robbie going through it and crashing just before he got out. As we got the motorcycle out of the stream, a couple of Nepalese people arrived in a small tractor to tell us where the bridge was. Of course, I took the bridge and met him on the other side.

We made it into Jomsom past sunset with little physical energy to spare. We tried to find a good hostel by going from door to door. Each place required that you eat dinner there in order to get a room; of course, the food was crazy expensive.

We finally came across a hostel that would let us just order breakfast so we hunkered down for the night.

Luckily, we rented sleeping bags while we were in Kathmandu. The man at the reception of our hostel told us that there would be no need for sleeping bags. However, the past two nights have been absolutely freezing cold. As our altitude gets higher and higher the nights get colder and colder. I'm glad we came prepared.

Day 57: Tatopani

Today's adventures were short lived. The roads were covered with water, making the jagged hills almost impossible to tackle. I have enjoyed following Robbie during our off road travels. I have a GoPro mounted to my helmet, so I'm able to catch all of his falls on film. The fall in a large mud puddle was my favorite of the day. From his driving results, I am able to quickly find an alternative path, cruising by with minimal problems.

We arrived to a town called Tatopani. We were stopped by a security guard to make sure that we purchase the necessary permits for adventures up to the Annapurna mountain range. After we purchased our permits Robbie was unable to start his motorcycle. The local "mechanic" was trying to figure out the problem. At first, he called two young boys from Benni, a larger town about one and a half hours back the way we came, to see if they could fix the problem. They ended up suggesting that Robbie purchase a new battery, which would require them to go back to Benni; or we could stay the night while the local mechanic changed the battery acid and charge it overnight. Robbie chose the second alternative.

In Tatopani we were able to relax in the natural hot springs. While the water is natural, the setting was not. It was a man made pool, filled with locals and Trekkers. When we got there all we wanted was food; they handed us a menu and about after an hour there was no food to be seen. We later found out that we put in our order with no one who knew how to cook the food. We then tried to cook the food ourselves, but they tried to charge us over half price to cook our own food. Ridiculous.

We spent the rest of our day conversing with the mechanic to make sure that the battery would be ready early in the morning and explored the town.

Unfortunately, we were unable to make some real progress, so a day was wasted to repairs. However, that is what you have to take into regards while traveling. Like a fellow traveler told me, expect the best but plan for the worst.