Saturday, December 26, 2009

a brief foray into civilization

The adventures continue, with different interpretations on different hours of the day.  Christmas Eve we flew into Jomson a tiny tiny airport in a wind-buffetted hamlet in the Himalayas, hiked three hours to visit Marpha (Jeny's father's village) and then spent the night in an absolutely frozen guesthouse, finally emerging to shiver through dinner with a space heater at our feet and choke down tea and toast the next day trying to avert frostbit.  Then found out high winds had cancelled all flights (both of them)  flying out which resulted in a 24 hour Indiana Jones epic of us trekking and overlanding but leaving us stuck at a truck stop in Beni unable to get home because of the threat of bandits. 

I kid you not. 

Of course we always have happy endings, mostly due to the resources of Jeny's family, so we ended up at a fabulous "Hotel Yeti" in the heart of Beni (a glorious couple of km away from the truckstop) owned by a friend of the family.  It was warm, it had great food, and it had beer, so Christmas night was exceptionally wonderful and exceptionally unique.

The kids remain troopers through some very very hard parts and at this point we've shared socks, water bottles, and bedwear without a peep.

Now off to elephant park, another strike, and who knows what other adventures.....

Love to all!

Robin

3 comments:

  1. As usual you seem to be getting more than you bargained for but it is making an amazing experience. Merry Christmas to all of you!

    BTW, the pictures seem to not be showing but cant wait to see them when you return!

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  2. WHOA! just read all the blogs and wow Rob u r one brave mom! how scary to have all the bonfires/roadblocks, and HASSLES and delays! GREAT writting and yet NO photos showed up of the last 3 blogs..i did see one early on of a street w/ buses and KILLER mountain (mt.everest?) in the background...
    SUre hope the REST of your trip goes s m o o t h e r! Love you all, Cathy

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  3. A very late post from me but what a pleasant Christmas night that night turned out to be after such a long and adventurous day!! That beer never tasted so good:)
    jeny

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