Todd Courtnage

India and Nepal #10 - Happy April Fools Day!

2006-07-18T03:32:42Z

Gabcast! India and Nepal #10 - Happy April Fools Day!

Pretty much did nothing today. Booked a bus from Jaipur to Jaisalmer, which is a night bus, and doesn't leave until about 10:00PM tonight. Did nothing all day.

India and Nepal #9 - Day Of Nothing

2006-07-12T17:33:22Z

Gabcast! India and Nepal #9 - Day Of Nothing

Just hung it out today, went to Pizza Hut, hopeing to keep it down, and did some laundry and watched TV.

India and Nepal #8 - Violently Ill!!!

2006-07-07T21:33:26Z

Gabcast! India and Nepal #8 - Violently Ill!!!

Went on an extended tour of Jaipur, seeing the Pink City, Palace of Winds, Jantar Mantar (stone astronomical observatory), City Palace and Museum, Amber Fort and Jaigarh Fort and the Water Palace

India and Nepal #7 - Agra to Jaipur

2006-07-06T15:51:41Z

Gabcast! India and Nepal #7 - Agra to Jaipur

From Agra to Jaipur

A Year of Travelling #26 - Not Much Happening Today

2006-03-28T16:37:32Z

Gabcast! A Year of Travelling #26 - Not Much Happening Today

I wandered around Bangkok, Court slept all day, as she wasn't feeling well. Bought tickets to Koh Samet.

toddcourtnage @ 2006-03-25T15:43:00

2006-03-25T22:43:06Z

Gabcast! India and Nepal #5 - To Agra and the Taj Mahal

Bus trip from Delhi to Agra to see the Taj Mahal.

toddcourtnage @ 2006-03-25T15:20:00

2006-03-25T22:20:20Z

Gabcast! A Year of Travelling #25 - 3 Weeks! Crocodile and Elephant Show!

Took a trip to the floating market and got to see a crocodile and elephant show at the Crocodile Farm and Zoo. Visited the Patpong district of Bangkok in the evening.

toddcourtnage @ 2006-03-19T13:54:00

2006-03-19T20:54:19Z

Gabcast! India and Nepal #4 - First Day in India with the "Friendly" Locals

My first day in India. The locals are terrible, always on you, harassing you. Not much fun.

toddcourtnage @ 2006-03-19T13:45:00

2006-03-19T20:45:01Z

Gabcast! A Year of Travelling #24 - A Little Hungover Today

Court and I weren't feeling too well today...a little too much alcohol in Bangkok.

toddcourtnage @ 2006-03-03T20:58:00

2006-03-04T03:58:30Z

Gabcast! Spouting about Whatever! #1 - Paul McCartney and Heather Mills -> LOSERS!

Paul and Heather were on Larry King Live tonight, talking about the "archaic" seal hunt in Newfoundland. This show just epitomizes how clueless they are!

toddcourtnage @ 2006-02-04T10:17:00

2006-02-04T17:17:04Z

Gabcast! A Year of Travelling #23 - Scammed in Bangkok!

Our first full, normal day in Bangkok. We got caught in a scam and ate fried insects!

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gabcast.com

toddcourtnage @ 2006-01-26T19:54:00

2006-01-27T02:54:31Z

Gabcast! A Year of Travelling #19 - Bangkok

Our first day in Bangkok.

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gabcast.com

toddcourtnage @ 2006-01-15T11:12:00

2006-01-15T18:12:33Z

Gabcast! A Year of Travelling #18 - Uneventful Day - Night Bus to Bangkok

Change of plans, decided to take a night bus to Bangkok.

toddcourtnage @ 2006-01-15T10:57:00

2006-01-15T17:57:09Z

Gabcast! A Year of Travelling #17 - Ao Nang - Day Trip from Krabi

Took a day trip from Krabi to a nice beach called Ao Nang.

toddcourtnage @ 2006-01-12T11:13:00

2006-01-12T18:13:51Z

Gabcast! A Year of Travelling #16 - Day trip to Tha Pom

Rented a motorbike and took a day trip to Tha Pom.

toddcourtnage @ 2006-01-07T23:59:00

2006-01-07T18:59:29Z

Gabcast! A Year of Travelling #15

toddcourtnage @ 2006-01-07T23:55:00

2006-01-07T18:55:41Z

Gabcast! A Year of Travelling #14

toddcourtnage @ 2006-01-04T08:52:00

2006-01-04T03:52:32Z

Gabcast! Episode #13 - Snorkelling Trip from Koh Lanta

A snorkelling trip from Koh Lanta today. The trip was amazing!

toddcourtnage @ 2006-01-04T08:42:00

2006-01-04T03:42:02Z

Gabcast! Episode #12 - Another day on Koh Lanta

Another day on Koh Lanta. Uneventful, just enjoying the sun and sand.

toddcourtnage @ 2006-01-04T03:35:00

2006-01-03T22:35:54Z

Gabcast! Episode #11 - More Koh Lanta

We rented a motorcycle and zoomed around the island, including a trip to a waterfall.

One Last Journal

2005-05-13T16:31:40Z

http://www.kanatek.com/everest/index.htm#

The "official" website of the team that Sean Egan and Harold were a part of. Harold semi-regularly subits diary updates to this website, and has a tribute to Sean Egan. There are also pictures, including pics of the "highest hockey game in the world"...that's right, they played hockey at base camp, only to be interrupted by a yak!

Evererst Trek - Day 5

2005-05-13T07:36:50Z

Up at 6:15, breakfast at 6:30, and to teh airport at 7:00. I ran out of money, Lapka hit me up for more money for our stay in Namche, so I had to borrow money from Harold and Anna to pay for the rest of my meals and the departure tax at the airport. It wasn't much.

Our flight didn't leave until 9:15. It was a bouncy flight, in a Twin Otter DHC-6 propeller plane. As we were on the tarmack, waiting to board the plane, one of the locals waiting to get on the plane was laughing at my Maoist shoes, saying he would never wear shoes like that, he'd be too scared.

We got back to Kathmandu and taken back the Kathmandu Guest House. It was sunny and HOT in Kathmandu today, not a cloud in the sky.

I got an $8 room, and went for breakfast at New Orleans Cafe. They have great breakfasts. AFter brekky, I left and ran into Harold, Anna and Seamus and went for breakfast again. I was so craving bacon, so got an order of bacon with them...they had really good bacon at New Orleans Cafe...it's hard to get good bacon in Asian countries.

Then we headed to the tailor se Anna, Seamus and Harold could pick up the suits and clothes they got made there. They ordered them before we left on the trek, and most of their stuff wasn't ready yet. Anna's Chinese top and robe were very nice, though.

Back to the guest house and showerd, then hit the internet and and e-mail from the Times Herald. They wanted to interview me because I was trekking with Prof. Sean Egan's kids..."Moose Jaw Times Herald scoops the world...exclusive interview with Moose Javian trekking with summit hopeful's children!" Corey Atkinson had e-mailed me with a bunch of questions...so, watch for me soon in a Times Herald near you!

I called Sabine, and left a message for her to call me back at 6:00. She called at about 6:20, she just got in and called me back, I wasn't in my room, the hotel staff were running all over the hotel looking for me! It was kind of funny.

We made a date to go to an art gallery/cafe run by a British guy...he shows pirated movies on Thursday evening, so I cabbed it to her hotel, and we walked to the ARt Gallery, and he had some unique stuff on the menu, including an English-style pork sausage in a bun. Sounded good, so I got it. He told me that I'm the first customer to try one, he hadn't even tried one yet, so I was his guineau (sp?) pig. We watched "Meet The Fockers", then we went back to her hotel room, she showed me all the pictures she had taken on her laptop, then I walked home about 10:30.

Ran into Harold, Anna and Seamus...their flights are all screwed up, they had no idea when they could get home, but they want to get home right away (especially Anna and Seamus) to deal with their father and relatives and media and ceremonies and everything else. The guy from the trekking company was talking to them, and said there is a 90% chance they could leave tomorrow, but if not, they won't get out of here before the end of May. They are very hopeful they can leave tomorrow.

Anyway, that's it. I fly back tomorrow.

See you all soon!.

Everest Trek - Day 4

2005-05-13T07:22:56Z

Up at 6:30, for 7:00 breakfast. Our Sherpa, Lapka, slept in, and we left about 9:00.

Lapka was still stick. He kept asking me for more drugs.

It was a short trek to Lukla, we got there about 10:30, and went to the Khumbu Resort for eats and found out there were no more flights to Kathmandu for today. So, we were stuck in Lukla for the day. We booked on the first Yeti Airlines flight for tomorrow morning.

We went shopping, and I got a pair of Sherpa shoes, aka Maoist shoes. Anna had bought a pair in Namche. They are simple cloth runners, in green camoflauge.

At 3:30, Anna, Harold and myself went to Porters Progress, a non-profit organization supporting porters. They were showing a BBC documentary, "Carrying the Load", I think it was called, about porters in Nepal, and their working conditions. It was filmed in 2000, and Harold remarked to the guys working there that it's not as bad now as it was in 2000. The guy agreed, and said it is much better now. I donated my New Balance running shoes (the ones I trekked in) to Porters Progress, hopefully some porter can make good use of them. Seamus didn't come because he was sulking because me, Harold and Anna used all the hot water in our showers...he had to go cold.

Back to lodge, we sat in the restaurant and played cards and listened to music. At 5:00, the army pulled barbed wire across the runway. None of the locals had seen that before, they had no idea what was going on. In the paper today, there was a story about a new European helicopter that was set to fly from Lukla today, it was going to attempt to fly between 9000 and 10000 metres, way higher than any other helicopter ever flew. The previous record for a helicopter was under 7000 metres. If it's successful, it could mean great things for getting injured climbers off of the mountains much quicker.

Anna and Seamsu kept buying fresh tomatoes on the street and eating them in the restaurant. Between the two of them, they ate two kilograms of tomatoes.

There's a curfew in Lukla, at 7:00, the army shuts it down. So, you have to stay in your lodge after 7:00.

For supper, I had yak steak. It was quite delicious, but mine was kind of fatty. I think I got a fatty piece, because Harolds was fine (he's had two yak steaks while here). Lakpa also brougt us some local booze...it smelled like rice whiskey, but he said it wasn't. I partook in a small glass, but the other three, couldn't finish theirs.

To bed about 9:00.

Everest Trek - Day 3

2005-05-13T06:25:28Z

Up at 7:30. Partly cloudy, we could see some peaks. Harold was up at 5:30, looked outside and saw clouds, so he didn't wake us up to go to Everest View Resort.

I went for breakfast before everyone else (they're slow pokes), and a French couple sitting beside me told us we could see the mountains (including Everest) just a 15 or 20 minute walk past Namche Bazar. After the others showed up, we decided to go check it out after eating.

We hiked along the trail main trail and sure enough, off in the distance, Everest, among a bunch of other peaks. It was very windy on top of Everest, a huge plume of snow blowing off of it. Everest is high enough that it's peak is in the jetstream, hence the plume of snow often seen on it.

Seamus was feeling a little better, he came to the first viewpoint to see Everest, but then headed back to the lodge while he went to another view point.

It was a great treat to be able to see Mount Everest. I've now seen two of the most popular mountains on the planet, Fuji and Everest. Perhaps Kiliminjaro will be next.

Started trekking back down about 10:00 or 10:30, down, down, down from Namche. Seamus was running down, bounding and jumping off of rocks along the trail. He flew way ahead of everyone else. He must be getting better!

We stopped at Mount Kailash Lodge and Restaurant in Monzu for lunch. They had a poster there of a Sherpa who has summitted Everest 10 times. Everytime he summitted without oxygen. He doesn't Sherpa guide anymore (too old), but Lakba told us that he's famous, because he doesn't eat, he just drinks whisky all the way up to the top. He was drunk everytime he did it. Whisky was his food and oxygen.

While we waited for lunch, Lapka, Anna and Seamus fell asleep.

We continued on to Thado Kosh (?) for the night, we arrived there just as it started raining. Great timing. I think we got there about 4:30. Just after we walked inside, it started pouring, then hailing.

We sat around and played cards, and ate about 7:00. Anna and Seamus to bed before 9:00, Harold and I stayed up until 10:00 or so.

The toilet at this guest house is an outhouse about 30 metres away. A wooden building, with a wooden floor, and not one, but two holes in the floor, beside each other. You can poop with a friend!

There's lots of fir and pine trees on the Everest trek.

Everest Trek - Day 2

2005-05-12T10:24:39Z

Up about 7:30. I didn't sleep that great, Harold snores and I could hear Seamus snoring through the paper thin walls. We packed and went downstairs for breakfast.

We started trekking about 9:00. More incredible trekking, great waaterfalls, but a very hard day today. It was mostly uphill, especially the last 2 hours to Namche Bazar. Namche Bazar is near the top of a mountain, so we had to climb out of the valley up to Namche Bazar. Harold says this section is the hardest section on the whole trail up to base camp. If you can do this, you can make it to base camp.

Seamus was really sick today. He was vomitting all over the trail, especially on the hard part up to Namche Bazar. It was hilarious, because he was sooo dramatic about it, we were all laughing, because we couldn't help it, just the way he sounded. And the two-handed poleing technique was hilarious. He was so out of it, so exhausted, so sick, all he kept saying was he couldn't do it, he couldn't go any further, but we made him, then he's start hurling all over again. I realize it seems cruel to be laughing, but if you were there, you would have been splitting your sides too.

Cloudy all day, we couldn't see any peaks at all. This trek is amazing, though, way better than the rafting trek. I must come back and do more. Who wants to do Everest Base Camp next year????

We got to Namche about 4:00. Very cool place. It's a U-shaped town, curving around the top of a valley, near the top of a mountain. The town is a major tourist destination. Lots and lots of shopping, fake-branded trekking clothing and equipment, trinkets and souvenirs, German bakeries, pizza houses, lots and lots of tea houses (lodging), expensive internet (900 rupees/hour - about $20CDN/hour). Anna was loving it.

We stayed at Camp de Base, $20/night, expensive by my standards, but I'm only paying half, as Harold and I were sharing a room. Very nice rooms. The rooms are much like a motel room (minus the TV and phone), with ensuite bath, hot water shower, etc.) Anna dropped her stuff in the room, and said, "I'm shopping!" and off she went. Seamus said "I'm sleeping" and crashed in bed, anxious to start feeling better. Harold and I dropped our stuff off, we each had a nice, hot shower, then we went about town as well. I bought a pair of fake North Face, down-filled mitts. (Did I spell down right? It looks wrong.) We ran into Anna, and the three of us went to a bar and had a beer, and chatted with the guy who ran an internet shop in the same building. He sold Harold a copy of Microsoft Office 2000 for 200 rupees ($4 CDN). He told us about some of the things we could buy here in Namche, and the one thing that's unique to Nanche, that you can't buy anywhere else are yak bells. So, we decided that we would all buy yak bells. After beers, Harold used internet, and Anna and I bought three yak bells, one for me, one for her and one for Harold, for 900 rupees for the three of them.

Santos, the guy who runs the internet says there are three things you can't trust in life: women, work and weather.

Harold heard a rumor today: All climbers off of Everest - i.e. back to base camp. (Base camp is not on Everest...you can't even see Everest from base camp). Apparently it's too dangerous on the mountain.

We had supper back at the lodge.

We found out there's a bug going around. There were lots of trekkers and sherpa's and porters getting sick, Seamus happen to get it too.

I should define something here. We have a guide. A Sherpa guide, his name is Lakba (or Lakpa, not sure). Sherpa's are the original natives of the area, and are pretty much tour guides for trekkers and climbers. Lakba was the Sherpa guide for Harold and Sean Egan. Lakba, who has already summitted Everest once, was to accompany Sean Egan to the summit of Everest this year. You don't need a Sherpa guide when you trek, but one can be useful, depending on your group and experience. Tenzing Norgay was the Sherpa guide for Sir Edmund Hillary when he first summitted Everest on May 29, 1953. Being the natives of the area, they are very acclimatized to the region, and are the best climbers on the planet. Sherpa's typically deal with all the things a normal tour guide would do...getting transportation (i.e. plane tickets), taking you to the best (in your price range) accomodations, and generally dealing with the politics of the area for you.

The Discovery Channel did a special on Everest a while back (not sure when), and Lakpa was one of the Sherpa guides for them, and carried one of their camera's up the mountain.

We were told before we left on the trek that there is a tea house near Namche Bazar, called the Everest View Lodge, where you can see Everest. We thought it was a short walk to the tea house from Namche, but found out once we got there that the tea house is actually a 1-2 hour trek away. We decided that we would get up 5:30 tomorrow morning, and if the weather was nice (no clouds), we would trek to the tea house to see Everest.

After supper, Anna and Seamus to bed (Seamus had no appetite, he hasn't been eating hardly anything), Harold and I stayed up a bit longer, then to bed.