GREGOR ADVENTURE : 2013

Saturday 7 December 2013

A Very Beatles Minicourse - March 2013

One of the perks of my (Drew) job is that the High School shuts down for a week in March and students, along with teacher chaperones, head out all over India to have adventure, do service, learn about culture, etc. My first Minicourse - Garwhal Himalayan Adventure - was a combination of trekking, white water rafting and a touch of learning about local culture. It was a perfect first minicourse. The camp was on The Ganga (Ganges) River - the holiest river in India - in the foothills of the Himalayas.

Our trip started with a four hour train ride and a two hour drive to just outside Rishikesh, a city that was popularized when the Beatles visited the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, their spiritual advisor, in 1968. Our homebase for the week was the Snow Leopard camp just outside of town.

Here are some pictures from the camp and from our walk into the hills in the surrounding area.

Excuse me.. excuse me... excuse me... excuse me

In India, no matter where you go, you'll find a tuk-tuk

These houses had no road access; they were about a half hour walk from the road

Mother and child at one of these houses

Trekking into the mountains was a great time, despite one super whiney student and one student that fainted on top of the mountain far from any road access. The students were fantastic, the weather was beautiful and the three days were a great experience for (almost) everyone. We had to drive a couple hours to our starting point and ended 48 hours later back at our camp.

The following two pictures are of our view the first morning trekking. I wish I would have had my good camera to capture the snow-capped Himalayas

These women (it's only women that seem to do the manual labor) walked right through our campsite. We also saw children coming from their houses to go to school.

This lumber was a full day hike up the mountain.
I was very curious what was going to be built.

The Ganga! We knew we were getting close.

A farm up in the mountains

Becky Currey!

Unfortunately, one of the students messed up their leg and, as soon as we hit "road" access, I road with him down the last part of the journey. We were in a little car and the drop to the left was ridiculous. For those of you that don't know, I don't do well with heights... a xanax would have been nice for this ride.

The first and last day of the trip were spent whitewater rafting. Oh how I love rafting. The Mighty Ganga in this region is nothing like what you see further south and in the movies. It is beautiful.

Ready for Battle against the other rafts

I took this picture from in the ridiculously cold river... proof later

Cliff jumping with two students

See! Proof I swam in the (frickin' freezin') Ganges

On our way out of town we stopped, walked across the suspension bridge over the Ganges and spent a couple hours in Rishikesh. It's a strange place. There are a large amount of white folks that have gone native; it must be because of the whole Beatles connection.

Hippy petting a nasty cow

Monday 2 December 2013

Livin' Large in Thailand

It's been a full year since the last time we blogged. We've done quite a bit of traveling in that time. Since we're heading on a three week trip to New Zealand in a few weeks, we figured it would be best to try to catch up on our site before we leave.

Winter break 2012-13 consisted of a wonderful trip to Koh Chang and Bangkok, Thailand. We spent the time with Mary (Liv's Mom), the Bergtholds (friends from Minnesota) and some co-workers from AES.

After an evening stay at a hotel close to the airport in BKK, the five of us headed to the Sea View Resort in Koh Chang, an island off the coast of Thailand. The island provided a perfect combination of relaxing beach time, little towns to explore and recreation opportunities The Sea View was recommended by a few folks at AES and, although more fancy and expensive then what we're used to, was worth every dime. Here are some pictures of the resort...

Enjoying a beverage at the beach

We wish they always got along this well

Enjoying the (at least) once-a-day ice cream

This drink did not suck

Weeeeeeeeeee

Double Weeeeeeeeeee

Ready for dinner

The girls had a lot of fun with their new Christmas present, a waterproof camera.

Poseidon

These next two need no captions...

The Bergtholds joined us the day before Christmas and on Christmas morning we headed out on, perhaps, the best day of our trip. We spent two hours on an elephant trek through the jungle. This came complete with a swim with the magnificent animals and a chance to bathe them. If you ever get to Koh Chang, we definitely recommend using Ban Kwan Chang. You can see a pretty good youtube video somebody made by clicking here.

We spent one day on a tourist boat out to some small islands with coral reefs to go snorkeling. The snorkeling part was fun (definitely not as good as Barbuda) and both girls did a fantastic job. The waterproof camera also came in handy, as you can probably imagine. The huge drawback was a group of 4-5 obese, drunk, German guys who were drinking, smoking and annoying while hanging out with their Thai "dates."

After a wonderful 9 days in Koh Chang, we jumped in a van and headed to the vibrant city of Bangkok. We had a wonderful stay there including trips many restaurants (Thai food is the best), Grand Palace, Wat Phra Kaeo (The Temple of the Emerald Buddha), Chatuchak (Weekend Market), several malls to get our western fix, a movie (The Hobbit) and many other places we're probably forgetting. Bangkok is definitely a city we would have no problem moving to when we decide we are done with India.

Unfortunately, our stay in this wonderful city did not start out so great. We arrived after dark and while walking to the room, Mary tripped over a speed bump she didn't see and landed face first into the bricks. This resulted in very traumatic experience for the girls and an unexpected trip to the Emergency Room for Mary. The report is that the hospital was fabulous and it is also the hospital many of our co-workers fly to for annual checkups.