Cambodia: just a lil hike, mmkay

At the waterfall at Kbal Spean

From Banteay Srei, we got back in the car and headed to Kbal Spean. Our guide had told us that morning that we would go out of town to some temples, then continue out of town to the lake, for a boat tour of the floating village. On the way from Banteay Srei (temple 1) to Kbal Spean (temple 2), Piseth turns to us (in the backseat) and says "The BF and Charlie: we are heading to Kbal Spean. We will get out of the car and hike up to it. It will take 45 minutes to get there. The hike is very steep. Very strenuous. Ok?"

At this point, we're like "uh....ok?" I mean, we are in the car, halfway there. And we wanted to see this thing, so we werent going to back out. But I'm not entirely sure that was an option. I think he was just telling us this as part of his tour guide spiel, not as a question or even as a warning.

The BF and I at the waterfall. See how we are NOT wearing
hiking gear? Also, we are drenched in sweat.

So we get to the spot, get out of the car, grab some bottles of water and start hiking. We proceed to hike about a mile uphill, gaining about 700 feet in elevation as we do so. Now, a 700 foot elevation gain might not sound like much, but over only a mile, that kind of elevation gain means I'm using my hands and feet to scamper up some rock clumps in more than one spot on the "trail". As a point of comparison, Little Si (outside of Seattle) is an elevation gain of 1200 feet over 2.5 miles. That's about 70% of the incline of this little trail.

Our local, fit guide scampers on up the trail, staying just within eyesight of us, where he stops and waits. Then he continues on while we slowly make our way up. Keep in mind, we were informed of our hike about 10 minutes before commencing on said hike. The BF is wearing sandals (granted, they're Keen all-purpose sporty sandals, not some Rainbow flip-flops, but still) and I'm wearing Sperrys. Boat shoes. Known and desired for their lack of tread on the sole.

We reach the top of the hill in due time, quite sweaty, but otherwise fine and begin taking pictures of the waterfall and carvings in the river bed. Kbal Spean is the location of the "thousand lingas". A linga is a phallic symbol and according to legend, water that passes over a linga is imbued with special powers and holiness. Therefore, in order to have pure, holy water in the village below, the Khmer people carved a thousand lingas into the rocks in the riverbed. And a thousand years later, the carvings are still visible. Pretty impressive.

The riverbed carvings of lingas

The rain pouring through the
thatched roof on the edge of
the guard shack where
we waited out the storm.

Of course, while we were taking pictures of the carvings, it started to rain. Not "spritz a little on and off like Seattle in January" kind of rain; the "dump buckets of water at a time so hard it hurts, like July in Florida" kinda rain. We duck into the nearby trail guard station to get out of the rain, and sat there for a few minutes waiting for it to die down. We chatted with our guide and learned that he had a wife and son and that he wanted his son to grow up and go to college, perhaps even medical school. 

Sitting in the guard shack, waiting for the rain to die down.
My Sperrys have been with me on four continents,
through all kinds of weather. And now, they've been with me
on an impromptu Cambodia hike and rainstorm.
Love these shoes.

When the rain finally slacked up, we started hiking back down to the car. In the rain. On a now slippery steep trail. It took us a while to navigate back down, getting rained on the whole way, and I just kept thinking "Fritha and Conan would love this. But I'm glad I'm not holding Bucca's leash right now. I would totally fall and slide all the way down this muddy mountain."







We finally get back to the car, where our guide is waiting patiently. We plop our wet selves into the backseat and head off to lunch.

LLAMAS! Part #3

So, I never really finished the post on my trip to Peru. And at this point, should I even bother?

Here's the quick wrap-up:
Day 2 on the trail was RIDICULOUS and raining all day. But we made it up and over Dead Woman's Pass, ahead of schedule and without needing oxygen. woo!
Day 3 on the trail was AWESOME. We had amazing weather, gorgeous views and were (again) ahead of schedule, giving us plenty of time for sightseeing and historical stories. We arrived at camp ahead of all other groups and settled in for the afternoon, eating candy bars and drinking local beer and enjoying the day and our hiking group. The Andes Mountains are truly majestic and gorgeous.
Day 4 started WAY before sun-up. I don't generally like to wake up before God wakes up and turns the lights on, but it was kinda worth it. We arrived at the highly lauded Sun Gate in time to see the sun rise over the ruins at Machu Picchu. At least, that's what we would have seen if not for the pea soup-like fog surrounding us. So we kept hiking and made it to the entrance to Machu Picchu in time to see the fog rise from below us and dissipate. The rest of the day was gorgeous as we dragged our tired, aching, sore, pained, exhausted bodies around the ruins and had a great time. After touring around, we headed into town for lunch and bevos (yay!) then took a dip in the natural hot springs and slept in a bed for the first time in many many days.
The next day, we tooled around Aguas Calientes, ate some delicious pizza and took the train back to Cusco.
Train ride: hilarious. We had snacks and a fashion show.
Commute from train station: bizarre. We arrived ahead of the other groups and our bus driver arranged a car for us. We piled in and rode the 45 minutes back to town at breakneck speed, up and down a mountain on a barely paved road with no lanes, with the gas gauge on E the entire time. Fritha thought she was going to die the whole time. Queenie, Midori and I were in the backseat, largely oblivious and having nice chats.

The rest of the time in Peru included dinner at Hilbert's resturant, birthday shenanigans for Fritha (ask her about the gift we got her) and an outing to a Peruvian night club, where we danced A LOT with Pixie, our new Irish friend. (ask Queenie or me to show you Pixie's signature dance move).

Delicious breakfast buffet at the swanky hotel in Cusco, followed by some time in the sun and last minute shopping and we were on our way home.

It was an AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME trip and I highly recommend it to anyone and everyone.

The end.

LLAMAS! Part #2

After sleeping in a tent in a parking lot in the middle of nowhere Peru and a delicious breakfast, complete with eggs, toast and coca tea (mmmm), we began.

Queenie, Fritha, Midori and I took "before" pictures as we began and set a few goals for the hike: 1 - Be "the fun girls". Take every advantage to have a blast, enjoy each other and keep up the spirits of ourselves and our group. Oh yeah, and make sure that everyone in our group thought we were as much fun as we did.
2 - Earn "street cred". Demonstrate hiking prowess and earn the respect of our group by flaunting our athletic abilities, stamina and outdoorsmanship. Or expert-looking outfits, pretty hair and fancy (matching) backpacks.
3 - Survive.

By lunch on day one, we were making solid progress on all 3 goals. We spent most of the day in the "chasing pack" of the group and got comments from our group members on how professional we looked in our outfits. Check.

Lunch on day one was AMAZING. Or maybe we were just starving by the time we got there. Either way, it was awesome. Our totally BA porters carried the food, the table, the stools, the equipment for cooking up the same mountain up which we carried our sorry selves. To say we were humbled would be quite an understatement.

After lunch we encountered some rockier terrain and several other hiking groups, but we kept traversing onward and upward (literally) and made it to camp ahead of schedule. And I smelled. The trail was hot and dusty and despite the dri-fit shirt and zip-off shorts, we were pretty sweaty. First order of business, wash up. Fortunately our totally BA porters had set up camp already and had bowls of warm water waiting for us when we arrived.

We then led group stretches and headed to happy hour, which consisted of coca tea, hot chocolate, popcorn and cookies. We had a great time chatting with our group members and snacking until dinner. We continued bonding with our group members over dinner and beyond, until bed time. Which was approximately 6:30pm. It was dark and quiet and we were tired, so at 6:30pm we brushed our teeth with bottled water, crawled into our tents and went to sleep.

Early the next morning (by early I mean CRACK of dawn, like 4:45am) we got up, did group stretching and began to prepare for the hard day.

To be continued...

LLAMAS! Part #1

Now that I've been back in the States for about a month, I'm FINALLY posting about my trip to Peru.
The short version: it totally rocked! I highly recommend it!
The long version: We had the best time! Everything was stellar, from the first (of many) flights to the food to the trail guides to the llamas.

After a panic-inducing passport check on the way to the airport, Fritha and I left Seattle on an overnight flight and thanks to a tiring work week and some Valium, we arrived in Newark somewhat well-rested and PUMPED for our trip. Queenie and Midori arrived a couple of hours later and after hugs and squeals (we're such girls) we began the official wait for our flight to Lima. We bought journals, exchanged currency, ate lunch, browsed make-up and jewelry stores, contemplated pedicures, naps and made final phone calls. Then we got on the plane.
8 hours later, we arrived in (less than glamorous) Lima. We drank Pisco Sours and went to bed, got up early and went back to the airport. The Pisco Sours were the highlight.
Cusco, on the other hand was much better. We arrived to a chilly, clear, sunny morning with bright blue skies and big mountains. And thinner air. And we felt it as soon as we got off the airplane. That altitude thing was TOTALLY weird.
Arriving at our hotel (the Torre Dorada) we instantly fell in love: with our hotel, with Cusco and with Peggy, the hotel owner. She poured us some tea and sat down with us to go over our itinerary for the week while others carried our luggage upstairs for us. She showed us maps, gave us advice, booked us on a private tour of the Sacred Valley and basically rocked our faces off. After settling in, we headed into downtown for lunch and exploring. Between the altitude and the travel and the jetlag, we needed a nap after lunch, then headed back downtown for a lovely dinner and then early to bed. The next day we got up pretty early for delicious breakfast with Peggy, then off to the city! We saw the main square, did some shopping, visited a temple, saw llamas and really had a blast. Our definition of "blast" included caipirinhas and the best. guacamole. ever.

We went to bed early and got up pretty early the following day for our private tour of the Sacred Valley. Victor, our guide, drove us around and played classic american rock in the van. We hiked around some ruins at Pisac, guided by the lovely and talented Ruben, shopped at some markets, ate at a buffet lunch and got back to town in time for our orientation meeting for the hike.
Highlights: Kristin's nosebleed, alpaca petting zoo, good shopping, Ruben hit on Sara, Victor, "You guys know this music is in Spanish, right?"

After our tours, we arrived back in Cusco in time for our trial orientation meeting. Our orientation meeting was supposed to be informative and introductory. It turned out to be shocking and panic-inducing. Our guide comes in, introduces himself and says he has bad news. He proceeds to tell us that there are protests scheduled for the city the next day and we need to leave for the hike earlier than expected. Like that night. Like in 2 hours. We were not packed, had not showered and had not eaten dinner. Given that we'd be camping and hiking for the next 4 days, we desperately wanted hot water, good dinner and well-packed bags. But being the industrious adventurers we are, we made a plan and got it handled. We showered, packed, purchased and ate dinner, checked out of the hotel, said goodbye to Peggy and got to the hike bus early enough to play the name game with our group members before loading up.
A LONG bumpy ride later we arrived in the parking lot where we'd be spending that night. We got up the next morning, paid to use the bathroom, to which we brought our own water for brushing teeth, washing face, washing hands and flushing the toilet. Yes, we paid to use a toilet that required us to provide the water after sleeping in a tent in a parking lot.
Then we started hiking.
More on that later....

Zip-off pants ftw!

I'm planning a trip to Peru later this year, where 3 friends and I will be hiking the Incan trail through (and by "through" I mean "up and over") the Andes Mountains to the ruins at Machu Picchu. It's going to be awesome!

It all started a little over a year ago when a friend/co-worker returned from Peru raving about what a great trip it was. The seed was planted and over the next few months, the foursome was formed and the planning began. We found a trail guide group, bought plane tickets, hired sherpas to schlep our stuff up and down the mountain and began training for the hike.

After our first few "training" sessions, we were tan and had beautiful toenails, but were still feeling a little nervous about the upcoming hike. After a couple more training sessions, we figured out that in order to be serious about our training, we needed new outfits.

After hours of browsing (no, seriously...have you been to the Flagship REI? it's amazing we got out in hours, rather than days) and a few minutes of being judged, we picked out some things and headed to the register. Being noobs at this hard-core hiking thing, there was a fair amount of skepticism involved as we purchased backpacks, camel-bak bladders, moisture-wicking apparel and pants that have zippers just above the knee, so that they become shorts when you zip off the legs.

Normally, that's the type of fashion statement I would mock. However, when attempting hard-core hiking, the mantra, "Form Follows Function" definitely comes into play. And in our next training session, I learned that zip-off pants are actually magical. When I'm wearing my zip-off pants I turn from slightly prissy Southern girl from into totally BA hiker chick, who can kick your butt, the trail's butt and proudly display the designs of dirt and sweat covering her arms and legs.

Just like a good workout shoe should make you want to jump and run, apparently good zip-off pants make me want to hike. I bet if the Incans had had zip-off pants, they could have handled the Spaniards, np.

I love my zip-off pants!