Paragliding in Pokhara

I arrived in Pokhara, Nepal a couple of days ago not feeling at my best. I'd had something to eat (or possibly drink) the night before that hadn't agreed with my stomach which meant I had unloaded the contents of my stomach next to the wheel of a bus early that morning. It didn't get much better through the day and with me not eating I was feeling low on energy so I crashed out when I reached Pokhara which I wasn't happy about.

I've had a good couple of days here, I got a tour round the British Ghurkha Camp from Major Rick Bevan. It was nice set up they have there, unfortunately I decided to visit on a weekend when nothing was happening. Also got the chance to sample some local brew from the mountains in east Nepal, it was trying the home brew they have over here but it was slightly to bitter for my taste, I was assured that this was an unusually bad batch so maybe I'll try it again next time I pass through.

Today I woke up still not feeling on top of my game but I had a booking to go paragliding at 10am and I would be damned if a bad stomach was going to stop me doing that!

Major problems early on

Last night I was feeling quite content with the way things had moved forward so far. I'd made it to Kathmandu without any problems and I was happy with this.

Sat in my room I happened to glance at my wheelchair and noticed that something wasn't right. Why did the footplate look so odd? I examined it a little closer and saw that there were 2 big tears in the frame! No. This was not supposed to happen, not this early anyway. I knew that without my footplate then I wouldn't get very far dragging my feet across the floor. I was in a slight state of panic. I was exhausted from the previous days travel and decided to sleep on it.

Today I spoke to the hotel manager to find out where someone could weld my chair back into a usable condition. They were really helpful and got me a taxi to several garages, most of whom wouldn't even attempt a repair. I found one that did try and in that attempt they took the footplate off completely, I knew this was comong so it really didn't bother me. They then decided to drill a few holes and stick in a couple of screws, it's holding well so far.

Although I wanted to go couch surfing here in Kathmandu I think I'm going to stay at the hotel, the people are friendly and really helpful when I needed to get the repair done today - what more can I ask for?

The first leg

After a day and a half on buses I've made it up to Kathmandu, Nepal. The start of the journey got me a little stressed when rushing onto the first bus I got separated from my bag which a friend was holding onto. It was the second most important thing that I could lose, with the wheelchair being the first I put my passport as a very close second.

I thought that when I got to Siliguri that I might face some difficulty finding my way to Kathmandu, this couldn't have been further from reality. I got off the bus feeling good after a decent kip the night before and was immediately offered a taxi to the Nepal border. I got to immigration and 5 minutes and $40 later I had the visa stamped in my passport. That has to be the easiest visa I've ever got.

I waited for 4 hours for the next bus and that wasn't as good as the one I'd taken the night before. First I had to drag myself to the back seat and then the bus driver spent the entire 15 hour bus ride with his foot down. I was being thrown around inside the bus like salt shaker. It made sleep more difficult but not impossible, I slept in some really uncomfortable positions though. I probably should have spent the extra cash on a taxi as it wouldn't have broke the bank.

I got myself a hotel for the first night here and I'll get in touch with some couch surfers for tomorrow. I need to figure out what it is that I'm going to do for my time here now since it looks like I'm heading to Nepal on the 6th February.

The big launch of RBH

Today was the official launch of 'Rolling back home' and people from the CRP along with other organisations headed down to the National Monument to make a presentation on what I am about to do. A couple of speeches were given by Valerie Taylor and MP Taranna Halim who lost her nephew in a RTA last year.

I gave a short talk on why I'm doing RBH and what it is that I hope to achieve. It felt a bit weird. Not speaking to the press but the fact I was holding a pigeon in my hands! I was given it to release as a mark of the start of the journey, when I did it just fell to the ground. Epic fail.

I made contact with the country director of Handicap International as well which was really good as he can give me contacts in Kazakhstan which is one of the places that I'm still trying to reach people.

The BBC turned up and interviewed me for world service and for the local radio stations back in the UK as well. All in all, quite a good day!

Getting some real air time

Yesterday I managed to get on the Bangla ATN news channel with Rolling Back Home, this was my first time being interviewed on TV and not sure how I performed. Luckily for me this is a country where no one knows me and by the time I get back to the UK everyone will have forgot what I'm doing or I'll have improved on my interview technique.

The Indian visa arrived yesterday which I was a bit surprised about. I really didn't think I was going to get it and had quite happily resigned myself to the fact that I would have to get a plane to Kathmandu instead, and that wouldn't be cheating because it would be out of my control!

Keeping in touch

I got a new phone today which I've been sponsored by Nokia for! It's an E5 which has got all the stuff I need to keep the blog and tweets updated while I'm returning back home, all I need now is a roaming SIM card which I'm working on.

Visa shenanigans

Today I went to drop off my application for a tourist visa for India, come Thursday I should be holding it in my hand. Just in time.

Later on I had another meeting with a documentary maker and picked up some really good tips about how to record my trip back home, how much to record, angles and what not.

Tried to get another battery for my camera so I can use it for 13 hours without recharging but we got there too late, guess I'll get back on that tomorrow.

Have you lost your compass, or your marbles?

There seems to be one surprise after another at the moment while I’m planning this trip. I was on facebook chat and my friend Nathan who I was working with appeared online. He lives in the US so soon after I had my accident he went home, so it’s been a good 4 years since we last met.

I was explaining my trip to him and found out he is now working in South Korea and offered me a place to stay if I go. I know that this is just going further in the wrong direction but it's an opportunity that I can't (and won't) turn down. Now the plan has been extended to Japan and South Korea, with no visas required to either of these places it makes it an easy part of the journey.

I was examining the globe and realised that once I get there I am getting dangerously close to the point where it makes more sense to come back the other way round. I think it’s a shame that the Pacific Ocean isn’t more populated with land mass.

As soon as I got into the office I met an excited Valerie who couldn’t wait to tell me about the first message she had received on her new phone, a good omen as she took it. It was the CEO from Brac Bank telling her that he was willing to sponsor me just over £3000 to get back home. With this new addition to the route it could be slightly more expensive but I have a meeting on Tuesday with the CEO of another organisation that is coming down in person. Fingers crossed.

The main thing I have on my mind right now my appointment at the Indian visa office tomorrow, they really love to make applying for visas difficult and I know a few people who have been knocked back which doesn’t inspire me with confidence. On the other hand, I’m going with a letter from the British High Commission supporting my application so that makes me think that, yeah, things will work out. No worries.

A delay? In Bangladesh? Well I never!

I went to the travel agent in Savar yesterday to book my ticket up to Siliguri. The office was upstairs so I got my friend Sharif to go and make the booking for me; he came back a couple of minutes late with the bad news that they won’t sell the ticket until I have the visa.

This was no good to me, I’m only getting the visa on Thursday and then the seat I want at the front (the easiest seat to get to) could be taken which would mean me hauling myself to the back of the bus, not impossible but an inconvenience. If I left it until I got the visa then I also run the risk of the bus being sold out. I sent Sharif back up to tell the guy that he could sell me the ticket and I would show them the visa before I got on the bus, the ticket was 12 quid so it’s not the end of the world if I didn’t get this bus and lost the money.

I got the ticket but due to the bus needing repairs on the Saturday my journey has encountered its first delay before it even begins. I’m now heading up to Siliguri one day later on the 23^rd January at 8pm, the launch will still take place the day before as its main purpose is trying to raise awareness of what I’m doing and get the patients involved.

First thing this morning I went down to the wood workshop with my camera, one of the guys there helped me make the frame that attaches to my chair so I can use the camera hands free while I’m pushing about. I’ve made a couple of adjustments to it already today and now it seems like it will do the job.

RBH TV

I've have a couple of meetings up to now with people who have experience in the media field advising me to record my journey back home, I thought that this wouldn't be that great and have a bit of a 'Blair Witch' effect but the when I was given the idea of fixing the camera to the frame of my chair I reconsidered and it could definitely work.

I picked up a smart little Sony SR68 camcorder at Computer City in Dhaka yesterday that has a huge 80GB hard drive able to record 30 hours of film and with my new 750GB external hard drive there's plenty of storage to record all my adventure. Tomorrow I'll take the camera down to the wood workshop to make a lightweight stand that can be fixed to my chair, this may give it a bit of an amateur filming appearance but it should be good to watch.

I tried to get my Indian visa slightly early yesterday and turned up before my appointment date, that didn't work at all and I just got sent packing. This does come down to the culture of following the rules over here, when people are shown one way to do something then they very rarely deviate from the set routine.

My appointment is on Monday though and with a 3 day turn around time for visa processing I should get the visa 2 days before I leave, it is cutting it fine but I was emailed a letter yesterday from the British High Commission that will support my application for a visa so I'm hoping there won't be any problems.

I can see clearly now the rain has gone

After further research on the Tibet/China visa situation I have come to a startling conclusion. I was wrong. My new understanding is that it’s not a visa I need to enter Tibet but a ‘PERMIT’ on top of the Chinese visa that I will also acquire in Kathmandu.

It doesn’t really explain what they told me when I was applying for the visa in Dhaka a couple of days ago, but in all fairness my question didn’t make any sense so why should their answer?

No entry? I wanted one way!

Today I had my second attempt at getting hold of a Chinese visa today and while it wasn’t completely successful (as in I didn’t get it), I did get further than I did last time (as in I got through the door because the office was open).

Before going down to the visa office I had checked with a few people who had visited China before and they were all adamant that I didn’t need a letter of invitation and unfortunately I listened to them. To get the visa for China you either need to have a letter of invitation or a plane ticket to show how you’ll enter, I had neither as I’m planning on entering by road.

There is however another problem in that 6 months ago a new law was passed which prohibits people from entering China by road (or rail in my case), I was blissfully unaware of this. You can pass if you get permission from the government gate keepers in Lhasa, but that isn’t going to happen until I get there.

Leaving the embassy without the visa my head was already working out the trip home with this new information. Would it be possible to get to Kazakhstan without entering China? Do I just head west through India , Pakistan and Iran? Then I realised that my original plan didn’t have to change that much, the only difference now is that I will get the visa in Dhaka then when I get up to Lhasa if I can’t get through by rail into China then I hop on a plane. This deviates slightly from the original plan but I need to adapt to the new situation.

After the visa information update I went around a couple of telecommunication companies to see if they would sponsor me with a phone so I can stay online when I am going back home, they both told me the information would be passed to seniors and would be back in touch.

At the end of the day in Dhaka I wound up at the BAGHA club for what I thought was a well earned beer. As soon as I got settled I bumped into someone who used to work for Nokia and has also offered to help me with a phone, when he heard about the visa trouble he said that he knew people who could help. So at the end of the day the plan might not actually have to change that much.

What can go wrong?

There are a lot of difficulties that I’ll face on my trip home such as getting visas and the inevitable language barrier, but as I proved today at Newmarket in Dhaka my wheelchair skills letting me down won’t be a problem!

Solo mission to Barisal

I've been meaning to visit my friend Moin in Barisal since I got to Bangladesh in October but have just been too busy to go. With his birthday falling on NYE this seemed like the perfect opportunity to take a few days to see a new part of the country, say hello to a friend and make an interesting start for 2011!

I’ve done a bit of travelling during this trip to Bangladesh, venturing out to New Delhi, Sri Mangal and the Sundarbans. Each time I’ve gone it’s been a huge boost to my confidence in travelling on different types of transport. This time was going to be different though, in my previous excursions I always went with friends from here at the CRP but this time I was going to attempt it on my own. 

I figured that it would be handy just to get a bit of help down to the bus station in Savar Bazaar as when I get on a rickshaw I need both hands to hold on and so I can’t take a bag as well. I’d sorted out some help a couple of days before with one of the tutors from the BHPI who assured me he could find a couple of his students to volunteer to give me a hand. My bus was due to leave at 9:30am so I figured if we met up at nine this would give us plenty of time to get there as its really not that far, maybe 1km.

I was waiting at the gates on time expecting my help to come plodding along in due course. They didn’t. Without any help it wasn’t possible to get a rickshaw down in to Savar and I’d waited until quarter past for the students so now I was in a rush to make a move. I asked the man who was at the wheel of a CNG by the gate if he could take me down but was reluctant to help. The only way I could get down there was to check with admin to see if there were any cars that were heading out, luckily a minibus was about to leave and I managed to jump on.

I got dropped at the bus stop at 9:35am and checked to see if I’d missed it. I was on time. It felt good having to rush to find a new way of getting down to the stop on time; it didn’t feel as great for the next 90 minutes as I waited for the bus to arrive incredibly late.

My hold all was put into the storage under the bus when it finally rolled up. I got on the first step of the bus and started to break my chair down when someone came to help me, he was after some money for his trouble but paid help is better than no help at all. I don’t like the bus rides over here. The drivers constantly accelerate only to slam on the brakes when they can’t go any further which makes for an uncomfortable ride that is impossible to sleep through.

I was unloaded at Barisal and gave my friend a call to let him know I’d arrived. When he came we got in an auto rickshaw and headed for the hotel that he had sorted for me. The hotel like so many other places over here wasn’t textbook accessible, but I managed to lift myself up the flight of stairs and using a plastic chair was able to bunny hop around the bathroom which posed a doorway too narrow for my fat chair.

It was a really great couple of days in Barisal and a fantastic way to bring in the New Year; I enjoyed getting another break from the noise and hustle and bustle of Dhaka. When it was time to come back I found it even better. My friend Moin was there to help me with my chair, the bus left on time and I enjoyed the extra space of a second seat that I had paid for in which to store my chair (I’m much more comfortable when I can keep my eye on it).

The driver on the way back wasn’t an improvement on the first one but he did remember that I wanted to get off at Savar Bazaar which was helpful as I didn’t want to trek back from Dhaka after being forgotten about! Getting off the bus went without a hitch and it was just a short CNG ride with a friendly driver before I arrived at CRP.  This is all the practice I need, now I’m ready to roll back home!