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Published: December 13th 2007
First of all: I realize it took way too long for this blog to appear, but the internet connections are extremely low here (only phone-modems), and writing takes quite some time as well... so there, no apologies!
During the days before the trekking, we visited some of the sights in and around Kathmandu. Durbar square was nice, but it was bigly overruled by Bhaktapur, a medieval town (1100 A.D.), with a much more authentic feel.
We got back Wednesday evening (over a week ago, that is) from the trekking. We'd decided to take an easy route on the Annapurna range, as neither of us has been doing a lot of exercise recently, so we were not sure how much our legs could handle (I was especially worried about my right knee) and on which altitude our bodies would start to express signs of height disease. Just the day after Rutger arrived, we met a few Dutch people who are running a volunteer project in some small villages. 5500 families now have actual toilets (Nepali style, so not the toilets we are used to, but still much better than doing it on the farmland from which they then eat the
Bhaktapur - Pottery square
Rutger getting flooded by people selling crafts... I used my camera to escape from them ;-)vegetables), the women get some education and micro-loans so they can start little businesses on their own. This Dutch couple has sold their house so they could come to Nepal just to expand the project. But I'm drifting off here. They also know a lot of people in the villages, so they recommended a guide called Supa. The recommendation already gave us a good feeling, as it was coming from trustworthy people. We met Supa a few hours later, and right away felt comfortable to hire him. So hereby my recommendation to future trekkers: Supa can be reached by phone (Nepali mobile phone = 984 169 6703) or e-mail (supatamang@yahoo.com). He is a friendly guy with a lot of experience and a good sense of humor.
On November 25th, we left for Pokhara by tourist bus early in the morning. Translation of tourist bus: only tourists with backpacks, not overcrowded with local people standing in the middle of the bus, a closed door, a little more leg space, and no horrible music. We arrived around 2pm, just enough time left to go to the lake and see a gorgeous sunset by a glass of white wine, have a hot
shower, and enjoy dinner in a restaurant where we got introduced to some "cultural entertainment" (Nepali musicians and dancers).
On to the real work the next morning. At our starting point, a bunch of Tibetan refugees tried to sell us some jewelries made of probably fake gems, but the most useful item we got from them was a simple wooden walking stick. The "nordic walking" type of walking stick is available in all the cheap "trekkers" shops in Kathmandu, but somehow, I still prefer the natural version. Don't want to look like a Switzerland hiker who forgot the lederhosen when visiting Nepal. The wooden stick sort of becomes your friend after a while. Even now, I haven't gotten rid of it yet, even though it's very unlikely that I'll still need it.
The astonishing greatness of the Himalaya mountains (and we saw only a small part) is not depictable by means of words, so I'll leave it up to the pictures and the abundance of information on the internet to convince you of just how wonderful the nature is here. Just google on "Annapurna trekking" or something, and you can fill a few hours (evidently, I cannot be
Bhaktapur - Sights
Please do not hold me responsible for this picture. It comes from Rutger's camera. Dutch people are all alike, aren't they? held responsible for any resulting decreases in efficiency).
Aside from the natural beauty, we enjoyed the hospitality of the Nepali people. Many of them were really very friendly and happy to show us how their daily tasks are done. They have become aware that their traditional way of life is an attraction on itself for us westerners. Some guest house people have seen too many tourists by now though, and don't bother to interfere much with tourists anymore. I wonder what these "trekking highways" will look like in 10 or 15 years. I hope they won't turn into copies of Switzerland or Spain. On the other hand, it is nice to have the comfort that a little development has brought: most teahouses have hot showers (ok, many rely on solar power, so the water only gets hot by 3pm or so) and provide "continental" dishes on their menu. The menu's are pretty much identical in all tea houses. The biggest variations on the menu's are the funny spelling mistakes (lajane = lasagna; spegeti, jowmein, etc), and the most surprising menu item - we found - was the "Snicker Roll". There was also a "Mars Roll", and they were listed
Bhaktapur - Nepali Dancers
Just before they entered the building where a Nepali Dance contest was being held... we had no time left to go see the contest unfortunately. under "Spring Rolls". The other menu items are basically combinations of the ingredients that are available at this height (everything is brought up the mountains by men carrying around 50-60 kg each) : local vegetables (mainly spinach and cauliflowers), eggs, potatoes, rice, pasta, apples, bananas, milk. We switched between continental and the typically Nepali "Dal Baht". Only breakfast was exactly identical every morning : 2 pancakes (if available with banana's or apples) for Rutger, 1 pancake and 1 porridge for me. The best Dal Bath we had was in the Ghurjung Lodge. This was also the only place where we got popcorn and some kind of tasty local potato as an appetizer. In any case, it's not so difficult to find decent food on the major trekking routes, because there are plenty of teahouses. I'm not sure what it's like during the high season (Oct- half Nov), but we never had any problem finding a room.
The itinerary:
* Day 1 (26/11): Naya Pur to Dhampus (1650 m) Oh yes, we did not fail to pass by a Maoist check point (not more than a table and three Maoists)... They kindly requested us to pay a "voluntary donation"
of 600 Rs per person. Or rather: per tourist. Other people had advised us to simply refuse to pay, and we certainly were very reluctant. Supa tried to negotiate the amount down to 400 per person, but with a grin on their faces, they wouldn't lower the price. I asked them about their motives a little, and they explained that they do not accept the new government, as they consider themselves no longer a part of Nepal. To build up their Maoist region, they need money, and tourists are apparently an easy source of income. We wanted to avoid further trouble, so we paid, unlike the less fortunate 13 Swiss journalists that were beaten up last week for refusing to pay.
* Day 2 (27/11): Dhampus to Pothana (1900 m) My right knee suffered somewhat from the steep descents, and my right shoe was hurting my heel. So I had to walk a little slower than I would have wanted to. Fortunately, Rutger is a gentleman who doesn't get impatient so easily :-)). By the end of the day, we were looking at a small water mill. I wanted to take a picture from the other side of the
Annapurna Trekking - Day 1
After the first half hour of steep climbing, a short picture break so my heart rate could go down a little (it was 160). bridge, and as I crossed the bridge, a man came up to me and greeted me with an intonation that implied that he knew me... I looked carefully, and before me stood a collegue whose desk is just about 100m from the desk I worked at before I left... Just how small does the world get huh? And on top of that, he was the first (and so far still the only) other Belgian I met on this entire journey. He was staying in the same village that night, but in another guest house, and going the opposite direction the next morning. We stared at a wonderful sunset for more than an hour (the sun goes down very quickly here), while enjoying another beer.
* Day 3 (28/11): Pothana - Ghandruk (1940 m) - New Bridge (1340 m) - Chhomrong (2170 m) Those who know me must understand how motivated I was today to get to Chhomrong. Near Chhomrong are hot springs... that's.. that's... that's like taking a bath!!! Haven't had a nice hot bath since leaving Belgium! Nothing could spoil my day after that, of course. And it really helped to soothe the muscle pains, too.
* Annapurna Trekking - Day 1
How to embarrass Rutger... :-P Day 4 (29/11): Chhomrong to Ghurjung (1780 m)
At the 10AM tea stop, Rutger learned all about how an old Nepali lady makes raksi (brandy distilled from millet), while I was given the instruction to discretely dispose of the not so tasty "ginger-lemon tea" we'd ordered. Have to admire his diplomacy skills. We lunched in a guest house where they actually had a brand new Samsung washing machine. Even bigger was our astonishment when we found out that this place even had a mini-internetcafe! gave it a try (would have been special to send an e-mail from 2200 m high on a Himalaya mountain), but the speed was not really acceptable, which we had expected.
* Day 5 (30/11): Rest in Ghurjung Rutger had a sore throat, so we decided to rest instead of move on. We did try to go for a short walk, but we lacked the motivation to climb much. The rest of the day, I spent catching up on writing my diary, while Rutger socialized with the ladies who run the lodge. Very nice people again! Supa and Leela were obviously getting bored, poor guys.
* Day 6 (01/12): Ghurjung - Tadapani (2590 m) - Banthati (2520 m)
Mostly climbing, but very nice scenery. The pics tell it all.
* Day 7 (02/12): Banthati - Ghorepani (2874 m) Again, climbing climbing. It was quite cloudy in the morning, so we were walking in the fog, but that gave us a strange atmosphere in the forest (reminds me of "A Forest" by The Cure), and some nice pics. We arrived in Ghorepani by lunch time. It was not especially warm at this altitude, with the sun hidden behind clouds. Rutger found a doctor and received antibiotics. We went to bed early, because it was simply too cold to sit around, and we had to get up early (well that was the plan) the next morning.
* Day 8 (03/12): Ghorepani - Sikha (2000 m) The alarm went off around 4AM. This girl not being the most active subject at this time of day, Rutger went to talk with our guide to see if the clouds had gone. Only if there were no clouds could we go to Poon Hill (3194 m), from where we'd get a very good view of the Annapurna range. But the weather gods were not in our favour. The
Annapurna Trekking - Day 1
The first Annapurna sunset. clouds were still there and stayed there for the rest of the day. It even started to rain before we reached our destination, so we had to take shelter in a very small but cosy guest house.
* Day 9 (04/12): Sikha - Tatopani (1190 m) When we got up, we noticed that it had snowed on the mountain tops, even on hill tops that were not much higher from where we were. So it must have snowed in Ghorepani and Poon Hill also... Lucky us :-)
The clouds slowly vanished during the morning walk. We only had a few hours to walk, and our goal was very motivating: the hot springs in Tatopani. We reached it by lunch time, had a very nice schnitzel with french fries and mayonaise and Diet Coke. And of course, how could we not have gone to the hot springs as well... soaked for over an hour. Rutger got a little annoyed with a Nepali boy who was making very suggestive facial and body movements towards him. heheh.
* Day 10 (05/12): Tatopani - Beni - Pokhara (820 m) Just a few hours of walking along the river. Passed by some road
Annapurna Trekking - Day 2
View from where we had our 10AM tea break. works that looked rather dangerous. And finally had to get the local busses to get to Beni and from Beni to Pokhara by evening time.
Well, to make a long story a little shorter: we spent a few days in Pokhara, took another bus to Lumbini (birth place of Lord Buddha), stayed 2 nights there, another bus to Chitwan, where we had a 1.5 hr ride on an elephant, hoping to see tigers (Rutger even offered the elephant rider a 1000 Rupees tip if he could show us one), but no tigers.. We did get to see a mother and baby rhino however. And a few crocodiles on the short jeep safari. I'll try to add some pics of Lumbini and Chitwan in the next blog (but no promises, it will depend on connection speeds)
We got back in Kathmandu today, we'll probably do a little more sightseeing in the area and maybe some souvenir shopping. I will be flying to Delhi and from Delhi to Mumbai on the 16th. Rutger flies back to Holland the next day. It'll be strange to be on my own again and having to put on the hyper assertive hat
Annapurna Trekking - Day 2
Supa, our guide. See the recommendation in the blog text. again in India. We'll see. I am looking forward to seeing the south though.
Big hugs to all of you ! Namaste
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oefffff
ik dacht al dat je van de aardbodem verdwenen was.Fijn te lezen dat je ontdekkingstocht goed verder loopt. Kus