Last Few Days in Nepal

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I’ve only got about 36 hours left in Kathmandu before I start the (incredibly long) journey home. Esther left this morning, and I’m pretty much stuck in the city. We visited Chapagaun yesterday, and I was very lucky to get out of there this morning. The fuel shortages are getting out of control, and there are still lots of strikes going on. But let me back up a bit and talk about my trek.

Esther, Sarba (our guide), and I set out for Pokhara early last Tuesday, and spent the night there. We had our last decent meal (though it was pretty sub-par chicken tikka masala), and got ready to leave the next morning. The Baglung bus park is where most trekkers catch buses to their various starting points, but we showed up there on Wednesday to find no local buses running. At all. We had to cram six people (plus the driver) in an avocado green, 1970s Corolla and set off through the hills. I had a little Nepali girl sitting on my lap in the front seat, worried that she’d fly out the open window as we swung around the tight curves. We all made it to Nayapul, though, without any small children going over the side of the mountain.

Nayapul was the starting and ending point of our little five day trek. We hiked somewhere between three and seven and a half hours each day, through rice paddies, rhododendron forests, up stone steps (3400 in a row at one point!), down rocky paths, across raging rivers and along paths that had been taken over by the river. There actually wasn’t as much rain as I was dreading. It mostly rained at night, and the rain during the day usually wasn’t too heavy. Good thing, too, because our rain gear was incredibly hot (I guess the term “breathable” is used very loosely).

Each night, we stayed in small lodges that you can find in every village. They all have a little restaurant, but we soon learned that every lodge as an identical menu. You get pretty sick of that menu after just a few meals. You can pretty much choose from: eggs (boiled, fried, scrambled), bread (with honey or jam), macaroni (with tomato sauce and maybe cheese, if you’re lucky), daal bhaat, and potatoes (boiled, fried, mashed). Since it’s the off-season for trekking, it was hard to find fruit and meat, simply because it’s not worth the cost or effort of having porters carry the supplies into the remote villages.

We were mostly alone in the lodges, though we kept running into the same two French families. We very rarely passed trekkers heading in the opposite direction of us on the trail, so most of the time, we had the forests to ourselves. It was very obviously off-season (monsoon rains, no mountain views, LOTS of leeches), but we still had a great time. We were able to see some amazing mountain views on the ride back to Kathmandu, and it was kind of cool to walk through fog and mist in the woods. I would have liked to do the pre-dawn hike up to Poon Hill to see the entire range of the Annapurna Himalayas, but the clouds were so low and thick that everything was completely white.

We emerged from the hills on Sunday afternoon, only a bit worse for the wear. There were no injuries, just a few leech attacks and mosquito bites and some sore muscles. We managed to miss the landslide, though just barely. We had just crossed the makeshift bridge and saw rocks starting to fall way up on the hill. We could hear the roar of the falling debris as we hiked away from it.

I spent yesterday with my host family because I didn’t really get a chance to say goodbye to them before I left. Sarah and I met up with Rupa (our host mom) in Patan to do some shopping in the early afternoon. We went to shop after shop trying to find the perfect material for Sarah’s sari and kurta. We then had to stop in a tiny shop to buy bangles to match the new purchases, and it was pretty much a drag queen’s dream. The shop was lined from floor to ceiling with bundles of shiny, sparkly bracelets of ever color imaginable. There were so many choices that it was almost overwhelming. By the time we had finished, we all had new bangles and bindis (the little jewels Hindu women wear on their foreheads) and we were absolutely covered in glitter.

And now I’m just lying on my bed, staring out the door to my balcony, waiting for the rain to stop. I should probably keep sifting through my things and trying to pack, but I’d rather go spend my last few rupees. 😊

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Comments

[Katie]

I know you will squeeze fun out of every last moment in Nepal! :) Can't wait to see you in "da 'Burgh" for our awesome apartment!!