Happy to be back on the Indian subcontinent after a gap of 8 years

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Day 499: Tuesday 10th November - Solving the visa conundrum

We are dropped off by the pick-up truck in the centre of Thamel, the traveller’s ghetto in Kathmandu. First objective is to get a roof over our heads. Angie parts in the direction of the rafting agency with whom she has a meeting with. The rest of us walk through Thamel to Nicky and Emma’s guesthouse which they have pre-booked. The rest of us (Bruno, Patricia and myself) have not had as much foresight to arrange accommodation. Patricia of course is thinking upmarket. I am thinking along the same lines of splashing out, only because the last few days of Tibet have been in some fairly scratchy guesthouses.....no hot water and cold rooms, and my next destination is to trek the Annapurna circuit where the accommodation promises to be basic. Bruno and I decide to stick together, we are happy to share or get single rooms but in the same guesthouse as each other.

We look at the rooms in Nicky and Emma’s hotel but the cocky lad who shows us around keeps changing the goalposts and neither I nor Bruno is getting a warm feeling. Me and Bruno leave the other three and check out the guesthouse which Bruno stayed at on his last visit to Nepal’s capital in 2005. The staff are hardly welcoming and we opt not even to look at the rooms. We have a card from a tout who was hanging around when we got out of the pick-up so decide that is the next place to head to. Before we get there we are approached by another tout for another cheap guesthouse which is just across the street. The room is basic but clean and tired of wandering around Thamel with heavy bags we take it. Hardly the luxury I had in mind but as Bruno comments; we can always change tomorrow. When the electricity cuts out for two hours leading me to take my first shower in nearly a week by candlelight my mind is made up, we’re moving tomorrow. I need a little luxury.

We have all arranged to meet later in the evening for dinner and now we are settled(!) somewhere my thoughts turn to getting a visa for India. Unlike Nepal you need to get this in advance and as the embassy is in Kathmandu I need to get it before I leave as I don’t intend coming back to the capital. My preference is to go and get it myself as my feeling is that the time to process the visa is the issue rather than complications of getting to the embassy or potential pitfalls with the application itself, as it was with my Chinese visa in Vietnam and Japan. With it now being late afternoon there is no chance that I can apply today and I don’t even know where the embassy is in the city. I resolve that one by buying a Nepal guidebook and then enquire in an agency about getting an Indian visa. Of course they can help but at a considerable expense however they still need me to accompany them to the embassy to prove I am who I say. How stupid does the guy in the agency think I am?? I am asking him to do it to take the inconvenience of me actually having to go to the embassy. I am hardly going to give him $65 (a mark up of 400%) so he can hold my hand. I don’t need my hand holding thanks! He also gives me some incorrect information as I later discover.

When we meet the others at Nicky and Emma’s guesthouse I make further enquiries about an Indian visa. I’m not even staying there but the manager is so helpful. He phones a contact and clarifies the situation which I had read on the embassy web page. I either have to hang about in Kathmandu for a lot longer than planned or I will have to come back depending on which visa option I go for. At least I didn’t waste a morning at the embassy finding this out and I am grateful for the manager’s help and time. In my mind I know I am coming back to Kathmandu after trekking the Annapurna circuit, but with only 30 days on my Nepal visa, time is still an issue. I could get an extension or pay a fine to overstay my visa length, but it can wait until tomorrow as a celebratory meal is in order.

Kathmandu may be the capital of a poor country, but already I have seen by walking through its streets that it caters to a tourist’s every needs. There is no culture shock (yet!) and this is so much easier than China with everyone speaking English. There are many and a wide variety of tourists here: serious trekkers and outdoor sports enthusiasts, hippies, career breakers like myself, a few younger backpackers and a lot of mature tourists which actually surprises me. To cater for this wide spectrum of people there are many souvenir shops, outdoor equipment shops, supermarkets that actually sell a wide selection of British chocolate (the best I’ve seen on my travels and to a recovering chocoholic a big temptation!! : ) ), bookshops, bars and some quality eating establishments. We choose a steak restaurant and tuck into a tasty western meal for the first time in weeks. We toast the end of our Tibet trip which after thousands of kilometres travelling overland seeing some of the most breathtaking scenery I have ever set my eyes on has ended 10 days later in Kathmandu. Unfortunately the whole group is not here. Angie hasn’t been able to make it and as her rafting trip leaves tomorrow that will be the last we see of her. It doesn’t stop the rest of us having a few drinks into the early hours of the morning. I can only manage 3 drinks before becoming tipsy. I blame the effects of altitude from the last few days, but at least it’s a cheap night! I think everyone is in a similar predicament. Even Patricia has a smile on her face for perhaps the first time since we left Beijing.

Day 500: Wednesday 11th November - Unable to muster the energy levels of Kathmandu

I wake early due to the noise from the streets below (another reason to move) and because we’ve moved to a different time zone and my body has yet to adjust to the two and a quarter hour time difference. Before I even leave my bed I power my laptop up and start re-jigging my itinerary for Nepal to fit in with the Indian visa situation. I reckon I can just about see what I want to see in 30 days, fit in a return to Kathmandu and time the return just right to get the visa I want. It is tight and any setback (taking longer to do the trek, transport issues or the embassy being unable to process the visa as quick as I want and something will have to give. Fingers crossed it will all work out. I think it will.

After a quick breakfast in a bakery - another thing Kathmandu specialises in, myself and Bruno start traipsing around central Kathmandu hoping to improve our accommodation situation. We soon discover this isn’t as easy as we’d hoped. We’re prepared to spend $30 on a room between us, a big step up from our $6 a night cheapo. The problem is the extra $25 doesn’t get you a great deal better. For $30 a night we want 24 hour water, 24 hour electricity, a quiet room away from the bustle of the narrow streets, wi-fi in the room and a room that looks like it has been furnished in this millennium rather than the last! In Cambodia, a country of similar poverty as Nepal and in Siem Reap, a city frequented by as many tourists as Kathmandu I could get all the above for $6. Here even $30 doesn’t look like it will guarantee a decent room. After a whole morning pounding the pavements from Thamel to Durbar Square, looking at hotels from the same end of the price spectrum as ours (no better) to the top end of our budget (not really worth the extra money) we end up a few doors down from the guesthouse we stayed in last night.....typical! The hotel we choose is a resort hotel and meets all our requirements, but eats up all of our budget. I soon find out the wi-fi in the room is a fabrication and although there is wi-fi in the lobby in makes a snail look like an Olympic sprinter! This is a minor inconvenience otherwise the hotel ticks all the boxes so far. So far!

The morning is gone and I’ve seen none of Kathmandu yet. Or I have but no quality time to wander the streets. However it is enough to confirm that this is a city that dances to the same beat of the Indian sub-continent I love. It may not be as intense as India but it is still one of the most intense and colourful cities I have been to on this trip. Being an energetic soul I love this intensity, I love the constant provocation of the senses and enjoy the fact that a simple walk around the city’s narrow streets is an experience in itself. But to enjoy all the above you need to be full of energy yourself. Today I have none, I don’t know if this is because of the time difference which had me waking up very early, the late night of drinking last night, the effects of spending a week at high altitude or the constant on-the-go of the Tibet tour. Probably a combination of all four but I can’t be bothered with exploring the city today. I need a relaxing day to recharge the batteries.

The five of us that came over the border together from Tibet all meet up for a late lunch. Bruno typically gets the waiter to teach him some Nepalese phrases which is entertaining. Everyone is feeling lethargic and Patricia is unwell but the other four of us discuss what to do this afternoon. We agree to walk across town to the Swayambhunath stupa which is located on a hill, up a steep flight of steps overlooking Kathmandu. The stupa is also known as the monkey temple for the macaques that mob your access to the stupa and chase you for any food once you reach the top. I’ve seen too many temples and too many macaques to find anything exciting or new about this place but I still find the afternoon an enjoyable one. Why?

The walk across town is an eye-opening experience like any walk in a city on the Indian subcontinent is. Rubbish clogging rivers, traders lining shopfronts, motorbikes whizzing past within touching distance, kids playing, the smells from food stalls, Bruno trying out his new vocabulary......it is fun. The view from the stupa reveals the smog which envelops the city below. But the real intoxicating experience is around the gleaming white stupa itself. Not the stupa, or the other temples packed on the platform which overlooks the city below; for me it is the Tibetan music playing around the stupa which is appropriate for the environment and my current mood. I stand enjoying the music and reflecting on the journey to and across Tibet and my journey so far. This is the decompression time I needed and I am happy to ignore the playful primates for some quiet ‘me’ time. Even though I was tired the trip out this afternoon was worthwhile.

We walk back to Thamel in the fading afternoon light (or is that the smog?!) where we chat over a few drinks (or aperitifs as Bruno calls them!). Nicky and Emma part for their hostel whilst myself and Bruno get food. Then it is an early night in the comfort of our $30 room. I’m disappointed to find out that I can’t enjoy my first hot shower in the light when there is no hot water. I have my doubts about this hotel.....two broken promises already. Things better improve tomorrow or we’ll be spending tomorrow morning doing the same as today....please no!

Day 501: Thursday 12th November - Changing hotels for a second successive morning

We wake to the noise in the streets below. Furthermore, the room was cold last night and again there is no hot water. Unimpressed we decide to move for the second successive morning. For $30 in Nepal I expect more, much more. Neither of us want to spend a morning doing this so we confine our search to the street we are currently staying on. Yes it is noisy but it is in the centre of all of the action and I want to get this over quick. I didn’t come to Kathmandu to try out all the hotels and pass my opinion, I actually wanted to see this riot of sights, sounds and smells. I want the sensory overload, I want to experience the exhaustion of walking its narrow streets where almost every second something new is happening. We try a few of the places from yesterday’s search which are full and then a few new budget options which are no better than where we were the first night. We decide to go full circle and return to our original hotel. It has its faults of course but it is cheap. I reckon this would be the best place in the world to open a hostel - you could easily charge around $10 for a dorm bed even and rake up a massive profit as long as you got the facilities and ambience right which wouldn’t be hard. You’d be a Rupee millionaire within weeks!

We have moved hotels by 9am and I enjoy getting a dig in at the resort hotel by claiming I can get the same level of service for $6. The frank customer feedback makes the manager’s jaw drop but maybe he will do something about it? Bruno has many things he wants to sort out ahead of his trek (he will leave in 2 days - a day earlier than me) and I would like to spend the day on my own wandering Durbar Square. We both have the common objective of getting our trekking permit though so we walk to the tourist centre in the south of the city to obtain this. Outside we encounter our second demonstration in 3 days and lots of armed police in body armour. I’ve seen more demonstrations in Nepal in 3 days than on the rest of my trip put together!

Getting the permit is straightforward: part with a couple of thousand rupees (£16), fill in two forms and give them 4 passport photos and within half an hour, one task ahead of the Annapurna trek is done. Bruno walks back to Thamel whilst I branch off in the direction of the traditional heart of Kathmandu, Durbar Square. The square is full of architectural monuments a millennium old and was where Nepal’s kings once ruled from. Today, it is probably the best place to people watch and enjoy the intensity of everyday life in Kathmandu, although a number of the surrounding chowks (squares) could lay their own claim to this prize. I’m not too interested in the temples, although I do enjoy the varied architecture of the buildings. For me the place is made special by just sitting atop Maju Deval - the temple in the middle of the square - watching Kathmandu life unravel before your eyes. It is a pupil-dilating experience alright, as you see poor people pick through piles of rubbish, traffic narrowly avoid the people bustling in the square (or should that be the other way around?!), traders selling their various wares including the colourful marigolds so special in the Hindu religion and then trying to avoid the various ‘tour guides’, ‘touts’ and ‘scam artists’ that are omnipresent wherever you walk around the square.

After half an hour just soaking it all in I take off south of the square and walk around the streets of the old town for half an hour. Returning to the square I pay to go into the old royal palace, the Hanuman Dhoka which isn’t worth the entrance fee as you can see little of the palace and what you can see isn’t always labelled in English. I leave Durbar Square behind and walk north to Thamel exploring the streets on the way. Full of temples, stupas, street traders, noise, bustle.....it is good to be back on the Indian subcontinent. No experience rivals it for sensory overload.

I am meeting the others at 7pm for dinner and drinks but I’m so hungry I can’t help stopping at a bakery first and then going to a restaurant. It proves to be a mistake for within minutes of finishing my meal I feel nauseous. To be precise I feel sick whilst I’m eating the meal so I’m blaming the vegetable spring roll from the bakery. Bruno pops his head in but I’m too green to feel like talking to him. A technicolour yawn is bubbling inside if I’m not careful. I make it back up the street to the hostel but not to the room. Metres before our room I decorate the carpet with Chicken Tikka Masala (not for the first time, remember new year a few years back boys!!!!). I open the door to the room and before I can even make the toilet, I’ve done the same to the carpet in our room. The hotel staff are very kind and are cleaning my mess up outside before I’ve even disposed of the rest of the contents of my stomach down the toilet. Once I’m finished vomiting I start on cleaning the mess up in our room. At home this would be a simple if not enjoyable task but in my bag I’m not carrying a cloth, disinfectant, stain remover or the like. A pair of underpants for the wash, some shampoo and some talc will have to do! Bruno walks in as I am cleaning up and is very sympathetic. Unfortunately my night is over and I won’t be joining him, Nicky or Emma for dinner and drinks later. I can’t even recuperate in quiet and calm. The music from the street below puts pay to this.

Day 502: Friday 13th November - Food poisoning forces a change of plans

It is definitely food poisoning that I have, its coming out both ends now! I had a restless night, feverish from the dodgy food I ate yesterday. Bruno says that Emma and Nicky are planning to do a day trip to Bhaktapur, and I would like to join them but I’m not feeling up to it. Bruno has a few loose ends to tie up ahead of his trek so he’s going to stay in Kathmandu as well today. I don’t leave the street we’re staying on but I still end up having a relatively productive day, booking a mountain flight for tomorrow which I’m really excited about, booking a bus ticket to get me to the start of the trek, getting a few items of clothing for the trek and some reading material to fill in the evenings on the trek. Otherwise it is a quiet and relaxing day which is just what I need to recover from my stomach upset.

Day 503: Saturday 14th November - Flying over the Himalayas

I have another shortened sleep, but this morning it is for the right reasons. I’m feeling much better and although half asleep at 5:30am I’m excited about my mountain flight. A driver picks me up and takes me to the airport. I don’t think I’ve seen an airport as chaotic and so lacking in modern technology as Kathmandu’s domestic terminal. You have to rely being within earshot when they call out your flight and I believe I could have walked on to the plane carrying most of the weapons and substances now banned by airlines, such was the deficiency in the security checks. But this is Kathmandu, this is the Indian subcontinent and when you’re in the mood this is a scenario you’ve just got to smile at!

The mountain flight is an hour long flight along the Himalayan mountain range to the north and east of Kathmandu. At take-off whilst all the other dozen or so passengers are probably brimming with excitement I can’t get enthusiastic having already seen the mountains from the ground in Nepal and Tibet. Why did I book this flight at the cost of $140? I did it because I thought it would be a different experience, a once in a lifetime, an alternative perspective of the world’s greatest mountain range. My gut feeling was right, and my malaise soon recedes once we get up in the air. From the air you can see more of the mountains that make up the Himalayan range at the expense of really appreciating the scenery at the foot of the mountains, but I’ve seen this already so that doesn’t matter. The flight takes us past five 8000m peaks, seven 7000m peaks and a further seven 6000m peaks including the world’s tallest mountain, Mount Everest. Everest is covered in cloud but I’ve already seen it up close to be that bothered. Several of the mountains pierce the clouds and it is some of the lesser lights that impress me more like the ‘flatish’ summits of Melungtse and Chamlang, both in excess of 7000 metres. It is the whole rather than the individual mountains that is really impressive though.

My driver takes me back to the guesthouse in Kathmandu. I had intended to make a day trip to Bhaktapur in the Kathmandu Valley but I am feeling lethargic and abandon that idea in favour of making last minute preparations for my trek, enjoying some decent food for the last time in a couple weeks and just generally taking it easy. I reflect on having not really seen a great deal of Kathmandu during my first visit, but enough to look forward to my return in three weeks time. I can visit the Kathmandu valley then and perhaps see more of this chaotic city. This visit has been about taking it easy in between an intense but hugely enjoyable tour of Tibet and a three week long trek around Annapurna. My body has needed this down time as much as it didn’t need the food poisoning!

Tonight I will catch up with the rest of the group that crossed the border from Tibet for a last meal and drinks together before we all go our separate ways. Most of us are heading to trek the Annapurna circuit but on slightly different schedules. I know I’ll see them somewhere, on the trek or afterwards in Pokhara. As for you readers, I’ll speak to you again in three weeks after I’ve completed supposedly the world’s ultimate trek, The Annapurna circuit.

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