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Published: August 7th 2007
I'm afraid I've been somewhat neglectful with blogging since arriving in Nepal on April 15th. Since we got here we've spent time in Kathmandu and Pokhara, and we just completed a 15-day trek in the Annapurna circuit in the Himalayas. I'll do the best I can to talk about highlights, without being too long-winded.
My first impression of Nepal was that someone took an Indian city and plucked 75% of the people out of the street and hid them away somewhere. After the never-ended crowds of India, with people in every corner and crowds on every road, Nepal seemed oddly spacious and quiet. Even Kathmandu, which is certainly not "peaceful" by any normal standards, seemed empty and full of open spaces. Aside from this major difference, though, Nepal seemed very similar to India upon first impression. There were the same roadside shops, the same bicycle rickshaws and brightly painted trucks, the same stray dogs, the same women in colorful sarees and sawar kameez, and the occasional wandering cow. The differences showed themselves gradually, more in subtle personality differences and cultural nuances than anything else. One definite difference results, I think, from Nepal's smaller size and more homogeneous population.
Nepalis are quicker to notice and comment on differences than most Indians, meaning that Jeff and I have had numerous "helpful" comments about how we look and what we ought to do to improve our appearance by changing our clothes/jewelry/behavior. Although sometimes unnerving or initially offensive, the honesty is also entertaining and, I'm sure, meant as an earnest attempt to help. Overall, much like in India, Jeff and I have had some wonderful interactions with local people, particularly as we move away from the touristy areas within Kathmandu and Pokhara, where many Nepalis seem understandably jaded by the astounding density of tourism, even during the current off-season.
We spent our first ten days in Nepal in Kathmandu, unfortunately staying smack dab in the middle of super-touristy Thamel. Thamel is an area exploding with tourist trinket shops, tourist restaurants, tourist-oriented convenience stores and tourist bars, not to mention the hoards of wandering tourists themselves and a choking, lung-killing smog from the taxis, cars and motorcycles that honk their way down the crowded roads. The first few days in Thamel were thrilling, as we had access to a variety of foods and Western odds and ends that had been absent in
India. But being a tourist in Thamel is absurdly easy, and after a few days we began to feel restless and slightly guilty to be staying in such an effort-free place, where everything and anything you could possibly need is available within a two minute walk.
To escape Thamel we took a day-trip to nearby Durbar Square in Patan, which is a collection of beautiful old stupas and temples. There were still plenty of tourists, trinkets for sale, and an overpriced museum, but it was more pleasant than Thamel and the architecture was pretty amazing.
On another afternoon we wandered away from Thamel and into an area with local-oriented markets and shops, which was a refreshing break from the tourist insanity and gave us a nice view of actual Nepali living. We found a sunny courtyard down an alley surrounded by old brick apartment buildings. Children ran around in packs, dogs and chickens wandered unheeded, and old women watched the activity from their windows. We sat for quite a while just watching the kids play, until an intrigued group of them came to stare and ask us questions. The girls were thrilled by the henna on my hands
(which I'd gotten done on one of our last days in India) and the boys were entranced by Jeff's earrings. Before long, though, the boys were back to their cricket game and the girls were marching off to take care of some sort of disagreement. We sat for a little while more, then headed back to our hotel to catch a slideshow on trekking in the Annapurnas.
We had met a British photographer while in India who happened to be presenting slide shows every evening at our hotel. The shows were about trekking in the Himalayas, something we figured we were simply not adequetely prepared to do, although we were very interested. The slides were good but more valuable was the realization that trekking in the Annapurnas does not in fact require much at all in the way of gear. There are lodges and restaurants the whole way through, making tents and cooking supplies unnecessary, and it's easy to avoid the coldest high-altitude areas, making snow gear unneccesary also. In his slide show Chris talked about a variety of alternative routes to avoid the majority of trekkers, and after the show we met with him over dinner to talk
in detail about options. He helped us set up a personalized route that would take around two weeks and would take us to some areas that were off the beaten track. He ended up helping us get set up with a porter and guide as well, and during our next few days in Kathmandu we booked our trek and bought the few supplies we still needed. We decided to leave from Pokhara on May 9th, which gave us a couple of weeks to relax in Pokhara before we set out.
We would have left for Pokhara sooner, but I ended up getting bronchitis along with some sort of stomach bug, so we spent a few more days in Kathmandu watching movies in our hotel room and waiting for me to feel well enough to take the day-long bus ride to Pokhara. We finally left Kathmandu on April 23rd and took a fairly comfortable air-conditioned bus to Pokhara. Pokhara is the second most visited tourist stop in Nepal, but has a peaceful lake and surrounding green foothills to add an element of peace. This time, in contrast to Kathmandu, we decided to stay far away from the touristy area of
Lakeside. We stayed a 20-minute walk from town, on the north side of the lake, in a very simple but peaceful hotel with friendly staff and a boat we were free to use whenever we liked. We ended up going out in the boat every day to swim in the center of the lake where the water was clear. Most days we walked into town at least once for a meal or some necessary supplies, but in general we stayed by the lake away from the tourist shops. We befriended a fun Polish woman named Dominika, whose husband was on a 3-week trek, and spent a lot of our time chatting with her. The two weeks before our trek passed peacefully, filled with swimming, wandering, and a lot of reading and relaxing by the lake. One evening we wandered into a small bar with live Nepali music and a few tables full of locals. The music was fun and different, the waitresses were super friendly and seemed very amused to see us there, and we ended up having a great time and even attempting to dance. We went back three other times, and became friends with the waitresses and attempted
to improve our Nepali dance skills. The local patrons seemed to love our being there, and we got to see some amazingly exhuberant dance moves. It was fun to find a spot free of the usual crowds of tourists.
Over the last couple days before the trek we got our permits and last few things we needed. The day before we left we switched hotels to a more upscale place with a safety deposit box we could use to store our valuables while we were gone. For whatever reason, going with our particular trekking company meant we got a serious discount at this hotel, so we got a $60 room with A/C and TV for $18 for the night. That last evening we packed up our trekking bag, stored the rest of our things in the hotel safe, had a last dinner with Dominika (and her husband who had just returned), and went to bed early to prepare to begin our two-week trek. In the morning we joined Battam and Ladu, our guide/porter and porter, to catch a taxi to the tiny airport. Battam was our guide who would also carry up to 15 kg of camera gear, which
was necessary because the porter would sometimes walk at his own pace, and we needed the camera gear kept with us. We ended up having less than 20 kg to give our porter, which made him very happy and meant that we could have probably gotten away without him with no trouble, but in the end he was a great guy to get to know and, of course, it was nice to pawn off our packs to someone else so we could better enjoy the trek.
Our trekking route began with a short flight to Jomsom, which is a town approximately halfway through the full Annapurna circuit. From there we would climb to the religious site of Muktinath at 3800 meters after a stop in the town of Kagbeni, and then we would return to Jomsom and head back towards Pokhara, with some added day-trips to town off the regular path and a final climb up to the view point Poon Hill, at 3200 meters.
The flight to Jomsom gave us an exciting glimpse of the stunning terrain we were about to trek through--waterfalls, terraced rice paddies, forests, snow-capped mountains and winding rivers with the occasional little village
clustered in the foothills. We landed in Jomsom and were immediately presented with amazing views of the snow-covered Himalayas. Although the terrain changed frequently during the trek depending on altitude, the villages and the animals stayed fairly constant. Mules trudged along the trails carrying heavy loads, cows grazed on whatever foilage they could find, enormous fluffy chickens pecked at the rocks, furry mountain dogs roamed at will, fat fuzzy goats climbed the steep hillsides, beautiful mustangs grazed in fields, and, at lower elevations, buffalo wallowed in whatever puddles they could find. The villages were of traditional Tibetan design--made of stone, with flat roofs stacked high with firewood and doorways offering glimpses into the quiet lives of the villagers. The children ran through the streets of each village chasing baby goats and each other, their cheeks pink from the wind and their noses running from the cold. Although there was electricy in most villages, it was often not working, and technology seemed nearly absent from the quiet mountain towns.
Our first day of trekking took us through a flat, windy riverbed to Kagbeni, a positively charming little stone village where villagers herded fluffy sheep through the cobbled streets and red-cheeked
kids chased each other, skipping deftly around the frequent piles of cow dung. Traditionally dressed women washed clothes in the fountains and furry mountain dogs napped on stone steps. We stayed in a comfortable trekking lodge and had our first meal of dhal bhat--rice and lentils, the staple meal for many Nepalis. Kagbeni is on the very edge of the Northern Mustang region, which is off limits to trekkers unless you pay a hefty $700 per person. An impossibly steep switchback led up the nearby nearly-vertical mountainside into northern Mustang. Beneath the village, a field of bright green rice paddies gave a splash of color to the otherwise tundra-like landscape. We were tempted to spend an extra day in the village, but decided to push on in the morning, deeming it too early to add days to our trek. We set out for Jharkot the next morning, climbing a ridiculously steep path reach a quiet town with great views of the surrounding mountains. We felt the altitude for the first time in Jharkot, both us getting headaches in the evening, and we decided to spend an extra day there to acclimate. Instead of climbing to Muktinath and then heading for
Jomsom the next day, we went to Muktinath but spent the night in Jharkot again before descending.
Muktinath is a well-known pilgrimage spot, with walled compound containing a serious of fountains around a main temple, a famous natural flame that burns out of a natural spring, and a few other temples and shrines. Prayer flags abound, the fountains are strewn with holy threads, and the temples glow with age and history. The flame/spring "miracle" was slightly disappointing--the flame was only faintly visible through a wire mesh screen at knee-level, instead of proudly displayed like I expected. Still, Muktinath was beautiful and it was amazing to be in place so renowned for its auspiciousness and beauty.
The next day we returned to Jomsom, battling impressive winds which tore through the riverbed between wind-carved cliffs. We found a good deal on a "luxury" hotel room, with TV and an attached bathroom for 250 rupees ($6). When we checked in the owner/manager told us we had to have our meals there (which is a very common practice on the Annapurna circuit.) We told him we would have at least one--either dinner or breakfast--and he said that was fine. We took a
hot shower, watched some TV, then went to have dinner at a place across the street. After dinner we were back in our room, and a boy knocked on the door to take our dinner order. I told him we'd already eaten, and he looked shocked and left. Two minutes later there was another knock. I answered the door to find the manager standing there, looking livid. "No dinner?" he asked, more accusing than asking. "No," I told him, "We said we'd have one meal here--we'll certainly have breakfast. We've already eaten." His response was an immediate, ice cold "Get out." I haven't been so angry and offended for a very long time, but Jeff managed to convince me not to break anything or scream at anyone, and we packed up our things and left. In reality, it was an incredibly bad business decision in his part: he lost 250 rupees plus breakfast after we'd already used hot water and the TV, we were the only people staying there that night so he'd now make no money whatsoever that evening, and we were of course likely to tell anyone and everyone not to stay there. (For anyone reading this with
plans to stay in Jomsom--the hotel was Hotel Majesty. Avoid it.) We actually found an even better room across the street with great views of the mountains and very friendly staff, and the evening ended up fine.
The next day we trekked to Marpha, with a variety of detours along the way to visit small villages, Dhampa Lake and a beautiful monastery high up on a ridge. The villages were wonderfully devoid of tourists, the lake was a stunning aquamarine color, and the monastery, despite the hard climb to reach it, was an isolated oasis of beauty and serenity on a wind-swept cliff. In Marpha we stayed in a great little guesthouse with rooms situated around a pleasant garden. We decided to spend two nights in Marpha, with a day-trip to a Buddhist settlement during our off-day, where they were holding an archery competition. We were the only tourists at the archery competition, but everyone seemed happy to see us and we had a great time watching the light-hearted contest in which somewhat tipsy contestants shot arrows into a wooden beam. It rained lightly the whole afternoon, but the archery continued and we watched from beneath an awning with
a cluster of men drinking homemade "wine" and betting good-naturedly on the competition. We returned to our hotel in Marpha in the late afternoon and found that the rain had visited our room. Somehow the water had poured through the dirt walls and coated our beds and half of our belongings with dirty water, destroying a couple of books and soaking Jeff's ipod (which, thankfully, ended up working fine). When Jeff went to tell the staff what had happened the woman laughed at his suggestion that we get the night for free, and luckily her husband stepped in and said of course, avoiding another unpleasant hotel interaction.
We left Marpha the next day to head to Kalopani, a small town with only a few guesthouses but more great views. At night at our hotel in Kalopani we found an enormous moth circling the light outside our door, and we were able to photograph it next to my hand for scale. The next day was our first case of serious misunderstanding with our guide. We were planning on going to Dana, which we understood to be less than a two-hour hike. Because of the supposed short day, we agreed to
do a morning side-trip up to Titi Lake, a 2-hour steep climb to what was supposed to be a beautiful lake and viewpoint. Ladu stayed in Kalopani instead of joining us for the day-hike, and in retrospect this was because he knew something we didn't--that our trek to Dana was in fact a five-hour affair, not less than two. But we cheerfully followed Battam up a gruelingly steep path to Titi Lake at 6 a.m., expecting glory and beauty at the end. Instead we found what looked like a flooded field. The "lake" was a murky, algae-covered puddle, so disappointing we were literally shocked. Luckily the views of the mountains were particularly good from that point, so the steep climb wasn't completely in vain. We returned to Kalopani expecting a couple of hours of trekking to our next destination, only to finally learn that we in fact had a very long day ahead of us. By the end of the day we were both shaking with the effort of putting one foot in front of the other, but after ten and a half hours of total hiking that day we collapsed into an overpriced hotel, paid for a bucket of
hot water for a "shower," and attempted to sleep despite aching legs.
The next day, thankfully, was actually a short day. We did have a minor adventure in the morning though: as we were about to leave our hotel we were stopped by a man with a radio and told to hide under a roof. There is a road being built through the entire Annapurna circuit, and they are currently in the process of blasting the side of the mountain off in preparation. They blasted an area 50 meters from our hotel, making the windows rattle and terrifying the chickens. A few minutes later they let us go, and we carefully picked our way over freshly fallen rubble and empty detonator boxes, keeping an anxious eye on the moutain above us since the blast made rockslides more likely. It was unnerving, but we made it through the blasting area as quickly as possible and got to Tatopani by lunchtime. Tatopani means "hot water" in Nepali, and the town is named after the natural hot springs next to the river. The springs have been made into cement baths, and weary trekkers join locals in basking in the pools of almost-too-hot
water. We stayed for three days in Tatopani (it would have been two but it was pouring in the morning we planned on leaving, so we stayed another day), recovering our sore muscles and enjoying staying at a hotel where a horse and a family of chickens wandered in the yard outside our door. We met another American couple there and had some good political discussions over popcorn and beer--the first beer we allowed ourselves to drink during our trek.
We left Tatopani to begin the last and most difficult part of our trek--the 2000 meter climb up to Poon Hill. We climbed to Ghorepani Deorali (the closest town to Poon Hill) over two exhausting days, with an overnight stop in Sikha along the way. For whatever reason this part of the trek was particularly beautiful, with ancient trees dripping with moss and stunning views of the river and hillsides. Ghorepani Deorali is tucked amongst the clouds, and the air is moist and dense. The views, although not as unobstructed as Poon Hill 200 meters above, are breathtaking, and in the evening a rainbow stretched across the sky. Our room was a corner room with walls made of windows,
and we felt like we were sleeping in the open. At night, the stars were as bright as I've ever seen, and the sliver of a moon was bright enough to light our room. We set our alarm for 4 a.m. to make it up to Poon Hill before dawn.
Although waking up was no problem, climbing the steep, dew-slick rocky path to Poon Hill in the darkness of pre-dawn was surprisingly difficult, and we panted our way up to the viewpoint just before color began to bleed into the sky, illuminating a stunning sillhouette of the jagged mountain peaks. The view from Poon Hill was by far the most complete panorama of the Himalayas that we saw on our trek, but the view is only clear in the very early morning. By about 5:30 there were a surprising 40 or so people on Poon Hill, and clouds had already begun to cover the mountains. We struggled down the steep path and had breakfast around 6:00, then went back to bed for a nap, since neither of us had slept well and our muscles felt weak from the last few days of climbing and the early morning hike. We
woke at 11 and began the steep descent in the direction of Pokhara and the end of our trek. We planned to take two days to reach Pokhara, with an overnight stop in Tirkedhunga, but in a surge of ambition and desperate desire to be in the land of food variety and hot showers, we decided to combine two days of trekking into one and push on to reach Pokhara that evening. The descent was almost comically steep at points, and for the last couple of hours it rained, but we went as fast as we could and out of pure will power crushed the expected seven and a half hours of walking into five, making it to Nayapul by 5:00 and taking a taxi to Pokhara in time for dinner. We paid for our hurried descent by walking like little old ladies for the next two days, but it was good to be back and to relax in clean sheets, with no walking required beyond limping across the street to find food. We said goodbye to Battam and Ladu with plans to meet their families in Kathmandu in a few weeks, tossed our filthy trekking clothes into a pile
to wash when we felt ambitious, then relaxed into the easy life of Pokhara once again.
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Harmeet
non-member comment
great
Hey Laura(and Jeff), Great to hear the latest update from you.....seems like you both you had a nice time....the snaps are great (waiting for Jeff's snaps on eyeballimaging.com also) take care and keep in touch Harmeet