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Published: March 30th 2010
Well, I been home for one week. It has been quite an experience. I feel very fortunate to have gone on this trip at this time with this group. We had a great time. The weather couldn't have been better.
I liked the people of Nepal a lot. I'm not sure of their political future. The Maoists had another strike in Kathmandu while we were in Chitwan. Luckily, it was all over before we got to Kathmandu.
Kathmandu is in a valley surrounded by mountains and is a city of almost a million people. The road leading to India to from Kathmandu is just a two lane road snaking through the mountains. It took almost two hours of heavy truck traffic to get into the city with significant smog. Once in the city, the roads branch out and traffic gets better.
A young taxi driver in Kathmandu smiled at me when he said "No Rules". That sums it up. Every kind of transportation imaginable on the roads, no stop lights, no stop signs, no indicator signals. Just horns to indicate your presence and your intentions. It is a challenge for pedestrians to cross the busy streets. You have to just
proceed forward and dodge traffic. At night it is even more challenging. There are no street lights. The Maoists have broken all of them. I will always remember Mani leading us back from a restaurant one night in Kathmandu, strutting down the middle of a busy thoroughfare with his chest out and all of us following behind like sheep.
There are a lot of interesting sights in Kathmandu.... historical buildings, temples and Buddist Stupas. We saw a lot. 85% of Nepalese people are Hindu and most of the Buddhists also worship Hindu gods. There are also a lot of refugees from Tibet.
The tour officially ended Friday night. Saturday morning, Bob, Leigh, Steve and myself hiked about 4 miles (and up hundreds of steps) to the Buddhist monkey temple, overlooking the city. Very impressive. We then walked back. I got sick in the afternoon and evening. I think it was the lassi I had for lunch. Luckily I recovered by the next morning since I had a 26 hour trip back to the US which was thankfully smooth and "uneventful".
I felt a lot of support throughout the trip, learned a lot, met many interesting people and
had a great time. I also took many pictures. I've share a few. If anyone is interested in seeing more, please email me.
John
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Rick Larsen
non-member comment
What a trip!
Hi John, I really enjoyed reading about your trip and seeing all the great photos. Reading your comments and enjoying the photos brings back memories of my time in India. I would love to see more of India some day as I only was in New Dehli for the 5 months I was there. Rick