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Published: January 22nd 2008
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(Matt)
We arrived in Nepal's capital Kathmandu to find a city which is bustling, colourful, touristy, with well equiped shops and restaurants serving foods from around the world.... we loved it from day one. After being held in traffic jams in India because a cow wanted to cross the road, I really enjoyed my first meal of steak and chips with a cold beer!
On our first full day in Kathmandu, we visited the facinating Swayambhunath Buddhist temple known to tourists and locals as the 'Monkey Temple'. On the way there I managed to get my wallet sewn as it was falling apart, the man was sitting on the floor mending shoes and used his bare feet to hold the wallet still. I tried to get it done in London before we left but they said they'd needed to send it away for five days.
We heard about a massive bungy jump 3 hours outside of Kathmandu and I said (without much thought and after a few beers) I would do it no problem. With some hard negotiation we managed to arrange with two rival companies to do the bungy jump (Last Resort) and then to be dropped
off on the way back for a three day trek (Borderlands).
I found myself heading to Nepal's first bungy jumping site situated on a steel suspension bridge 160m over the wild Bhote Kosi river, it is estimated to be either the second or third biggest jump in the world. All I know is that it was a really long way down. After being weighed (it's quite important that bit!) and having the briefing (which comprised an instructor jumping off a small step with his arms in front of him and saying 'if you want to go down slow, flap your arms') we were finally ready to make the jump. You can watch it on YouTube via the link below (the sound doesn't really work because I took it from the official DVD!):
Matt's Big Bungy Jump YouTube After a pleasant afternoon, chatting with a couple from the cotswolds and drinking beer, we headed down to Borderlands Resort where our Camping Trek started. What we didn't expect to find was that we were the only people staying there and all of the staff had been waiting for hours for us to arrive. They were very nice though and it was then that
we realised we would be trekking with five porters, a cook and a guide. I must admit I started to wonder whether we had accidently booked onto an attempt at Everest.
Day one of the trek was hard because it was 7 hours all uphill. I made things more difficult by offering to help a local carry his load of straw. After 15 minutes (he'd been carrying it for half a day!) I was exhausted but was rewarded by a whole village laughing at the site of a westerner doing some work!
The next two days of our trek took us towards the Tibetan border where we experienced remote sherpa villages, freezing temperatures, a ruined fort and a nunnery. Day 3 was pretty much all down hill to the road. With really aching legs, we sighed with relief when our guide stopped a local bus to take us the last 30 minutes back to our base. As it was a beautiful day we decided to sit on the top of the bus, after 5 minutes of dust clouds and the bumpiest road we've ever experienced we were hanging on for dear life. I was starting to think I'd
wasted my money on a bungy jump as the extreme sport of Nepal was sitting on the top of a bus!
Our next bus journey was no less unusual, we were planning to catch the early morning local bus between Tibet and Kathmandu. It was so full of: people, big bags of rice, electric rice steamers, televisions sets and noodles, we spent the first 30 minutes hanging out of the door and the next 3 hours sitting in the aisle on top of everyone's bags of stuff. The people in Nepal are so friendly they even moved around the bags in order to find something soft for us to sit on.
We finally got back to Kathmandu, despite road closures and protests, and booked ourselves onto a mountain flight. Buddha Air (which flies the closest to Everest) provided us with a truly memorable experience flying close to some of the biggest mountains in the world. At the end of the flight they also sell the cheesiest T-Shirts - 'I may not have climbed Mt. Everest but I touched it with my heart'... where did I put that sick bag?
On our last day in Kathmandu we visited
Durbar Square, the heart of the old town crammed full of old architecture. The place I liked the most was Kumari Bahal, House of the Living Goddess. The process of choosing a goddess is astonishing. The girl must be between 4 years old and puberty, she is checked again 32 strict requirements including eye colour, shape of teeth, sound of voice and horroscope. Once suitable candidates are found they are put in a dark room and men dance around them in hideous masks, there are also 108 severed buffalo heads on display, as the real goddess won't be scared she is identified and in a final test must correctly choose items of clothing and decoration worn by her predecessor... and you thought X-factor was tough! When the Living Goddess reaches puberty she reverts to a mere mortal. After such an ordeal it seems somewhat cruel that it is seen as bad luck to marry an ex- goddess!
Tomorrow we leave for Tibet.
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Chris
non-member comment
Bungee bargain
Nice to see Matt working hard and looking Robert Smith with peroxide in the photo. Not sure that "negotiating" with a bungee company is very wise..."yeah, we just went with the lowest bidder"....why would they be cheaper...thinner rope? they charge for two seats on the bus there, but only one back?... Better to pay extra for second rope and bupa!