Amazing Nepal

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It was only a few short steps across the Friendship Bridge from Tibet to Nepal, yet the change in faces, personalities and culture was dramatic. We wandered with the crowd down a narrow lane way. A taxi-tout pointed us into a building where we were supposed to get an entry visa. After 20 minutes, a few forms later and a quick temperature check for swine flu (with a thermometer you stick under your arm), we were APPROVED for a 15 day visitor visa. Excellent! We then organised a lift to Kathmandu in the back of a Land Cruiser. I think we paid over the odds for this, but we did manage to acquire the whole back seat to ourselves. Rumour has it around here, that they sometimes fit 11 into the jeep so it seemed to be worth the extra few quid.

Driving towards Kathmandu we couldn’t help but notice the scenery this country has to offer; again breathtaking; the mountains are magnificent and the grass is lush green (far greener than the Emerald Isle). Tourism has been a cash staple for this country in the past number of years. The people seem poor in general and many get by on just a few dollars a day or less. Food is cheap providing you eat locally and not the tourist spots.

Driving in Nepal is, well, pretty much dangerous. With the mixture of cars, rickshaws, bikes, motor bikes and what not, all combined with bad driving behaviour; chaos and horn-honking rule the road (if your not blowing your horn or trying to overtake another vehicle; well then you’re not in the game!). The road rules seem pretty lax and no one seems to understand what ‘your side’ of the road means, or grasp the notion that you really shouldn’t overtake when approaching bad bends. Drivers here, including truck and bus drivers, actually confidently overtake at ferociously bad bends without a care in the world. The quality of the roads are poor to darn right bad in many places (see insert) and it didn’t take long before we saw our first overturned vehicle on the side of the road. This was sadly to become a frequent sight; over the next two weeks we saw countless accidents including buses overturned, lorries gone over cliff ledges and cars banjaxed from head on collisions.

Four hours later we made it to down-town Kathmandu. We had no idea where we were going to stay but had asked the driver to drop us “somewhere nice” in Thamel (backpacker area of Kathmandu). He brought us to the Kathmandu Guest House, a lovely hotel dead centre in Thamel. It was a gated complex, meaning police at the gate, hiding away from the hustle and bustle of the city. We decided to stay as the prices were quite cheap and the rooms were clean.

The main streets in Kathmandu can only be described as utter mayhem! Even though the street is the width of a lane-way, it operates two way traffic to cars, bicycles, motor bikes, rickshaws, pedestrians and animals. The rule of the street is simple - when you hear the honk of a horn, move your ass out of the way quick! Easy enough? Only add in hundreds of people, and hundreds of vehicles of all sorts, all honking at the same time. All the while, you also have people calling at you, trying to entice you into their store. We learned fast that you need all your wits and senses about you when trying to navigate these streets!

Kathmandu is quite simply a crazy spot and you really need to acclimatise to the place. Anyone who smokes hash regularly would have a field day here, as I reckon at least 100 people approached us over the next couple of days whispering “hash, hash” in our ears. We spent two days here wandering around and picked up a few bits and pieces for a trek in the Annapurna mountain range (Himalayas). We then booked a 3 day safari trip in Chitwan National Park (hey, why not?) and decided to hire a guide and porter for our 7 trek in the Himalayas.

All the noise, touts, and general commotion of the streets can begin to wear you down after a while, so we were looking forward to getting out into the countryside. We got a bus to Chitwan, about 7 hours from Kathmandu. A bus ride in Nepal is like an adventure in itself; people ride on the roof (along with luggage), touts try to sell you stuff through the windows or even hop on the bus if they get the opportunity, and then there’s the actual driving…..Funny as it might sound; our driver seemed to be a very ‘experienced’ dangerous driver - you appear to need that around here if you are going to make progress on some of these roads!

Chitwan was quite pleasant and relaxing, and we managed to have the whole Safari complex to ourselves on the first night since there were no other visitors. The next day, at 7:30am on a sunny Nepalese morning, we were off down the river by canoe - destination: THE JUNGLE! We got up-close-and-personal with some crocodiles (scary indeed!), went on a jungle hike for several hours where Nicola was ‘attacked’ (her word not mine) by leeches. We saw a rhino with her baby, wild monkeys swinging out of trees, a herd of Water Buffalo, and all manner of insects and plants. In the afternoon we took an elephant ride while out tiger hunting (but only found wild rhino and deer). We got a special ride back to our hotel on the elephant all by ourselves (the basket usually holds four people). It was a fantastic experience to discover the unspoilt terrain and its inhabitants, on such a majestic creature, such as Kali our elephant. The trip was slow and often bumpy, and the landscape was overwhelmingly breathtaking.

After that adventurous couple of days we got the bus to a place called Pokahara (this journey was about 9 hours away, due to poor road conditions and a government protest) where we stayed overnight and hooked up with our guide and porter. The following morning it was a 6:30am start we all headed off on our trek up the mountains. Being relatively fit and having trained a lot for the past number of years, I thought this would be a “cinch”. I was proved wrong quick enough though! Mountain trekking is actually quite tough and it wasn’t long before we were wondering if we could really hack this for several days. Yes we can! I was reminded of the Barack Obama slogan flaunted on TV last year, and kept repeating that to myself for the first couple of hours. By the end of the day we were parched and wondering why we had paid for this pain at all. Not to be put off by a shock-day of actual effort on our part, we limped up to bed in the make shift lodge we were staying in.

The route we took was [Napa-Pul - Birethanti - Tikhedhunga - Ulleri - Banthanti - Ghorepani - Bantha - Tadapani - Bhaisisharka - Ghandrum - Kyumi - Landruk - Tolka - Deurali - Pothana - Dhampus - Phedi - Pokahara]. We stayed in different Tea Houses along the way (basic shelter lodges, which provide food and bedding) and walked nearly 100km. It’s not the distance really that’s the killer; it’s the steepness of the climbs that go with it, which can go on for several hours, and it’s the knee pounding descents which really make you cringe.

We felt guilty at first for having the porter carry our luggage for the week (about 15kg), as its kinda lazy; but really we hired him as we weren’t sure what to expect, or if we would be able to carry our own luggage and climb at the same time. That guilt was short lived; until he told us he could basically carry double that if he had to. What these guys can do is impressive and well worth paying for their services if you want to spend time thinking about things other than - whether you will make it to the top of the next ridge or not with your luggage on your back in the searing heat!

Our guide was also impressive - he studied law originally and moved away from it to become a tour guide. He was full of useful information and a great asset to have on the trek. Amongst many other things, he taught us about the Nepalese culture of government corruption, arranged marriages, and the Caste System, as well as getting us eating ‘Dal’ and drinking a form of locally brewed ‘rice wine’ (I’d swear if you drank enough of this stuff you could go blind!). He told us all sorts of interesting stories and it’s well worth having someone like this with you for the in-depth local ground knowledge if you’re interested in learning about the culture and more on trekking; his web-site is here

Anyone who has trekked high in the mountains knows it’s a tough but magnificent and well worthwhile experience. Rightly or wrongly, we trekked in the monsoon season (rain season) and true enough we saw our fair share of thunder storms and got soaked a few times. Visibility was also poor, which was frustrating at times. However the sheer lack of westerners and other trekkers on the trek routes made up for it. We pretty much appeared to have the whole Annapurna range to ourselves and only saw a handful of fellow trekkers over the entire week.

It got dark early up in the mountains and by 6:30pm it was pitch black outside, and by 9:00pm most nights it was lights-out for us, as all we wanted to do was get some sleep before the 6:30am rise the following morning. With regards to some of the places we slept and ate in along the mountainous path - let’s just say they weren’t the Ritz or any Gordon Ramsey eatery! We were often reminded of the fundamental fact that everything had to be physically carried from the town below up the dizzying heights of these mountains. This was done either using horses or simply on a persons back. This was also reflected in the prices of stuff - for example a Mars bar was more expensive the higher we trekked, since it was carried further.

Once we completed the 10 days of back-to-back activities we were a bit jaded, and got another bus from Pokahara back to Kathmandu, to rest for 24 hours. We are heading to India (first stop, New Delhi - the capital) tomorrow for 5 weeks with a hectic schedule of travel, criss-crossing the country. We had planned to get the train there, but have been advised the bus/train combo is 37 hours from Kathmandu and that the route is somewhat unreliable. Next best alternative is to fly instead! Hey presto… 2 hours and we’ll be in Delhi…

India - we’re on our way….

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Photos

Yes - its another day in paradise..
WHHOOOHOOOOO!!

Local jungle expert!
So which way is it again?

Heavy load!
This guy climbed over 10km with this on his back...