Advertisement
Published: March 31st 2009
Edit Blog Post
so, on a last minute decision, and prompted by a promise to meet us from a guy we had befriended in Kashmir (from here on called Preeno - a nickname we made for him, Nathan>Nate>Nate Dog>Pre-Natal>Pre-Natal Home Dog - shortened to Preeno), we decided to head north to the mountainous country of Nepal (previously known as the Kingdom of Nepal, until a few years ago when the young prince killed his whole family - put a bit of a dampener on things. Now the maoists are in government and things are looking up).
Our journey over the border from india was EXTREMELY trying, due more to our own stupidity than anything else. we caught an overnight bus from varanasi up to the border (night buses are always a last resort, due to the terrible state of indian roads, the terrible state of indian driving and the inherent shortness of the indian race which makes bus seats incredibly cramped), and crossed at 4am. we had been told that the visa fee for a month was $30 USD, it had been raised to $40, this meant we could only get a 15 day one and would have to extend it, at extra
cost, in nepal. also, we needed a photocopy of our passport - we didn't have one. therefore we were told we would have to wait until 7am when the shops opened....this however had consequences for our onward journey - 8hrs by bus, to Pokhara. there was a strike on the roads by an indigenous group (only effective in day time - love that asian efficiency) so by the time our visas were sorted, which had been further delayed by having to recross to the indian side as the immigration had signed me out on the wrong date, apparently not everyone's brain is as fast as mine at 4am...? the culmination of all these mishapps meant we had to spend the WHOLE DAY in Sunali - an inevitable dump of a border town, before taking another night bus that evening on to Pokhara. the up side was that we met a great nepali guy who let us hang out at his friends restaurant all day, took us for lunch and gave us some interesting insights into Nepal.
first thing to notice is how good looking all the people are, beautiful women and some very attractive men all very fashionably dressed.
the tibeto-burman racial influence seems to have put them a cut above the indians in terms of looks and sense of style. even though there are 1.4billion people in india, you can't help but feel that there is a sense of scraping the bottom of the gene pool, high waisted tight jeans from the seventies, moustaches (Still! moustaches!), and an abomination of a tank top that seems to have got popular recently - purple, or orange or yellow fluffy synthetic material with silver flecks. i kid you not. anyway, i digress. the nepali people are beautiful people, and not just aesthetically. they are friendly and happy to engage in conversation, or offer assistance with no expectation of anything in return...a refreshing change.
we had a hellish overnight journey to pokhara - tim crammed on the backseat of the bus in a space that might take 4 comfortably, but with 6 instead. there was a mix-up with tickets and a lot of frayed tempers as due to the strike there were too many people wanting to travel, but not enough buses. not an experience that we wanted to repeat.
we arrived in pokhara - a beautiful town set on the shores of a large lake surrounded by hills, and in the distance snowy peaks. here we met up with Preeno and readied ourselves for our trek into the himalayas. in our wisdom, we had sent all our cold weather gear home from kashmir, so, we had to re-equip ourselves. nepal is the land of fake North Face gear - hurrah! so we bought down sleeping bags, water bottles, gore-tex jackets and technical tops, and headed for the hills.
we trekked for a total of 12 days and travelled from sub-tropical terrain through the bottom of gorges higher until snowy peaks were in sight. the annapurna circuit is a circular trek (as the name suggests) that follows the base of the annapurna range and passes through the worlds biggest pass at 5500m.
we pushed ourselves hard, walking 6-7hrs a day, but we made good progress and felt ourselves acclimatising to the routine. the route passes through many villages, each with a smattering of guesthouses along the way offering simple rooms and simple food. it was fascinating to see the environment, architecture, people and the religion change. as we climbed above the river we had been following, and out of the shadow of the gorges the climate became colder and drier with fierce winds, the people had more distinct tibeto-burman features, the religion changed to buddhism with prayer wheels and gompas along the way, and most importantly, tim stopped wearing his shorts.
the focus of the trek was reaching the Thorong La Pass (sounds like something out of Lord of the Rings) - we knew it was within our capabilities, but the further along the trek we got, the more the dangers of it were accentuated. we were reminded of the possibility of acute mountain sickness at every opportunity. many people we met along the way had suffered from mild forms of it - headaches, nausea, sleeplessness, this can however become much more serious in the form of a cerebral or pulmonary edema, causing death.....! we met a guide on the mountain who told us that 6yrs ago one of his group had laid down in the snow and died from a cerebral edema just a few hours below the pass....eeeek. however, apart from a few pressure headaches we were all fine. in fact, we found that the descent on the other side was harder work on the knees and feet than the walk up. we all ended the day with blisters -possibly not suprising seeing as tim and i were walking in our trainers.
overall we found nepal to be an extremely friendly and welcoming place, and were sorry that we didn't have enough time to explore it more thoroughly - unfortunately the rest of asia is calling (high class problem) so we had to move on...
for more trekking photos ad nauseum - paste this http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=81557&id=587436874&l=aa2000f826
also more photos to come - once tim manages to get his act sorted.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.14s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 11; qc: 51; dbt: 0.0839s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Dirty of Dubai
non-member comment
Those Moustaches
Hello you intrepid goose poking donkey slippers. I know what you mean about the Indian dress sense. The moustache is all the rage with Indians in Dubai, I might get one and also pull my trousers up high and tight above my waist. I could never get a tank top though, that is truly truly abysmal. Pics look amazing. Miss you both xx