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Published: October 8th 2006
View of Annapurna from Ghorapani
Amazing feeling looking out at the Himalayas - difficult to translate in photos - you have to be there I'm afraid! Well - a full two weeks since my last blog - did you miss me??!! I can hear the distant sound of tumbleweed rolling through cyberspace....!
I had a fun journey into Kathmandu from Darjeeling which involved a 5 hour taxi ride back down the mountains (had the car to myself - slightly more comfortable than my 13 people to one jeep experience on the way up), to the border town of Kakarbhitta, through a series of wooden sheds that made up the Indian/Nepalese border checkpoints, to Biratnager airport in Nepal. Too many people told me not to get the bus (17 hours plus with no air-conditioning or legroom) - I ended up paying $100 for the whole koboodle (taxi and flight) - but hey...I thought I deserved it! For Biratnager airport by the way, read long strip of tarmac in the middle of a field in the middle of nowhere with a toilet and a concrete shed for check in. The little 18 seater plane duly arrived on time though and the flight was pretty cool if slightly cramped with views of the Himalayas. Funny moment on takeoff though when the solitary air hostess creeped down the small aisle
At the start of my Annapurna trek
That is a mountain in the background not a cloud - honest! bent double handing out cotton wool for peoples ears and boiled sweets!
It's been a whistlestop tour of Nepal for me - what an amazing country it is. I'm back in Kathmandu now for a few days now before flying back to Delhi on 11th October to finish my tour of India.
The first thing I'd say about Nepal is don't believe everything you read or hear - despite the riots and the protests of earlier in the year, everyone you speak to in the streets wants peace - and it really is a friendly place to visit, where the locals are never short of a smile or a wave. I know this bit will be quite boring but I thought I'd give a very quick snapshot of how things are here politically and socially.
Nepal is a mainly Hindu country (the second biggest religion is Buddhism), which up to recently had a king as it's ruler. The king is Nepal is regarded as a reincarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu and is therefore very highly revered. The problem is that this guy (King Gyanendra) is only king because nearly all other members of the royal family
Another summit - this one on the way to Tarapani
I was smiling because for every steep climb, there will be a downhill bit soon! were murdered. Back in 2001 a drunken Prince Dipendra decided to open fire with an assault rifle, killing 10 members of the royal family, including his parents the King and Queen, before using the weapon to kill himself. In the aftermath of this, the king's brother Gyanendra was proclaimed king.
With me so far? Okay - basically things have gone pear-shaped for Nepal since then. The Communist Party of Nepal (the Maoists) have been waging a people's war since 1996 against the Nepalese government, amid allegations of corruption and the failure of democracy to deliver improvements. As the vast majority of Nepal's population live in the countryside and are exceedingly poor, more and more of them have now either joined with the Maoists or sympathise with them in the hope their lot in life will improve. The Maoist movement now controls large areas of the Nepalese countryside. There have been 13,000 killings during the insurgency (mainly civilians in the crossfire), with human rights abuses by both the Maoists and the government led army.
The king has disolved and re-stated government on a few occassions - the last time in February 2005 for failing to agree a peace process
with the Maoists - support for him has deterioted from then on. His handling of the pro-democracy protests earlier this year was particulary inept - with 16 protestors being killed (including the burning of some bodies without family consent - a heinous crime in the Hindu faith). In the end the sheer size of the protests forced the King to stand down and reinstate the government in April 2006. Since then he has been stripped of all his powers and now just has a ceromonial role. This weekend the government and the Maoists are meeting to try and reach and peaceful settlement and move the country forward - here's hoping it's successful.
That ends my Nepalese history lesson - back to my travels!
I had a limited time in Nepal and wanted to make the most of it. My hotel (the very nice Ganesh Himal) had a tour counter and I managed to book a two day rafting trip down the Trisuli river (between Kathmandu and Pokara), a six day trek of the Annapurna mountain range, and a three day trip to the Royal Chitwan National Park all in one go. I get 3 days at the end
of all that for some Kathmandu chilling time.
I had one full day in Kathmandu first which gave me a chance to explore Durbar Square and the surrounding area. This place is at the centre of the old town is a complete muddle of around 30 temples in close proximity, with throngs of tourists and tour guides. Worth seeing just for the amazing architecture. Kathmandu itself is a welcome break from the major cities in India - a very chilled out place. I stayed in Thamel which is a very touristy area but I quite liked it - it had a bohemian feel to it. Lots of places selling the usual jewellery, puppets, masks and staues, and also lots of shops selling fake trekking and mountaineering gear. There are also many bars and restaurants here (lots with a mountaining "angle") and it's all quite lively and a fun place to be out.
Incidentally, I've picked a good time to come to Nepal - slap bang in the middle of the Dasain Festival - the most important religious festival in Nepal's calendar, which celebrates victory for the goddess Durga over the forces of evil personified in the buffalo demon
Marlene and I in Club Amsterdam, Pokara
The doubles pool champions smile for a picture! Mahisaura (bet you really wanted to know that didn't you?). There are 15 days of celebration - families get together, there is much merriment and eating, oh - and as Durga is a blood thirsty goddess there is some heavy duty blood-letting and wholesale animal sacrifices (on one day 108 goats and 8 buffalo are beheaded, each with a single swipe of a very sharp sword in Durbar Square alone).
The rafting was great fun - maybe slightly easy truth be told - it was level 2 to 3 apparently - which means every 45 minutes or so you have to row like the clappers and get splashed a bit when you hit some white water. A couple of times it got as bit hairy - I was at the front and got completely soaked! One bloke from Israel fell in but he had it coming by trying to do a Hawaii- Five-0 impersonation in the middle of a bloody big wave. The Nepalese "captain" was great value though - shouting out the orders to the crew from the back. "LEFT PADDLE!!" - "RIGHT PADDLE" - "LEFT BACK PADDLE!" - we were going round in circles at one point
and he was getting really cross - "YOU LISTEN TO CAPTAIN OR YOU OVERBOARD!!". What a laugh. One of the highlights of the rafting was camping on the riverbank under the stars in a deep valley - a truly memorable experience.
I went from the rafting to Pokara - Nepal's second city. It's again quite touristy, but has a lovely setting parked beside a lake with the Himalayas as a backdrop. Lots of bars and restaurants here selling tourist fare like steaks, pizzas and apple pies - all very nice after all those curries. The fake trekking gear shops are also everywhere - everything from sleeping bags to fleeces to boots. If you just stayed by the lakeside part of town all you would see is backpackers - luckily the old town is not too far away and you can get a feel for the real Nepal there.
Pokara is the base people use before heading off towards the Himalayas and the Annapurna mountain range specifically. I chose to do a six day trek - I thought I could do with the exercise!
The start of the trek was quite straight forward - going through two checkpoints
Me at the top of Poon Hill at sunrise
I clabbered up a bloody big hill in the dark but when the sun hit the mountains it was worth it. - one official government post where you pay 2,000 rupees for a trekking pass, and one not so official Maoist checkpoint where you have to pay 100 rupees per day for a permit. I think you are more likely to be in deep shit if you don't have your Maoist permit! We stopped after around 8 miles and spent the night in a nice little hill station called Tikedunga. I ended up having a serious game of cards with some Swiss girls and a couple of fun Irish girls called Brithney and Lynne from Cork by candlelight because there was no electricity!
The second and third days were mainly uphill and hardwork (around 8 miles a day). Walking continuously uphill for 4 hours on the second day to Ghorapani was a killer. Once you get up there though the views were incredible. I will never forget looking at those mountains first thing in the morning - definitely one of those "I'm glad to be alive" moments. You're almost 3,000 metres above sea level - the air is so clean and the skies are so blue. The fourth and fifth days were easier going and slowly down hill (around 7
miles a day) - but quite hard work on the knees. I met a buch of fun Dutch students at the hot springs in Jhinsu - they were on a trip to paint a school somewhere in Nepal and were now "enjoying" a four day trek. The hot springs were perfect for tired achey muscles after all that walking - I spent so long relaxing there by the time I got out I had seriously wrinkly fingers!
The fifth day ended up in Ghandruk. I had my first encounter with leeches on the way there. They look like something out of the Alien movie - little inch long worm-like things that crawl into your boots and suck your blood. The weird thing is you don't feel them - when I got to my hostel I took off my boots and found my foot was bleeding from a little bite mark near my toe. I looked in my boot and found a black slimy leech lodged inside the tongue!! Yuck! The good thing is the bites don't itch or hurt - the bad thing is, because they inject you some anti-clotting agent, you don't stop bleeding for hours afterwards!!!
Breakfast in Ghorapani with a mountain on my shoulder
About 6 in the morning and before coffee - sorry if I look rough! Ghandruk itself was seriously good fun because the village was in Dasain festival mood. No more goat beheading luckily - just fun and games with everyone sporting tikas on their foreheads(splodges of rice and red powder - representing the all-seeing, all-knowing third eye apparently!). They had constructed a swing made of bamboo and a mini man-powered ferris wheel for everyone to have a go on. It was a great laugh - the locals insisted I got on board the wheel - I seriously thought my big arse would break the thing!!
The sixth day of the trek was a nice easy descent. I went for dinner with my guide Kamal to thank him for looking after me up in the mountains and for teaching me some new card games. You really need a guide up there I think - the information in the guide books isn't sufficient and you learn a lot more about the people too with someone who speaks the lingo. The only bad thing I'd say was he didn't like you doing your own thing in the evenings (not that there was much to do)and wanted to go everywhere with you!
Trekking really is great
At the Maoist Checkpoint at the end of my trek
I'd made it back after 6 days of hard toil - a great feeling! And I want to do it again! I'm mad me. fun and has certainly whetted my appetite for more. I would like to come back and attempt the 16 day Everest Base Camp trek next time - over 5,000 metres above sea-level! If any of you lot want to come with me let me know (don't all volunteer at once!).I went to a place called the "Rumdoodle Bar" when I was in Kathmandu, and the walls are covered with big yeti feet placards full of messages of everyone who has trekked to Annapurna Base Camp or Everest Base Camp. All the famous climbers like Edmund Hilary amd Chris Bonnington have left messages there - it's a great bar and certainly an inspiring place!
The following day I totally vegged out - went to the "trekkers special" in the local massage centre ;-) and had a huge plate of steak and chips followed by apple pie and ice cream, before meeting up with the dutch crowd again for beers and pool in the aptly named "Bar Amsterdam". The local brew, "Everest Beer" goes down very well out
here - it really was a good night - the drinks flowed and the pool playing got worse and worse. They were a
Camping by the Trisuli river on my rafting trip
I was quite a long way from the tents by the way - they weren't that small! great bunch - and I'll be hopefully keeping in touch with Richard, Nick, Kim, Marlene, Elena, Sean and the rest in the future. They also confided that they had a name for my guide - apparently they called him "Mister Two Centimetres" - because that's the furthest he'd let me escape during the trek! Very funny.
I left Pokara for the Chitwan National Park the following day - in a ramshackle coach that actually had a hole in the aisle floor. When the driver got on I thought he was going to run along the floor like one of those stone age cars they use in The Flintstones! No such luck though - just a 6 hour bumpy sweaty ride to Sauraha.
Sauraha is a small village where most of the camps and lodges are that organise trips within the park. There was a ridiculous number of these places though - and when 30 or so of us got off the bus we must have all been taken to different camps judging by the number of placards displaying various lodge names and names of guests.
I ended up in the surreal "Chitwan Wildlife Safari Lodge" - the
Enjoying the hot springs in Jhinsu during my trek
"Aaahhh....I think I need at least 3 hours in here!" only other people staying there on the first night were a Nepali couple called Krishnan and Sheela. I got chatting to them but their Engliah was almost as bad as my Nepali - anyway Krishnan invited me to his place in Kathmandu when I got back, but told me not to mention where we met to his wife. I was slightly puzzled, but after an exagerrated wink I realised Sheela was his "bit on the side". He certainly knows how treat a lady - a weekend away to a derelict safari lodge!
The second night was even more bizarre when I went to watch the local "Stick-Dancing" in the village hall. I went with three old blokes who told me they were lawyers from Kathmandu, and a couple of girls they were with.
"Are they family?" I asked, as we walked along.
"No no, Mister Sean - prostitutes! Would you like to join us later after the stick dancing?"
"Err - it's ok mate - I think after the stick dancing I'd have seen enough banging for one day"
The stick dancing was hilarious. A very serious be-specteculed man introduced each dance via a "Norman Collier" style
Elephant bathtime at Chitwan 1
"Shampoo AND conditioner? I just wash and go!" microphone.
"...ies and ....leman .t ..ves me gre.. pleas... to ..troduce .. the sti.. dance .or a ...lage ..dding"
It was well done though and the villagers get an income from it so it can only be a good thing. In case anyone was in danger of falling asleep the last bloke came on to spin a flaming stick very quickly - just missing the curtains!!!
The actual animals (I guess that was the main reason I was there) were lacking in quantity but made up for in quantity. The elephant breeding centre and great fun to look around. The elephants were lovely and so friendly, especially the babies. We went on an elephant ride through the jungle (four of us on a wooden platform - I'm still pulling the splinters out of my backside!) and saw wild deer, a crocodile and a rhino! I had never seen a wild rhino before so got quite excited - think I took 45 pictures of it.
There are around 100 tigers in the Royal Chitwan Park, but my guide had worked there for 6 years and had only seen a tiger 5 times. So there wasn't much chance for me
Baby elephant at the breeding centre at Chitwan
"I'm only posing if you give me another banana" unfortunately!
The highlight of the trip though had to be going for a bath with an elephant. Bloody hilarious. You get in the river, climb on the elephants back and then you get treated to a trunkful for ice-cold water! This lasts for around 5 minutes when the elephant gets bored of you being on his back, shrugs his shoulders and you flip off head first back into the river!
So now I'm back in Kathmandu - just chilling out for a few days before my flight to Delhi and a return to "in-your-face" hassles and havoc! I love it there really - and I think I'll be in a better position to cope with it this time around. A few weeks travelling in Rajasthan before I go to Mumbai to get my flight to Thailand - time flies when you're having fun.
One final thing before I sign off - big hugs and love to my mum - currently recovering in hospital after a major hip replacement operation. You're a fighter mum and will bounce back better and stronger than ever! Get well very very soon and see you somewhere hot and sunny in 2007!!!! XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXSean
Enjoying the festival in Ghandruk with some locals
Note the bizarre ferris wheel contraption behind us!
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Mel
non-member comment
At last more blog!
That was a very long 2 weeks with nothing to read you have no idea! Your blog is a lovely escape from the norm of working and running round with the kids! I'm thoroughly enjoying your travels! Keep blogging! Love Mel xxx