The final instalment of a memorable journey

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Pokhara R&R and reflections



Well after three weeks on the trail we have arrived back in civilisation with a couple of days R&R in Pokhara.

I won’t bore you with a detailed journal of our time here but needless to say we are enjoying the good food, some different beers and doing some shopping for our loved ones back home.

I had a haircut and beard trim which felt like heaven followed by a massage on the first day. It was so good I’ve convinced the other guys to try a massage in Kathmandu before we depart of Friday.

We did meet Himal, Suman and Tom for lunch and an opportunity to thank them for their hard work sharing the Manaslu/Tsum Valley with us. Himal brought along his son Yushan who is six. Lovely boy albeit a little awed to be out at a restaurant with a group of noisey white guys.

We gave the guys, what I think we’re pretty generous tips but they were worth every cent, not just for their guiding and carrying works but for their companionship. We also organised tee shirts for them embroidered with Manaslu Tsum Valley 2018 on the front and “Kia Ora Bro” across the backs. The tee shirts weren’t ready for the lunch so we left at Theo hotel for them to pick up. Based on the photos they were well received.

With our newfound proficiency at Facebook we’ve now “friended” the three of them. It’ll be interesting to see if we do maintain contact or they become like all my other Facebook contacts, that is neglected.

We had a couple of really good meals in Pokhara, twice at a pizza/grill type place and once at a place, Chilli, where we’d been on previous trips. While the Nepali Food on the trek was not an issue it is nice to just have a bit of familiar old western tucker!

One major discovery, for which I’ll be forever grateful to Pokhara, is Hoegaarden Belgium Beer with a slice of orange in it. A really nice refreshing drink and quite different to the usual lime or lemon in a wheat beer.

Pokhara also has a Gurkha museum dedicated to the various Gurkha regiments that have fought alongside UK, Indian, Australian and New Zealand troops since the 1800s. A really interesting history and well worth a couple of hours.

We did a fair bit of shopping which was nice, always feels satisfying to be taking home something for loved ones. None of us are really good shoppers (I run from shops as soon as the shop assistant show any interest in me) but hopefully we’ve made good choices and not just purchases that will enhance the range in the Salvation Army Opp Shop in a few weeks.

I’m sitting writing this at Pokhara airport while waiting for our delayed flight to board. Looks like we’ll be an hour or so late out of here and obviously anyone’s guess whether our bags follow us, go ahead or don’t go at all!

So we now have one day left here in Kathmandu then the long journey home but this now marks the end of the blog for this fabulous trip (unless of course something truly remarkable occurs in Kathmandu).

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading as much as I’ve enjoyed putting our experiences down in writing and will now leave you with a few reflections on the journey:

?I feel honoured to have been able to share such a wonderful experience with three really tremendous guys. In many respects, while I have attempted to convey the essence of the trek via this blog, it is one of those life experiences that the true nature of which can only be fully comprehended if you’re a participant. This common view will no doubt bond Gordie, Arch, Chris and I closely in the future.

?Gordie is, for me, a real inspiration, he is over twelve years older than me and yet managed to complete this arduous adventure. If I can be doing this at his age I’ll be ecstatic.

?Because we are Kiwis and bring with us the egalitarian views and beliefs that are part of our culture we bonded closely with Himal, Suman and Tom (the guide and two porters respectively). Initially I believe they found it a bit awkward that we treated them as equals but as time wore on those barriers did weaken and by the end they were friends and will remain so for life.

?We have left behind the only Nepali guides and porters who speak a smattering of Te Reo. This started with my sick day and teaching Tom “ Kia Ora Bro”. Rather shamefully that is almost my limit but Gordie rose to the occasion and almost daily gave them a new phrase or word. Kia Ora Bro will however remain their catch cry.

?Nepal is a truly beautiful country. The one blight is litter and in particular plastic. We, the western world, have much of the blame for this. In the aid of progress we have given these people (including those living remotely in the mountains) plastic products and packaging but no means or infrastructure to remove or deal with it after use. The countryside is consequently littered with plastic bottles, packaging and bags and sacks etc. Frequently the most beautiful river bank or gorge was used a dumping ground.

Fortunately given the grandeur and scale of the landscape your eye is drawn above the litter and despite its being omnipresent after a while you cease to notice it. That in itself is however sad.

If there was one thing I could do for these people it would be to help them eliminate the litter and gain the infrastructure to return the environment to its true natural state. They increasingly rely on tourism for survival and, frankly, unless they can resolve this issue before long the tourists will cease to come in numbers.

Lastly while on this “high horse” we, in three weeks of trekking, didn’t use a single plastic bottle of water. We treated local water (in our case using a Steripen, but there are other chemical methods equally suited). Overall we drank in excess of 150l of water so even if the Steripen only lasted for a single trip that would be close of about $1 per litre. Is that too much to ask for the elimination of 150 plastic bottles, I think not and would encourage anyone travelling to Nepal, or for that matter any third world country to do so without buying bottled water. It’s not hard and does make a difference!

?Manaslu was materially tougher then our previous trek around Annapurna and Nar Phu Valley. While the altitude was similar it required a number of longer days and after a couple of weeks of this you did grow pretty weary. Gobinda (our guide for Nar Phu) had warned me of this and suggested it would be better with a porter. This was advice I chose to ignore and am please to have done so, but if anyone is contemplating doing this carrying their own kit you really do need to have done the hard yards of fitness before leaving otherwise I can believe it could become a pretty miserable experience.

?In general the tea houses were pretty good, in fact in Tsum Valley they surpassed our expectations. They are, however, pretty basic and generally pretty rough and ready. Things you need to be prepared for are; no power and sometimes no lighting, toilets outside and hence as it gets colder a pretty chilly experience in the middle of the night, kitchens that frequently don’t come close to our standard of hygiene (but do often turn out pretty good food), windows that are a different size to the frame they are fitted in and hence do little to keep out the wind and cold and mattresses that vary from rock hard to so soft that they don’t pad you from the wooden pallet below, either way the beds are hard or harder.

If you are looking for comfort, hygiene or any sort of pampering this is not the experience for you!

?The local people almost without exception are friendly, welcoming and despite the language barrier always made us feel like valued guests in their villages or accomodation. Despite living an incredibly hard life the kids are always smiling and frequently keen to interact with us trekkers.

?We took hundreds of photos and many hours of video during our journey. None of it truly reflects the scale and grandeur of what we saw and were part of. It is impossible, in my view, to truly portray the Himalayas, to really “see” it you need to be here and just stand looking around you. At lower altitudes you look up at impossibly high vistas and as you climb the landscape develops below you while continuing to tower above.

?In 2015 they suffered the devastating earthquake that was centred in Manaslu. This earthquake killed over 9,000 people, injured over 20,000 and rendered over 3.5m people homeless. The total damage cost was estimated at being 50% of the Nepalese GDP.

Visiting the area where this disaster was centred two and a bit years after the event we expected to see considerable evidence of the destruction and issues it caused. In general however these resilient people have picked up the pieces rebuilt their simple homes and moved on with life. Despite significant efforts by various NGOs there appears to be no expectation that anyone will help them apart from themselves. A real inspiration and perhaps a lesson we in our western developed countries could learn from!

?While the people (especially as you gain altitude) are obviously tough and resilient the characteristic that I think best characterises them is patience. When building a house the women will squat for days (probably months) hammering rocks to make usable aggregate for the concrete. You see them working tirelessly beside little heaps of rock slowly creating enough for some concrete to be made and another part added to the house. Likewise the guys spend hours dressing the faces of stone blocks with hammer and chisel to allow the walls to be made. Progress is slow but they merely plod on knowing eventually they will finish.

We went up to eight days without showers and similar periods of time without usable internet. Not that long ago, in and evolutionary sense, internet didn’t exist and showers were a luxury now we assume both are available on demand. Going without was actually, I think, therapeutic. Initially you suffered withdrawal, felt grimy and missed contact with and news from loved ones at home. After a few days you reached a sort of knowledge and grime equilibrium where you concerned yourself with the immediate surroundings and enjoyed the moment. Not that contact or showering wasn’t appreciated when it returned but during the periods of absence your priorities subtly changed.

?My final reflection is pretty simple: “life is for living and there are no dress rehearsals” so get out and experience it while you can. We sure have over the past four weeks and are better for it!

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Photos

Chicken and egg delivery in Pokhara.
The local equivalent to Countdown supermarket delivery service.