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Published: December 15th 2007
Kathmandu
Andrew in Durbar Sq Hello all, we have just arrived in Varanasi, India after spending 3 chilled-out weeks in Nepal. We really enjoyed our time in Nepal because it gave us the chance to do lots of new activities. Its a really easy country to travel around and we have been doing lots of touristy stuff.
When we arrived in Kathmandu (after being driven by the 17 year old who had just passed his test!) we were surprised at how manic it was. There are little alley ways like in Brighton but they are not pedestrianised, instead they are jam packed with traffic including cars, motorbikes, rickshaws and of course tonnes of people. So when you're walking down them you really have to be on your guard and dodge them all to avoid becoming a casualty. The city is quite dirty at the best of times, but it was particularly bad during our visit as dustbin men were unable to clean the streets due to industrial action. On one street there was a dead monkey on top of a pile of rubbish and the smell of festering s*it was pretty unpleasant!
We stayed near a touristy area called Thamel where you could get
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Lady selling flowers in Durbar Sq hold of lots of things we'd missed in China, such as books, wood-oven pizza's, strong beer, wine gums, savoury bread, white wine, beans on toast, (!) but sadly there were no Crunchy Corn Flakes! There are lots of touts in the area so you are constantly hearing offers to sell you tiger balm, flutes, trekking guides, taxi or rickshaw rides, so should be good preparation for India!
It was a fairly relaxed week here, we visited Durbar Square which contains lots of impressive temples and went on some day trips in and around the capital. We visited an old town called Patan and two nearby temples, one is known as the "Monkey Temple" as there numerous monkeys hanging around, the other was a Hindu temple called Pashupatinath. This is the first place we'd witnessed a public cremation (part of the Hindu funeral ceremony) which was an overwhelming experience. Many families take their deceased relatives to the holy Bagmati River soon after death for cremation so that the spirit can pass into the next life. Children were standing in the river closeby, and we were told by a guide that they sift through the river bed to find traces of
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Two little Nepalis on Freak St gold and silver left behind from the cremated bodies. It is unbelievably different from how we conduct a funeral at home. There were also many local people & pilgrims from India washing in the river, although it appears to incredibly dirty and polluted.
From Kathmandu, we arranged a white water rafting trip on the Bhote Kosi river. This was great fun, and being thrown around the boat really got the adrenalin going. Amazingly, we both managed to stay in the boat for the 2 days, although there were a few close calls! We stayed at a really nice resort near the Tibetan border which made a nice change from our dingy guesthouse in Kathmandu. At the resort you can do bungee jumping and canyoning, Andrew fancied a go at the bungee, which is Asia's highest, but unfortunately they wouldn't open it up because there were not enough people who wanted to do it. Oh well, there's always New Zealand.
Our next destination was Pokhara, where we planned to do a 4 day trek in the Annapurna range. Lots of people do 17-21 day treks, but we decided to keep it short due to a lack of fitness and
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Monkey's at the Monkey Temple experience! Day 1 was fairly straightforward, although we had our first encounter with the Maoists (a militant communist party involved in a civil war with the government over the last 10 years or so). We had to give them a "voluntary" donation of 300 rupees each (roughly GBP2.50), they were the last people we wanted to give money because of their history of atrocities and extortion. However, we had no choice and later read reports in the Nepali press about a Swiss tourist trekking in the same area who refused to pay and had been beaten-up by the Maoists with bamboo sticks! So much for their policy of not jeopardising the tourist industry! A few days later, Kim was invited in for tea by a Nepali lady who told her that the Maoists had confiscated her house and left her with nothing. It was very harrowing, and highlighted how lucky we are to have a stable government.
Throughout the trek we stayed in lodges which served great Dal Bhaat, the staple Nepali food, and where we met lots of other tourists along the way. The Nepali people were very hospitable but the lodges themselves were absolutely freezing, especially at
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Worshippers at Monkey Temple the higher altitudes, as heating was non-existent and the walls in the rooms were usually made from bare plywood!
On the second day of our trek, it changed from t-shirt weather in the morning to snow in the afternoon. So when we arrived in Ghorepani we were covered in snow and very cold, luckily the lodge had a great fire in the common room!
On day 3 we woke up at 4:30am to see the sunrise at the top of Poon Hill, fortunately the cloud cover had cleared and we got a fantastic panoramic view of the Annapurna Range. Very cold at the top though! From Ghorepani we walked to Tadapani, which was a tough hike. We planned to go further, but once we'd sat down for lunch at 2pm we weren't going any further!
On the final day, we had company, in the form of a dog we named Shep. He followed us for 7 hours and was a right pain in the neck! He constantly ran in our path whilst we were trying to negotiate some steep descents and got into numerous fights with other dogs along the way, however we couldn't fault him on
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Kim overlooking Katm Valley at Monkey Temple loyalty so by the end we loved him! It was the easiest day of the trek, which was fortunate because we were knackered by the end of it! We treated ourselves to a taxi back to Pokhara, however the local bus may have been more straightforward, as the taxi (if you can call it that!) had two burst tyres on the way and Andrew had to get out and push a few times! We think he must have been the uncle of the 17 year-old we met on our first journey in Nepal because he had the same pony tail hair-style and kamikaze driving skills.
We really enjoyed the trek and the scenery en route was pretty special, we have vowed to come back to do a longer trek but will need to find some hills to practice on! We carried our bags, but next time I think we'll have to hire some porters, who are as fit as a fiddle. Its amazing to see the loads they carry at such high altitudes for so many days without breaking sweat.
We chilled in Pokhara for a couple of days, and met up with a lovely English lady called
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View of the Bagmati River from Pashupatinath Jean and her sherpa guide Mingmar (who plans to climb Everest one day!), although we were held up for a day due to some more stomach problems for "Sicknote" (this time we think it was a dodgy pizza). My facial hair growth had reached an unprecedented 6 weeks, but I decided to get a shave when Kim told me that my beard reminded her of Jeff's from Byker Grove! I was down to the barbers for a cut-throat in a flash!
Anyway, our final stop was Royal Chitwan National Park where we hoped to see some wildlife. We had a great few days riding elephants, going on Jeep Safari's and canoeing down the river. On the latter we saw lots of crocodiles, which was slightly nerve-wracking as our boat was simply a hollowed-out tree trunk. Our guide told us afterwards that he had been in boats attacked by crocodiles (because the boatmen had gone too close), however fortunately our limbs are still intact! We saw a Rhino and her baby on the elephant ride, along with lots of deer, wild boar, monkeys and birds. Unfortunately we didn't see any tigers, although we were told that sightings are very rare.
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People on the ghats at Pashupatinath Riding elephants was a great experience, I got on an elephant at bathing time by the river, and it was definitely one of the highlights of the trip so far. There is a mahout who commands the elephant to spray you with water from its trunk, they also lie down in the river whilst you're on their back causing you to fall off! I was slightly worried about being crushed underneath and scuttled away asap when I went in, but I think I was being a bit of jessie as there is no danger!
After spending 3 wonderful weeks in Nepal, we now plan to spend 10 weeks travelling around India. It looks like we'll be in Delhi for Christmas, although we feel about as Christmassy as an Easter Egg because there hasn't been anything to remind us its that time of year (except for the touts trying to sell us tat that they recommend as a "lovely Christmas gift!" When we tell them we won't be home for Christmas, they say its no problem as its light enough to carry until next year!). We will probably be missing home over the next few weeks, although when Jan
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Monkeys at Pashupatinath 2 comes it will be a different story!
Take Care. Happy Shopping
Andrew & Kim
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Kirsty
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Merry Christmas
Hi guys, Just a quick message to say Merry Christmas and a shame you are missing the normal Chelmsford Christmas carnage. Have a good Christmas. K x x