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Published: October 15th 2008
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I almost didn't go to Nepal as I had read that during Monsoon it rains twenty four days in the month of August and I wasn't keen on a drenching but someone from the Africa trip was there and said it wasn't too bad. I am glad I did!! Apart from the touristy areas in Kathmandu, Nepal is a lot more laid back and the people are abit more subtle than India.
The city centre area of Thamel is made up of lots of narrow roads lined with souvenir shops, hotels, internet café’s but if you walk for 5-10 minutes all of a sudden you come across old temples and local markets. Very similar to other cities there are lots of touts and on the first day I was inundated with offers of visits to various travel agents, tours around the city and by people selling Tibetan ‘singing’ bowls, chess sets and prayer flags. One tout followed me for fifteen minutes insisting that what I needed was a recorder and it took a lot of persuading to get him to understand otherwise.
The bars, restaurants and hotels were very atmospheric with signed photos, climbing gear, hand prints etc of
famous climbers that had come to Kathmandu to climb in the Himalaya. The hotel I stayed in had a signed t-shirt from a school party near St. Albans.
One of the things I was keen to do in Nepal was to see the Himalaya and of course Everest! The easiest way to do this is to catch a small 14 seater plane on an hour long tour from Kathmandu. Due to the time of year it was quite cloudy but it was possible to see the peaks looming out of the mist. The view of Everest was amazing but with a little turbulence on the return trip and being in such a small plane, it was a relief to get back on the air strip.
As I have been advised by numerous people the best way to see a country is to get out of the cities so I booked a two day white water rafting tour down the Trisuli river. There was a lack of white water but it was a great way to travel and see the countryside and I managed to avoid going overboard despite numerous attempts by the raft leader!
There are only
a couple of roads cutting across the mountains from east to west of Nepal and I was fortunate to be put on a bus towards Chitwan NP. Even though we had paid for transfers, other people had vehicles flagged down for them (one being a gas truck) and were unceremoniously thrown into them or put on the roof and sent on the way. I was a bit cautious about this as you would quite often see vehicles that hadn't braked in time and disappeared of the edge the mountain. It was also common to see gaps in the wall on corners where someone had just kept on going!!
The next stop was Chitwan NP, which involved a long jeep journey, followed by a row boat across a misty river to a secluded jungle lodge. The next few days involved various jungle walks, boats trips etc but unlike Africa there was a lack of animals as the parks in Nepal have been heavily hit by poachers. I did see wild boar, rhino and crocodiles but apart from some footprints (I was dubious how they got there) the famous tiger was elusive. The atmosphere in the jungle lodge more than made
up for it!!
Pokhara was a highlight of Nepal, it has great views of the Himalaya and this is where a lot of the treks start from but due my previous trekking experience in Darjeeling and the unseasonal heat it was enough to put me off and I passed up on the opportunity.
The actual town of Pokhara is geared up for tourists and there are 100’s of agencies and climbing shops but because of previous political trouble and being slightly off season most of the streets were relatively quiet. However the were a number of Tibetans hawking on the street and nearby there are 1000’s of them based in camps outside the town. One woman I spoke to who was about 30, Tibetan, had never been there but still hoped to go there as soon as the situation changes.
During the few days I was there I went to the Gurkha museum. There is still a British recruiting station in Pokhara and 100’s of Nepalese come here to go through the rigorous training to earn good money and get the option of becoming a British Citizen. Just looking at some of the photos you can see
why they some are some of the most feared soldiers in the world.
I enjoyed Nepal and would be keen to go back there at a better time in the season to go trekking.
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