Nepal (& N. India)

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NEPAL (& NORTHERN INDIA)
This country, which I visited twice in 2009 (once in spring and once in the fall), just amazes me. Geographically & culturally straddling the transition from India in the south to Tibet in the north, from the Gangetic Plain (called The Terrai in Nepal) to the High Himalaya, it just reaches the southern outliers of the Tibetan Plateau.

It's people impress me the most, which is saying something considering its spectacular terrain. They look much like Indians in the south, and like Tibetans in the north, with the central valleys and Himalayan foothills (including Kathmandu) being a mix of peoples. This ethnic mix is often exemplified within individuals. Despite this position between two enormous (and enormously influential) countries, Nepal & its people retain a unique identity. And although they rejected monarchy decades ago, it still has the feel of a kingdom, perhaps similar to Andorra in Europe.

The people of Nepal are my favorites among the countries I've visited thus far (Cambodians being a close second), and the kids are just adorable. I just love their warmth, cheerfulness, earnestness and their get up 'n go! Especially the women work extremely hard, all day long. They are generally sharp and fair-minded people, who incidentally have come further along than India away from the caste system.

When I first landed in Kathmandu from Delhi, and was met by the husband of my travel agent, I immediately felt a strong welcoming spirit pervading the place, and most of all the excitement of all the possibilities for adventure. Nothing against India, but I was so glad to have left that overly chaotic place and arrived in a place of such strong contrasts that chaotic scenes can be easily left for gorgeous alpine ones.

It really is a great country to spend time in, where genuine connection with the people is so easy and fulfilling, even in the city. There are the normal frustrations of a third world country: delayed transport, desperately slow formalities, and (an occurrence you can set your watch by) regular power outages. But these are more than made up for by the stunning scenery and the impressive people.

In the spring of 2009 I spent some time in Kathmandu and Pokhara, did a few day hikes and bike rides, and spent a glorious week on the Karnali River in western Nepal, ending by visiting Royal Bardia National Park in the southwestern Terrai. I did no trekking (gasp!), but met some great people and experienced the culture and wildlife like one cannot do on the popular treks.

In fall of 2009 I returned and trekked in the Khumbu (Everest) region, climbed a trekker's peak (Island Pk), and spent some time again in Kathmandu, plus went rafting and canyoning on the Bhote Khosi River. Next time I will try to enter from Lhasa in Tibet, do a more-remote camping trek like Dolpo-Manaslu or Kanchenjunga, then perhaps do another rafting trip (the Tamur!).

The Kathmandu area is beautiful and actually quite rural and undeveloped outside of the city. The city itself is of course choked with traffic spewing noxious fumes, with constant horns and general chaos. It thus has some of the most polluted air you will find anywhere. But (and I think this is the Buddhist influence) the atmosphere is nonthreatening and sincere, even mellow in a crazy chaotic way. The people are extremely busy making a living, yet if you wish to interrupt their day for help, or just to do touristy things like take their photo, or even just to talk or joke, they happily oblige, with characteristic warmth and good humor.

Places like Boudhanath and Patan's Durbar Square possess a strong aura, spiritual or just full of history depending on your bend of mind. The Stupa at Boudhanath is particularly atmospheric, full of the devout as well as tourists aplenty, all walking around the giant stupa clockwise. I can't imagine missing it. The tourist village of Thamel in NW Kathmandu is a maze of narrow streets hemmed in by all manor of businesses catering to trekkers and other travelers. It is an experience just navigating the crowded, noisy streets, and all the hawking and other sensory input can quickly wear. So most people need to escape Thamel after being there a relatively short time.

Fortunately this is pretty easy to do. Within 20 minutes of taxi or bicycle travel to the north and west, you are greeted by open spaces, small villages with kids shouting “Namaste”, even forests full of birds and monkeys. I highly recommend renting a good mountain bike in Thamel (look around, good Treks are available) and heading out with the excellent map published for bicycling the Kathmandu Valley. You can also hike the steep Shivapuri mountain just northwest of town, heading up to the temple at the top. But bicycling around the valley is really the best way to have some great interactions all the while getting away from the pollution of the city and getting great exercise.

The city has grown of course, like everywhere, and you will meet people who were here 20 years ago and claim it is ruined. But the facts are that it is the religious, cultural, and economic heart of Nepal, has an exciting atmosphere (which predominates over tourism greatly), and sits in one spectacular valley. An excursion that I did not do is going up to Nagarjun, the high lookout that you can either spend the night in (for morning views of the Himal), or just get a taxi up to, walking part of the way back.

In Pokhara, the only other significantly touristed town in Nepal, things are more relaxed and laid back, the air is cleaner, and the mountains even closer than Kathmandu. But perhaps because of its smaller size, and this really only by the lakeside, tourism seems to occupy a larger space in its identity. People do not seem to be as accepting of tourism. The surroundings are spectacular and the hiking stupendous. Renting a moto, I explored upvalley, past the lake, and also went to the two lakes west of town, where I traversed steep ridges between the lakes and met a guy who runs a community project trying to both help the poor Muslim villagers who live back in the hills, and also control the soil erosion threatening agriculture in the area. I thought of volunteering with him next time in Nepal, and taking the meditation classes his mother offers from a house high up on top of a ridge overlooking the lakes.

In Western Nepal, travel gets much tougher, tourists are few, and lodging options much more rustic. Roads are truly horrible, so consider flying. Once there, the Karnali River begs to be rafted. You float down through a wild canyon, on a fish-filled river, meeting the people of small remote villages, and running big class III-IV rapids. One thing you notice however, is the forest has been degraded. The larger trees are left, but smaller vegetation is cut both for firewood and for animal forage. The forest floor is regularly burned, presumably to foster green growth, but it does not really work when done to the extent it is.

Also, you can visit Bardia, a low forested area cut by many waterways and teeming with elephant, one-horned rhino, monkeys, large boar, giant python and cobra, several deer species, monitors, leopards, and the incomparable tiger. I just missed seeing a tiger, instead coming across its huge and fresh print. But I saw the biggest snake I have ever seen, an Indian rock python over 20 feet long, who had recently eaten a deer. An area I did not visit (maybe next time) is the high country of the west, where Himalayan blue sheep live, along with their elusive and graceful predator, the snow leopard.

I stayed in the city of Nagarjun, where I was the only tourist. It was there that I really began to notice that this region retains evidence of the recent unrest related to the Maoist rebels. You can spot the communists, with their distinctive squarish olive-green caps. But even they are helpful and pretty easy going.

Another region with a distinct identity is the Khumbu, where Sagarmatha (Everest) lies, and the home of those smiling human lungs, the Sherpas. Despite being inundated by trekkers during the spring and fall high seasons, Sherpas are generally good for much friendlier greetings than one gets from fellow western trekkers (many of whom do not even return a hello). And if you show interest and kindness to their oh-so-cute children, they warm immediately, broad smiles on hearty, weather-beaten and characterful faces. And tough! Women (all over Nepal actually) carry loads of rice or forage straight up steep hillsides. Porters, from pre-teen girls & boys, up to old men in sandals, traverse steep and rocky trails with 100-pound loads.

Khumbu is one of the richest regions of Nepal, with many new and beautiful stone houses open to trekkers as “teahouse” lodging. These families are sending their kids to good schools in Kathmandu, or even Australia. All this has resulted from years of trekker traffic, along with significant help from climbers and others intent on giving back to the Sherpa community. It actually has caused jealousy on the part of other rural Nepalis, and has had the effect of making some people there uncharacteristically frosty toward tourists.

But for the most part, Sherpas are the way people are meant to be - helpful, hardworking & uncomplaining, devout, and physically & mentally strong. Their home is one of the most spectacular on Earth, and those mountains supply the water for valley agriculture. But melting glaciers are starting to have an impact, affecting already dryish valleys, depriving farmers and herders of water for their crops and animals. It will undoubtedly get worse as global warming really takes hold, and Himalayan glaciers shrink toward oblivion. The region will most likely be uninhabitable at that point. And the same process will literally affect billions in Pakistan, India and Tibet. Sad.

One thing that takes getting used to, and can be very amusing with the right attitude, is the slowness with which anything having to do with government, or “officialdom” takes place. For example, I needed to visit the immigration office in Kathmandu to extend my visa. After a hot and sweaty walk, I finally found the place. On entering, seeing a crowd of trekkers and tourists, and being told by another westerner that I could be there the rest of the day (it was 11 a.m.), I despaired. But an official informed me that I could receive “expedited” service if I paid $25 instead of the usual $12.50. Guess which I chose? I was out of there in an hour.

Another occasion, I had to go to the Air India office to change a flight; nothing gets done over the phone (though a pre-visit call is necessary). I really tried to nail down the office's location before beginning the trek. It goes like this when visiting an office: First, you get the radical contrast between the hot and noisy street (beep beep beep...) and the hushed a/c of the office interior. Here things progress at a glacial pace. Things are done with deliberateness, many steps taking the place of one or a few that are necessary in the west. While you are waiting, idly observing all this, the door opens and in steps another “victim”, chased by a rush of noise and hot air from the “real world” outside. Every employee stops what they are doing to see who it is entering their world. The person looks around, taking a minute to get used to the dimmer light and trying to gauge how many hours they might be there, then invariably sidles to a seat, and with a sigh resigns to the wait like any good South Asian seems to have infinite capacity for. It is highly amusing.

The nature of Nepalis and Indians is to take these sorts of things in stride, never complaining about things over which they have no control. The nightly power outages are so routine in Kathmandu that everyone just adapts, either investing in a generator, or just going with it. We all could take a lesson. They will freely criticize how government handles things, or debate how tourism needs to be better handled.

These people are clearly not sheep, but the malfunctions that can drive a westerner crazy do not even merit a second thought. They are people who concentrate their energies on those things which immediately impact themselves or their families. I think they value peace too much to make many waves. They perhaps worry about civil unrest the way we in the west cannot.

For example in Nepal, strikes happen so regularly that they are viewed in the same ho-hum manner as the power outages. The tendency to take life as it comes, which probably is as much an Asian (especially south Asian) cultural characteristic as it is an artifact of their Buddhist or Hindu faiths. Speaking of religion, both Hindus and Muslims have much the same temperament as Buddhists regarding the chaos that invades their lives.

A feature of Nepal that I have noticed, along with N. India, is the sad, tragic circumstances of large segments of the population. No surprise here; poverty continues to plague them, even though mitigated by the entire gamut of international aid organizations. In Nepal however, the population is not nearly as dense as it is in North India, and thus the problem is not one you are confronted with constantly.

In Calcutta for instance, as well as in Old Delhi, the overwhelming pressure of masses of poor people on the city streets and buildings makes for an extremely filthy environment. But even though as a westerner you are seen as extremely rich, I have felt safe on those streets. It's striking, particularly as compared with third world Latin American countries. In fact, I regard most or even nearly all of Asian cities as being safer than most U.S. cities. Maybe I am blissfully unaware (or lucky), but even petty theft seems to happen to a much greater degree amongst and between western tourists, then is perpetrated on them by local people.

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