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Published: November 28th 2013
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Namasté! This you will hear all day long wherever you go. You will use it yourself all the time as well, with the greet you bow your head slightly and bring your hands together in front of you. It's the way of greeting in Nepal, which is more than just a 'hello' it has a deep spiritual meaning(Hindu).
"The divine light in me honours the divine light in you." The hands held in union signify the oneness of an apparently dual cosmos, the bringing together of spirit and matter, or the self meeting the Self. It has been said that the right hand represents the higher nature or that which is divine in us, while the left hand represents the lower, worldly nature.
Kathmandu is a crazy city with a little unstructured airport. Meaning that you have to take out local currency, then change it in at least 40USD, get your photo's taken.., and then you can get your visa. This is not pointed out anywhere, which resulted in people lining up multiple times to find out they were still missing something😊
Kathmandu has very different faces; from touristy in Thamel, very dirty on the way to the Monkey to temple, to sacred and calm in other areas. Everywhere there are cars, motors, tuktuks & riksjas. There is no way of escaping them nor possibly the heavy black exhaust in this ants nest.
The sacred places where I've been in and around Kathmandu are;
* Durbar Square- plaza in front of the old royal palace, 16th century.
* Swayambhunath- better known as
the Monkey Temple(those holy monkeys attack), 464-505 AD
* Bhaktapur- ancient Newari town, 12th century
* Pashupatinath- oldest Shiva Hindu temple & cremations on the River, 400 AD
* Boudhanath- Highest Stupa in the world(36m), important to Tibetan Buddhists, 5th century.
I do have mixed feelings about my KTM experience; met some great people in the hostel, in this same place my Ipod got stolen, and the workers smiled very friendly but didn't do anything. I found this dirt cheap Indian place, so yum! Also the Newari kitchen and of course Momo's (steamed local dumpling) gives me a happy face. The smog is disgusting, the riksjas beautiful, some stray dogs vicious(got attacked), English of shop owners is poor which doesn't help them with their very standard 'pick up lines'.
However the best line I've heard was, when picking up my laundry; "you have nice laundry". Confused as I was I asked, 'you mean your service or do you actually mean my laundry?' I got a shy smile in return...
After visiting here and there, trying local (street) food and try to learn to pronounce all the long Nepali names I head out towards the Himalaya, so excited! Pokhara
is very touristy but nicely situated along a big lake, with colourful boats. Due to the mix of touristy spots but still lots of local places around I did enjoy my time here. In between I did the Poonhill- Ghorepani Teahouse trek(55k, elevation 2200m). Supposingly 4-5 days, it took me 2,5 days. Of course because I'm so fit compared to everyone else..
Okay and being by myself maybe helped a little because the only one to slow myself down was me, and I would make longer days than with a guide, who tend to stop shortly after lunchtime.
Day 1:Nayapul (1070m) to Bantanthi(2210m) around 10 km
The road was first a dirt road going uphill, this changed in steps though up, up, up. The views were over the river, butterflies, some millet fields and some marihuana plants where spotted as well. Closer to Banthanti and up those darn steps there were so many trees with the romantic cherry blossom. Day 2: Bantanthi via Ghorepani(2750m) up Poonhill(3210m, 2km) to Bhaisa Karki (2480m)
Poon Hill, you supposingly need to see the sunrise, but because I was this close I arrived on the top around 9.30, resulting in amazing views and not a soul; the whole top for myself, which the clouds slowly coming in, magic! After through mostly forrest, with a lot of mud on the trail I arrived in Tadapani, where I got such a negative vibe I decided to continue; good decision; lovely place, with a fire and some monkeys on the way to accompany me.
Day 3: Bhaisa Karki via Ghandruk(1970m) back to Nayapul(1070m)
This was easy at first, with some surprising beautiful clearances giving me another full view of the range. Ghandruk was a more peaceful town, and is actually a real town contrary to Tadapani. After this, things changed; mostly downhill steps which were killing for the knees also the kids lost their charm; asking , harassing, blocking passage and even grabbing you for money. Very annoying, it spoiled my mood and sadly took away the ease to enjoy the beautiful rice fields all around me.
I arrived in Nayapul shortly after midday and it turned out to be there were no buses due to a strike: that you want to hear after a trek. You want a bus, a shower and relax. It took me hours to find a way to get back to Pokhara,
where I slept like a baby.
After some more relaxing days in Pokhara with fun mix of ladies, some rooftop yoga with our own personal instructress. I went with 2 of them to Chitwan national Park.
Here we met Ozzie Suzanne and her partner Yogan through their sign;
'stop the beating of the elephant' . What they've told us was even worse then the facts we already knew; besides the abuse to domesticate them and their strength is in their trunk not back, estimated 70%!o(MISSING)f the elephants there have TB, treatment takes 12 months, obviously the locals wont. Some of the elephant sound like horses on the pavement because they lost the padding of their feet. The locals wake them up at 3am to eat so they can work all day through..it keeps going on.. 😞
They also linked us in with this local guide who quit his job because who couldn't/didn't want to lie anymore to tourist and hopes he can start for his own. (Mukunda, g-aryal505@yahoo.com, 00977 984523962). The jungle trek with him was amazing, we left early early morning, we didn't go after tiger prints because it was an adult female which left a tiny
poop(meaning she's hungry), stumbled upon a king cobra(which excited the guide more than us) and we've seen a full grown male Rhino bathing. And much more, but these were the high lights.
After amazing Chitwan, hanging out with them good locals and friends, having a rhino taking a nightly stroll in front of our room(everyone missed it though😉) I had to make a decision; see more of beautiful Nepal with the chance of getting stuck due to elections, riots and strikes, or leave...
Also Tibet was on my 'bucketlist', but I decided against it: after looking more into it and speaking with Tibetans who live in refugee camps since they fled in '58, their statelesness, their stories, their 'future', and also their childrens 'future'. I didn't want to pay lots of money to China and basically 'reward' them for their derogatory and abusive attitude towards Tibetans. Instead I visited one of the refugee camps, bought some things from them, listened to their stories and gave them some warm clothes.
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Rilana
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Wowie wat een mooie foto's !! Echt geweldig dat je dit allemaal "gewoon" doet ... Kuzzzzz