Blogs from Nepal, Asia - page 383

Namche! Namche! Namche! After a predictably cold night we left Pheriche at 8.30am bound for Namche Bazaar. Most of the going was down until we got to scene of awfulness (and interestingly the amorous French couple's grubby liaison) THE WORST LODGE IN THE WORLD, Paradise Lodge at Deboche. The climb from Deboche to Tengbocke is super steep and as breakfast was now hours ago, extrenely hard with no fuel powering you on. You get really sick and tired of fighting for breath on uphill stretches. You start to feel as if you never want to walk uphill again. All worth it thought as we emerged triumphant in Tengboche and rewarded ourselves with a Veg Burger in the bakery. Possibly the nicest thing I've eaten on trek. Tasted almost Western. Then we set out for Namche. ... read more

Incredible day. Sleeping at five thousand 200 m (having to write it as the five numeral isn't working!) is not a comfortable experience. You sleep very lightly, aware of the bitter cold around your face and sucking at all the oxygen you can get. But at the same time it was a happy sleep as I had achieved my goal and knew that the next day we would be heading down. (On the subject of cold nights, I dunno how anyone manages to have children here. It's so cold I have perefcted the art of getting ready for bed without exposing any skin whatsover. The lack of hygiene is also a major turnoff, even if I didn't suddenly appear to be married to a tramp in a beard. Mind you, the Scots guys we met ... read more

Apologies for the world record-breaking delay since the last blog; it isn't our fault, honest. The internet connection here in Kathmandu is so painfully slow and unreliable that it could make your backside bleed. As a result, this is a disappointingly picture-free entry; you'll have to give your imagination a work-out, I'm afraid. Plus we've been entertaining the family, of which more anon, and thus too busy to write. But above all, we've been in India, the craziest, busiest, noisiest, dirtiest, friendliest, hardest, smelliest, weirdest, most intense destination of our travels, for which ten months on the road did not feel like adequate preparation. To paraphrase the Premiership prince of darkness, Sir Alex Ferguson, 'India: bloody hell.' Old India hands we'd met en route had warned us we would feel like this. We ignored them, naturally ... read more

A bus ride from Chitwan through several small towns brought us to our hotel near Pokhara, the Fulbari Resort & Spa Hotel. A copy of the Baghavad Vita, sort of like the Gideon's Bible, was in the drawer of the bedside table in our hotel room. The Fulbari Resort is right next to the enormous Seti River Gorge. As usual, our hotel is a striking contrast to the work that lies beyond. The grounds are quite lovely, with grass, flowers, and fish swimming under a little stone bridge and putting their mouths up for food, just like the carps in China. The hotel also has an "infinity" swimming pool, where the water seems to drop off over the edge on the horizon. Spa services include Ayurvedic massages. A few of us got foot massages, quite ... read more

In addition to riding elephants at Chitwan National Wildlife Park in Nepal, several of us took took a dugout canoe ride along the Rapti River. The large dugout canoes were powered by two very strong men with poles, Nepal's version of Venetian gondoliers. While coasting down the river, we saw smoke wafting up from a nearby river bank and a few men squatting near the fire. Our Chitwan guide told us that someone was being cremated. One of the men by the fire saw us coming and got up and shouted, "No pictures." Our guide, after asking a local woman nearby who was being cremated, explained to us that a 35-year-old woman from the village had died. He also said that ashes put in the Rapti River in Nepal eventually end up in the Ganges ... read more