The Elusive Mountains

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I can’t put off writing this travel blog any longer. And I resent writing it now – as everyone who had fantastic travel plans and had to cancel them resents the way covid has changed the world. Though I should consider myself fortunate that covid has affected only my travel plans.



I had a week in Nepal in November 2019. I went from meeting to meeting not leaving Kathmandu to establish collaborations and plan subsequent field visits for my research. Then two weeks in Nepal in February 2020 where I visited project sites in Kathmandu Valley and the lowland Terai region. The next visit in April was going to take me to the projects in the high Himalayas: in Mustang, in Far West Nepal, and around Tsho Rolpa Lake. From a research perspective, my project suffered from being unable to incorporate those locations, though I adapted the research and it has still been productive. From a personal perspective, I am gutted that I have been to Nepal twice and not been into the Himalayas!



I planned to write a single Nepal travelblog at the end of the three trips. I now have one month left on my fellowship at Kyushu University in Japan and have reluctantly accepted there is no way the third trip will happen. Therefore, here is a Nepal travelblog that is written with some love (Nepal was still great on those first two trips) and some spite (that I couldn’t make the third trip).

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When I say I went from meeting to meeting, that was not entirely accurate. I often had a meeting in the morning then the rest of the day free. In such cases I could squeeze in a bit of sightseeing then work from one of Kathmandu’s many excellent cafes in the afternoon (great coffee, great fruit shakes, great cakes and I could stock up on books in English to bring back to Japan).

Perhaps the most well-known sights in Kathmandu are the Durbar Squares, of which there are three: in Kathmandu, in Patan, and in Bhaktapur. While these were formerly three cities, they are all now essentially Kathmandu. A Durbar Square translates as a royal square and represents a plaza containing all manner of temples, statues and fountains in front of a royal palace. You may unwittingly know of these squares from videos of the 2015 earthquake that showed many of the structures collapsing. Restoration is underway but many of the former sights in the squares remain piles of rubble. The squares are best wandered through at night when they are dimly lit and quiet, though still well-peopled but not full of tour groups (and free).



I also visited Swayambhunath Stupa, aka the monkey temple. It’s easy to see how it gets its name when you come across the troops of holy monkeys if you wander over the back under the countless strings of prayer flags. The highlight is perhaps the view of the city and the surrounding hills through the veil of smog. Boudha Stupa is a massive bright white stupa in Boudhanath surrounded by monasteries; definitely worth a visit. Kirtipur is nice to stroll around with its many temples, stupas, fountains, few people and good views over Kathmandu.



I reached many of these places on foot, which could sometimes be an hour or so walk on mucky roads with screaming motorbikes, over rubbish-filled grey rivers. Like many Kathmandu locals, I wore a facemask (this was pre-covid) due to the dust and pollution that will have you coughing after a short walk. Despite the horrible bits, these walks would bring me past temples seemingly around every corner, ancient buildings, ornate stone spouts that have been providing groundwater for religious and domestic purposes for centuries (thrilling to a hydrogeologist), markets, and more excellent cafes.



I did really like Kathmandu. Even the tourist-central area of Thamel is still rewarding for a stroll, especially if you need some trekking gear (I came back with a new camping stove and a sleeping bag). I also never once experienced any hassle to buy anything, book anything, give anyone anything, or follow someone somewhere, unlike happens relentlessly in countries (well, one country) not too far away.



If you need a day trip out of the city, it is possible to find some cleaner air and green space after just half an hour on a minibus. And everyone will help you find the right bus. I caught a bus to Budhanilkantha then walked up to Shivpuri Nagarjun National Park. At the entrance I was told a guide was mandatory and would cost me an extraordinary amount of money. Generally, I’m not a fan of having a guide. Especially not on a day hike on marked paths for which I had a map, albeit on my phone, and where locals do not need a guide. We haggled, I told him I was working in Kathmandu (true) so familiar with the place (not really true) and would be returning via a different route so wouldn’t that be problematic for a guide? He let me in though carrying a signed note saying I knew what I was doing.



It was a nice hike up through the forest with the best view coming not from the summit of 2732 metre Shivpuri Peak but from a rocky outcrop a few 100 metres before it. To the south you have the smog-filled Kathmandu Valley and to the north beyond layer after layer of forested ridges you have the tantalising 7000 metre snowy peaks of Langtang.



While up there I met some Nepali trail runners who noticed I was wearing trail running shoes and a running watch (and were surprised I kept catching them up even though I was only hiking). They told me about a series of trail races around the Kathmandu Valley and gave me the web address: http://ktmseries.com/. Consequently, my next visit to Nepal in February miraculously coincided with a trail race at Badikhel on the south side of Kathmandu Valley opposite to Shivpuri National Park. It was only 15 km but had over 1000 m of elevation gain and an average altitude of around 1800 m. I was very pleased and surprised with 8^th place, especially after getting lost a couple of times – orange marker tapes on trees are not good if you are colour blind – and with the super steep final downhill that often required both hands and a bum to descend and was where I caught up and had to try and pass families who were running the 7 km distance. Best of all was just being part of the event in a lovely location, with great food, and meeting the local runners and organisers, both Nepalis and expats, including a local microbiologist who could share some wisdom regarding my research.



The second week of my second visit to Nepal in February was spent in the Terai. This is the lowland region stretching along the southern border with India. The road from Kathmandu cuts a snaking path through the middle hills down to the plains. It is at times terrifying – as much due to the driving as due to the vertiginous drops below and landslides above – and at times beautiful with views of deep gorges, terraced slopes and yet more temples. The warm lowland plains were a blessed relief after freezing cold Kathmandu. Kathmandu was fine through the day but at night was quite chilly. When I was there in late November, I had no heating in my guesthouse room so getting out of bed in a morning (I could see my breath in the room) and out of the warm shower was hard. In February I had a frighteningly large gas bottle and fire that heated up my small room almost instantaneously but was recommended by everyone to not leave on overnight if I had any desire to wake up in the morning. The Terai is stiflingly hot for much of the year but in February was thoroughly pleasant.



The projects I was involved with in Kathmandu Valley concerned citizen science hydrometeorological monitoring to assess climate change impacts, and groundwater monitoring and treatment to mitigate anthropogenic contamination (nitrates and coliforms). In Terai the projects dealt with issues of flooding, which occur most years during the monsoon, and arsenic contamination of groundwater, which occurs naturally from the underlying geology.



A few buses and a motorbike got me to Triveni, a pleasant little town on the banks of the wide Narayani/Gandaki River. Across the river was India though if you walked upstream a few kilometres, as I did most days after finishing my work, you looked across at Chitwan National Park.



My work took me to many rural communities around Triveni to meet village disaster or arsenic mitigation committees. To say the area is supposedly one of the poorest in the country and is affected by various natural hazards, it was a pleasure to spend time there. Compared to where my previous research took me in Ethiopia, this area seemed affluent. People were without exception extremely welcoming and helpful; I broke records for cups of masala chai consumed in a day but I never get tired of it.



Before heading back to Kathmandu, I realised I couldn’t gaze at Chitwan National Park across the river every day without actually visiting. However, the entrance to the national park was a long detour from Triveni. In order to obtain a spare day, I attempted to travel to Sauraha after work. This involved a motorbike, three buses and a tuk-tuk and I arrived at 11pm. I found a hotel still open who I booked a tour with for 5:30am the following morning but they had no beds available. The adjacent hotels were in darkness, it being low-season when many of them close. I eventually found a bed after rousing some guard dogs causing a sleepy owner to let me in. By that time I only had about 4 hours before I had to be out again.



Chitwan National Park is one of four UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Nepal; many of the historical sights I mentioned in Kathmandu Valley are collectively one of the others. Tour operators and websites will tell you the highlights of Chitwan are tigers and leopards. The guides will tell you that you will be extremely unlikely to see either. But with luck you might see a rhino. We saw two! The highlight for me was doing a safari on foot. I really enjoy the sounds, smells, tracks and little creatures that you don’t come across when in a vehicle. Though a vehicle obviously takes you further from town so more chance of seeing a tiger – if it hasn’t run or hid upon hearing the engine. If we did come across a tiger it would have been no problem because the guide had a long stick.

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Comments

[Saurabh]

Island of dolls
The island of the dolls history

[Dancing Dave]

Citizen science hydrometeorological monitoring
I have read your 2016 thesis quality article following your research in Ethiopia which I found of interest as we were concerned for the plight of tribes relocated from the Omo River areas due to the significant dam projects and the perception Ethiopia is a famine basketcase, albeit your research appears to have been in the northwest while the Omo tribes are in the south. Our travels in Ethiopia were somewhat simplistic but indicated the populous and the government were attempting to overcome the future affects of famine by seeking to store food and improve agricultural practices and better use water resources to not just live from day to day but prepare for the tougher times. Your 2016 article appears to my reading to indicate your research and interaction provided benefits to the Ethiopean communities in the the areas of your research projects and assisted them in observing, appreciating and seeking to manage their own agricultural resources with added insight. (forgive my non-academic simplistic summary)!!! Do you feel you have managed to provide insight and/or benefit to the Nepalese communities from your limited visits there yet?

[Donny]

Benefits and negative impacts of involvement in citizen science water projects in Nepal
Thanks a lot for your interest in the research. You are correct for the Ethiopia study. The on-the-ground impact was citizen science monitoring for improved understanding of water resources for adaptive management for improved food security. The higher-level impact was to encourage authorities, NGOs and researchers not to dismiss shallow aquifers as unproductive and vulnerable to climate variability. In Nepal I was researching other people's ongoing or former water projects. I aimed to determine if the involved communities were benefitting from their involvement in the citizen science aspects of the projects. Much has been published about the benefits of citizen science to scientists and authorities but few have looked at the impact on citizens themselves. The conclusions were that communities are benefitting (from knowledge gain to increased social capital to improved livelihoods) but to various degrees and often in unexpected ways. However, there are also, albeit infrequent, negative impacts of involvement that were often unknown to project organisers, such as involvement being burdensome or having created conflicts. The findings have been fedback to the organisers for them to adapt their projects. There are also a couple of papers in production to disseminate the findings more broadly.