Advertisement
Published: April 4th 2008
Flower Power
Sadhus wandering Kathmandu's medieval downtown.For the last time, we crossed borders between countries, at least the last time we do it by land. This time we used a mix of terrestrial transportation, ending with the most expensive 10 minutes journey on the roof of a Nepali bus (they charged us 100 times more than locals).
Our first stop in Nepal was a small mountain village in the Terai region. While sitting in this crowded bus, saving every curve 50 meters above an almost dried Himalayan river we had to think of the fact that, just a few days ago, the whole area was under a “bandth” or general strike, that included every means of transportation and made travel impossible. So, no complaints.
Tansen is one of these corners of the world where you can still go back to medieval times. This in some way is explained by the fact that Nepal was practically closed until the 1950’s. Villagers in Tansen still smile and look at you in the way you just don’t see it anymore. Besides this, no beggars, no street sellers, and no cows!
The communist graffiti we say around Tansen made us believe the villagers were sympathetic with the local
The Annapurna Range
Our price after a sweaty journey Maoists forces but nobody could explain us why 2 years ago the police station, housed in a historical building was now a pile of bricks, after being bombed by an uprising Maoist group.
Three hours of mountain road and we get to Pokhara, at the base of the Annapurna range. We have now a fantastic view of the Himalayas as we always wanted. This compensates the fact that Pokhara is a very touristy place. However, short treks always gave us a good reason to enjoy some of the commodities (read fresh baked croissants, etc.), of the benefits of touristy places.
Enjoying the view required us the effort of crossing the lake, then climbing up for a few hours (Edmund Hillary will laugh at us!). All this before the first hours of the morning light, when the sun hits these 7,000 meters peaks, then the magic is there, at the Top of the World.
From Pokhara we traveled east to Bandipur, and again, we fell back in time. So far, The bus let us right outside the main street, and from the first glance we could know this was a national treasure: porters carrying fresh vegetables, farmers tending
Kathmandu Bazaars
Shopping "caves" with great treasures grain to dry, goats, buffaloes and chickens wandering around as if they were the real owners of this place.
So far, Bandipur has been the highlight of Nepal, mostly because they look as a model of traditional community, using tourism to make sure their traditional core will prevail in the future. One of these places where you could stay forever!
Now we are ready for the legendary Kathmandu, the largest (and pretty much the only) real city in Nepal. Enough we read about the this polluted, chaotic city. However, we have enjoyed exploring the maze of backstreets around the old city, with thousands of temples, shrines and sculptures, hidden in the most unlikely places. We came across several thousands-of-years-old-deities, which were being used as washing lines or goals for a cricket match. Beautiful.
Kathmandu has been also the perfect base for exploring the amazing heritage towns scattered around the valley. From the different day trips we specially enjoyed the Buddhist stupas of Swayambunath, (affectionally called the Monkey Temple) and Bodhnath, that are pretty much alive thanks to the thousands of Tibetan refugees, many of them elders, who come to pray at sunset and give all the magic.
Oh My Gods!
More than 300 and deities make it hard to follow Hinduism in Nepal From here we are flying back to New Dehli, where we are going to visit the romantic Taj Mahal!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.217s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 9; qc: 63; dbt: 0.1611s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
mary lasher
non-member comment
In Nepal!
Ina and Manuel, You two in Nepal, what a TRIP! I want to know what your impression is of THE TAJ. If it is absolutely out of this world, I'll go there. Tom and I were in East Africa on safari in Dec. and I fell completely in love with it...wildlife, national parks, people, food, landscape, the whole scene. Reminds me of Mexico to some extent. Contact us when you return to MX. We'll be in touch. Lots of love, Mary