Kathmandu and the Himalayan Disappearing Act

As I think we mentioned before, Nepal has been a nice change of pace. Because of the size of the country we haven't had to do a whole lot of moving around, and with just two major tourist cities in the country, a fairly painless six hour bus ride connected us from Pokhara to Kathmandu.

Our arrival in the capital city came at the same time as a dense, bronze blanket of pollution that covered the valley and blocked the view of the enormous mountains that we knew were just on the horizon. All of our efforts to get around or above the haze were in vain, so we have had to settle for postcard images of the mighty Himalaya that tower over Kathmandu. Lame. I guess it just gives us a reason to come back here some day so that we can say we've seen the highest mountain in the world (which we should have been able to see from a lookout yesterday--instead we got the view below with the sun about right where we should have been able to see Everest in the distance). Locals as well as other travelers have reminded us to be happy for the few weeks of perfect weather we had while we were in Pokhara and on our trek...so, I guess we won't complain too much. But it's hard being us, ya know?

Actually, what's been really hard is getting around the Kathmandu valley to see some of the cultural gems. Since our arrival there have been protests in the southern part of the country, and for a few weeks gasoline tankers have been backed up at the Indian border not allowed to cross. The massive shortage in fuel has created lines to the gas pumps that carry on for miles and clog the narrow roads. Not only has that made it difficult and time consuming to travel even short distances, but it's also made it more expensive for a taxi or bus ride. Like always though, we have no choice but to find ways to get around such challenges and we've been able to get see some great historical sights (minus the Himalayas looming in the background).

The traveler slum of Kathmandu is called Thamel, and like Pokhara, the streets are lined with mountain gear and souvenir shops, western bakeries and hawkers selling Tiger Balm. Not far outside this very western part of the city is another world full of massive Buddist stupas, Hindu temples and midevial looking architecture. The old cities are just that, really old, the stupas are massive, the Hindu temples full of phalic symbolism, the taxi drivers relentless and the food nice and western, with the occasional bean burrito for Shanon.

Tibetean Buddhist influence in Nepal gives it a very different feel from India, and the Buddhist sites we visited were spiritual places alive with energy from the continuous chant, "Om Mani Padmi Om", colorful prayer flags and beads, and a positive energy radiated by people all walking clockwise around the worlds largest stupa spinning prayer wheels. Although we're not ready to exchange our street clothes for Buddhist robes, it was interesting to see these Tibetean exiles perform their spiritual rituals.

The days seem to be falling off the calendar now, and tomorrow we fly to Bangkok--a little sooner than expected, but we think we might be rushing the next three months to beat the relentless SE Asia monsoon rains. Overall, Nepal has been a great experience and it marks the end of country number eight on our voyage. Look for the cold weather clothes to be gone next time there is a blog update...it's officially time to sweat.

Last but not least, one thing that really helped while in Kathmandu (and Nepal in general) was the power of numbers. Since our arrival to the country we have been on the move with a great couple from England, and not only does doing things in a pack of four greatly increase our bartering power, but they were genuinely great people to spend time with. They're off to India again for a week (suckers!), but we hope to catch up with them again some day soon in SE Asia.

Thanks for the good times Becky and Alan!

9 Days of Himalayan Fun

Let it be confirmed that the Himalayas are really big (Annapurna South on the left). After nearly a week of lazy lounging in the laid back city of Pokhara, we rented a backpack, a couple of sleeping bags, and started out on one of the most famous treks in Nepal, called the Jomsom Trail (or appropriately dubbed the 'Apple Pie Trail' because of the number of westerner trekkers--and the apple orchards).

The original plan was to take a 20 minute flight to the top of the trek, and then make the 9 day journey back down to Pokhara. As it turns out, we spent yet another morning waiting in a small airport for a flight that would never leave--seems to happen a lot here because of the wind in Jomsom. It was slightly reminiscent of our experience in Bolivia so many months ago.

Anyway, we decided to start from the bottom of the trail and hope that we would actually reach the end destination, then be able to fly back....more on that later.

A two hour bus ride took us to our trailhead where we started. To our surprise we were feeling rather good for how out of shape we've become after not getting much exercise since S. Africa. Then the steps began--and they didn't stop for about 3.5 hours. At some point in time the Nepali people decided that the quickest way to travel from point A to point B was a straight line--no matter what was in the way of that line. Not only do the local people of the foothill villages cover ground quickly (up hundreds of thousads of meters at a time), they do it with massive loads of goods and sometimes they're wearing flip-flops. Even the porters who are over 70 years old move at a pace that put us to shame. Really amazing to witness.

The views on the trek are all of the Annapurna Range, and while making the ascent there are soaring peaks of varying heights, some of them up to 15,000 feet or more. Then after hiking for a while and we were on higher ground the REALLY big mountains come into view. In this range of the Himalaya there are several peaks over 8,000 meters (25,000 ft.+).

Along our route we stayed in guest houses that line the trail (which is sadly being converted into a road), some of which were pretty nice. Most days we stared hiking about 8:30 and would finish mid-afternoon in one of the villages that dot the trail--in fact, you can hardly walk 10 minutes without encountering people working their crop terraces, collecting cow dung to use as a fuel source, washing clothes or lazing about in the afternoon sun.
Near Jomsom I came down with something, still not sure what, and had a long night of night terrors and feverish ramblings while poor Shanon devised evacuation plans in her head and tried to figure out how she was going to get me to a good hospital in Bangkok. I survived the night, thankfully, and we made it Jomsom and scheduled our flight back to Pokhara for the next day. As fate would have it no planes were leaving again because of wind, and so instead of hoping for good luck the next day we decided to retrace or steps--some of them by jeep, and get back down the long way. In other words, our 20 minute flight back to Pokhara turned into 2 more days of trekking/transit.

Overall....
The Views: Woweee.

The Villages: About every 10 minutes or so--but fascinating to see how people live up here.

The Food: Decent, but after four days we decided that they might be recycling grease up there, and everything started tasting the same.

The Smells: Ahhhh....Fresh Himalayan air, lots of body odor, and plenty o' mule stench.

The Trekkers: Slightly sore, but happy (and healthy).

In the end...success. The struggles always prove to be some of the best stories when you look back on an adventure, and this trek definitely had a few struggles. But what a beautiful region and what friendly people. Since it's winter here there weren't alot of trekkers, so we were often the only two people in the guesthouses we'd end up in, but one friendly local told us that in October his small village sees more than 250 foreigners roll through in a single day. We love the off-season.

We're now safe and sound back in Pokhara, and planning our next move. Nepal is a small country, so it's been a nice change from having to take 10 hour bus/train rides to get to our next destination. Next up will likely be the noisy capital of Katmandu.

The trekkers cheating a bit and catching a ride on top of a local Himalayan taxi.

N-E-P-A-L, Viva Nepal

Oh yeah! We sucessfully crossed the boarder (easiest boarder crossing so far) into Nepal after 2 horrific and caustrophobic days of bus rides. I feel much better and we are loving Nepal.


First though, our last stop in India.

Varanasi is a holy city for hindu people as it is the site of the holy Ganges river and religious ghats (stairs/platforms to the river) line the bank. Many Indian people make a pilgramage to this city each year to bathe in the river, it is believed to wash one of all their sins and help them achieve Nirvana. The old city lies right along the river and there is a walkway along all of the ghats. There are hundreds if temples in this city as well.

Each ghat is special for its own religious reason and some date back thousands of years. As you walk along the ghats and river you can see many people bathing, making religious offerings or priests performing religious rites. I tell you the people watching is at its best here.

One especially bizaar ghat was Manikarnika where cremations are performed all day, every day. A worker told us that there are about 350 cremations done each day. As a foreigner, this is really a bizaar sight and strange to be standing there watching these proceedings. For Indians, this is the place to come and die. The most holy place and people come from all over India to spend their last days.

Another ghat has nightly Hindu ceremonies where people buy floating candels and orange marigolds to float down the river and the priests perform some religious songs/actions. The river lights up as hundreds of these candles float buy.

The river itself is said (by western scientists) to be dead, or septic; so polluted and dirty that it is shocking that people (by the hundreds) are bathing in it and drinking it. But the Hindus believe that it is holy and will cure ills, clean them physically, spiritually and emotionally. You can watch the bathers lined along the ghats and flintch as they wash their babies, rinse their mouth and swim across the water. They say that you may also see an occasional dead cow (or body) floating down the water, but luckily we didn't get to see this. People on land will be going the bathroom (not just #1) a few feet from the shore and raw sewage is another big pollution in the river. With my western conception of sanitation, it was hard to watch and we often had to cover our mouths and look away. It's hard not to pass judgement, this is their beliefs and way of living, and they have been making pilgramages here for thousands of years.

After a few mind-blowing days in Varanasai, we finally said farewell to India (good riddance) and headed into Nepal. It took two full days of train rides and horrifying bus rides to get to Pokara, Nepal where we dropped our things and stayed for 4 days. We are so happy to have some fresh air and mountain stuff to do (the trekking, rafting, hiking, yoga, climbing...possibilities are endless). We were feeling quite a bit out of sorts in India where there isn't much activity other than fighting off rickshaw drivers, eating, and coughing. We met a great couple from England on our last train in India and crossed the boarder together. They also had mixed feelings about India and we had many a great moments rehashing our crazy stories together. We really did see some great things, and man the stories to tell.... but it was a test of severe patience every day, and we are happy to be in the slower, friendlier, not so pushy northern neighbor now. Ahhhh (you can see my happiness in one of these pictures).




We have already done a couple of wonderful day hikes; one to a tibetan world peace pagoda which looks out over all of Pokara and the lake. We were escorted by some very good guides who kept us safe and entertained the whole way up.



Another hike was bright and early to a viewpoint at sunrise to watch the amazing, towering, close Annapurna range change from blue to pink to white, beautiful.

We are scheduled to fly to Jomosom tomorrow to start a 10 day trek among small Nepali villages and massive Himalayan peaks. So excited, but it is going to be freezing again. We will be out of internet range for the trek so we will update this blog when we get back to Pokara (not sure how long we will take maybe a little more than a week).