It has been a little while since
my last newsletter, but don't worry, I don't think this will be one of my epics,
sighs of relief from all, including me.
Since my arrival in Nepal I have
once again being my best to take it easy much of the time. Several things that I
find particularly appealing about Nepal, particularly Kathmandu are: - western
style food available (rather good steaks in particular), friendly local folks,
plentiful supply of well stocked book shops, recent films being shown in
restaurants and some good drinking haunts. As you will no doubt appreciate I
have done my best to do justice to each of these assets. Since my arrival here,
I have read copious quantities of books (twenty-three in the past six weeks) and
purchased a variety more to keep me going for a while. This is probably an
appropriate space to recommend "Freedom in Exile" the Dalai Lamas
autobiography which I found to be informative and entertaining.
For the first while I spent in
Kathmandu, I spent the time generally chilling out, enjoying the facilities,
waiting for my Indian visa to be processed and also attending services for the
Jewish New Year at the Israeli Embassy. In that time I also managed to meet
several people I had previously met in Tibet. On my first night here Bianca, who
I had originally met in Lhasa and myself ended up going to a night-club. The
music and rules were dragging the atmosphere through the floor so we took the
piss out of the security in order that they lighten up (one of the stupid rules
was that no-one was allowed to touch the handrail around the dance-floor), which
seemed to work. Then I went to have words with the DJ, telling him that I had
worked at Ministry of Sound (which had the little Nepali in awe of me). I
proceeded to try and put together the start of a set (from his horrendous
collection of music) that would liven things up a bit. This I did and as I left
the DJ booth he was almost in tears at my departure calling out "please
don't leave me" as he played the tracks I had told him to. The next
half-hour or so went rather well, the westerners were all enjoying it and then
he slipped back to the same sort of crap he had previously been playing. Oh
well, at least I tried but some folk don't learn. A few days later I met an
English bloke called Dale as we were watching the football together in a pub,
after a while we got talking to another Brit. When I introduced myself with hand
extended she shook it with her left hand, this didn't particularly phase me, and
when Dale introduced himself she did so again. He wasn't too impressed by this
use of her left hand so asked "What's wrong with your other hand?"
She then held up her other arm
which ended in a stump and said quite matter of factly "Sorry, I've only
got the one".
Dale blanched a little and didn't say anything until Katie went to the loo and I
thanked him for saying that instead of me, as I know that I would have felt very
stupid putting my foot in my mouth like that. He mumbled something to the effect
of "I can't believe I said that".
Dale and I decided to meet to go
to Durbur square (the religious centre of Kathmandu) the following day for
Daisin, the biggest festival of the year, when they were supposed to be
slaughtering large numbers of livestock. We got there to see several pools of
fresh blood in front of shrines, fake Saddhus running around for tourists to
take photos of them (and then charge them for the privilege) and that was about
it. After having a look over the sight for a little while, and being informed by
various locals that nothing was going to be happening, we went back to out
hotels. Later we heard a new version, that the sacrificing was going to be
taking place at midnight so a bunch of us went back down to the square to see
some slaughtering. This time we were told that it was all going on behind closed
doors in the Kumari's (living Goddess) palace. Once again we went away
disappointed but we also noticed that there was a lot more blood around in front
of the various shrines than had been there earlier. The following day, Dale and
I were walking through the streets here in Thamel (the main backpacker area)
practically tripping over cobras on every corner as the snake charmers were out
in force due to the holiday. As we were wandering around I noticed Jamie and Kat
walking towards us (who I hadn't seen since getting drunk with them on the sofa
at Paul's in Chengdu). We went off for a drink together and were chatting about
various bits when they mentioned how they had gone along to Durbar square
earlier and for some reason they were sacrificing all these animals, something
they didn't expect. I told them what lucky bastards they were for having
stumbled across unintentionally and unwillingly what we had been actively
searching for.
Dale and I decided to go off to
Chitwan National Park and got a cheap organised tour to take us. This included
our food, accommodation and various activities. The main reason we went was to
see Rhinos. Dale had never seen a Rhino outside a zoo before and I wanted to
complete the Rhino set, having seen both Black and White rhinos in Africa, I
only needed the Asian rhino to complete the set. On our first afternoon we were
taken to see the elephant stables and also a traditional Terai village, with our
guide. As our ticket included various activities we thought we'd get our monies
worth. I was surprised at how much uglier the Indian elephants are than there
African and Thai counterparts. We then had a nice dinner and were taken off to
see the "Traditional Dancing" which was generally more amusing than
interesting, at the end several participants were dragged out the audience to
take part, Dale once again making a fool of himself. The following morning we
were woken early to go for a canoe ride and walk, the canoeing being done by
some hired help, we actually had to do the walking ourselves. On this excursion
we saw a variety of bird-life, some interesting insects and some deer. We went
back had a nice lunch and then later were taken for our elephant ride when we
were guaranteed to see rhinos. After some time uncomfortably perched on our
elephant we spotted one, several tourist-laden elephants descended on the poor
creature which promptly bolted, out Mahout gave chase but we lost the rhino. We
then headed off in another direction, after a while I spotted something behind a
bush, not quite sure what it was. I instructed our Mahout to go and check it
out. When we got there it turned out to be another rhino which was much more
relaxed as there was only our, and one other elephant there. The rhino was a lot
more armoured looking than either the Black or White rhinos I had seen in
Africa. We felt our mission was accomplished. That was it for that day, the
following day we got up early for a bird watching walk and sure enough saw a
whole range of bird-life, we then got the bus on to Pokhara to do a bit of
trekking.
We had decided to do the
Annapurna Base Camp trek (also known as the sanctuary trek). The most popular
trek being the Annapurna circuit (or half of it), this is a shorter trek, yet
quite intensive and those I have spoken to subsequently who have done the base
camp and the circuit say that it is apparently much more taxing. We agreed at
the start that we go at our own paces and if we stop in the same places so be
it, if not, we'll meet on the way down. We also decided to carry our own stuff
as there is not that much needed and a guide is unnecessary. The start of the
trek is from a small village called Phedi and there is a flight of stone stairs
that disappears into the mountainside. These stairs reach on for seven or eight
hundred vertical metres. As a start it is bloody tiring, before you dismiss it
too lightly think of it as climbing up the stairs to the Petronas towers (the
tallest building in the world). Then when you get to the top, going up the same
distance again. Needless to say it was rather bloody tiring. Dale took off much
quicker than I did and I ended up meeting other people who were going at a
similar pace to me. By the end of the first day there I was pretty tired and for
the next few days things didn't improve. Much of the walk is through quite thick
forest so there are not often good views. The walking itself involves climbing
up and down generally over reasonable paths. When I got to the base camp, I went
the last couple of hours very slowly as there was an excellent view of
Machapuchare, "Fish Tail Mountain". As I was walking through the
valley towards the Annapurna Base Camp (ABC) a thick amount of cloud followed me
and at several points it framed Machapuchare within a ring of cloud, very nice.
I got to the ABC about two in the afternoon having climbed thirteen hundred
vertical metres that day. Unfortunately, there was a fair amount of cloud so I
could see nothing of the sanctuary. I was a little light headed from the climb
in altitude, but mostly I was cold. I dressed very warmly and went and chatted
to some folks in the canteen. After a few hours I went to sleep early, wearing
my thermals, fleece gloves and a balaclava (looking like a cold terrorist. I
woke after a little while and had a look outside where it was snowing heavily,
not sure at the time if that was a good or bad thing. In the morning I got up to
have a look at the "Sanctuary" with the clear dawn light. The snow had
made the whole scene incredibly beautiful; it lay thickly on the buildings and
ground as well as on the mountains. The valley I had walked through that had
looked rather brown was now a pearl white and the snow made it appear that one
was surrounded three-hundred and sixty degrees by tall mountains. The name
"The Sanctuary" started to make real sense now, as it appeared one was
cut off from the rest of civilisation with Annapurna One towering away at over
eight thousand metres in front of us.
From there I decided to head
back quite quickly, I had made it an objective to try and reach Pokhara again
within two days. So I set myself quite a fast pace heading back (which for much
of it is no easier than heading up). After a full days walk I got to Chomrong
(probably the largest village on the trek) that evening, which involved a long
climb up to it. However, when I got there, there was no room at any of the
places. I carried on walking until I eventually found somewhere around the back
of the mountain and part way down the other side. By this point it had got dark
and I had managed to follow some odd path for a short while before realising it
wasn't the right one. The following morning I set off again at a fair pace, at
one tea house where I stopped for a drink I began speaking with a school teacher
/ shop keeper from one of the villages I had just passed. He told me there was
an easier way to get to Pokhara than the one was going to do, furthermore as he
was heading that way, he'd show me it. So I set off with him and some other
villagers he was walking with. One of these was an older woman who had probably
broken her leg. As there are understandably inadequate medical facilities in the
mountains she was being taken to Pokhara hospital by her family. This meant her
sitting in a chair strapped inside a basket (as she obviously couldn't walk on
the leg) whilst three men took it in turn to take her, with a strap that went on
their head. A little way on from where I had met the party the paths diverged
(the one the tourists take from the one locals do). We went over undulating
mountain for a couple of hours more (much better than the descent which would
have been murder on my already tired knees. There were also spectacular views of
much of the Annapurna range of mountains. When we eventually reached the road we
were lucky enough to be able to get straight onto a bus which then went down for
twenty minutes before we passed Phedi, where I had started my trek. This guy
told me that he had never been to Phedi, despite having lived in the mountains
all his life, as it was a much more difficult starting point. Getting on the bus
and getting back to Pokhara was a real relief. It was nice to have a proper hot
shower and a nice bed. I relaxed there the next day and checked my e-mail
finding out that Klaus whom I had spent a week with in Pakistan was currently in
Kathmandu but leaving in a couple of days, so I booked a bus back to Kathmandu
for the following day.
That evening Klaus and I met at
Tom & Jerry’s a pub in Thamel. We had several beers and a lot to catch up
on, not having seen each other for about four months. We ended up being out
until dawn the next morning getting rather drunk. That day we went and saw a
couple of the sights in Kathmandu. Firstly the Bouddinath stupa, apparently the
worlds largest stupa. Then later we went to the monkey temple, which is also
rather impressive. We met later and had a couple of drinks, but Klaus was
leaving early the following morning and we were both still a bit wasted from the
previous night. So, once again we said our goodbyes.
Over the time since I have met
several people, some new and some from before the trek and had a number of good
nights out, which has slowed my departure from Nepal. There were also the Diwali
celebrations that seemed to involve kids going around the shops singing at
people until they gave them money to go away. There were also bangers constantly
going off in the streets and some bands wandering around, one on the back of a
truck and also a long candlelit procession that passed my hotel as I was leaving
and I inadvertently got caught up in for a short while.
Now however I have decided to
finally push on and I plan to go to India tomorrow or the day after at the
latest. So once again that brings you mostly up to date. Keep well and keep in
touch Raphael
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