Into thin air part 2
Trip Start
Aug 15, 2006
1
152
155
Trip End
May 27, 2008
Gandruk,
Nepal
Friday, May 2, 2008
Anyway....at the local bus station I was charged 60r to get to Nayapul, the village at the start of the Annapurna Sanctuary trek which seemed reasonable and I didn't question it. I was the only tourist on the bus which was quite nice and I finally met my first genuinely friendly Nepalese man who spoke fluent English and we had a great chat. He told me the road we were on was brand new (although since the bus had seen better days you'd have never known this) as before it was just gravel and took much longer (currently around 2 hours for less than 50km!). He used to be a guide but when tourist numbers fell he bought a pig farm and now works in a hotel in town. We spoke about our countries and cultures and he was upset that children in Nepal are becoming Westernised and don't respect their parents as much. I told him we have a huge problem in the UK which is a shame. He also talked about his travels many years ago in Australia when he was invited to stay by friends there. He was on his way to Beni, a town with some hots springs, wth his 23 year old niece as she has some health problem where her joints are swollen and no-one knows why. He thought maybe the springs would help her but I wished I could just give him a thousand dollars to fly to England with her to see a proper doctor! He also noticed my cheapo poncho and told me it would never keep me dry (something knew when i bought it but I needed something!). He said he wished he could buy a machine to weld plastic material together and make good ponchos (like the one I was looking for and you seem to be able to buy anywhere else in the world) as they actually keep you dry and would be useful for all the trekkers. Very nice man.
The start of the trail was surprisingly quiet but I did come across a few locals and greeted the with the usual 'nameste' although within a few minutes someone replied with the word 'money!' to which I thought 'sure, here's $100 and please have the shirt off my back too.....' and carried on. Every single child I came across would smile, say 'namaste!' followed by 'sweet?' and point to my backpack or ask for some amount of money. I began holding out my hand and saying 'das rupees (10 rupees) for one sweet'; I paid 50 for the entire packet but in the mountains things cost a fortune as had to carry them up from the city. Funny enough I had no takers.... One girl asked me for 20 rupees and I thought maybe she was planning on dong some kind of dance for me but no. The good thing I noticed was that if local adults heard the children begging they told them off and got very angry with them so it's obviously being initiated by rich ignorant tourists.
Trekking alone was quite nice but not what I expected since I'd been told I'd meet people every 100m. I did see a big lizard in a stone wall and a few minutes later I heard a similar rustling sound and turned to see a huge fat snake in the wall right next to me! I was very excited and grabbed a quick photo but he then popped his head up backed off and he slithered away very rapidly. That just shows how quiet the trail was.....
Most people I came across were coming the opposite way or were just local porters but I did come across some friendly goats although our conversation was limited to 'meehhh, meerrrr'.
Tonight I'm staying in Sakhura GH at Gandruk (1900m) which has a German bakery and I splashed out on some apple crumble which was a budget buster but soooo tasty. The food in general in the guesthouses is ridiculously expensive for what it is. I understand people have to carry things up when food is limited but down here there are chickens running around and plenty of rice and vegetables growing so I can't understand why they charge so much. Food is a fixed price in the town so you can't shop around and if you try and save money by bringing your own food they charge you up to 5 quid which is a lot of money here and quite annoying since you've gone to the hassle of buying it in an overpriced tourist supermarket and carried it up the mountain yourself. I'd been told I could budget $10 a day but even eating my own breakfast I'm spending more than that despite not drinking alcohol or eating much chocolate so a warning to those considering doing this - bring lots of snacks and things you can add to meals bought cheap i.e. buy soup at the GH but add in a packet of your own noodles.
The only other people I noticed in my GH was a small group of Asians who didn't appear too friendly so I walked up to another place, hotel Milan which seemed quite rustic and cute and managed to find some people there to chat to - a woman from the States working in India and a man from Coventry riding around on his motorbike around Asia (lucky for some!). Both were early 40s and seemed to have plenty of financial back-up which is a great position to be in if you can manage it. They were also going the opposite way to me so I'll be on my own again tomorrow. I showed the picture of the snake to some of the staff there and they seemed amazed I saw it but told me they didn't think it was very dangerous.
Early night as it's cold and I can't wait to snuggle under my sleeping bag after 6 months of sweating under a thin cotton sheet!
