10.03 Nepal: 2 day trekking trip

  Bakhtapur-Changhu Narayan- Nagarkot-Sankhu, Nepal
Friday, October 3, 2008

Oct 2-3:
I've had many lovely experiences in Nepal...

    

My last 2 days there, I did a "trekking tour" with Wayfarers (a recommended travel agency of Lonely Planet). Nepal is pretty well-known for intensive 2-3 week treks to Mount Everest, Pokhara and Anapurna Trails. I was short on time so I opted for the 2 days/1 night trek thru 3-4 villages with a view of the Himalayan Mountains-- Bhaktapur, Changhu Narayan, Nagarkot and Sankhu. If you ever wondered why they call it trekking and not hiking, I couldn't tell you- its like an intense hike and half the time, if there's nothing but woods, worn path and rock, you spend looking down at your feet as if they're not taking you much further or faster than you hope to get. But the view when there was one, was exquisite ( i have never taken so many photos of landscape in my life!) and the village/farming community along the way intrigued me with the bare simplicity of their lifestyle. Man, woman and child  work hard pushing the land, the crops & soil...










Here in the mountain villages, life is no easier when you're a kid...


















My guide, Bacchu (meaning: "small" in Nepalese, which he was!) was a nice guy whom I liked and I felt comfortable with. His english wasn't strong but good enough to manage conversations about his lifestyle and for me to make my own interpretations, like the probable fact, that unknowingly to him, my tip will probably cover his rent and utilities for the month! Or the fact that the Nepalese diet consists of Daal Baat (a lentil curry poured over rice) for breakfast, some kind of light biscuits for lunch and Daal Baat for dinner...but mostly, its all daal baat! How these people can eat daal baat 24/7 is beyond my comprehension even if my own diet doesn't break for much exploration either! We take a local bus out of the city of Thamel to Bhaktapur (an old rice village) and from there wait for a bus to Changhu Narayan where we can start our trek. While we wait for our bus there, Bacchu goes to a local stand to get some bananas, water and apples for our activity.














Due to the fact I had a late start at my trek. We had about only a couple of hours sightseeing and trekking in Changhu Narayan before having to cut our trek uphill to Nagarkot (the highest peak of the tour) short. We had to take the bus the remaining half up to our point so that we could reach there before nightfall! Bummed about my loss of exercise time my frown changed when the bus that came was overcrowded and I realized I would finally get to ride ON THE ROOFTOP of my Nepalese Singing Bus (unfortunately, riding on the rooftop, the bus doesn't actually sing, although I was crammed along with a group of young Israelis who provided song on their own).



Seeing the majestic mountains and valleys from this vantage point of riding atop of a moving bus... there's no word or pictures to explain the feeling! I felt the urge to belt out "The hills are alive...with the sound of music..." OR to explode like Sharh Rukh Khan, arms open wide, into lipsync song while I looking equally unnatural sitting amongst local people!






An interesting note to the Nepalese Singing Bus: There is a bus-fare collector which goes around collecting money from passengers AFTER (not always immediately) they have boarded the bus! The collector goes to each passenger even if he has to squeeze through the crowd to get the passengers wedged in the back. Passengers riding on the rooftop of the bus, does not make the fare collector any less exempt from his work labors. He merely climbs up to the roof while the bus is motion , and weaving through people, continues to collect fares!










I stayed the night at the Viewpoint Hotel in Nagarkot. The Viewpoint Hotel is a favorite of the trekking tours (I went through a handful of different tour agencies & itinerary quotes). In the winter when it
snows, it will probably look like a ski lodge sort. Nice, well-budgeted, clean - definitely a good stay but it occurs to me, no matter how night or clean these hotels could possibly be, my inescapable YUCK are these bathrooms of Nepal and India where there's no shower enclosure to separate the space from the toilet or sink. One central drain takes the water down! I imagine this makes cleaning more efficient...



Blackout period occurs daily and so when it does, we go to eat dinner where they are serving by candlelight and backup power generators. Next morn, Bacchu wakes me up at 5A to watch the sunrise. It is gorgeous and definitely worth getting up for. We eat some breakfast and we're off!




























Nepalese People: The faces here receive influences from neighboring countries of China and India. Beautifully exotic, features appear either "asian soft and round" due to a strain of Mongolian or exacting due to the Indian population. Overall however, the Nepalese consider themselves neither/nor... they consider themselves Nepali. The major religions and the celebration of religious festivals are a cross-pollination as well between Buddhist and Hindu. (ie. Dusain Festival in Nepal is Dussehra Festival in India and both honor Durga Puja). When passing through villages, you will see doorways decorated and marked to announce what kind of house it is. Hindu houses appear to have a spattered tikka above their doorway with a picture of a Hindu god, while Buddhists tend to have ornate markings of bodhisattva eyes or buddhas, etc... While there are slight distinctions as such to let you know what religion a family may belong to, the intermarriage between the 2 religions know nosegregation. A buddhist may marry a hindu and this is less a concern than caste. If you ask a Nepalese person if they are buddhist or hindu, a common response is "Yes".

   buddhist house markings

   hindu house markings

Along the way, we come across some locals traveling upon the road. The stranger and Bacchu will strike up a long and passionate conversation in Nepalese, walking together as if they've known each other for ages
(which is good as it allows me to stop every once a while to take pictures and then run to catch up with them as if I never left). Later I will ask Bacchu, 'Friend?" & he will say he doesn't know that person and that they just met! That's the Nepalese!

















Trekking tours are definitely one of the best ways to explore the countryside and farmlands (especially from Nagarkot to Sankhu) and for all of $60, i'm quite pleased with all that I've seen in beautifully-patterned rice fields, streams, sunrises, early morning mystic mountains and farm people with a relentless working spirit. It's been both exhilarating, eye-opening and touching.