Into the Valley (of the potatoes)
Trip Start
Mar 02, 2008
1
3
6
Trip End
Jun 07, 2008
Kathmandu,
Nepal
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
i also think the title of this travelogue is going to change fairly soon. with the events in tibet spiralling, and the chinese insisting it's the fault of that well-known warmonger, the dalai lama, i'm loathe to visit now. as you know, tibet and china were both on the list of countries, but currently tourists are unbable to enter the tibet autonomous region as far as i'm aware. this will undoubtedly be because the chinese authorities intend to use violent methods to contain this protest, and do not wish the outside world to see or condemn. so if i cannot enter one country, then i refuse to visit the second. the chinese will have no more money from my pocket until i see some progress in the longstanding issue of tibet
Offerings at a Shiva shrine above Bandiphur
.okay, with the apology and editorial out of the way, let's get down to business...
so, nepal. yup, love it. LOVE IT! it's everything that i thought india would, and should, be. friendly, relaxed, cheap. from the start, with smiling and chatty passport visa officials at kathmandu airport, our time here has been almost unblemished joy and fun. the obvious downfalls have been a few taxi drivers and hawkers, but even most of them have a smile on their face (sometimes even broader when they realise you've caught them trying to stiff you for a few extra rupees more than fair).
the following are a few notes of thoughts etc, under headers... i think it'll be easier for me to write this way, but let's see what happens...
KATHMANDU
The capital of nepal, if you were unaware. a sprawling city, with plenty of slums and poor citizens, but a lot cleaner than anywhere i saw in india. that's not to say it's spic 'n' span, it's not. there are areas which overflow with rubbish, and the roads are full of potholes in many places
Returning home fully laden
. however, overall, it could be a lot worse considering the level of poverty and government infrastructure.we didn't do much sightseeing in kathmandu. partly, we were just happy enough to catch up with tom and dawn (our friends who we are spending all our nepalese trip with) who we hadn't seen since june, and partly we jsut wanted to chill out after the indian ordeal. staying in the backpacker area of thamel (pronounced tamel - same as thailand, in that you don't pronounce the 'h'), we spent most of our time in that area, eating, shopping and kicking back. i bought a few extra necessities for our treks - a trekking stick, waterproof trousers, a 45l rucksack - and some souvenirs which we'll be sending back to the uk when we return to kathmandu in a couple of weeks.
the city, and indeed the country, is gearing up for elections in the next few weeks, and there are plenty of animated people around. the highest profile party is the maoists, who until recently were a rebel group operating out of mountain strongholds, fighting the government and army. now they are part of the political process, although reading the 'kathmandu post', you'd be forgiven for thinking they were still fighting. the newspaper appears to be a government mouthpiece, but there are a few stories which have more than a small grain of truth about them
Siesta time, Nepali style
. the maoists seem to be sending out the members to bully and coerce citizens in remote areas to vote for them. in the cities, they use loud, organised, marches and meetings to push themselves. we have seen one such meeting in bhaktapur, and more than one march in various areas. only time will tell what will happen if they come to power, or possibly worse, if they don't.BHAKTAPUR
what a fantastic city! well, what a fantastic old walled town within the city... bhaktapur dates back to around the 11th century, and is a maze of little streets and alleys. buildings lean at impossible angles, some with huge logs propping up the walls, cutting out virtually all light, and warmth, from these small walkways. the sense is of a medieval town which has hardly changed in a thousand years. there are, obviously, the tourist cafes, ATMs, souvenir shops and electricity, but for the most part, the people here carry on as they have for centuries past. even the electricity is not a constant of modernity, as every day here (and in most parts of nepal), power shuts down for 4-6 hours usually in the evening. this leaves the town with an even older feel, as candles are lit, and the hum of generators produce light from bulbs strung across occasional shop fronts.
the streets are interconnected by squares. pottery square, durbar square, and an armful of others litter the map. each one has it's own character - pottery square understandably is full of potters, throwing the clay onto stone wheels, and sunning the resultant pots in the courtyard before piling them up with straw to create an instant kiln. durbar square is full of temples, as well as the museum, whilst our square holds one of the oldest temples in bhaktapur
Singing bowl therapy... allegedly
. every morning, starting around 4.30am, devotees (for bhaktapur means, 'city of devotees') arrive to pray. they ring the bells around the shrine, make offerings, and around 8am, the shrine caretaker throws a bowl of water against the garuda in front of the temple splashing all that gather - this is considered good luck for the forthcoming day.we stayed at 'siddhi laxmi' guesthouse, and i befriended a young university student working there called lasta. she gave us a good discount on our rooms, and took us out to a cheap, 'non-tourist' restaurant on our last night there. we all spent far too much money on souvenirs whilst in bhaktapur, but i don't think any of us regret it at all. and we've all fallen in love with the place, so much so that we mused for hours about living there.
BHAKTAPUR-CHANGU NARAYAN-NAGAKOT-NALA-DUHLIKHEL-NAMOBUDDHA-BHAKTAPUR
we thought it would be a good idea to test out our trekking capabilities before embarking on a two week hike through the mountains. sensible, eh... so, probably not my idea. looking at a map of kathmandu valley, we decided on a relatively gentle three-day walk taking us up to around 2,000 metres above sea level and in sight of the himalayas (or part of them at least)
The panorama from the Panorama G/House, Dhulighel
. tom was still suffering from a stomach bug he'd picked up just before we arrived in nepal - there's a rumour that dawn poisoned him with the toothbrush she uses to clean her toenails, which he proceeded to clean his teeth with, but it's more likely the dodgy chicken burger he ate - so him and dawn jumped into a taxi headed for nagakot with a dutch couple, while myself and annie headed off on our walk. i tried to limit what i was carrying, but because of my SLR camera i had to use two small backpacks, which was ungainly and a little uncomfortable. this is now remedied as i have a hip bag just large enough for the SLR, so although i shall probably smell like the backside of a yak by the end of two weeks, i can fit everything necessary for a two week trek into one 33l backpack (i hope).the first 90 minutes saw us walking along a tarmac backroad, followed by a fairly steep climb to changu narayan temple. this vishnu shrine dates back to as early as the 2nd century, and has some beautiful carvings sculpted into the stone and woodwork. we lunched on soup and sprite before starting off again on the walk to nagakot. the trek took us along a dusty and rock strewn dirt track this time, in the middle of a hot afternoon. annie was feeling under the weather as well, although not as bad as tom. we took it slowly and apart from a short break when myself and some nepalese children were taking bets on whether she'd throw up or not, we completed the first half of the journey without too much hardship. this took us to talkot, approximately halfway to nagakot. it's recommended that trekkers take the bus from here because the second half of the journey is not only boring, but very steep and windy. we took a seat outside a shop and waited. after ten minutes a taxi pulled up in front of us. 'nagakot? you want go nagakot?'. hmmm, yes, but how much would he charge..? 'only 500 rupees!'. we laughed, and then asked a local policeman when the bus would arrive, 'fifteen minutes', he replied in heavily accented english. 'no, no, no. bus very late. two hours. big problem. only 500 rupees.' as we told him we'd wait for the bus, him smiling at his cheekiness as much as we were, the bus appeared around the corner. the smiles got broader and the taxi driver moved off chuckling. the twenty minute bus ride cost us 10 rupees.
tom and dawn were waiting for us in nagakot, where they'd already booked into a room in the 'hotel at the end of the universe'. when the guy tried to charge me and annie more for a room with less facilities than tom and dawn had, we compromised and all moved into a larger double room for 150 rupees a head (about 1.25GBP). the hotel is a very chilled out place atop the highest point in nagakot. it makes for spectacular viewsd of the mountains, especially at sunrise. well, it would when there isn't a mass of mist, clouds and haze covering everything. unfortunately for that time, and indeed every day since we had arrived in nepal, this had been the norm. not even a hint of a mountain top could be seen, either in the evening or the dawn of the following day. but we rested in a nice wooden common room, ate good nepali food and played cards. the night was cold but having brought my sleeping bag with me, i was snug enough.
after the disappointment of the sunrise next morning, we paid our bill and set out on the next part of the trek, to duhlikhel via nala. this took us downhill for much of the walk, and as we exited the hills and moved across the valley floor, we went indian file along dirt walls which separated the multitude of potato fields. kathmandu valley seems to have two major industries - potatoes and bricks. both vie for the same land, as the dirt which is so fertile in producing potatoes is also ideal for making bricks. we often walked past fields which were half and half, as one crop was in the process of converting to the other. by the time we reached (and walked through without realising it) nala, everyone was hot and tired. at this point we hopped on one of the local buses, which dropped us at bandepa where we caught a second bus to dulhikhel.
within a few minutes of arrival, a wide-eyed, staring nepalese man, with scars all over his face came aboard. he sat in front of me looking around the bus, and as it pulled up to our stop, he stood and came nose to nose with me. 'duhlikhel very nice, my hotel very good. you come with me..' thrusting a business card up my nose as he spoke. 'ah, yep, no thanks' hoping that would be the end of it. but no, he followed us without speaking much more, but as we crossed the road to grab some lunch he moved onto another english couple on the same bus. however, as we ate he returned and sat outside the restaurant room, waiting. followed annie to the bathroom as well. but we got more insistent and vocal towards him, and he eventually got the message. that completely put me off the town. but ti was getting late in the day, and we had nowhere booked for the night. so, with a quick glance through lonely planet (sorry, paul), we walked off towards shiva guest house (annie had phoned, and they had rooms). but, when only a couple of minutes away, we changed plans and decided to go up the hill to panoramic view guest house. what a killer climb. children were running around us and we hauled our weary bodies, loaded down with gear, up the steps and dirt track. thirty or so mins later, we stood outside the hotel, looking down on the valley below. the guest house, as is often the case apparently, was empty. understandable from the climb, but not so understandable when you looked at the view. i took a chilling and wonderful cold bucket shower, before we relaxed on the roof top. an early meal was followed by an early retirement to bed - 7.30pm or so if i remember rightly.
annie woke me in the morning with the words, 'mountains'. i jumped up and dashed to the window. a huge grin spread across my face as i saw, for the first time, 100km or more of the himalaya mountain range, sweeping from the horizon on my left side towards the haze covering the remainder on my left. dawn, then tom, came out, and we all stood with stupid, inane smiles as we stared at the beauty in the distance.
once we had breakfasted on the roof, we thanked our hosts and set off again. this stage took us along a dirt track which hugged the side of the hills, gentle rises and falls aiding our progress, and isolated villages dotting the path we walked. for the first hour or more, we were able to keep the mountains in our view, majestic and imposing even at this distance. then we rounded the brow of one of the hills and lost sight of them. but that morning, more than any other so far, brought home to me the fact that i am in nepal.
midmorning we stopped for a rest on the side of a hill near a newari settlement, and chatted to a young nepali goatherder and his father. as we spoke, and shared biscuits, we watched as eagles soared and circled a few metres above us. a wonderful sight on a sunny and beautiful day. one of many wonderful sights - the boys playing poram in the villages, the women washing at the communal watering holes, the women walking through the forest on their way to collecting firewood for the day laughing and pointing as we said 'namaste' and smiled at them.
when we got to namobuddha, our destination for the morning trek, we flopped into seats at a small shop and drank our fantas, cokes or tea with gusto. an irish lad on a yogic pilgrimage talked to us about his time in nepal. nearly four months of studying in yoga centres, with various diets to enhance his meditations, hadn't stopped him from tucking into a big bag of crisps i noticed. but i didn't comment. again, we had tired early so decided to climb aboard the next bus. this came within a few minutes and with an eagerness of bouncing, rattling, honking and shouting, it carried us down a steep, slightly precarious, track. first to panuti, where we changed bus, then back to bhaktapur via banepa.
a final night in bhaktapur, the evening which we dined out with lasta, bought our final souvenirs, and slept soundly, before taking a taxi back to kathmandu the next day.
POKHARA
we spent two nights in kathmandu, the first of which involved footie and a few beers. this is one of only three nights where i (and the other three) have had any alcohol. three evenings, and only 2-3 beers each time, in over two weeks. i feel like a martyr to my cause... :)
the rest of the time in town was a combination of sleeping, reading, watching tv, eating too much, shopping for final trek bits and not much else. on tuesday morning, at 7am, we boarded the 'tourist bus' to pokhara. bus is a slight misnomer. bus yes, but only 25 seats, packed into a vehicle which would comfortably fit 15 seats. at least the journey was broken into three stages with 20 breaks at rest stops along the way. i spent most of the time with one arm dangling out of the window to give myself a little more room stuck up in the corner on the back row. it also gave me a good view of the crashes along the way. nepal is notorious for it road traffic accidents. many a bus or lorry has plummeted down the side of the mountains they drive along, and this thought wasn't lost on me as we careered at high speed around blind curves, or over deeply scarred and potholed roads. at the end of seven hours though, we made it to pokhara. haggling over the price of a taxi didn't improve our moods, but after walking away from one, we managed to convince another driver that four people and their luggage would fit into (and onto) one taxi. ten minutes and 105 rupees later we stopped outside 'sanctuary guesthouse'. tom and dawn had spent two weeks there earlier in the month, so were greeted like old friends. with the exception of a bus journey into town this morning to stock up on food for our trek tomorrow, and a bike ride to the offical office where we obtained our trekking permits, we have little need to travel further afield in our short visit here. a small cafe opposite the guesthouse and this internet place on the corner, is virtually sufficient for all our needs.
okay, that's it for now. as i said we are starting our trek in the annapurna mountain range tomorrow. we are taking the sanctuary route, aka the ABC (annapurna base camp) route. this should be a 9-12 day trek, but we are aiming to take 14-15 days, with a one day diversion to poon hill. i have no eye deer whether there is internet access along the way, so will bid my farewells now.
hope you enjoyed this entry, and hopefully i'll have a very exciting one to write for you on my return!
catch you all soon :)
