The Mountain Kingdom

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  Pokhara, Nepal
Saturday, February 9, 2008

Hello from beautiful Nepal!

After my last update, I caught the overnight train to Gorkhpur, in Eastern Uttar Pradesh. On the train I met a trio of French travellers - Edith, Nelly and Xavier, and passed much of the journey in conversation and card-playing with them.

In my compartment was a Gurkha soldier, and I tried out a few sentences from my Nepali phrasebook, which provoked chuckles if not conversation!

The journey lasted about 18hrs, and on arrival at Gorakhpur I and the Frenchies jumped onto a jeep for the 2hr trip to Sonauli, the nearest border crossing. This was straightforward enough apart from the fact that there is some funny business about bringing Indian 1000 or 500 rupee notes into nepal (forgery problem etc) so one is forced to excahnge them at a poor rate.

Oddly, the Nepali side was far more frantic than the Indian, and it took quite a bit of fuss to sort out transport to the nearby town on Bhairawa, where we spent the night. the hotel staff were exactly as I had hoped and expected Nepalis to be; kind, polite and with a ready smile.

The next day we caught a bus to Pokhara, a journey which ought to have lasted some 6 hours. in the event, due to a rather indirect choice of route by the driver, it took 9 and a half! however, we were treated to some wonderful scenery. Frankly I was just happy to arrive in one piece, unlike the two crashed vehicles we saw on the way!

On arrival in Pokhara, I followed the kind advice of my friend Simon Willis, who made the same trip a couple of years ago, and took les Francais, who were by now looking slightly unhappy with life (as no doubt did I!) straight to 'Fire on the Mountain Hotel', where we were warmly greeting by the manager, Raj, who remembers Simon and his family extremely fondly. Nepali hospitality is second to none, and Raj is one of the nicest people I've ever had the fortune to meet, as is his wife. Within no time, showered and changed we were sitting down to a delicious dal bhat with chicken curry, and I to a cool, crisp Everest beer. As I sipped contentedly of this delicious lager, looking at the photocgraph of Tenzing Norgay planting the Union Flag on the summit of the world's highest mountain, I can't say i felt any regret about breaking my plan to give up alcohol for Lent!

Today I rose late, and made my way to the roof of the hotel to see the craggy, snow-swept peaks of the Annapurna range glinting majestically above Lake Phewa and the town - it's indiscribably beautiful.

I had a fantstic breakfast of lassi, bananas and muesli, wahes down with spiced chay masala, before going on a tour of Pokhara with the French, led by Raj. We took a boat to a Hindu temple situated on an island in the middle of the lake, where we were blessed by the priest and given 'tikkas' on our foreheads. I quickly noticed that there are some very smart sailing dinghies for hire on the lake, so am just off for a gentle afternoon sail, now that the wind has picked up.

Tomorrow Colonel Cross will collect me from the hotel, and I am looking forward to meeting him very much.

I am struck by how vastly different Nepal is from India. I am so happy to be here, but hope before too long to see a bit more of India too, a vast country (or, as Churchill said '"India" is nothing more than a losse geogrpahical term; it is no more a country than is the Equator"') of so many differntent culture, religions and traditions....

I am so impressed by this part of the world, and very aware of how fortunate I am to be here.

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