Arriving in Nepal
We stepped off the plane on the tarmac of Kathmandu into a very different world to the one we’d come from. Twelve hours earlier we had been in the hot, high tech world of Kuala Lumpur, where the airport was also a huge shopping centre. We looked across to the terminal building, a small sand coloured single storey structure set to a backdrop of the Himalayas. It was hot, but at 1400m above seal level and well outside of the tropics it was a lot cooler than Malaysia which sits just above the equator.
We walked to the terminal building and got our visas, which required going to 3 different desks, before collecting our bags from the only belt, and walking out into the chaos.
We’d had a warm up to what would come when we had a flight transfer in Delhi. Boarding the plane at Delhi was the most chaotic and insane airport experience I have ever had… Indians (and Nepalis as we were soon to find) have no concept of personal space, nor patience, so will barge, push and bowl over anyone to get to the front of a queue. I suspect that most people joining us on board hadn’t flown before, and didn’t understand assigned seating. To comply with aviation rules, the cabin crew had to reorganise the entire plane to get everyone in their right seats…. We left an hour late. To our advantage was that nobody else realised that aircraft have rear doors, so we walked past the chaos and boarded from the back, sitting down and closing our eyes as people scrambled over us, using our heads as handrails.
Stepping out of arrivals at Kathmandu was like stepping into the lion’s den… Hundreds of people instantly on top of you, hounding you for everything from souvenirs to taxis and SIM cards. After a lot of suffering to get some cash and a SIM card, we got in a taxi. While we were used to busses not having seatbelts, most or all taxis we have been in have had seatbelts. We asked about seatbelts, and the driver said “ah, don’t worry, in Nepal only the driver needs to wear a seatbelt”. He strapped himself in safely while we saw that our belts had been cut off. For this journey it wasn’t too bad since we didn’t go above 20mph in Kathmandu traffic, bit it would prove terrifying later!
Arriving at our hotel in Thamel, the part of the city where most visitors stay. The area was busy with people preparing to go on their treks. The post-monsoon trekking season runs from 1st October to the end of November, and it was 30 September, so it wasn’t yet packed but we were not alone. We had decided that we were going to get out in the mountains as quickly as possible and could then spend time in urban Nepal afterwards if we wanted to. We set about preparing to go trekking!
The first thing we realised was that the less time we have to spend in Kathmandu, the better. It is historically fascinating, as I will describe later, but it is crowded, dirty and chaotic… While some people love it, that just isn’t a pleasant environment for us. We got a few items, and some bus tickets onwards, and at 6.30 the next morning we were outta there!!
We were travelling to Pokhara the second city of Nepal. The journey is around 200km, and it can take up to 12 hours.
Yes….your maths isn’t wrong… that’s an average of under 20km/h driving the primary route between the two biggest cities. This is an indication of the development of Nepal, the 27th poorest country in the world on GDP per capita, and the poorest nation outside of sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East. This road is the equivalent of the M42 between London and Birmingham, yet is is single track and unpaved for large parts. The journey was long (thank you Netflix!) but we got there in a very speedy 9 hours (average 23km/h).
Pokhara
Pokhara was a different ball game, clean, far more developed, and pleasant. At least that applies for the Lakeside area which benefits from being the hub for probably the biggest trekking region in the world – the Annapurna Massif. The wider city is far nicer than Kathmandu, feeling less like a slum, but still clearly in the developing world.
While we had walking boots and outdoorsy clothes, we still needed some kit to go trekking. Sleeping bags and walking poles were on the list, along with some spare walking socks and waterproof trousers. We spent a day in Pokhara arranging these along with our two trekking permits each. Writing this just before we fly to Australia, that day was the most expensive of all our travels so far, by a long way!
Those first couple of days also crushed many of my hopes around Nepal.
We live in Farnborough in the UK, which thanks to the settlement of Gurkha families from the British Army, is something like 10% Nepali. There is a Nepali store at the end of our road, and Nepali people throughout our community… My experiences with them have generally been glowing. We had also read and heard universally wonderful things about the Nepali people, how nice and kind they were. I had high hopes, which may have set me up for a big fall.
Having travelled through South East Asia for months, including cities known for scams like Bangkok and Ho Chi Minh City, we hadn’t fallen foul of any rip off merchants or scams that we were aware of. In the first 2 days in Nepal, we were repeatedly cheated or ripped off by people who would lie or decieve for our money. Sadly this continued to be our experience through large parts of Nepal, that we were looked at as walking wallets to be emptied rather than as guests as we had been treated in many other countries. I will share some examples of this in a later post, but our time in Nepal was tainted by a host of people who cared only for our money. Thankfully there were still a number of wonderful people, and our experience of Nepali people out on the treks would be fantastic.
My plate is momo – a Nepali classic!
The Annapurna Circuit
Things continued steeply downhill for one more day, as we began our trek. We wrote about this immediately thereafter, and you can read about it here… Hopefully you can have a good laugh at our expense!
We’d hit the low point of our trip so far, and I’m pleased to say that it rose sharply up from there as we had a wonderful experience on the Annapurna Circuit. You can read our posts about this trek below, it was one of the highlights of our travels.
- Difficulties Getting Started
- The Annapurna Circuit: Part 1 – The Approach
- Annapurna Circuit: Part 2 – Into the Mountains
Returning to Pokhara
We returned from the Annapurna Circuit earlier than planned, but on a natural high from days of trekking. We felt tired yet fit, most importantly of all we had made some very good friends in Pål and Elise.
The little twin propellor aircraft made the very steep descent into Pokhara airport, scaring the crap out of Pål who doesn’t love flying. We touched down safety and collected our bags from a pile in the terminal hut.
Pål and Elise hadn’t been to Pokhara, having gone trekking directly from Kathmandu. We led them up the road to the hotel we’d been at before the trek, where many of our possessions had been left with a very confused hotel manager. We were rather nervous as to whether everything would be there, but we found our bags under piles of laundry. We had intended to stay at this super-low-budget hotel again, as part of the deal for them to look after our stuff, and had called ahead to reserve our room. Thankfully the guy on the phone had apparently not understood and we didn’t have a room, so we’re forced to move to a nicer hotel!
Pål and I left the girls and found a great hotel only metres away. It was a decent hotel recently bought out by a hostel…. Hostel prices for a fancy hotel room! We checked in and could finally do what we’d all been so eagerly waiting for… Had a proper long shower, got clean, the girls could wash their hair, and we put on some clean clothes.
Of course Pål and I were ready 45 minutes before the girls, so we set about deciding where to go for the next item on the list… A good lunch. Ness and I enjoy good food but we aren’t ‘foodies’, and don’t really seek out good food. Pål is an aspiring restaurant owner and chef, so they are all about finding fantastic places to eat. We normally choose dinner based on the cheapest place possible, but for a few days we got to follow them from one great restaurant to another!
Elise had been encouraging us to come back to Pokhara with them, and we had succumbed to her charms. Now it was our turn to get them to extend their stay before moving on. They had planned to stay just one or two nights before going to Kathmandu for a few days, then to Taiwan. We pushed them out to 3 nights, giving them just 1 day in Kathmandu before they continued their trip.
We had a fantastic few days with them. Someone had the idea of hiring a boat to cross the lake to visit the ‘Peace Pagoda’. This certainly wasn’t my idea after our experience of swan pedalos in Vietnam, but we did it. The row across wasn’t easy but it was beautiful.
We then had a climb up a hill, which we dispatched easily with our new trekking fitness, and found ourselves at an amazing viewpoint and the ‘Peace Pagoda’. A Pagoda is a Buddhist temple or monument, and this one was erected as part of a project by Japanese Buddhist monk who wanted to spread a commitment to peace throughout the world after 1945, leading to at least 80 across the world, including several in the UK, mainland Europe and the US.
Pål and Elise were also quite a bad influence on us as people who don’t really drink. Their love of beer, wine and cocktails rubbed off on us lightweights as we got quickly drunk! This led to a midnight game of charades in a hotel room, and when miming country names the embarrassment of me not getting that Pål pointing at his Knee and himself was a clue for ‘Nepal’. I guessed Neeetherlands and Neeegeria which I still think were valid countries.
We also had dinner with Na’ama, the Israeli pro-cyclist who we had befriended on the Annapurna Circuit. She had finished a day earlier than us after storming ahead, and was preparing to go on another trek.
On the final morning we went with Pål and Elise to say goodbye at the airport, then walked back to our favourite coffee shop. There is no doubt that Ness and I are the perfect travelling partners for each other, and neither of us find ourselves bored of each other, but there was no hiding that we both struggled to say goodbye to our new friends. We sat in the coffee shop, feeling a bit down. After an hour or so I looked at Ness and said ‘I want to get back in the mountains, tomorrow’. Ness showed me her phone, on her screen were descriptions of treks we could do in the time we had left.
We jumped up and went back to the kit shop to hire our same sleeping bags again. Taxi arranged and hotel reservation cancelled, we had our last meal before going back to the culinary curses of trekking. At 7am the next morning we were in a taxi heading back to the Himalaya!
We had 6 days available, and not much money, so we had decided that rather than trying to go back to where we left and carrying on, we would do a different trek in a less travelled part of the Annapurna Massif giving us a different perspective. The Khopra Ridge trek is a 9 day route, which we figured we could do in 6, especially if we cut off one part of it. We were feeling strong, and were already well acclimatised so could quickly gain height.
One hitch was that our trekking permits were ‘single entry’, so having left we were supposed to pay another exhorbitant fee (by backpacker standards) to trek again. We felt that we had paid our dues and were within the 1 month we had paid for, so didn’t fancy buying more permits. This would prove nerve-wracking as the financial penalties can be high.
Khopra Ridge Trek
The taxi dropped us in the village of Kande, far closer to Pokhara than the start of the Annapurna Circuit had been, so no need for horrible busses or terrifying jeeps. We jumped out of the taxi, threw our bags on our backs and stepped onto the trail. We instantly felt at home, back where we belonged.
For the first half day we were on a trail shared with several other treks, and people doing day hikes. It was remarkably not busy as I think we got out ahead of any crowds, but the feel was totally different to what we had encountered on the Annapurna Circuit. People and restaurants we passed were blunt in only wanting our money, being occasionally rude when we declined. We met several groups of children who blocked the path, holding hands and singing while one demanded money. Initially this seemed cute until it became apparent that they were genuinely trying to prevent us from going on unless we paid them. The first time we giggled and shuffled around them which took a long time. The second time we smiled but we’re a bit more pushy. By the third group we were pretty pissed off – I took the clasped hands of two if them and pried them apart, saying ‘NO!’. They then locked back on behind me and wouldn’t let Ness through, which though they were aged no more than 12 was an unpleasant experience when they were in a big group. I grabbed them again and pulled them apart, saying ‘NO’ more angrily. As we walked away I heard footsteps running behind me… I turned to see a child holding a stick running towards me to hit me. He saw me and my face, and decided better of it, but the whole experience was really unpleasent, ruining our day. On our previous trek we had experienced great kindness and we had never felt like walking wallets as we do in town. While the adults were less blatant than this, it was clear that they didn’t care for us as people.
We descended a steep valley wall to a river. Crossing it a young girl blocked our path and demanded with a firm voice ‘chocolate’. As we walked past her she shouted after us ‘NO, CHOCOLATE’. Thankfully this was the last such experience, we climbed up to the village of Ghandruk and from then on we were back in the welcoming environment we’d loved before, where the local people were so warm and kind. We’d done 3 days from the guidebook in 1, so were pleased.
Interestingly we would encounter the same tactics from children on the last day of this trek as we came back towards the main road (but in a different area). We’d seen that every trekker coming the other way had a tilaka, a red ‘third eye’ painted on their foreheads. We anticipated that someone would be demanding money for this on the path, and we found children blocking the route in the same way as we’d seen before. We said politely ‘no’ and unlocked their hands to go through…they became very angry again. We assumed that this was targeting just tourists, but while in a local taxi leaving the village, children blocked the path of the car, demanding money. The driver was far less polite than us, and noisily accelerated towards them, causing them to run away (I’m very confident that this old man wouldn’t have actually hurt them). On the same road, children were physically pushing a JCB, stopping it from going forward, while a child was climbing up the cabin demanding money.
Back in Ghandruk, we found a lovely lodge and settled in with our old favourites of ginger lemon honey tea and Tibetan bread. Tibetan bread here was called Gurung bread, named after the main social group in the area. Nepal still has very distinct divisions in society between different groups. These groups are a factor of ethnic / geographic backgrounds, and social-class based castes. The Sherpa people are the most famous internationally for their high altitude expertise, but there are countless others. The Gurkha regiments recruit largely from the Gurung, Rai and Limbu groups, while the Bhramin and Chhetri groups dominate the country’s leadership for example.
After a relaxing stay in Ghandruk we set off, to sleep the next night at Dobato. These first two days were almost entirely through thick forest, with constant ups and downs without real height change (known as ‘Nepali flat’, as guides list these sections as flat due to the end height being the same as the start height, despite the elevation gain in between). This was pretty demoralising, just a long tedious walk, and any gaps in the woodland scenery were filled with thick cloud that loomed over us. There was one thing though that cheered us up.
First thing in the morning we walked through a village and saw two dogs playing. Well… One of them was a puppy and was playing, the other was chilling watching the puppy play, with a little bit of irritation in his eyes. I stood and watched for a minute or so, missing spending time with a dog. We walked on and didn’t look back for 5 minutes, until we noticed that the older dog was following us.
This is quite common, we have often had dogs follow us for short sections, but this little guy persisted. He seemed to disappear just before we stopped for lunch, but when we came out of our lunch stop we found him laying on the step waiting for us.
The other big news of this day was the birth of my Nephew… The first in the next generation down from Ness and I in our families. We were very excited for this, though sad to not be around for it. We’d been guessing baby names, and had settled on a guess of George. That afternoon we learned of the birth of our Nephew, Joshua (a beautiful name!). We decided that we needed to give the dog a name, since we needed to talk to him a lot. I suggested Joshua, but Ness told me that we couldn’t name a wild dog after our newly born Nephew, so since George wasn’t in use (against our recommendation) we named the dog George.
We arrived at our lodge for the night in Dobato. I waited outside while Ness was making arrangements, and George sat next to me, intently watching Ness. We eventually went in to get settled, George started following us, but evidently didn’t feel comfortable going into the lodge itself, so waited outside.
We sat, watching the sun set through a panoramic window, and after dinner I took a plate of rice our to George, who wolfed it down.
We had stopped here at Dobato, slightly ahead of our initial plans, because it sat below Mulde Peak. At 3,650m it is just a small hill by Himalayan standards, but offers a panoramic view of the surroundings. We got up at 5am and quickly scurried out the door and up the short 30 minute climb to the top, carrying just a camera. We sat and watched the sunrise, with the first yellow rays striking the huge monolith of Dhaulagiri as it towered above the Tibetan Plateau to the North West. We could also look North East and see Annapurna I, at the centre of the Annapurna range, around which we had been trekking for these past weeks. Shortly after sunrise we heard a low drone, and from Pokhara saw a plane flying towards us, well below our vantage point. Under us flew the aircraft going to Jomsom to collect trekkers finishing the Annapurna Circuit, the same plane we’d been on a week ago.
We returned to the lodge for breakfast, and I took a look around the area for George, but couldn’t find him. We were pretty gutted but had been trying to not get too fond of him, expecting that this would be the case.
After breakfast we out pur bags on and went to set off…and there he was, waiting just outside our block… His tail eagerly wagging.
We decided that George was now officially a part of our group, and were excited to have him with us. He prompoted many a conversation about our futures when we returned, starting with whether we would have a dog and if so what breed, then onto houses and children. I am very much a ‘dog person’ – I grew up with a dog and very much feel that the symbiotic relationship between a person and a dog is a core part of who I am – I loved walking next to a little friend again.
We stormed ahead around a bowl looking out from the mountains, until the path met the base of the Khopra Ridge, the central feature of the route we were trekking. We knew that accomodation could be sparse there, and that if we stayed on the ridge the next day would be a big one if we wanted to stay on track. Our plan had been to leave our bags in a lodge at the bottom of the ridge and race up it and back before dark. We sat at the bottom with a coffee, deciding what to do. We concluded that we wanted to spend the evening up on the ridge to really appreciate it, so grabbed our bags and set off up. It turned out to be absolutely the right decision.
We reached the top quickly, learning again that Nepali maps were not as accurate as we are used to from home, putting the lodge on a different ridge to where it actually is. We arrived and asked for rooms, knowing that if they were full then we would be offered a tent, and having decided in advance that if we were offered a tent we would descend back down to the valley. Initially it didn’t look great, but as we were preparing to leave, another couple returned from a hike above the lodge and decided to not stay another night, so we could have their room. We gratefully settled into the last room, and for the afternoon watched groups return from a small side trek above the lodge, and others come up the valley.
One such group were two Americans who we had met the day before… Both from Colorado they were lovely, but their guide clearly fancied himself as a stand-up comic, which was funny for the first 5 minutes and not a moment longer. They arrived late in the day and found themselves in a tent, which isn’t what you really expect when you pay a guide to book your accomodation for you. Nonetheless, he did redeem himself to us when we told him about the birth of Joshua – he explained that in Nepali tradition I should slaughter a goat in his honour, and that the mother would drink the warm blood and the father eats horn and testicle soup, then the rest of the goat can be used to support the new family. I offered to air mail a goat (live or pre-slaughtered) to my brother and sister-in-law, but she made clear that she didn’t fancy goat blood for breakfast.
I began to see the orange glow of sunset out of the lodge windows, so stepped outside to take a look. Meeting George outside I saw the most spectacular view, and literally ran back inside to grab Ness. We walked 50m behind the lodge and watched the most beautiful work of natural art I have ever seen, a truly breathtaking sunset over Dhaulagiri, with colours I thought were only seen in oil paintings and Photoshop. I will let the photos paint the picture for you… please know when you look that these are very nearly as shot, any adjustments to colour and light were just to make up for failings in my ability to use a camera.
Going to bed with a big smile, I set my alarm for 45 minutes before sunrise.
When my alarm woke me, I threw on some clothes and jogged up some way above and behind the lodge, for the best view. A herd of yaks had also chosen this spot for their morning, so I stood amongst these hairy Himalayan creatures and enjoyed the sunrise for a second day in a row.
We set off after breakfast for our third big day in a row. We would start the day at just under 3,700m height, and end at just over 3,200m, but in the middle we had to descend into a valley at about 2,200m… Our aim as always was to get there for lunch.
We set off at a brisk pace, descending as fast as we sustainably could. We soon passed where we had joined the ridge the day before, and carried on down. After the highlights of the day before, this was another day of tedium, just trying to get down quickly with little view other than the trees around us. One highlight was reaching the village of Swanta in the valley, where the landscape changed from a rugged Himalayan one to carefully tended terraces of rice and vegetables. The path took us through a school where we looked up from the playground, across the school building where we could hear lessons inside, to the huge summits above us.
Just before this point, George turned around and joined another group going back into the mountains. We would soon be on a big road and going through developed areas, and were concerned that we would inadvertantly take him from a beautiful wilderness where he could hunt and relax, to a busy town. Thankfully he seemed to have this worked out, so we were sad to see him leave but pleased that he would still be amongst the mountains.
That afternoon we came to the main track at Chitre… we had rejoined the Annapurna Circuit, 8 days after we had left it in Jomsom.
We walked a short while further to Ghorepani, a relatively big town (20 minutes to walk from end to end). We found a lodge and settled into what felt like luxury…. A hot shower, double bed and a building that stayed over freezing. Ghorepani is at the centre of a popular route, travelling here over 1 or 2 days on foot or by 4×4, then going to a viewpoint above the town for sunrise, and returning. The viewpoint is called Poon Hill and the sunrise there is famously beautiful and heaving with people.
While having lunch in Ghorepani, we discussed whether we wanted to do Poon Hill, and if so when. We had seen many beautiful sunrises and sunsets, and didn’t fancy standing in a huge crowd – exactly the opposite of what we wanted from trekking. We decided to go up that afternoon for sunset instead.
In trainers and casual clothes, we raced up the stone steps from town that afternoon. We were disappointed that it was still quite busy – nothing like the photos we had seen for sunrise, but still very busy. We found a seat and enjoyed the beautiful view. We could look across the valley and see Khopra Ridge, where we had slept the last night. A group of British men stood near us with huge cameras pointed towards Khopra and said to each other ‘you can actually do a trek up there – it must be so beautiful’. I interjected, pointing at the miniscule spec in the distance and said that we had watched sunrise from there. Their awe matched ours as we looked at where we had come from that day, including the deep valley we had come through, plunging a kilometre below us.
Just as we were getting bored of the crowd, a cloud came across and left us in fog for 10 minutes. Almost everyone gave up on sunset and left to go back to their lodge. We were in no hurry, so along with a small handful of others we stuck around. Another 10 minutes later, the cloud cleared to reveal yet another spectacular sunset.
We sat and watched as the sky turned orange over the Himalaya, knowing that it would be many years before we saw such huge mountains again. The sun disappeared, leaving a deep blue sky, and as everyone else vacated the hill, we sat longer.
You may remember from Annapurna Circuit Part 1 that I described how mountains are such a core part of us, they fill us with excitement and passion, in our waking hours and our dreams. Few would contest that the Himalaya is the greatest mountain range in the world, and we felt blessed to have been able to spend this time walking at its feet. As the temperature plummeted, Ness had to drag me away from the view. I felt a lot of emotion as we walked away, and back to a different life.
The next morning we were woken at 4am by other lodgers heading off to the crowds at Poon Hill, we woke leisurely at 6am and after breakfast we set off.
The route back, half on a path, the other on a dirt road, was a long one which we planned to do in one day. This was our fifth big day in a row, and we were feeling the effects, yet were feeling strong and confident, we felt like people who had been trekking for the best part of 3 weeks. The day would be spent in far more terrestrial environments, down valley paths facing away from the mountains, and so it was a day we just wanted to get done.
The first obstacle was the permit checkpost. You may remember from earlier in this post that we had been a bit cheeky with the rules and decided against buying a new trekking permit. Our permit still had plenty of time left on it but was a single entry permit (multiple entry wasn’t an option) and we had left the park after our last trek. Thankfully our departure had been unplanned, so we hadn’t had ourselves stamped out, and we counted on this to get us through. We knew that if we were found at a checkpost without a valid permit then we would be required to buy one at a hugely inflated price. We had come to a checkpost on the first day, and as we walked towards it we discussed whether to stop or to try to just walk straight through pretending to not see it. Unfortunately as we passed it, a voice from behind summoned us.
I stepped in and presented our permits. The officer immediately smelt a rat, and asked a lot of questions. I answered in the vaguest ways possible, pleading ignorance wherever I could. He said ‘this permit is single entry, and you are re-entering – I know this and I think you know this’. He then said ‘you have no exit stamp, if you did then I couldn’t let you through, but if anyone else asks then you say that you haven’t left’. We were very relieved, and the pressure was off for a few days as there was no checkpost until Ghorepani, but also nervous knowing that the stamps in our book looked very suspicious to anyone who looked at them.
Back to our last day – we walked out of Ghorepani knowing that we would pass a checkpost. We hoped that we would be so early that the post hadn’t opened, and we tried to walk past, but again a man in uniform summoned me forwards. We were both nervous, if he saw the route we’d taken from stamps and dates then it would be clear that we were breaking the rules.
We are pretty shameless, we’d dressed Ness down for the occasion and had her present the permit, and then I tried to strike up a rapport with the Police Officer. It turned out to be totally unnecessary… he didn’t look twice, stamping both of our permits and sending us swiftly on.
We stormed ahead that day. We had planned to do it in a long day, but reached the road before midday. We went into the last checkpost, hopeful that as the last stamp was as expected then he wouldn’t look further back. We were right, and he asked ‘you exit the park now’…. After a lot of trekking we said ‘yes’ with a big smile. We got a big ‘EXIT’ stamp.
We had intended to walk for another 20 minutes to a bigger road, but as we left the check post a taxi driver approached us. He offered a price for transport back to Pokhara, which was far too high and we declined, our maximum price was far too low for him. He came after us a few minutes later with local lady and her daughter – he would accept our lower price if the mother and daughter could come too.
The taxi ride was pretty terrifying. Nepalis, like much of the developing world, have a perception of risk which is totally different to what we are used to in the West. Their willingness to overtake on a blind corner with a cliff to one side is utterly mind-boggling, and we were pleased that this would be our last such journey for a while. The common response to this is ‘but, it all seems to work, and they value their own lives so they wouldn’t do it if it was really dangerous’ …. The accident statistics and number of overturned vehicles we saw at the roadside indicate that this is an unrealistically optimistic view. We agreed that the best thing we could do for our safety was minimise the amount of time we spent in a car, and insist on seatbelts!
Our departure from trekking was as sudden as our decision to go on this second trek – we said yes to the taxi driver and less than 2 hours later we were back in our very comfortable hotel in Pokhara.
We did our washing, got showered, and headed straight for our favourite coffee shop – White Rabbit!
Kathmandu
We spent two days in Pokhara relaxing in relative comfort, sampling the reminder of the restaurants that Pål had researched, and letting our bodies recover. We had decided that we would go back to Kathmandu with a day to spare, partly so that we wouldn’t miss our flight if there was a problem with the bus, and also so that we could see a few of the sights.
We arrived in Kathmandu after a long but pretty easy journey, and set about trying to like Kathmandu.
That isn’t an easy task – it is noisy, busy and dirty. Rubbish strewn across the street while endless cars rush past, all sounding their horns and pushing you out of the way. Pavements aren’t a thing and cars consider themselves more important than pedestrians, so you are constantly dodging. Hawkers harrass you at every step, not in the upfront way that is common in much of the developing world, asking you to buy their product or inviting you into their store. In Nepal, vendors make false attempts to befriend you, pretending that it is solely out of shared human interest, until they then hook around to the sale, often in a very manipulative way. It makes all human interaction seem empty, and after only a few interactions you learn to immediately ignore people as they approach you, then making you seem cold and possibly closing off genuine interactions.
Nonetheless, there is beauty in the city. It is a place where the modern meets the ancient in a manner which would not be seen in the west. People sell carpets from the steps of ancient monuments, a fruit seller tucked inside a shrine, the interaction between history and present day life is far deeper than in our home society where history is encased in glass for its preservation.
Away from the tourist parts, Kathmandu is brightly colourful and alive, no less ‘in your face’ than in the tourist areas, but with more depth of character behind it. Colourful spices are sold under bright awnings in ancient squares. The place is truly alive.
We managed a short time trying to engage with the city, almost out of respect for its fascinating history, yet soon we had to withdraw to a more tame environment.
Excitingly, a few friends of ours were in Kathmandu as well…
Corey and Caitie are a couple of Aussies who we met climbing in Tonsai, Thailand. They run a charity, selling branded clothing and items to raise money for a Nepali School.
Caitie had done some volunteering a few years ago at this school on the rural outskirts of Kathmandu, and with her partner Corey they established Climb Culture. After only 10 months they have achieved some amazing things, and you’ll be seeing us supporting them, especially as we spend more time in our climbing gear over the coming months. Below is an extract from their website, we’d really encourage you to take a look in full here.
After this trip to Nepal, Caitie and Corey are heading to the UK to live in Europe for a few years, so we are excited to see more of them when we go home.
We were also excited to see Na’ama and her father Anon who had just finished their second trek. We had met them while on the Annapurna Circuit, and found them really cool, interesting people. We had lunch with Na’ama and then dinner with her, Anon, Caitie and Corey. I sat next to Anon and was fascinated by his work as a child psychologist in Israeli schools. After dinner he took the group of us to a rock bar, and we spent our last night listening to some great live music.
We took a taxi to the airport the next morning, well aware of the chaos we’d likely encounter. The roads were strangely dead on the drive there, then I noticed that there were Police loosely lining the road. I asked the taxi driver, who told me that the Nepali Prime Minister was returning from a foreign visit and would be travelling down this road soon. We arrived at the airport which was remarkably calm and well organised, with police everywhere. We cruised through and all went amazingly well, until we found ourselves sat on the tarmac for 30 minutes waiting for the PMs plane to land and for her to depart.
As our plane lifted off and turned away from the Himalaya, we reflected on our time in Nepal. It had been the high and low light of the trip. We’d struggled with many aspects of Nepal, and it’s hard to shake the fact that I was disappointed with my experience there. However, trekking had been one of the best things we’ve experienced in our lives, we met some wonderful people who we hope will become lifelong friends, and we feel far richer people for our month there.
After another long layover in Delhi, we were off to Singapore where we would stay in the ultra-modern city state with an old friend and his wife… We were desperately looking forward to it!
If you have enjoyed reading about our time in Nepal then please check out our other posts using the menu in the left or clicking here.
