(September 1 - 7) Welcome back friendly readers! I hope you are all doing very well, and I would love to hear from you when you have a spare minute or two. So as a fair warning, I spent a great deal of time in Nepal, so there will be a lot of blogging about it. Hopefully you find it as intriguing as I found the country. Nepal was mind blowing, and I honestly don’t even know where to begin, so you will have to bear with me.
Nepal is a small country with a population of 30 million sandwiched between China (Tibet is just across the border and many refugees now call Nepal home) and India with a large friendly population and a HUGE number of mountains to hike, rivers to raft, and temples to visit. Although Nepal is one of the poorest countries in the world the energy is high and the locals in good spirits. The currency is the Nepalese Rupee (1USD = 71 Rupees) and Nepal relies on tourism and local agriculture to sustain itself. Buddhism is by far the main religion and as a result the Buddhist culture is very prevalent as temples, prayer flags, and monks are seen throughout the country.
Becky and I arrived after our crazy long night in the Bahrain airport and let me tell you the Nepal airport could not have been more opposite. We quickly got visas (luckily) and then headed to a large baggage room with an old school conveyor belt and tons and tons of locals jockeying for position. Luckily Becky and I tower above the majority of people and had practice working together in these situations. After watching ridiculous amounts of TV boxes come off the belt (not sure what was in them) and very little luggage, we finally saw our two huge body bag suitcases and breathed a huge sigh of relief. We would in fact have clothing for our trek.
After sleeping excessively we decided to brave the streets of Kathmandu; Nepal’s bustling (and I mean BUSTLING) capital. Cars, motorbikes, tuk tuks, bike rickshaws, and pedestrians crowded the dirty narrow streets lined continuously with tightly packed shops, restaurants, and guest houses. There are only a few key types of shops that carry identical goods: trekking, Buddhist souvenirs, mini markets, laundry services, T-shirts, and tourism services. After souvenir shopping it was time to do some sightseeing.
If you arrive early we recommend you check out Durbar Square, home to the palace of the Kumari Devi, who is considered to be a living goddess. She became the current living goddess at four years old and will remain the goddess until she is about twelve. She is now six years old and appeared in the window to look down on us for a moment. Interesting to say the least. We took a bike rickshaw through the crazy streets of Kathmandu and managed to survive, as did the small man hauling the two of us. The square had a variety of temples and people scattered about, many selling goods. Later that night we tried momos and Everest beer for the first time. The momos are fried or steamed dumplings served up with a sauce and can be pretty good at the right restaurant.
The next day we were on the road in a giant crammed bus that only Africa and Asia can produce. We whipped through dangerous mountain roads and got stuck in traffic thanks to monsoon created landslides covering the road. The scenery was gorgeous. It was mountainous and green as far as the eye could see, and I constantly stared out at the tiered farming and little towns. At one point I hopped out to whitewater raft the Trishuli River for 33km (20 miles) while Becky joined our awesome driver Indra in our hired car. The rafting was great with more of the same amazing scenery but from the river perspective. There were so many shades of green that I was reminded of the kids in elementary school with the box of 168 Crayolas that included twenty plus greens. We also passed so many monsoon generated waterfalls that I lost count. Eventually the sun even decided to come out and illuminate the river and mountains. I must say that not all of the riverbed was pretty, at one sad point there was a section about five feet by fifty feet of trash along the bank of the river. Very depressing to see. The rafting was fun and the rapids were III and III+ often with five to ten foot tidal waves, some holes, and tons of water.
We wrapped up the day with our drive up to the small quaint town of Bandipur. We strolled through the quiet little town filled with kids playing games and greeting us with Nameste (pronounced nam-es-tae)! The mountain views were great, and it was nice to see a quieter side of Nepal.
It was now Saturday morning, so we made the drive past rice patties and colorful towns to Pokhara. Pokhara is the last large city (400,000 population) before the Annapurna Mountain range (34 miles including six mountains above 23,000 feet) treks begin. The Annapurna Mountain peaks are actually the most dangerous peaks in the world to summit with a 40% fatality ratio. We wandered the town and eventually had to rent a wooden boat to paddle around the amazingly calm lake, Phewa Tal. Sadly there were no Annapurna views since they were engulfed by clouds. Later that night we got the unfortunate news that a plane had gone down near the Lukla airport (where we were scheduled to fly for the Everest trek) killing fourteen passengers.
We got up at 5AM Sunday, September 5th hoping to see the Annapurnas but again we were denied. We eventually took another boat ride across the lake to hike up to the Peace Pagoda. It was extremely peaceful, and we were better able to see just how big the city of Pokhara was. Of course the clouds still mocked us as they blocked the mountain range views. We devoured some great Korean food (I was in heaven with my bulgogi) at a local restaurant and then watched a movie in the hostel as it furiously down poured.
On Monday we visited the Tibetan settlement of Tashi Palkhel where we were invited to sit among the monks in the temple during their afternoon chanting and worship. It was a moving experience and the chants were harmonious and enjoyable with drums, horns and shells played. I loved sitting in a row with children as they diligently read their prayers aloud and occasionally flashed a smile our way. We were also able to see women walking around praying with handheld prayer wheels as well as a small room with a big colorful prayer wheel that people walk around and spin as they pray. We visited the rest of the small poor town meandering though the alleyways of stone homes and talking with people selling Tibetan goods. It was definitely a unique experience I will not forget.
After more monsoon rains and no Annapurna views Monday night we had to brave the dangerous mountain roads for an eleven hour ride to get back to Kathmandu in time to meet our trekking group. Luckily it became sunny and the treacherous drive was slightly less dangerous. We made it back exhausted but happy. Until next time…Sarah.
Nepal is a small country with a population of 30 million sandwiched between China (Tibet is just across the border and many refugees now call Nepal home) and India with a large friendly population and a HUGE number of mountains to hike, rivers to raft, and temples to visit. Although Nepal is one of the poorest countries in the world the energy is high and the locals in good spirits. The currency is the Nepalese Rupee (1USD = 71 Rupees) and Nepal relies on tourism and local agriculture to sustain itself. Buddhism is by far the main religion and as a result the Buddhist culture is very prevalent as temples, prayer flags, and monks are seen throughout the country.
Becky and I arrived after our crazy long night in the Bahrain airport and let me tell you the Nepal airport could not have been more opposite. We quickly got visas (luckily) and then headed to a large baggage room with an old school conveyor belt and tons and tons of locals jockeying for position. Luckily Becky and I tower above the majority of people and had practice working together in these situations. After watching ridiculous amounts of TV boxes come off the belt (not sure what was in them) and very little luggage, we finally saw our two huge body bag suitcases and breathed a huge sigh of relief. We would in fact have clothing for our trek.
After sleeping excessively we decided to brave the streets of Kathmandu; Nepal’s bustling (and I mean BUSTLING) capital. Cars, motorbikes, tuk tuks, bike rickshaws, and pedestrians crowded the dirty narrow streets lined continuously with tightly packed shops, restaurants, and guest houses. There are only a few key types of shops that carry identical goods: trekking, Buddhist souvenirs, mini markets, laundry services, T-shirts, and tourism services. After souvenir shopping it was time to do some sightseeing.
If you arrive early we recommend you check out Durbar Square, home to the palace of the Kumari Devi, who is considered to be a living goddess. She became the current living goddess at four years old and will remain the goddess until she is about twelve. She is now six years old and appeared in the window to look down on us for a moment. Interesting to say the least. We took a bike rickshaw through the crazy streets of Kathmandu and managed to survive, as did the small man hauling the two of us. The square had a variety of temples and people scattered about, many selling goods. Later that night we tried momos and Everest beer for the first time. The momos are fried or steamed dumplings served up with a sauce and can be pretty good at the right restaurant.
The next day we were on the road in a giant crammed bus that only Africa and Asia can produce. We whipped through dangerous mountain roads and got stuck in traffic thanks to monsoon created landslides covering the road. The scenery was gorgeous. It was mountainous and green as far as the eye could see, and I constantly stared out at the tiered farming and little towns. At one point I hopped out to whitewater raft the Trishuli River for 33km (20 miles) while Becky joined our awesome driver Indra in our hired car. The rafting was great with more of the same amazing scenery but from the river perspective. There were so many shades of green that I was reminded of the kids in elementary school with the box of 168 Crayolas that included twenty plus greens. We also passed so many monsoon generated waterfalls that I lost count. Eventually the sun even decided to come out and illuminate the river and mountains. I must say that not all of the riverbed was pretty, at one sad point there was a section about five feet by fifty feet of trash along the bank of the river. Very depressing to see. The rafting was fun and the rapids were III and III+ often with five to ten foot tidal waves, some holes, and tons of water.
We wrapped up the day with our drive up to the small quaint town of Bandipur. We strolled through the quiet little town filled with kids playing games and greeting us with Nameste (pronounced nam-es-tae)! The mountain views were great, and it was nice to see a quieter side of Nepal.
It was now Saturday morning, so we made the drive past rice patties and colorful towns to Pokhara. Pokhara is the last large city (400,000 population) before the Annapurna Mountain range (34 miles including six mountains above 23,000 feet) treks begin. The Annapurna Mountain peaks are actually the most dangerous peaks in the world to summit with a 40% fatality ratio. We wandered the town and eventually had to rent a wooden boat to paddle around the amazingly calm lake, Phewa Tal. Sadly there were no Annapurna views since they were engulfed by clouds. Later that night we got the unfortunate news that a plane had gone down near the Lukla airport (where we were scheduled to fly for the Everest trek) killing fourteen passengers.
We got up at 5AM Sunday, September 5th hoping to see the Annapurnas but again we were denied. We eventually took another boat ride across the lake to hike up to the Peace Pagoda. It was extremely peaceful, and we were better able to see just how big the city of Pokhara was. Of course the clouds still mocked us as they blocked the mountain range views. We devoured some great Korean food (I was in heaven with my bulgogi) at a local restaurant and then watched a movie in the hostel as it furiously down poured.
On Monday we visited the Tibetan settlement of Tashi Palkhel where we were invited to sit among the monks in the temple during their afternoon chanting and worship. It was a moving experience and the chants were harmonious and enjoyable with drums, horns and shells played. I loved sitting in a row with children as they diligently read their prayers aloud and occasionally flashed a smile our way. We were also able to see women walking around praying with handheld prayer wheels as well as a small room with a big colorful prayer wheel that people walk around and spin as they pray. We visited the rest of the small poor town meandering though the alleyways of stone homes and talking with people selling Tibetan goods. It was definitely a unique experience I will not forget.
After more monsoon rains and no Annapurna views Monday night we had to brave the dangerous mountain roads for an eleven hour ride to get back to Kathmandu in time to meet our trekking group. Luckily it became sunny and the treacherous drive was slightly less dangerous. We made it back exhausted but happy. Until next time…Sarah.
No comments:
Post a Comment