Strong, resouceful and gentle people...beautiful Nepal

My first view of the Himalayan Mountains from air

I arrived in Nepal February 12, three weeks ago today. It seems like ages ago, as I have seen and done so much. Everyday is an adventure…..even if it is only exploring the neighborhood.
Aside from a two hour delay in Delhi, my flight into Kathmandu and obtaining a tourist visa went without a hitch. The staff from the hotel I had booked on line, were at the airport to pick me up as promised. When landing in a foreign country solo, it is so reassuring to see someone holding a placard with your name on it. I stayed at the Hotel Himal Ganesh and it was everything the guidebook said it would be (yes I am plugging them). What a treat after some of my hotel experiences in India. These folks knew the meaning of “customer service” and CLEAN!!  I even got a hot water bottle to take to bed every night (the next best thing to Garry).


Scenery on trek to village of Nagarkot

On my first evening in Kathmandu, I had the pleasure of meeting my second cousin, Andree for the first time. She lives in Vancouver and is presently interning with a United Nations project for six month in Kathmandu.  We’d never met in Canada, but we’d been in touch and I felt like I was meeting a familiar face.  She was a gracious hostess and we enjoyed a lovely evening and meal together in the Thamel district (the funky touristy hippy area of Kathmandu). 

Riding a bike in Kathmandu...adventure travel for sure!

Ancient city of Bhaktapur above and below.

Boudhanath, buddist temple and world heritage site.

Pashupata Temple with Holy men
Below they are preparing a body for cremation

The ashes will go back in the river.

When I arrived in Kathmandu, I didn’t really have a concrete plan for my time in Nepal, other than arriving in Pokhara at some future date to volunteer. I told myself I was ready for about 5 days of doing nothing, but that is not quite what happened. Wonderful how things unfolded to fill the next couple of weeks. I was pretty sure that I would not come back to Kathmandu after I left, so I decided to check out some of what this area had to offer. I started with a day trip of trekking to the small village of Nagarkot. One connection led to another and the next morning I was picked up at my hotel, and introduced to Jaya (our trekking guide) and a fellow traveler Patrick from Paris. Patrick doesn’t speak much English but we seemed to communicate quite well and learned a few details about each other in our time together. He is 42 years old, and works at a Book Store in Paris. He works long days and is able to build up time for travelling which he loves to do. Photography seems to be one of his passions, and he was sporting a Canon SLR, with a couple of impressive lenses.. Very nice young man, very easy going…whenever there was a decision to be made he would shrug his shoulders and with his very French accent say” as you like”. Jaya was also a very nice young man. Very respectful a good command of the English language, so he answered questions and offered explanations to all my enquiries. The day was to end with a trip to Bhaktapur, the original, cultural capital of Nepal, and  one of the three world heritages sites in the Kathmandu valley. It is 13kms east of Kathmandu and gives shelter to over 80,000 people. It dates back to the early 7^th century A.D. and is a photographer’s dream. We arrived towards sunset and both Patrick and I wanted to return to see the city in the daylight.  Jaya said he would be free in 2 days and offered to guide us again…. so Wednesday morning we set off on a real adventure. We rented mountain bikes and helmets and set off (no bells or lights). I have rarely been so focused on the present moment. To take my eyes off the road, crazy traffic or Jaya for even a moment was life threatening.  We made it out there and had a great day walking around the old city and taking photos. We left Bhaktapur mid-day, biking back towards Kathmandu to visit the other two world heritage sites.   Our first destination was Boudhanath, one of the most important places of pilgrimage for Buddhist people. In the past, when trade routes to central and western Tibet were fully open, traders, pilgrims and travelers sought blessing at this stupa. Today it towers above a small village that since the arrival of Tibetan refugees in the 1960’s has become the center of a thriving town of monasteries, craftsmen and businesses. It is also one of the largest and most significant Buddhist monuments in the world.

Towards sunset we peddled to Pashupata Temple, the last world heritage site in the area. It is one of the holiest temples of the world revered and worshipped by both Hindus and Buddhists. They have Arati, their evening prayer service every night at 6:00pm, and also cremation ghats that burn 24 hours each day. This temple area also draws the attention of anthropologists as they are finding inscriptions that date back to 459AD. Now came the simply stupid part of our day….riding our bikes back to the bike rental store (that had already closed) in the dark (loadshedding), no street lights, no bike lights, no reflective gear on terrible roads with numerous potholes. I don’t recommend anyone doing this. I was SO happy to get off my bike alive and walk back to the hotel.  There is adventure and then there is stupid. In retrospect ….I would call this stupid. I certainly have had horseshoes and angels watching out for me.

Now that I’ve had a taste of trekking and seeing the incredible scenery in rural Nepal, I’ve thought how could I be in Nepal and not do a mountain trek…..so the next day… Jaya, Patrick, and I are set up a 9 day trek to Annapurna Mountain Basecamp. I haven’t been working out for the last 5 weeks, but the trek outside of Kathmandu went pretty good so what the heck….don’t know if I’ll be back to do this in the future. Jaya reassures me I can do this.

Feb.18: Kathmandu to Pokhara, destination Annapurna Basecamp here we come (via long bumpy 7 hour bus ride). I am flying back!

Trekking through a village

Day 1 of the trek: Jaya our guide (we’d definitely bonded by now) Chandra, our porter, Patrick and I were off to reach basecamp and return to Pokhara….victorious and alive I am hoping.   (I was to begin volunteering on Feb. 27.)   Our spirits were high and I was full of optimism at the adventure I was embarking on. The road soon ended and the only way in and out now is by foot, mule or helicopter. By 5:00pm that day after ascending 6000 feet and still an hour away from my destination, my mantra was “bistero, bistero, bistero, bistero (in English slowly, slowly, slowly, slowly”) huff huff, puff puff…. This was hard work!!!

Finally Ulleri… 2010 meters above sea level…..YES…a hot shower, food, swapping stories with fellow trekkers and bedJ.

Nepali shindig at Ghorepani guesthouse

My room with a view!

Day 2 of the trek: We only hiked about 5 hours today to arrive at Ghorepani (2750meters) by about 2 pm. This renewed my faith in myself…YES… I THINK I CAN, I THINK I CAN….! It amazing how cold it has already gotten. The weather is cloudy and foggy. We were hoping we could hike to Poon Hill at sunset, but that is not going to happen. So we’ve settled in for the day. A fire, a hot shower, hot chocolate and my book (ahhhh, this is more like it!!) After a supper of “mixed pizza” which includes egg, tuna and cheese (I am trying to get my protein however it is offered) we brought out the Nepali instruments, drums, spoons, and spoon in Gorka beer bottle. We enjoyed an evening learning Nepalese song with Jaya, Chaundra, Lalita and Nanu (guesthouse owners) and were in bed early to rise at 5:00pm for our ascent to Poon Hill to see the sunriseJ.       

Worth the trek!

Day 3 of the trek: I must admit…I was hoping for a cloudy morning and extra sleep, but the gods were not in my favor. Once I got up and at’em though, I was glad. The trek to Poon Hill was a little treacherous as the snow had thawed and then froze during the night. It was slow going at times but to see the sun coming up over the mountains was spectacular. We were now at 3200 meters! So far so good. No real problems with altitude so far, I was to take it slow (no problem there). After breakfast we were on our way.
Today was hard…9 hours in total and very icy at times. This made it very difficult and did a number on my right ankle. No blister but my boot had rubbed on my ankle bone and it was sore L.  I was very glad to see the guesthouse at Tetrapani, have a hot shower, eat and crawl into to bedJ.

spectacular scenery

Day 4 of the trek: Today I could have quit!!! I kept asking myself why I was doing this, and even paying money to do it! My ankle was screaming to stop, and it was a very long day….Jaya said if we didn’t get to Sinuwa we wouldn’t make our schedule. At 3:00pm after already hiking about 7 hours we still had 3 to go. I was ready to bail but when I asked Patrick how he felt…. he said “what no ABC” in his very French accent (Annapurna basecamp). How could I let him down, I was the one who talked him into coming??? So I sucked it up, felt sorry for myself and put on my music to get in a zone so that I would get through the next three hours. By now I am wondering where those natural painkillers are that the body is supposed to give of?? Up and down, up and down, I am learning that what goes up must also go down and visa versa. We finally arrived at Sinuwa as the day is ending; I am feeling very bitchy, my ankle is very red tonight and I am wondering how I will get through tomorrow L. Poor me!

Little people along the way...

Day 5 of the trek: I started my day with a reading by Pema Chodrin (a Buddhist teacher.)  This morning she tells the reader to stay with “the pain”.  Our natural inclination, she says, is to escape it….DUUUHHHH…. OF COURSE IT IS!  Anyways…. today I made an amazing discovery. Kotex needs to rethink their ads for active women….Minipads are also amazing in hiking boots, they are what got me through the rest of the trek and prevented my boot from rubbing on my ankle!! YES, I am back in the game…. I CAN DO THISJ J J! I am glad I didn’t cave in when I hit the wall.  I spent the day visualizing myself making ads for Kotex and giggling…..maybe the altitude is getting to me! We had a fun evening at the guesthouse in Duereli, trying to stay warm with a group of Koreans. No hot showers up here.  Nepal is trying to preserve their forests at this altitude so don’t allow wood fires. We huddled around a table in the main room with a butane flame under the table. Our knees were on fire, our feet freezing and I am sure the fumes were not great for us….but a good time was had by all playing a Nepalese card game as an international group of folks. We were all excited that we had made it this far and looking forward to reaching basecamp tomorrow.  Into bed early, 5:30 wake up tomorrow.

Just about at Deureli, ever changing mountain weather.... a storm was brewing as we arrived at the guesthouse

Day 6 of the trek: We got up in the dark ate breakfast and packed up. Chandra and Patrick set out ahead of us. Jaya and I left about shortly after. It was cold as the sun hadn’t come up yet, and today we wore gators. The snow was getting deeper.  About 20 minutes into our trek we passed a sign that read “AVALANCHE RISK AREA”. Of course I posed for a photo in front of it, really why else was it there? We continued across a river and on into the mountains towards basecamp. Suddenly there was a thunder like noise and Jaya and I both looked up. There was a huge cloud of snow coming down from the top of the mountain. Suddenly Jaya yelled “avalanche, RUN”. What a frightening moment….any pain that I had felt in my ankle or joints was suddenly gone and I ran. Finally I couldn’t breathe or go any farther, so I crouched into a ball in the snow and covered my head and wondered, seriously, if this was the way my life would end. I remembered thinking that Michael Trudeau had died in an avalanche and that it didn’t matter who you were, people were killed in avalanches. Suddenly everything was still. It was over. I was covered in snow but able to get up. I was very shaken, that was way too close for comfort. I told Jaya I was going back to Deurili. He was going to check on Chaundra and Patrick and then meet me back there. About 30 minutes later a group of about 20 including Patrick, Jaya and Chaundra (looking very pale)were back at the guesthouse. We all decided it wasn’t worth the risk to continue. We were told that because there was more snow then usual and it was spring, it was especially dangerous. I was just glad to be alive and heading back.  In about an hour we came across an area that we had crossed the day before. An avalanche had hit earlier that morning that totally obliterated our path from yesterday. It was frightening to see how devastating this one was….no one would have survived it. We were a quiet and reflective as we trekked out and grateful to be unharmed. The trip out went well. I discovered that going downhill is very difficult and hard on the knees.

Gee, I wonder why this is here??

crossing the avalanche from earlier that morning

Back to lower elevation, hear and beautiful wild flowers

Finished tomorrow, celebrating our hard work!

Day 7 and 8 of the trek: Getting out was quite uneventful. We stopped at the beautiful hot spring in Jhinu on the way down, and it was wonderful to soak our tired joints….but was hard to get going again. We still had a couple more hours of trekking to get to our last guesthouse of the trek. We celebrated our ending with a Gorka beer that evening.  On our last day of trekking we were into the heat again, and I know I was ready to get back to Pokhara. I was sore and so ready for a rest day. I had a wonderful ended to my day. Upon arriving I booked a 90 minute massage at the “Seeing Hands” massage center. Their trained therapists are all blind. I have never in my life had such a great massage. When I left nothing hurt, I couldn’t believe it. I also am impressed by this resourceful and wise way to provide meaningful employment to blind individuals. Their hands are their eyes and they are very in tune and sensitive to what they feel. My therapist was amazing, and I have gone backJ J J

March 8, 2012: It is hard to keep up with life here. I love Pokhara and am making some great friends. I have met Marla, an Australian woman, around my age who has lived here for 12 years. She speaks Nepali fluently and knows everyone. ….hence wherever I go folks refer to me as Marla’s friend. I will go into more detail about my volunteer work, which I love, and upcoming events in a final blog. Today is a holiday called “Holi day” or festival of colors in Nepal. (A celebration of the victory of Hindu gods in which people throw colored paint at each other.)  It is one BIG party…with street music.  I am planning to hang out and help at the restaurant that Marla manages. We will be upstairs and have a great vantage point to pelt people with colored water ourselves. I just looked outside because I can hear the kids having a blast. They are using water guns, pails and balloons of red color to “get each other”. I will have to run hard and take cover to get to the restaurant. Tomorrow, Clare a fellow traveler from the UK and I have been invited to a small village in the Gorka area (about 6 hours from here) to partake in a traditional wedding ceremony and stay with our friend's family. We return on Sunday evening. I am sure I will have much reflect on and share about this amazing opportunity and experience.

I will sign off for now as it is time to immerse myself into the festival of colors….I can’t believe I will be on my way home in two weeks. I have truly had the most amazing time of my life and met such  interesting, generous-spirited and helpful people along the way. I am relishing every minute of what is left. As Louis Armstrong sings "what a wonderful world"!!

Namaste, Lynne

beautiful Nepali children