The bus ride back to Kathmandu was about the same as the ride to Pokhara, though I was awake most of the time on this one. We arrived in the city in the mid afternoon and I returned back to the Kathmandu Guest House for the finale of my Nepal stay. I had started feeling some anxiety about my flight to Bangkok, having heard from several people that Royal Nepal Airlines is in the habit of regularly canceling flights, and as this is a hard flight to get in the first place, I wanted to just get on as soon as possible. I spoke with the travel desk and they were able to switch my flight from June 4 to June 1, which if it works out, is even better as I have a lot of travel to do in not a lot of time over the next few months, and a few extra days means another city I can visit somewhere.
After spending my whole previous time in Kathmandu with friends from the Tibet trip, it suddenly became an almost lonely place. I had, in a way, attributed the city to activities with other people, and to suddenly make the switch back to solo traveler (despite being solo for the past 10 days) was unexpectedly jarring. I sat down with my guide book and planned out my next couple days before I my flight, so that I would know what I want to do.
On the following day I had two destinations to visit. The first was Kathmandu’s Durbar Square. In each of the four towns in the Kathmandu Valley you will find a Durbar Square, which is where the ancient palace was for that city. My guide book outlined a good walking tour of the area leading up to and away from the square, so I set out on that route. Along the way were numerous Hindu and Buddhist temples. The religion in Nepal is a mix of both, and while some people are one or the other, many are Hindu who also follow Buddhist philosophy. The temples reflect this, with statues of Buddha mere feet away from Shiva and Ganesh. The intricacy of the wood carvings in the temples is staggering, more detailed than anything I’ve yet seen. Most of the temples resemble pagodas in a way, with multiple levels, and according to the guide I hired, a long time ago the Chinese brought in some Nepali people to help with construction, and learned how to make pagodas from them. I don’t know if this claim is true, but the influences are obviously based in the same place somewhere.
I finished the walking tour and headed back to the hotel to relax for a while. My next stop was to be Swayambhunath, the “Monkey Temple”, but my previous guide advised me that I should go there in the early evening and watch the sunset, as it was on a hill overlooking the city. I waited until about 5 and then took a cab over to the temple. The name Monkey Temple comes from the fact that there are monkeys running around everywhere on the temple grounds. They’re quite well behaved as long as you don’t hold food too close. The views of the city from the top of the temple were as good as the guide had said, and watching the sunset was beautiful. I began to take some pictures, but my battery ran out about 5 minutes before the best part of the sunset, of course.
Today I took a bus out to the ancient city of Bhaktapur. Several hundred years ago, when Nepal was finally unified as a single country, the king pronounced his throne to be in Kathmandu, and then divided what had been small kingdoms in the valley amongst his three sons as locations for each of their palaces. Bhaktapur was one of these cities. Unlike Kathmandu, Bhaktapur has been somewhat preserved in it’s ancient state, with the majority of it’s cobblestone streets blocked off from traffic and none of the loud, confrontational atmosphere.
I again followed a walking tour outlined by my guidebook, which took a wonderful walk through the entire city, and not just the small tourist focused area surrounding Bhaktapur’s Durbar Square. There were many, many temples again here along the way, and almost every building I passed featured some intricate woodworking on the windows or the balconies or wherever the builders could manage. After spending a couple hours walking around, I had some lunch and caught a bus back to Kathmandu.
Tomorrow, as I said, I theoretically have a flight to Bangkok. The travel desk here says the flight is confirmed, but I’ll believe that when I’m in the air. Interestingly, there is a transit strike planned for the city tomorrow, so the only way I can get to the airport, about 15 km away, is by cycle-rikshaw, as taxis, buses, and cars in general will not be driving tomorrow. This leads me to describe a little about the political climate here in Nepal.
Now that I’m about to leave unscathed, I can say (even though I’m sure my Mom won’t like to hear this) that Nepal is probably known as one of the most dangerous countries in Asia in which to travel. That being said, I’ve never at any point felt even remotely uneasy here. The “dangers” aren’t really threats to tourists in general, and right now especially they are even more pacified. I’ve tried to learns as much as I can about the situation and here’s what I can tell: Nepal’s political situation has been tumultuous at best for the last 10 or so years, in which time they’ve changed prime minister’s 9 times. While there had been a parliament in place up until about 5 years ago, that was dissolved by the current king. He is fairly unanimously despised by the people, having gained power 6 years ago when his brother invited his entire extended family to dinner, and then gunned them all down with a machine gun, then shot himself (sounds like something out of a movie!). Conveniently (there’s some controversy here), the man who is now king was the only member of the family who did not come to dinner. It didn’t help that not long after coming into power, he removed all traces of democracy from the government.
Before this, however, the government had a real reputation for corruption as it was, and people were becoming fed up with it. This led the communist party, who became known as the Maoists, to declare “war” on the government. They began terrorizing small, rural villages, killing or kidnapping people who did support them, and launching covert attacks on military bases. Of course, the U.S. and other western countries have simply labeled them terrorists and denounced the group, hence why every western country has a travel advisory warning for Nepal, justified or not. Now while they may not have the best methods, they did have the intention of bettering the country, and for many, many year’s, Nepal’s primary source of income has been tourism. Knowing this, the Maoists have said from the start they will leave all tourists alone, and the most anyone has ever reported as a tourist is being trekking in a remote area and being asked for a “donation” (though the Maoists apparently will even give you a receipt for this donation, so you can be left alone if another group stops you!).
About a year ago, the king realized he had no support what-so-ever from the people, and so decided to reinstate the parliament and prime minister. Realizing that a true democracy must be elected, this government is only temporary, and an election has been supposed to happen for some time now, though there are constant delays. The Maoists, however, are running as a legitimate party in this election, and so have tapered down their activities towards even the local people, instead relying on calling constant strikes in various public sectors, such as transit and education.
Hope you enjoyed that lesson on politics in Nepal. I can’t promise everything is accurate, it’s just what I’ve been able to piece together from reading my guide book and speaking with some locals. Once this election takes place (it was supposed to in June, but now may be another 6 months) it will be interesting to see how the country fares. Most people are betting that the king will be stripped of all his power and the royal family will become somewhat like the U.K. The people really just want peace and stability, as the decline in tourism alone because of this turmoil has driven what was always a poor country to a much deeper state of poverty.
The cab dropped me off at my previous hotel in Pokhara, and I was given the exact same room (it’s off season for tourists, I think I was the only person staying in the whole place). After a much needed shower and shave, I went back to the same Italian restaurant I had visited before leaving, and once again the food was amazing. Being exhausted, however, I didn’t do much else that night.
In the morning, my legs were I think the sorest they’ve ever been. I could barely walk around, especially if there were stairs involved. I decided to spend most of the day resting and finally finishing the 2nd volume of Sherlock Holmes stories I had bought back in Shanghai.
I wasn’t feeling in much better shape the next day, and as relaxing as Pokhara is, I decided I should try and see some of the town before I leave, so I spent a little time walking around the city. The atmosphere is so antithetical to that of Kathmandu it’s startling, though that may be due in part to the tourist season being over. The heat was definitely becoming and issue now; while I didn’t see a thermometer it had to be around 90 at least, and the humidity was as high as I can ever remember feeling. I think once I get used to this climate it may not feel quite so bad, but for the time being it puts a damper on sightseeing by foot.
Late in the afternoon I rented a canoe to paddle around the lake. It’s funny how things come back to you: years ago I took a boating class on a lake near my home and learned the proper technique for handling a canoe and small sail boat. At first, this time, I would have to keep paddling on opposite sides to keep from going in circles, but then some reflex came back to me and I could control the direction from just one side with ease. After that I had a blast, if anything could have been even more tranquil than just lounging around Pokhara, this was it.
The next day I decided it was time for some adventure sports for which Nepal is so famous: para-gliding. I signed up to do a tandem jump over the valley, one of the best ways to see how beautiful the area around Pokhara is. Para-gliding is a way of using a parachute to drift through the air, catching thermal currents to keep yourself afloat for as long as possible. We left in the mid-morning, and headed to the top of a hill overlooking the valley. After some brief instructions and getting securely harnessed in, we took off. This was the only scary part, as the instructions I was given were “when I say run, just run off the edge of the cliff”, and that’s literally what we did. I found it was best not to think about it, as every rational sense in me would stop me from running off a cliff, but once we got going the view was amazing. We coasted around for about 30 minutes, dipping up and down as the chute caught small thermals. The whole valley was visible as it was an extremely clear day for the time of year, even some of the Himalayan peaks were partly visible behind some clouds. Eventually we landed near a lake, and a waiting jeep drove us back to town.
The rest of the day was pretty uneventful, though I did dine once more at my favorite Italian place, and it was glorious.
Day 1
Pokhara -> Jomosom -> Kagbeni -> Jomosom
I caught the early flight from Pokhara to Jomosom. The plane was much smaller than any I’d benn in before; two propellers and 18 passengers, plus crew. I was a little nervous admittedly, being monsoon season with unpredictable weather, but that morning was especially clear, and the views of the Himalayan range and Pokhara valley were remarkable. The immediate area below us was nothing but lush, green, terraced hills, surrounded by huge snow capped Annapurnas and other peaks.
We landed by about 6:30am, and I quickly found a guest house to stay in for the night. After a light breakfast, I grabbed the daypack off my larger one and began my first trek. Being as the descent of the mountain from my starting point was supposed to take only 5 or 6 days, I decided to spend the first day going up north a bit to Kagbeni, and then back to Jomosom for the night.
Jomosom is the big city on the Annapurna Circuit, complete with an airport, army barracks, and a school. The feel of the area around it is somewhat similar to Tibet, though the best way to describe it would be like some slightly distorted version of the Old West.
It took about two and a half hours to reach the high-desert town of Kagbeni. The path was a mixture of ups and downs, and I was glad to be warming up on the first day with only a small load on my back. The temperature quickly got quite hot, but as it rose, a slight breeze began to pick up, and by 11am, when I reached the town, it had turned into a strong wind.
Leading up to the town were a number of wheat fields, swaying in the wind like ocean waves. The town itself was comprised mostly of guest houses and tourist restaurants, including a “Yak Donald’s”, and was somewhat similar to Jomosom. Instead of the main road being one straight strip, however, it slinks and snakes around a small maze of buildings, most likely in order to try and block the wind. I had a bit of lunch (though not the yak), and headed back.
Walking back to Jomosom was much harder than the walk to Kagbeni, despite being much more downhill. The sun was now shining fully, and the winds had become incredibly strong. In a few spots I had trouble keeping my balance, as clouds of dust and rocks pelted me. The back took about an hour longer than the trip up because of this, but eventually I made it back to Jomosom. Immediately I found the only gear shop in town and bought a dust mask, on the advice of some travelers I’d met in Kagbeni, who, having come from further up the mountain, assured me that I would be much happier with one in these constant winds. When I got back to my guest house and asked, however, the manager told me the winds all but stop after the next town.
Day 2
Jomosom -> Tukuche -> Larjung…. -> Kalopani, whoops
This was an inadvertently long day. As the first real day of carrying my full pack and all the gear I had brought with me (I left a decent amount in my smaller bag at the hotel in Pokhara), I can already tell I packed too much. I wasn’t sure how rugged this trip would be, and it turns out that every town has decent rooms with hot showers and fairly clean bathrooms. Hardly roughing it, though that doesn’t mean the trail itself is easy. Far from it in fact.
The beginning from Jomosom was fairly easy, and I was glad to have the mask in the strong winds that quickly picked up. I got to Marpha within a couple hours, and the climate quickly changed from the high desert to a patch of apple orchards surrounded by pine forested hills. The winds died down right on schedule, and by noon I was in Tukuche, so I stopped for lunch. The restaurants up here really cater to the tourists, as I was able to get some delicious spinach pasta with fresh tomato sauce and heaps of cheese. The amazing (and slight sad) fact is that most of the goods in these towns are brought up on either the back of a donkey or a porter. The latter routinely carry packs that weigh twice as much as they do up this steep hill and then immediately descend to do the same thing over again.
After lunch I set off for Larjung, my intended stop for the evening. According to the map I had, the trip down to here should take around one and a half hours, and within about that time, I came to a sign that stated there were several towns coming up along the trail, including Larjung. I passed a couple shabby looking guest houses and a few farms, and then the trail went around a bend, so I assumed there would be more coming up. On the map, Larjung is shown as a large town, at least on par with Kagbeni. Around the bend, however, there was nothing, except for a little further off, another bend, so I decided to see what was around this. All this time I was heading fairly steeply downhill. When I got around this bend, all that was ahead was yet one more bend which I couldn’t see around.
When I got around this and there was still nothing, I realized I must have passed the town. Right about then, the temperature suddenly dropped a bit and it started to lightly rain. I glanced back up the hill I had just come down, then down at my map to see how far the next town, Kalopani, would be from here. It didn’t look too far, so I decided to press on.
About halfway to Kalopani, the light rain suddenly burst into a torrential downpour, and as far as I could see the trail ahead and behind offered nothing to take shelter under, not even a large tree, so I tried to pick up the pace and pressed on.
I came to a split in the road, one way crossing the river next to me via a bridge and the other continuing on the side I was on. Consulting the map, both ways converged further down right before Kalopani, but the bridge led to the “winter path”, so I stayed on my side, being that it is close to summer. The temperature was really starting to drop now, and the pouring rain was beginning to get chilly.
A ways down the path, the large waterfall I had been admiring to my right suddenly came down and converged with the river on my left in three places. Most likely because of the rain, what should have been a small stream crossable by a stretch of rocks was now a large flooded stream that had no easy way across. The choices I had were to a) walk back uphill and try the other path, not knowing if it was passable this time of year or b) press on through the water. As I was already soaked from the rain, I started walking through the water. Unfortunately, the fancy Gortex shoes I had bought for just such an occasion only go as high as my ankles, and the water here was well up my calves. Happily though, I managed to avoid getting any leeches, which plague this area.
Finally soaked and exhausted, I trudged into Kalopani and found a friendly looking guest house. After a hot shower, a huge plate of lasagna, and a warm cup of apple brandy (a local specialty), I felt much better, and was in bed asleep very early.
Day 3
Kalopani -> Rukse Chhaharo -> Dana
The heat came along and really took it out of me today. The descent quickly took me from the cool, upper part of the mountain back down to the sweltering heat of the valley. I met an American/Canadian couple in my Kalopani guest house who were planning on covering the same ground I was, so we decided to trek together. Having been in Nepal for a couple months already, however, they were fairly well adjusted to the heat and humidity. I, on the other hand, have been spending most of my previous few months in relatively cold and dry environments, and so this new climate was quite a switch for me.
As we descended further (and then ascended a bit, only to descend again), the surrounding countryside changed again from the pine forested hills, to a more tropical climate, similar to Pokhara and the majority of Nepal I had previously seen. The sun was really beating down strong, and after a couple of hours I needed to start taking frequent breaks in the shade, as I was sweating so much I was feeling a bit weak. I could tell they were handling things much bette than I, and would have been happy to continue on, but were nice enough to wait for me each time.
Around lunch time we arrived at the waterfall Rukse Chhaharo, and there were some cafe’s here the previous guest house owner had recommended, so we stopped to eat. I was just about worn out by this point, though fortunately there was only about an hour’s hike left to our final stop for the day, Dana. Still, I needed a long rest, so I told my new friends, Paul and Amanda, to head on without me, and I’d find them when I got to town.
Half an hour or so after they left, I finally felt together enough to go, and so I headed out. The journey to Dana was surprisingly quick, and I found the guest house with my friends at it, and after a quick shower, went to bed again early and exhausted.
Day 4
Dana - Tatopani
Paul, Amanda, and I had all agreed that this would be a resting day. The journey from Dana to Tatopani only took a couple of hours, and we found what was probably the nicest guest house I stayed in on the whole trek, and got rooms. Tatopani is known for it’s natural hot springs, and makes a good stop to rest and soak your aching muscles in the almost prohibitively hot water. Overall the day was pretty uneventful, mostly spent relaxing and reading. Tomorrow will be a real endurance trial, as for the first time I have to go uphill in order to cross the final mountain that stands between me and the end. Most people, in fact, do this upcoming path from Tatopani to Ghorepani in the span of two days, but my map says you can do it in one, and I guess something inside me needs to know that I’m tough enough to ascend 1700 meters in one day.
Around the end of the day, Amanda started not feeling very well, so they decided to stay behind and let me tackle the big day on my own.
Day 5
Tatopani -> Sikha -> Ghorepani
What a day. Hoping to get a majority of the hike up done before the heat, I started off around 5:45am, just after first light. It was not long before I realized how tough this was going to be. After going up only a few hundred meters, at a very steep incline, the 30 lb. pack I was toting was really beginning to take a toll. It seemed like every 5 minutes I was stopping for some period of time to take a break. I kept my focus on just continuing on, however, no mater how tired I was, and within about 3 hours, I had reached the halfway point of Sikha.
I stopped and had some breakfast, and wanted to get some brief rest, but the sun was rapidly rising, and I knew that once it came out fully this was only going to get much, much harder. Thankfully, right around 10 am, when the heat usually hits full swing, the sky became overcast and the sun was blocked. While it still was getting much hotter, the shade the clouds provided helped immensely, and in fact I’m not sure I would have made it the whole way without them.
As I went up, the climate got once again a bit more temperate, with pine trees and the like surrounding me. Eventually, after about 7 hours of steadily hiking up hill, I made it to Ghorepani. For the last 2 hours, all I could do was focus on getting each foot to move up another step. The last kilometer or two got even steeper, as if by some cruel joke, and all I could think was that I should never have an excuse to get winded on a single flight of stairs again.
Day 6
Ghorepani -> Ulleri -> Naya Pul -> Pokhara
While it was incredibly hard ascending yesterday to an altitude a hundred meters higher than that at which I had begun, descending even further today was almost more difficult. Going uphill, while I was constantly out of breath and sweating, my muscles were handling the stress fairly well. The descent from Ghorepani, however, seems to be even steeper than the side I had come up, and by the end of it my legs felt like jelly.
The really tricky part was the path immediately leaving Ulleri. The map I have has a tiny blurb of text mentioning “3280 stone steps” in this area, and that’s exactly what I came upon. 3280 (okay I didn’t count them, but there were a lot) uneven, rocky steps, and an incredibly steep incline. On these steps, over the course of maybe three kilometers, you quickly descend (or ascend as several unfortunate souls I passed were doing) 500 meters. I never realized how taxing going down stairs can be.
As I came down the hill, the scenery transformed back into exactly what had surrounded me in Pokhara: rolling, green hills covered in terraces and tropical foliage. Near the bottom of the steps, a Nepali guy was keeping pace with me and we started talking. He was the manager of a guest house his parents owned in Ghorepani, and was heading down to Pokhara to be with his newly pregnant wife (he’s 25, yikes). He had some interesting things to say about the tourism in the area, particularly how much it’s fallen off in the last 10 years. Right now, it’s of course off season, so when I walk into any town, there may be at most 20 other tourists there. He claimed that in season now, most days see 200-300 tourists arriving in a given town, though that seems like it would push the limits of the available accommodation. The real shocker was that, 10 years ago, before all of the political turmoil, a single day in season would see 1000-1500 tourists arriving in the popular towns. They’d be sleeping in the dining rooms and wherever the guest houses could fit them, and walking the trail was almost like being in line the whole way. In a way I’m glad that, for most of the trek, I was generally alone and the whole thing felt very secluded. On the other hand, the economic downfall that’s resulted in Nepal is quite sad, as the country has for a long time relied on foreign tourism as a large portion of it’s economy. Hopefully a balance can be found in the future.
In the early afternoon we made it to Naya Pul the last stop on the trek from which we split a taxi back to Pokhara. By the end my legs were barely working, but I couldn’t have had a better time. The countryside was absolutely stunning, and the variety of climates which I went through every day were staggering. I’m really hoping that one day I can make a return trip to Nepal to do one of the even longer two or three week treks, though this time I might do a little physical training first to get ready!
The drive to Pokhara was long and hot, and I drifted in and out of sleep the whole time. While I was awake though, I got to see what a spectacularly beautiful country Nepal really is. Everywhere I looked were huge, green hills of terraces and lush tropical foliage. If I hadn’t been so exhausted, I doubt I could have slept on the drive, if for no other reason than that most of the time we were precariously close to the edge of some steep cliffs overlooking this spectacular landscape, and drivers in Nepal like to pass blindly just sounding the horn slightly. Being that there is only one major highway through the country, there are quite a few cars on the road, so near misses are frequent.
My initial time in Pokhara was brief but enough to make me fall in love with the place. While Kathmandu is a maddening mix noise and smells and confrontations, Pokhara is a serene, tranquil place that just begs you to slow down. Situated on a large lake, the town, or at least the part I was staying in, is still a bit of a tourist trap, but it’s just so inviting.
I spent most of the afternoon in a lakeside restaurant, reading and snacking. Pokhara is known for having some exquisite food available, and for dinner I had some Italian food that was as good as any I’d ever had. It’s a rare treat to find a place that gets Western food so right.
I woke up very early to catch my flight up to Pokhara, and managed to see the sun rise over the surrounding peaks. The sight will be one I think I’ll remember forever, just because it was so unexpected. I just happened to walk out on the little balcony attached to my room, not expecting to see anything because of the weather this time of year, and surrounding me were huge Himalayan peaks towering over the rolling green hills in my immediate vicinity. Absolutely amazing.
While the rest of the group had begun in Kathmandu and already had a couple days to look around, I was new to the city. It was immediately different than everywhere I’d been on the trip so far. If nothing else, it was odd to come from a place that barely caters to foreign tourists to a place where foreign tourists are the lifeblood of the country’s economy. Also, quite a few people here speak English. The country itself is obviously very poor, with few paved roads and not a new looking building in sight.
The rest of the group were staying at the hotel which the tour had arranged for them, but I decided to opt for the famous Kathmandu Guest House, because it was cheaper and more of a backpacker place. We all got settled and had our first showers in a few days, and then met up for one last dinner together, and a night on the town at a decent altitude, where we could have a few drinks without too much worry of getting carried away. Unfortunately, I think the past 10 days or so of not going too wild made a few of us take things too far that night. Needless to say, the next day I was in no condition for sight-seeing, which was ultimately for the best, as I had no idea what I was going to be doing for the next couple weeks in Nepal, so I was able to decide on doing a week-long trek from Pokhara. Also I had to figure out my onward travel to Vietnam. Flying to Bangkok and connecting was my only option, and the Kathmandu-Bangkok flight seems to book up quickly, so I needed to get that sorted right away.
That night we all met up again, though Ausra had left that morning and Giedre left in the afternoon, so only the Brits and I remained. The evening was decidedly tamer than the last, which was fine by me. I still had a number of things left to sort out for the trek I was preparing to do.
And the next day, I did exactly that. There was the matter of a permit to acquire, and then some extra gear I needed, and finally getting some last minute travel money together. Although it doesn’t seem like a lot to do in a day, in an unfamiliar town it can take longer than you expect. By the time I had run around and done everything I needed to, it was again dinner time, so I met up with Michael, Penny, and Frere one last time for a farewell evening. This, of course, involved many drinks. In the morning I got going just barely in time to make my 7am bus to Pokhara, to set off on a week-long Himalayan trek. I promptly passed out.