NEPALJan - Feb 1995 UK£1 = 90 Nepali Rupees approx (at time of travel)
The flight to Kathmandu was on time and took about one hour. We sat on the left side of the plane (I’d read in a book that this would offer us the best views) and the mountains looked spectacular - we even got our first glimpse of Everest. At first I’d thought that buying a flight to Kathmandu was a bit extravagant for our budget, but after talking to other travellers who spent a day or more on buses crossing the border by land, I was glad to have done it, and it only cost about £25 each.
We took a cab to the Thamel area and after refusing the many offers of accommodation from the taxi driver and his friend, we had a walk around. Kathmandu seemed pretty pleasant and the Thamel district is a real traveller’s hangout. Nepal felt much cleaner and organised than India – well Thamel did anyway.
We decided to stay at the "Ghurka Soldiers Guest House" which was cheap and clean, and then we went exploring. I bought a huge woollen coat for 600 Rps (about £7.50) as I had no warm gear and it was really cold at night. We later had a huge splash out meal at the Everest Steak House, consisting of massive Buffalo steaks with pepper sauce and chips, all washed down with some very palatable San Miguel beer. Gianni – the Italian we had met in Rajasthan – had recommended we ate here and it was really good.
During the night it got very cold and I woke up feeling ill. My stomach was rumbling and before long I was dashing out to the toilets to throw up. I guess my guts weren’t used to all the meat after being almost vegetarian in India. Dibs was also ill and the pair of us puked up and suffered from the shits all night. A nasty start to Nepal!
Kathmandu’s main square – Durbar square – is a great place to hang out with lots of temples and interesting sculptures, not to mention the different people. The streets around the centre are a mix of ancient narrow alleys, full of different sights and smells, to the wider, modern streets of Thamel with restaurants, bars and shops.
We spent a few days wandering around and generally relaxing. We had a huge haul of post from the poste-restante, we developed some films, bought some more warm gear. We’d decided to head over to Pokhara to do the Jomsom trek, so we organised our trekking permit – which cost about UK£7 + about another UK£8 for a "Sanctuary fee". Not bad value I suppose for up to two weeks trekking. It was easy to organise – we just got some photo’s and then headed down to the government office, filled out some forms, and then collected the permits the following day.
Food in Kathmandu was a delight after India. With so much variety we found ourselves gorging on stuff like cheese, salami, croissants and freshly baked cakes. Simple stuff we’d missed. There were some really great places to eat and relax – including some nice rooftops where you can get a view of the Himalayas – and some cosy café’s where you could sip proper coffee and listen to live folk music or watch the latest Hollywood film on pirate video. It was all really good - but I was missing the excitement and "difference" that we'd experienced in India. It all seemed just too easy in Kathmandu, especially Thamel.
Walking around the streets at night many men would approach me offering me just about anything – "Change money… tiger balm... chess.... Backgammon.... Hash….women"! I found that international phonecalls were extremely expensive and we got stung 1000 Rps for 5 and a half minutes (That’s over UK£10!).
After a few days in Kathmandu we decided to move on and booked a bus to Pokhara. Out stomachs were still a bit dodgy.
The bus journey to Pokhara was very interesting. It took about six and a half hours and the road wound through superb valleys and past fantastic mountain peaks.
On arrival something really bizarre happened. As we pulled into the bus stand there was a mob of at least 50 touts waiting for us. Seeing that there were only seven tourists left on the bus, it was inevitable that some sort of scrimmage would ensue… and it did. We were surrounded and pulled/pushed left right and centre whilst being given hotel cards or told various taxi prices! All I could do was laugh and stand watching this desperate mob! I’d arranged with the hotel owner in Kathmandu to meet his "brother" who owned a hotel in Pokhara, but there was no chance of that happening. After a few minutes the police waded in and started to break the crowds up. I just grabbed the first taxi driver and he took us free-of-charge to the "Mount Fuji Guest House" on the lakeside. I was a nice place in a good location and we paid 180 Rps per night for a double room with shower. Later on I bumped into the brother of the Hotel owner in Kathmandu – he was one of the guys in the mob outside the bus earlier, and he’d had a card with our names on. Shame we didn’t see him.
Apart from the touts, Pokhara is very peaceful. It’s the base for trekking into the Annapurna region, so it’s full of people preparing their trek, or relaxing after returning from a trek. The whole town skirts around a lake and the mountain views are spectacular – providing there is no cloud. There are lots of bakeries and good places to eat and drink dotted about and due to a lower altitude it’s a bit warmer than Kathmandu.
We only stayed one night at the Mount Fuji and moved into the "Avocado Guest House" nearby. The reason we moved was because the owner at the Mount Fuji promised us hot water but we never got it, and for the price we were paying we wanted it! We hired some gear for our trek – two good down sleeping bags, a rucksack (so we could leave all out other gear behind) and a down coat for Dibs. All this for 80 Rps a day (just under £1). What great value! All the gear was in fairly good order and the man who ran the hire shop was full of good trekking information and advice. We organised a taxi to take us to the bus stand in the morning (70Rps) to allow us to catch the 6:15 a.m. bus to the start of our trek. We also stocked up on provisions like Iodine (for purifying water), Tang (to add to the treated water to make it taste half-decent), chocolate, films and a map.
On our final night we ate at "Nirulas" – the India/Nepalese equivalent of McDonalds, where we had a "Big Boy Burger", chips and heaps of ice cream.
Another observation about Nepal is bargaining. Ok, we’d only been to two main cities – both full of tourists, but everything had to be bargained for – even a bottle of iodine or film processing. It seems that the Nepalese merchants are well into ripping people off. A lot of places quote things in US$. I suppose they are entitled to try and Nepal is full of "richer" tourists instead of just backpackers.
Trekking in the Annapurna
Day 1 – New Bridge to Tikedhunga
We woke at 5:30 a.m., took our taxi to the bus stand and then caught the first bus into the mountains. The journey to New Bridge, which is the nearest road point to our trek, took around two hours. We had a quick cup of chai at the roadside and then headed off. The first village we stopped at was Birathani, which was a well-organised little village with plenty of places to eat – so we had breakfast. Trekking in this region involves following "ancient" routes – quite often paths/steps or small tracks, between villages. This means that navigation is reasonably easy and there are plenty of places to stop to eat or sleep along the way.
As we followed the trail we were treated to some superb views of the glowing white peak of Machhapuchhare - the "fish tail" mountain. It’s a sacred mountain that no one ever climbs (apparently). The walk was often steep and involved crossing some rivers via very dodgy rope bridges.
The thing with the routes in Nepal is that they always seem to follow the shortest possible route from A to B, rather than the easiest. This means that even if there’s a great big mountain in between A and B, the route will inevitably go over it, rather than around it.
We reached Tikhedhunga mid afternoon and stopped at a small lodging called "Indra Lodge" for the night. It cost us 40 Rps (50p) and we ate some tasty soup and filling Tibetan Bread, whilst chatting to a couple of other trekkers and the locals.
Day 2 – Tikedhunga to Ghorepani.
Day two was a real test of endurance. We set off at 7:00 a.m. and tackled the long steep climb to Ulleri. It was a tough one and a half hours of non-stop climbing and when we reached Ulleri we paused for some breakfast.
The route onwards to Ghorepani was quite difficult in parts, as there was quite a bit of snow around, which made it quite slippery and slowed things down a bit. We came across many mule-trains, which were carrying supplies higher up into the mountains, or were bringing rubbish back down, and occasionally stopped to chat to locals or take photos.
Many locals make their living by being porters and they offer to carry your bags for hardly anything – sometimes only 3 or 4 UK£ a day. We only had the bear essentials with us and although I felt I should "employ" a local, at the same time I was determined to carry my own gear. Many of the porters carry huge amounts of stuff from village to village and always appear to be extremely fit. We saw men carrying refrigerators and huge looms of cable on their backs up steep slopes – donning only a pair of flip-flops for footwear! We would have stopped to get our breath and they would stroll past – often with a cigarette in their mouth – and say "hello" or something. Unbelievable!
It was a long tough walk, although the views of the mountains, in particular Annapurna South, were dazzling – 7200M of mountain, gleaming snow-white.
We got to Ghorepani late in the afternoon and felt OK. I’d been a bit worried about adjusting to the altitude, but we didn't seem to be having too much of a problem.
We stayed at the "See You Lodge" – a nice little place run by an ex Ghurka soldier and his wife. We sat around the fire at night and ate hot cabbage soup and more Tibetan bread.
We got up at 6:00 a.m. with the help of the hotel owner and headed up the trail to the top of Poon Hill. It was quite dark and we got a little bit lost – in fact for a while we were scrambling up a steep slope over rocks and scrub until we found a suitable trail.
The trail to the top was often deep in snow and quite icy, but we managed to plod onward and got to the top in about an hour or so. We walked up with two Finnish girls and a group of three Argentinean lads.
The views from the top of Poon Hill (over 3500 meters) were spectacular. It’s here were you get a full panorama of the surrounding mountains, and is where many well know Himalayan photographs are taken. The clouds formed a carpet below us and the dazzling white peaks in the rising sun were beautiful. We saw the whole range of the Annapurna Mountains and even though it was cold, we sat for sometime at the top taking in the whole scene. We even saw the daily Pokhara to Jomsom plane flying below us, just above the clouds! What an experience.
After a slippery descent we made it back to the "See You Lodge" and had some food before deciding that we’d stay at Ghorepani for the day rather than trek onwards. It’s a nice little settlement and our legs need a rest, plus a group of noisy rude Israelis have now left. Later in the day two English lads straight out of college – Mike and Dave - turned up, and we spent the day chatting, playing cards and eating.
Mike and Dave seemed pretty unprepared for travel and had just arrived in Nepal after a disastrous couple of weeks in India. I laughed for hours after they told me a story about how, on their first day in Delhi, a "travel agent" sold them a skiing package holiday in Kashmir! They decided not to go when they discovered that the state was in turmoil and their travel insurance didn’t cover neither skiing or travel into Kashmir!
Day 4 – Ghorepani to Tatopani.
Walking to Tatopani was mostly downhill. This sounded attractive after the steep walking so far, but after a few hours of sliding down icy paths and throbbing knees I decided that walking uphill, even though harder on the lungs, was much easier on the legs.
As we walked down further into the valley the temperature increased and the ice and snow disappeared, and again we walked through some spectacular terrain. The final walk down to Tatopani from Sikha dropped from over 2000 M to less than 1000 M very quickly as we walked down stone blocks, across small streams and scree slopes. It was pretty hard going. We crossed some fantastic suspension bridges.
We arrived at Tatpoani at around 5:00 – just as it was getting dark. It’s a little village with a really good atmosphere, and the lodges are quite big and busy. The English lads turned up a couple of hours later and we sat and drank some well-deserved Tuborg beers to soothe our aching muscles.
Tatopani is set in the Kalli Gandaki valley – the deepest valley in the world. It is famous for it’s Hot Springs, and in the morning we wasted no time in making good use of them. It was wonderful to sit in the piping hot springs next to the cold rushing water of the river, whilst staring at 7000 M high mountains. We wandered around with Mike and Dave and enjoyed some good food and fresh air.
Initially we had decided to trek all the way to Jomsom (two more days) and then back, but Dibs was having trouble with her knee, which had ballooned and was quite sore, so we had to decided what to do. Dibs reckoned she had two-three days more walking in her which was sufficient to get to Jomsom, but we had heard that the daily flights out of Jomsom back to Pokhara were not running very often and were desperately overbooked. Rather than risk arriving in Jomsom, finding that we couldn’t get a flight out and having another five days walk back, we make the decision to loop back towards Pokhara via a different route. I was a little disappointed, but there was no way that Dibs would be able to do too much more walking and was already putting on a brave face.
Luckily Mike and Dave were heading back down on the same route, so we decided we’d head off the next day. We celebrated with a few glasses of the local Apple Brandy – which was dangerous stuff.
The walk from Tatopani to Beni took us seven hours and was enjoyable. We followed a different valley and took some very narrow winding paths, which were quite treacherous in parts. Dibs knee got worse and I was glad we only had another day of walking.
Beni is a pretty uninteresting place and we decided to stay at the "Dolphin Hotel", which was OK
The trek from Beni to Baglung took three hours and involved a very steep climb at the end – it was like a final challenge before the walking was finished. Baglung is a dusty town of quite some size – the last town on the road into the mountains – although I feel the government will be forging further on some day.
We caught the 12:15 bus back to Pokhara, which took four hours and was slow and uncomfortable. It was jam-packed and I got agitated with people pushing me about. All I wanted to do was relax.
On arrival at Pokhara we were besieged by touts and taxi drivers as usual. I wasn’t in the mood and got to the stage of exchanging "pushes" with one particularly obnoxious taxi driver who just wouldn’t let it lie. The police turned up and we jumped into a taxi back to the Avocado. Our room was available and our bags safe and sound. We returned our hired gear and enjoyed our first shower (and luckily a hot one) for over a week. It was sheer luxury. After our shower, a change of clothes (also for the first time in what seemed like ages) and a shave (my beard was at record lengths), we both felt much better. We met the lads at 7:00 and got pissed!
The next day we headed back to Nirulas to binge on junk food and made ourselves feel sick.
We spent a few days in Pokhara just relaxing while our legs recovered from all the walking. Our stomachs were still a bit dodgy (we always felt hungry but then struggled to hold food down) and we agreed to see a Doctor when we got back to Kathmandu – just to be safe. Dibs is suffering worse than I am. We did a few long-ish walks around Pokhara and decided we could probably stay there for ever!
Trekking in Nepal was an unforgettable experience and we promised that one day we’d return to do some more. I felt that if we did return, we’d manage a much longer trek – especially if we had not previously spent three months in India (which hadn’t done much for our stamina or general fitness).
We booked a safari at the Chitwan National Park for three days paying about US$75 each – all-inclusive.
My stomach got worse, Dibs got better and then I got better – just in time for our journey over to the Chitwan National Park. We had a mad minibus ride to Tandi Bazaar, where we bumped into a couple of Swedish birdspotters who we’d seen in Tatopani. We then transferred into a jeep and journeyed into the National Park. We had chosen to stay at the "Tiger Camp" which was a good choice. It’s set on the riverside, with the jungle all around. Our room was really nice with an attached bathroom and the whole place had a real "jungle" feel to it. The staff are very pleasant and we were greeted with a glass of "Rhino Horn" – some kind of cocktail – before our guide told us our itinerary.
On the first afternoon we took a ride in an ox cart to the local elephant breeding centre and a traditional village. Very interesting. The food at the camp was really good, although we couldn’t manage too much.
The following day we went on an elephant back safari into the jungle for a couple of hours. The mahout (elephant jockey) was a real good wildlife spotter and being on the back on an elephant meant that the other animals were not really too scared. We saw three rhinos (including a baby), Samba, Wild Boar and lots of colourful birds.
After lunch we took a canoe trip down the river where we spotted some crocodiles, and then did a jungle walk with a couple of guides – just the four of us. The guides were armed with sticks – how these would protect us from an angry bear or rhino I wasn’t sure!
Walking in the jungle amongst the tall elephant grass was a very different experience from being on the back of an elephant, and we spent lots of the time with our stomachs in our mouths! We initially saw deer, buffalo and some fantastic birds including some colourful hornbills. On the way back, walking along a dirt track we heard a "rumble" in the long grass and the guides stopped and looked nervous. It was a rhino – about 10M away from us! We slowly started walking back when it burst out into the road in front of us. Awesome! In the panic we ran behind a tree and took some photos. The rhino stood sniffing the air for a while before it decided to move on, and he disappeared into the long grass again. We thought that was the end of our encounter, but then the rhino had one last "charge" through the grass toward us before deciding we weren’t worth it! What adventure!
In the evening we ate good food and watched/participated in a local Tharu stick dance. It was good fun but made Dibs sick!
We returned to Kathmandu and avoided the touts by heading straight to the Pumpernickel Bakery for coffee and cakes! Whilst Dibs watched the bags I wandered around looking for accommodation. It’s much easier and stress-free finding somewhere without a backpack – no one bothers you and I found you could bargain much better rates. I eventually took a room at the "Tibetan Home" in Thamel, 175 Rps per night for a big room with hot shower. It’s clean and pleasant.
Later in the day we bumped into Dave and Mike and had dinner & Dibs had her hair chopped off – she’s been suffering from hair lice since the trek and thought it would be easier to manage. The barber charged her 80 Rps as long as he could keep the hair he cut (for making wigs!).
Fed up with our constant bad stomachs we looked around for a half-decent looking Doctors and we found the "Synergy International Clinic", We both had the same symptoms, although Dibs was worse, so we decided on only Dibs being "checked out" to save money. The Doctor was a nice enough bloke and spoke good English – he’s studied in England. It was funny sitting in his room whilst chatting about Manchester or London whilst he smoked Silk Cut cigarettes!
The consultation cost US$15 + US$10 for "stool and urine" tests, for which he gave Dibs a camera film container to deposit in (good job I didn’t choose to take one!) We both weighed ourselves – I was 12st 2lb and Dibs 7st 3lb. I’d lost two and a half stone in just over three months – not bad!
The next day the results showed we had Gardia. I suspected as much from reading my own health book. Gardia is a nasty parasite that is water-borne. We’d been really careful with water treatment and what we’d eaten, but it’s so easy to pick these things up. Maybe we’d got it in Varanasi? The doctor gave us a list of tablets and we went to a street front chemist to buy them.
We developed more films (the processing places in Kathmandu are really good), and watched some pirate videos, including "Pulp Fiction" and "Forest Gump" at various establishments. The latter film was funny as they missed a bit out in the middle and it was obvious someone had recorded the whole thing with a camcorder in the cinema. In fact towards the end someone’s head kept popping up in front of the screen!
The medication slowed us down even more and the "main" tablets to kill the Gardia parasite (called Metrodazinol – or something like that) tasted like metal and were pretty awful.
We spent time in Kathmandu taking it fairly easy whilst taking our tablets and slowly getting rid of the Gardia. We visited the next town – Patan – which was interesting, but the walk along the roads in Kathmandu were terribly polluted – the worst I’ve ever experienced. Lots of people wear Michael Jackson style facemasks – now I know why. My chest felt like I’d smoked a thousand fags!
We also visited the Swayambhunath temple – about 2km walk outside of Kathmandu. It’s a fantastic place and an enjoyable walk – unlike the polluted walk to Patan. Lots of Buddhist monks, mangy dogs and crafty monkeys – I saw one "slap" a little girl around the face and nick her bag of sweets! The view from the temple over Kathmandu revealed just how much smog sits over the city.
We took quite a while to recover from the Gardia, but started to get over the worse of it (and the horrible tablets) after a few days. We’d become addicted to watching videos in the evenings – I think because we’d spent so much time without TV or film, and we got through loads of books.
We also purchased another engagement ring to replace the one which we "lost" in India. It was very similar to the first one – maybe even the emerald is a better quality stone – and after the usual haggling and debating over a couple of days we agreed on a price of US$205.
On our final night in Nepal we treated ourselves to a splash-out meal at the "Third Eye" restaurant in Thamel. Really nice Indian food – just like back in England!
Our flight to Bangkok, with Thai Airways, was one time and comfortable, and we made the most of the free booze which was offered to us!
