Our Last Week In Nepal

From More Nepal

We took advantage of the week-long wait for our Indian visas and headed out to a couple of interesting towns. First we headed to Bandipur, a beautifully maintained traditional village on the top a ridge overlooking a beautiful valley with the Himalayas in the distance. We spent three nights there and did a few day hikes and explored what is reputed to be the largest cave in the Himalayas.

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From there we spent a night in Baktapur, the second of three main cities in the Kathmandu valley. It's a huge, historic town with lots of charm and less pollution and traffic.

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We spent our final day in Kathmandu at the prayer flagged monkey temple and now its off to India, a great unknown for both of us. It's hot and soon to be wet there, so we're not sure how long we'll last, but we're too close not to give it a shot.

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More from Calcutta, which it's going to take us three days of travel to reach...

Around the Kathmandu Valley

We had to come back to Kathmandu to apply for our Indian visa (something we should have done ages ago, but for some reason did not) so we decided to make the best of it and see some of the sights around te city. The valley is packed with important temples and pilgrimage sites and now we have the time to check the out - our visa will not be ready until the 28th.

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We started the day a Pashputinath - the largest Hindu temple in Nepal. Only Hindus are allowed into the temple itself, but the grounds along the Bagmati River are quite a thing to behold. AS well, the Bagmati makes its way to the Ganges and therefore is a popular location for cremations, one of which happened to take place while we were there.

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To be honest, I was expecting it to be horrific, but it was shockingly not so at all. The rituals go beyond just the burning of the body and the nature of the act seems to create a wonderful sense of closure for the family. The men of the family (no women are allowed to be involved) bring the body, which is wrapped tightly in a white cloth and then covered by a bright silk cloth, to the river and dunk the feet in the water, as well as sprinkle the while body with the water and red powder. They then bring the body to the cremation site and perform several rituals, around the body, including more water and red powder. The "clothing" is then carefully removed while straw is placed over te body and then lit on fire. We were told the bodies burn for 4 hours.

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From there we walked to Boudhanath, one of the most important Buddhist stupas in Nepal. (Nepalese love the superlatives.) It was a very pleasant 20 minute walk and upon entering the stupa grounds, you are entering what feels like an oasis to the city.

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The stupa is huge and surrounded by a pedestrian path on which people are circumambulating the stupa, mumbling prayers and turning prayer wheels. There are monks from all over the world, as well as many Tibetans dressed traditonally, making the rounds and with the hum of music in the background and the general calm it is easy to forget the crazy city that is only steps away. After making our way around we stopped at one of the many monestaries overlooking the stupa and just hung out. It was easy to get sucked in to the calm and staring eyes of the stupa; a wonderful way to end the day.

Tomorrow we head to Bondipur, an old town that supposedly is not ravaged by tourism and has some good day hikes. Should kill some time before we need to be back here for the visa.

What came next...

Why, a trip to (Royal) Chitwan Nationl Park, of course!

Since we were not quite ready to head back to the big city, we decided that Chitwan National Park would be a good next stop in Nepal. In the lowlands, Chitwan is where you go to do an elephant back safari. As you might notice from previous postings, we like elephants and a chance to ride one AND see rhinos, well that was almost too good sounding to be true.

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But it was true! We spent 3 days at the park, staying right on the river that separates the town, Sauraha, from the park itself. It was hot as hot could be, but we managed to get in two elephant safaris (one on a government owned elephant which was incredible and one on a privately owned elephant which was cool, but a bit more touristy feeling), a canoe ride, a jungle walk, some elephant bathing and a bike trip to the elephant breeding center (where we saw a 5 day old elephant!!) and a local traditional Tharu village.

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We did not see much on the canoe ride - lots of Kingfishers, a couple storks, and some other birds whose names I do not remember - but we did see some monkeys and deer on the jungle walk. The elephant safaris were where the action was at and on both of those we saw rhinos, deer (barking, spotted and sambar), monkeys, a family of wild boar. The rides were both a couple hours and even though we were ready to get off the lumberng beast (and there was a bit more whacking and poking of the elephant than we would have liked) it was more comfortable than one would imagine.

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Last but not least, one of the coolest experiences by far was bathing the elephants, which happened in the river about 10 steps from our hotel. We hopped on the elephant's back, they dunked us in the water and then when we got back on, showered us with their trunks. It was great. The elephants were sweet as could be and after the playing around, just laid in the water and enjoyed a good scrub with a rock. Amazing creatures.

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Himalicious

As far as I am concerned a new word needs to be invented to properly describe the Himalayas - stunning, gorgeous, beautiful, awesome, they just do not do it. So I will give Himalicious a shot... see how it sits with you.

From Trekking in Nepal

We have just returned from 23 days of trekking on the Annapurna Circuit and can say with confidence that if you ever have the chance to do something of this sort, stop hesitating and just do it. It was exactly what you would expect and then some - incredible, stunning, grueling, awe inspiring, dirty, sweaty, fantastic.

From Trekking in Nepal

The scenery is jaw droppingly beautiful and throughout the course of the trek changes drastically from lush green valleys to arid desert looking landscape. The villages are packed with life, interesting stone houses, runny nosed adorable children, goats, water buffalo, temples, monasteries, nunneries, prayer flags and wheels and even the occasional brandy distillery (they make apple brandy in Marpha, the apple capital of the Himalayas. Go figure, I guess you need to stay warm somehow!)

Sure it was grueling at times - there were some long days of 6 hours of trekking gaining some serious altitude - but the feeling of accomplishment and the few lost kilos make ever second worthwhile. The highest point of the trek, 5416 meters, the Throng La Pass (claimed the biggest pass in the world whatever that might be)is a stunning sight and feels like a sensational accomplishment. Slow and steady are the name of the game and it feels sooooo good at the top!

From Trekking in Nepal

We also took a side trip/acclimatizing trip to Tilicho Lake, claimed by Nepal to be the highest lake in the world. Not sure about that, but it was pretty incredible. Three and a half hours up, straight up not 10 m of flat land to be had, and a big frozen lake at the top. While a real challenge to get to - just getting to the basecamp meant crossing some landslide areas and tricky terrain, not to mention the climb itself - it was quite a sight to behold.

From Trekking in Nepal

Howie was here 10 years ago and a few things have changed. The biggest change is electricity, so no more kerosene lamps and headlamps to get around in your room at night. Nepalis have also harnessed the awesome power of the sun and now have solar heated water for hot showers... of course the sun needs to be shining all day and you need to get into the guesthouse before 4 PM to take advantage, but it is there. All for the better really. The main and very controversial change, however, is the road.

From Trekking in Nepal

They are in the process of building the road heading north, towards the Throng La, and some days of the trek did include some dusty walking and some waiting for the workmen to stop throwing rocks over the side so you can pass. To be honest, they are blasting and chipping away at huge rock face and it is hard to imagine this road ever being done. But, they succeeded on the other side of the pass and the original Jomson Trek now can be ridden all the way by jeep. We had heard AWFUL things about this road, and expected to hop a jeep at some point, but we never did. The road, as it turned out, was not that bad. We had rain pretty much each afternoon on that side and this kept the road from being dusty. And really, at the end of the day, maybe 4 or 5 vehicles (jeeps or trucks) passed us. And the people seem happy about the road - they now have easy access to hospitals that were days walks away, they can get more goods and services and generally easier - you really cannot fault them for that.

From Trekking in Nepal

So, it was 23 days, the biggest pass, the highest lake, 3280 stone steps and about 10 kilos lost between us and we could not be happier. A little sore, but feeling wonderful. Now the only question left is, "what's next?"

More photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/howieandhaviva/TrekkingInNepal#