World Tour : Nepal

3hrs 20mins from Bankok to Katmandu

Planned arrival : 12th May 2004

Planned departure : 11th June 2004

14th May 2004

Katmandu

Rachel writes...Yesterday we arrived in Nepal and a new culture shock. The people are much more influenced by India and there is a full spectrum of coloured Saris blending into the hub of the streets. However getting here was not easy but I am getting ahead of myself.

We ended our time in Vietnam, in Halong Bay. The bay itself is full of jutting rocks and cave complexes that rise out of the sea at any angle. The first day was cloudy but by the second the sun was out and the true beauty of the area was unvieled. It was great to be on the sea again and to sun ourselves on the deck of the boat. Some of its wonder was stolen by the fact that we had already been to the perfume pagoda which is very similar except that rocks are jutting out of a river, not the Sea but it was still very nice and fulfilled my original stereotype of how I thought Asia would be. Cat Ba island was a nasty, mid-industralised affair however and the beaches wern't great so we left a day early in favour of one last day at the ethnology museum in Hanoi where we learnt more about the hill tribes we met in Sapa.

Like always we managed to make our exit of the country a difficult (and lengthy) affair. In a hilarious build up of small events which involved Vietnamese dong (that cannot be changed, it would seem in any other country of the world - no one told us!!), fake cadburys chocolate (hmm not very happy about that!!), attempting to sleep a whole night at Bangkok airport, ridiculus airport tax (we're only penniless travellers!!) and the denoument at breakfast with a misunderstanding which almost led to them calling security on us as they overcharged us for breakfast (best not ask) - Yes we finally managed to leave hellish Bangkok airport and arrived in Katmandu!

Only once here they didn't take Visa cards for our Visas so instead of us going in to Katmandu to get money and coming back again, a very kind man called Rashid paid for us with money from the duty free shop, which we paid him back in the evening. We later found out he was a member of the CID police!! Then we got in a taxi with his brother who took us to his friends guest house.

Themal is a lovely part of Katmandu which feels more like a town than a city and is full of rickshaws and narrow streets filled with kitch shops and hippy clothing. It is dead quiet at night as the maoists seem to have a kurfew on the city but everyone seems so friendly greeting us with closed hands and Namaste (I salute the god in you). Fanny (the brother) met with us again in the evening and talked about trekking possibilities before buying us dinner which was very kind. He is really friendly and put our mind at rest about possible maoist threats. His english is amazing and we talked to him for a while about Nepal and its king and government.

We have just come back from a meeting with him this morning and we are going on an 18 day trek in the Annapurna range which looks stunning. We will have a guide with us and will get up to over 5000 metres at one point so we will have to break for a day to aclimatise to the altitude. Then we are going white water rafting and doing a two day safari in Chitwan national park where we will hopefully see rhinos do more elephant riding (uh oh), go canoeing with crocodiles and birdwatching. I can't believe how excited I am about the next few weeks, we definitely seem to be ending the trip in style and it is early days but the Nepalise seem to be in the same league as the Fijians in terms of friendliness. We'll end our time in Nepal in Katmandu and Katmandu Valley, but a month just doesn't seem long enough!

26th May 2004

The Annapurna Circuit - and The Accident

Nicola writes...We had one day in Kathmandu exploring the old Durbar Square and the legendary Nepali friendliness turned out in force. All sorts of people introduced themselves to us and told us a little about the Square's history and the Hindu temples. We saw the 'living goddess' in one temple who is a young village girl who lives in the temple, grandly dressed, with her family until the time that she has her first period. Then she will be replaced and her family get all the temple donations during her reign. Weird life for the child - she has to appear at the temple window a couple of times a day and so you are very lucky to see her! By the time we left the square all sorts of voices were shouting 'goodbye english ladies' because we had made so many friends and got a few email addresses already. One man showed us round Freak Street which was the old hippy hangout in the 70s and a very cool place with windy streets and hippy gear - also a few people offering us some 'hashish'! We strayed a little far from the centre however and ended up on a large street where a demonstration was taking place. All the armed and shielded police were out in force and me and Rachel fled the danger-zone as quickly as possible. Nepal is incredibly unstable at the moment, I think the worst in years, and in this respect it is a bad time to visit. Ever since we arrived Nepal has not had a Prime Minister and the king has still not chosen one. The Maoists strike every few days so planning anything is a logistical nightmare.

Anyway, the next day we set off for the Annapurna Circuit trek with our guide Indra. Indra is a wonderful man and became like a father to us. At first we were dissapointed with him as he seemed very nervous and spoke broken english, but during the trek he really came out of hiself. He is 38 years old and very formal looking, but an experienced guide who was friends with all the families in the villages that we encountered. His life story, told in dribs and drabs during the walk was fascinating. His Hindu parents married him off to his 12 year old wife when he was 15. His first daughter was born when he was only 18. He had a tough time finding work, and so guides in the city while his wife works their farm in Chitwan (on the terrai). He converted to Christainity so his Hindu parents refuse to eat at his unholy house because he cooks cow. All his family seem very complicated but he is such a kind man who looked after us well - always bringing us hot drinks in the evening and making sure we drank enough. We even managed to discuss philosophy with him on the mountain top!

The trek itself was fabulous as every day brought new views. We started off by walking through green step farms, and then got up to bigger mountains, and finally we were amoung the snow peaks. The whole walk follows the river and the valley views are stunning. The walking was quite tough as we were always going up and our backpacks were rather heavy. Still I felt fit and neither me nor Rachel suffered altitude problems (though we reached 5000 metres). The breathing got tougher as we rose up but there was enough oxygen to live.

We began the trek in Besisahar, and when we arrived at the hotel we heard that the building two doors from us had been blown up by a Maoist bomb. With that in mind we decided not to explore the town but to keep safe in our hotel. We ended up chatting to a lovely Nepali guy who works for the solar power industry. By the end of the night we had an invitation to dinner with his family in Kathmandu which we will probably take him up on soon!

I would definitely recommend the Annapurna trek for the views and the welcoming village people. Some of the villages were really old and quaint looking. Manang in particular looks like a stone village frozen in time from the medieval period, and looking at it from the opposite mountain was the closest to time travel that I have ever felt. Lots of the villages are Tibetan so we tried different food, but every day tucked in to a healthy portion of Nepal's dal baht! Great stuff. There are Buddhist mantra bells in all the villages, donkeys carrying loads on all the trails, and Nepali's loaded up with goods to get up to the villages. The food in the mountains is expensive as there are no roads so items have to be manually carried for days. Some men were carrying corrugated iron and building materials for days at a time. That is hard work!

We got along with our fellow travellers as we bumped into the same people on the trails. A very sweet, lanky French guy called Benjamin who spoke mostly in french was one such friend. Then there was an Israeli guy called Asaf, and we spent one night playing a card game called yani with 6 of his Israeli friends whilst listening to The Doors. Very atmospheric! One night our lodge threw a party for all the local monks, and while we tried to sleep we could hear the robed monks singing Karaoke and drumming the table. So there were lots of wonderfully weird moments.

I enjoyed the rhythm of the trek. We would walk for about 6 hours a day, beginning early, and arrive in each village early afternoon. We could then relax in a guesthouse, warm up, get clean, and read and relax. I am currently reading a book about the history of philosophy which was just perfect with so much time to think. Everyday I was awed by the views. So it continued like this until....

We had almost reached Thorung Phedi, which is the high village that you stay at before crossing the pass at the top of the mountain. We had reached snow level. Only fifteen minutes from our destination (after nearly 6 hours walking) the accident happened. We were walking along a narrow trail when a rock fell from above and hit Rachel. There must have been a small landslide on the mountain above. The rock cut into her arm and knocked her off the cliff and sent her sliding down the mountain. My heart stopped. Indra immediately slid down after her and tried to remove her from her backpack. I stayed put, afraid that if I slipped down I would create more problems. Still, standing and watching was horrible as I felt so helpless. Luckily the Frenchman Ben was close behind, and he also slid down the mountain with his Nepali friends and together they carried Rachel up and took our bags. Indra supported Rachel on the walk to Phedi and I tried to keep her calm by speaking constantly. I was scared out of my mind. Once at the lodge, we had to treat Rachel's wounds. There were no experts around and no phone. My panic increased and I appealed to a large group of Singapore tourists for help. There were about 20 Singaporians and so I asked if anyone knew anything about first aid. Thankfully a few of them stepped forward and I will forever be grateful for their efforts! Rachel's arm wound was very deep as the rock had cut through the muscle and exposed the bone. They dressed the wound and elevated her arm. We made Rachel a makeshift bed with a bench and lots of blankets. The Singapore tourists fed her up on sugary drinks and safe food. Meanwhile I was trying to get more help. Indra had to walk to the nearest phone - all the way back in Manang where we had begun the day's walk. He took our details with him but explained that help was unlikely to be able to arrive till the next day. So we settled in for a long night. We get Rachel's arm elevated, kept her warm and hydrated and throughout the night I helped her. It was just so scary as we didn't know the extent of the damage and we suspected some internal bleeding in Rachel's kidneys. A British couple also arrived at our lodge and they were very reassuring. Everyone was scared by our remote situation and the absence of help but they rallied round. The Brits provided me with a lot of support and hugged us, kept me warm and brought me drinks. The Frenchman also sat with us and gave Rachel a lucky charm. Everyone in that lodge looked after us so well and pulled together. Their kindness was totally overwhelming and when they retired to bed they all told us to get them if anything about Rachel's condition changed.

Me and Rachel survived the long night together, despite the cold - it was snowing outside. The next morning all the tourists set off to continue the trek and cross the pass. They were gone by 5am and I felt very alone. Now I was the only carer and had no idea when help would arrive. I couldn't believe that we had no phone or means of communication. I went outside and totally broke down crying. Rachel was so brave and didn't cry once so I tried to be calm and stable in front of her. All the tourists said goodbye to us, and Ben kissed us and told us that we were strong women. They had to cross the pass because the monsoon season was making the trek more dangerous by the day and that morning was clear so they had to go. I was so grateful to everyone but scared when they had gone.

By late morning, we still knew nothing about help arriving and we were getting worried again. We were hoping for a helicopter at about 6am. A swiss Mountaineer arrived with some medical experience and he told us that he had heard about our situation in Manang. He warned that due to the monsoon season it could be up to 4 days before a helicopter could safely fly to us through the cloudy valley. He said we should be prepared for this and gave us some more food supplies, told us to keep hydrated, to keep warm and recommended that rachel take some antibiotics in case her wounds became infected. At this point, contemplating being alone for days without help, waiting with no information, both me and rachel couldn't fight the tears. We just looked at eachother and welled up totally. Thankfully, just as the Swiss man was about to leave us and wish us good luck we heard the sound of a helicopter! It was such a rush of relef! We got Rachel up to the top of the hill and loaded into a helicopter. I waved to the Swiss man and blew him kisses in teary ecstasy as we lifted off. The flight was slightly scary as we flew through the narrow, cloudy valley and there was a bit of turbulence. Bloody monsoon. But once we had relaxed slightly I was even able to appreciate the views. People pay good money for those 'scenic flights' and I marvelled as we flew alongside snow-capped mountains, and later through the valley, looking over where we had trekked and marvelling at gorgeous green valleys of perfectly sculpted step-farms. Finally we landed in Kathmandu and an ambulance met us. We could see that there were a load of men in the ambulance and when they stepped out we were thrilled to see familiar faces. All the guys from our trekking company were there to meet us, their faces contorted with concern. 'Namaste'. Fani and Kumar held our hands and accompanied us to the hospital. Once at the hospital I felt so much better. Rachel was in safe hands. The Nepali doctor looking after Rachel had worked at The Royal Berks in England so that was a happy coincidence. She was put on a drip, stabalised, stitched up, Xrayed, tested and all the results were fine. She was going to be OK. Fani, Kumar, and their two friends hung around the hospital all day. They comforted us, made us laugh, bought us food and really held our hands through the whole ordeal. One of them would go to get me some food, while the others sat with Rachel etc. They got us a private room at the hospital and we had a very comfortable night's stay. The doctors and staff at the hospital were superb. Finally we got discharged late yesterday night after lots of kerfuffle with the insurance companies.

Throughout the whole nightmare Rachel has been staggeringly brave. The trekking company have gone far beyond the call of duty. They drove us to a hotel last night (where we are paying a backpacker rate for a nice room with room service - yes we did have breakfast in bed today!) They have been with us round-the-clock and been an incredible support. Today we are meeting them after lunch to finalise insurance details and then discuss our plans for the rest of Nepal.

We will probably leave Nepal early now, before the Maoist 'tourist attack' on June 6th. We don't feel like taking anymore risks. It's just too unstable right now. That said, Nepal remains the highlight of our trip for the outstanding people and beautiful scenery and hippy vibe. We love it and will have to return one day and complete the Annapurna circuit! We will take a few days rest in Thamel and then explore the Kathmandu valley, and socialise with our Nepali friends. Our poor guide Indra is still walking back from Manang, and we should be reunited with him in a few days time. The poor man must be worried sick.

Anyway, that's the whole sorry tale. We are going back to the hospital today to get Rachel's wound re-dressed and also meeting the trekking guys. I think we will spend some extra time in Austria and return to England as planned on the 19th June. The Austrian guy called Gunther who we met in USA emailed me a few days ago and is up for showing us round Vienna. Never under-estimate the power of friends around the world!

Nicola and Rachel began the 18 day Annapurna trek on May 14th. Take a look at this great site to see what they were attempting (and what they missed out on!).

31st May 2004

Rachel's Birthday

Rachel writes...I had a great day but ended up with too much cake! Nic ordered a birthday cake from one of the local bakeries (yep they have loads of the damn things here - wer'e ballooning!) and we ate a slice for breakfast. It was a lovely thought and we took it round to Asahi treks so that they could all have a piece. Cringingly, they too had also ordered me a cake for the evening so we kind of stole their thunder but it was all ok.

Then it was time for some serious retail therapy. Themal is a fantastic place to shop and really cheap, it is just a series of really narrow roads with precarious old buildings and eateries and shops. We have even become regulars at one pizza place and the owner has offered to take us round parts of Thamel and to Nagarkot where we can see Everest on a good day.

We met Indra in the afternoon and he took us to Pashupatinath, the largest hindu complex in the world where you can view bodies being cremated and where holy cows stand on pedestals in the middle of the holy river (goodness knows how they get the poor things there in the first place!) There were also what seemed like hundreds of monkeys everywhere. We decided to pair this up with Bouddinath, the largest Buddhist temple in the world. Everyone walks round it in a clockwise direction and I recognised the buddhist mantra from our evening in Manang on the Anapurna trek.

Indra took us to his sisters house where we also met his 17 year old daughter. It was really great to see some of his family after hearing so much about them and we were invited back to dinner tonight. His sister has taken in five orphans due to the maoist activity so its a pretty interesting place.

In the evening Ram, Kumar, Fani, Indra and a few others from the company along with a lovely spanish girl who had just completed the Annapurna trek (sob) came to the hotel with cake and candles. They had got me and Nicola pashmina scarfs and Indra go me a lovely photo album and I recieved a new writing journal. It was a fantastic evening but poor Nic had to consume rather a lot of beer which I got out of due to the medication but it had me in stitches. In the Nepali culture when you say no it means that everyone else immediately tries to pour you more alcohol so Nic literally had about 8 guys trying to give her beer - she looked so dismayed!! It was a classic!

I don't like this getting older business, blowing out 19 candles was distinctly difficult but it was definitely a memorable day and we ended it eating traditional Nepali with Indra.

I am going to miss Nepal so much when we leave, I feel as though we have made real friends here, even a taxi driver we only used once called out to us in the street for a chat the other day, crazy! The people are just so amazing and Nic and I have made a pact to come back within 5 years and complete the Annapurna trek. It has been my favourite country despite all that has happened and I think I will be back many times!

6th June 2004

Post-Nepal Depression

Nicola writes...I am suffering from a serious bout of post-Nepal depression so am probably not in the best frame of mind to write, however it will be good to exorcise all the emotion.

The final week in Nepal zoomed by in a flurry of social activity. Indra took us to Patan and Bhaktipur to see their Durbar Squares. These historic sites are still lived in, and colourful people live in and trade in the houses that are practically crumbling away. Cows and holy men mix with the crowds and there are few tourists. We had magical days exploring the areas and then drinking tea on the roof tops of converted hindu temples.

One night we ate dinner with Indra's sister and her family. That was lovely and very authentic. The women don't speak English and my Nepali is minute so the meal passed with warm smiles and at the end we got lovely cuddles. Unfortunately this happened to be the first occassion that I encountered the Nepalese directness. Indra's nephew asked me - "Nicola, why are you a little bit fat?" I nearly choked on my dal baht. Pardon? "Why are you fat when you don't eat more than Rachel?" Bloody good question. "I don't know" was all I could muster, trying to keep any bitterness out of my voice.

The next night, Indra took us to meet Fani's niece (Fani being one of our friends at the trekking company). Basically everyone is related so I will not even begin to explain all the connections, it is enough to grasp that all the friends we have made seem inextricably linked in all sorts of bizarre ways, especially as they mostly come from families of about 9 children and look after one another's kids. Fani's neice is a seventeen year old teenager called Rajani. She was surprised by our random visit but immediately began chattering away. Her bedroom was an interesting mix of western celebrity posters, quotes from the Maoist leader about communism, hindu religious leaders and postcards from around the world. Great mish mash and I was fascinated. We ended up being invited to stay for dinner and went with her to the local roadside vegetable market to buy ingredients. Cringingly we had also tacitly arranged to meet Fani for dinner, so he arrived at his sister's house with pizza for us as well. We ended up eating both meals in succession, apologising to Fani and his sister (who had been slaving over the stove in the kitchen for us all night!) After dinner, Rajani convinced me to dance in the living room and we just freestyled together to music. She showed me the hindi moves and I LOVED the Bollywood expressive style. It was so much fun. It was great just to dance again, and the childish spontanaeity of dancing round a Nepali living room in front of a group of strange adults was hugely liberating. We ended up sleeping over at Rajani's, sharing her floor matress. It was a really good night.

We spent the whole of the next day with Rajani, eating lunch there, discussing life, and giving her advice about applying to English universities - she wants to study nueroscience.

It was good to be doing easy things around Thamel because there was a Maoist strike on. Walking around Kathmandu was quite eery as the usually cramped roads were empty of traffic. It was a total ghost town. We explored the backstreets with Indra by foot and made a trip to the monkey temple to get a panoramic view of the city. Politically, Nepal is a total mess. The day before we left they announced a Prime Minister - after over 3 weeks without guidance! Of course the candidate chosen is already being protested against. Most farcically the King had actually advertised for the vacancy of Prime Minister in the newspaper - attracting all sorts of bogus applicants and hopeful students! Unbelievable.

Despite the strike, Indra decided we should defy the vehicle-ban and try and get to Nagarkot. Nagarkot is a popular hill station in the Kathmandu valley, from which it is possible to view Everest at sun rise and sun set. So our heroic and loyal Indra met us in a taxi with a blacked-out number plate and whisked us off to a small Newari village. From there we trekked through gorgeous green step farms, and rural villages, to reach Nagarkot. It was a lovely day out, but I had already glimpsed the magnificant valley from the helicopter. Nagarkot itself was deserted because of the Maoist strike. We were the only tourists to make it there, but luckily had no problems on the road. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see everest because the monsoonal clouds descended at ridiculous thickness. Never mind. When we returned from Nagarkot we met Rajani at her house for another day out. We took the local bus to Kopan monastery. It was shut when we arrived but Rajani managed to blagg our way in and it was fantastic. We had the whole grounds of the famous buddhist sanctuary to ourselves and wandering around the gardens whilst watching the child monks studying and playing was blissful. One monk even made us mango juices with sweet coconut. Then we went to the cinema to catch a Hindi movie. They are also known as 'masala movies' because there is a little bit of everything in them. What an epic it was - part emotional drama, part teen trash, part action/thriller, part romance, part comedy, and part-musical. It was so entertaining. Despite the Indian dialogue, the odd use of english phrases and expressive acting style made it universally accessible. I came out beaming with the feel-good factor and itching to dance all the way home Hindi style. Also, they have interval's half way through the movie so that adds to the theatricality of the whole event. Finally, we got back to Thamel and met Indra with Rajani to go out together for our last night. We watched traditional music and ate daal baht.

Leaving Nepal the following day was so hard. I am still suffering from it. The Nepalese people are the warmest I have ever encountered, and everyone is your friend. Even a shop owner invited us for tea after meeting us once. We simply didn't have time for all the offers. Saying goodbye to Indra was heartbreaking. He has become such a wonderfully close, true, genuine friend. We spent nearly every day with him and he has invited us to stay at his remote village in Chitwan with his family whenever we like (where rhinos sometimes trample his farm crops!) That offer is reason enough for me to return to Nepal! Indra is like family to us now, and he came to say goodbye on our last morning. I was even more moved when he welled up with tears. He said that he encounters many tourists, but he has never had an experience like this before. He said the thought of us leaving gave him "a kind of sick in the head". His broken english makes him all the more endearing! It was wonderful to see that we had touched him as much as he had us, and we all hugged eachother, not wanting to ever let go and part ways. It's incredible the friendship that we have made because on the surface you would never expect it - two English teenagers and a formal-looking, 38 year old Nepali man! But there it is. After Indra had left, and me and Rachel had wiped away our tears, we went for a final shop in the hippy district (Alex Hurle - I will not let you down!) and then took all our baggage to Asahi treks to say goodbye to our other friends there. We bought them a crate of beer as a thank you for all their hospitality, and the mutual-apprecaition forum continued. Finally we were at the airport and forced to leave our beloved Nepal - the most beautiful country and most outstanding people of our world tour! I'm gutted. But I will be back.