Nepal: A Revisit
School ended for me on June 12 and on June 13, I was on a plane to Nepal. But unlike when I was living in the Kingdom of Nepal, it is now a republic with no king. The people voted (or at least the elected officials that make up the government) and the king (who wasn’t very popular anyway) is now a regular “Joe” like all others living there. His palace will soon become a museum. I found it a bit sad as there are not many ‘kingdoms’ left in the world and Nepal was the only Hindu kingdom in the world. Hopefully, the ‘new’ form of government will help shift Nepal into being a more modern country and provide a little better for the people. I had wanted to be in Nepal in time for Lincoln School’s Class of 2008 graduation, but work got in the way and I decided it wouldn’t be too good of an idea to miss the last two or three days of school. It all worked out well as I was able to meet some of the graduates (my boys!) out for a late dinner the night I arrived and saw them several other times as well. But, I’m getting ahead of myself, so let me backtrack a bit…..
I had with me a friend from the States (Alex Lunnen for those in the know). A little about Alex….he is someone that I coached in basketball and taught while living in Bogotá. While in Bogotá I became quite close to his family. He also has two older brothers that I coached and/or taught as well. The Lunnen family and I arrived and left Bogotá at pretty much the same time. Over the years since Bogotá, I have visited with them in Utah when out on ski trips. When Alex graduated from high school, he didn’t go to college right away and I wanted him to come live in K-du for a few months and volunteer in an orphanage. He didn’t make it that year and probably wished that he would have. He visited me in Charleston last summer and I told him I was planning to go to Nepal in summer 2008 and he was more than ready this time around. He worked all year to save money for the trip while also going to college, and in early June he was ready to travel!
Alex came to Dubai and visited for a few days before we headed to K-du. I know I always ‘sort of bad mouth’ Dubai, but it really is quite a cool place to visit. I like showing people around as there are quite a few cool places to see. Alex and I rode an ‘abra’ on the Creek that divides the old part of Dubai into two parts. An abra is like an open wooden boat and it’s used as a water taxi to cross to the other side of the Creek. We wandered around the ‘other side’ of the Creek through the spice markets and watched the workers unloading the dhows, which are like huge wooden container ships that sail around the Gulf. They carry everything from tires to pallets of Tide and just about everything in between. Of course, I didn’t have my camera as is usually the case when I’m out in Dubai, but it is certainly cool and something to see….an old school way of transporting goods in this very modern city. The crew usually sleeps on top of the goods or maybe in a hammock on board. I also had to show off the Burj Al Arab, which is the “fanciest, most expensive and only 7 star” hotel in the world. I’m pretty sure it is self proclaimed. My goal for my 2nd year in Dubai is to fork over the $80 and go to high tea on week-end or maybe go to dinner and pay $100 for a hamburger! One can’t just go have a look around. You can only get on the island with dinner/tea reservations. It is an impressive sight at any time, but at night it looks particularly nice as its white outside design, which is supposed to look like a sail, is illuminated in pinks and purples. We also did a desert safari in which you ride in an all-wheel drive SUV up and down the huge sand dunes which are located not so far outside of Dubai. The UAE is on the eastern edge of the Arabian Desert. The dunes are huge especially as you are sliding down them in a car and wondering how in the world you are not rolling over! It’s cool when you are doing it, but it looks much more impressive when you see other SUVs doing it. At that point, you realize how big and steep the dunes are. The safaris end at a camp out in the middle of the desert where one can partake in other activities like, riding a camel (check!), sand-boarding which involves riding a snowboard down the sand dunes (check!), dressing up in Arab traditional clothes (Alex-check), getting a henna tattoo (check), watching a belly dancing girl (check!), or riding a four wheeler around the dunes (no check!) The sunset over the desert is really nice and eating a nice dinner while just chillin’ out in the desert was very enjoyable. For a moment anyway, the city of Dubai seemed like a thousand miles away, but then you get back in the SUV and it’s only a 40 minute ride back to reality.
K-du is only a four hour direct flight away from Dubai so to travel there was so easy. We flew out of a neighboring ‘emirate’ called Sharja, which is about 30 minutes from Dubai if there is no traffic. The airport is thirty minutes and literally a world away from the huge Dubai international airport. It was so easy and hassle free flying from Sharja. It is also the hub for AirArabia, which is a discount airline that flies from Sharja to a multitude of Asian locations. Since it was a Friday morning when we left (the first day of the week-end in the Middle East and the day of prayer), there was no traffic! We arrived on time in K-du and it started raining! Now, for most of you you’re probably thinking ‘big deal’, but for me I hadn’t seen rain since February so it was kind of nice, and cool. It was 110* when we left Dubai and in the 70’s in K-du. Quite a contrast…..in many more ways than temperature, but that’s another story! It is the monsoon season in Nepal which means it rains at least some parts of most days. And quite heavily at times. And most of you know from the Chronicles that K-du is not planned with infrastructure to deal with rain (or much of anything else!) It just gets muddy and nasty, but that’s part of its charm. One just does like the locals…if you don’t have an umbrella, you just get wet and deal with it! As it turned out, the monsoon would play havoc with our entire trip, but we just got wet and dealt with it!
Instead of staying with friends, I decided to stay right smack in the middle of Thamel, which is the tourist center (kind of like K-du’s downtown). I stayed in the famous Kathmandu Guest House which used to be a former palace. It is a little removed from perhaps the busiest street (and street I use loosely!). It’s quiet, has gardens, rooms to suit all needs, and right in the middle of all the chaos! It was awesome staying there. Alex and I spent the next few days walking around to see the famous sights, visiting my friends, (Alex) doing a lot of shopping, avoiding the downpours, and making arrangements for our trek. We had to leave K-du a day early as our original flight up into the mountains from another town (Pokhara) was canceled on the day we had planned to fly. So, our trek was pushed up a day which was OK as it would give us three more days in Kathmandu before returning to Dubai.
School ended for me on June 12 and on June 13, I was on a plane to Nepal. But unlike when I was living in the Kingdom of Nepal, it is now a republic with no king. The people voted (or at least the elected officials that make up the government) and the king (who wasn’t very popular anyway) is now a regular “Joe” like all others living there. His palace will soon become a museum. I found it a bit sad as there are not many ‘kingdoms’ left in the world and Nepal was the only Hindu kingdom in the world. Hopefully, the ‘new’ form of government will help shift Nepal into being a more modern country and provide a little better for the people. I had wanted to be in Nepal in time for Lincoln School’s Class of 2008 graduation, but work got in the way and I decided it wouldn’t be too good of an idea to miss the last two or three days of school. It all worked out well as I was able to meet some of the graduates (my boys!) out for a late dinner the night I arrived and saw them several other times as well. But, I’m getting ahead of myself, so let me backtrack a bit…..
I had with me a friend from the States (Alex Lunnen for those in the know). A little about Alex….he is someone that I coached in basketball and taught while living in Bogotá. While in Bogotá I became quite close to his family. He also has two older brothers that I coached and/or taught as well. The Lunnen family and I arrived and left Bogotá at pretty much the same time. Over the years since Bogotá, I have visited with them in Utah when out on ski trips. When Alex graduated from high school, he didn’t go to college right away and I wanted him to come live in K-du for a few months and volunteer in an orphanage. He didn’t make it that year and probably wished that he would have. He visited me in Charleston last summer and I told him I was planning to go to Nepal in summer 2008 and he was more than ready this time around. He worked all year to save money for the trip while also going to college, and in early June he was ready to travel!
Alex came to Dubai and visited for a few days before we headed to K-du. I know I always ‘sort of bad mouth’ Dubai, but it really is quite a cool place to visit. I like showing people around as there are quite a few cool places to see. Alex and I rode an ‘abra’ on the Creek that divides the old part of Dubai into two parts. An abra is like an open wooden boat and it’s used as a water taxi to cross to the other side of the Creek. We wandered around the ‘other side’ of the Creek through the spice markets and watched the workers unloading the dhows, which are like huge wooden container ships that sail around the Gulf. They carry everything from tires to pallets of Tide and just about everything in between. Of course, I didn’t have my camera as is usually the case when I’m out in Dubai, but it is certainly cool and something to see….an old school way of transporting goods in this very modern city. The crew usually sleeps on top of the goods or maybe in a hammock on board. I also had to show off the Burj Al Arab, which is the “fanciest, most expensive and only 7 star” hotel in the world. I’m pretty sure it is self proclaimed. My goal for my 2nd year in Dubai is to fork over the $80 and go to high tea on week-end or maybe go to dinner and pay $100 for a hamburger! One can’t just go have a look around. You can only get on the island with dinner/tea reservations. It is an impressive sight at any time, but at night it looks particularly nice as its white outside design, which is supposed to look like a sail, is illuminated in pinks and purples. We also did a desert safari in which you ride in an all-wheel drive SUV up and down the huge sand dunes which are located not so far outside of Dubai. The UAE is on the eastern edge of the Arabian Desert. The dunes are huge especially as you are sliding down them in a car and wondering how in the world you are not rolling over! It’s cool when you are doing it, but it looks much more impressive when you see other SUVs doing it. At that point, you realize how big and steep the dunes are. The safaris end at a camp out in the middle of the desert where one can partake in other activities like, riding a camel (check!), sand-boarding which involves riding a snowboard down the sand dunes (check!), dressing up in Arab traditional clothes (Alex-check), getting a henna tattoo (check), watching a belly dancing girl (check!), or riding a four wheeler around the dunes (no check!) The sunset over the desert is really nice and eating a nice dinner while just chillin’ out in the desert was very enjoyable. For a moment anyway, the city of Dubai seemed like a thousand miles away, but then you get back in the SUV and it’s only a 40 minute ride back to reality.
K-du is only a four hour direct flight away from Dubai so to travel there was so easy. We flew out of a neighboring ‘emirate’ called Sharja, which is about 30 minutes from Dubai if there is no traffic. The airport is thirty minutes and literally a world away from the huge Dubai international airport. It was so easy and hassle free flying from Sharja. It is also the hub for AirArabia, which is a discount airline that flies from Sharja to a multitude of Asian locations. Since it was a Friday morning when we left (the first day of the week-end in the Middle East and the day of prayer), there was no traffic! We arrived on time in K-du and it started raining! Now, for most of you you’re probably thinking ‘big deal’, but for me I hadn’t seen rain since February so it was kind of nice, and cool. It was 110* when we left Dubai and in the 70’s in K-du. Quite a contrast…..in many more ways than temperature, but that’s another story! It is the monsoon season in Nepal which means it rains at least some parts of most days. And quite heavily at times. And most of you know from the Chronicles that K-du is not planned with infrastructure to deal with rain (or much of anything else!) It just gets muddy and nasty, but that’s part of its charm. One just does like the locals…if you don’t have an umbrella, you just get wet and deal with it! As it turned out, the monsoon would play havoc with our entire trip, but we just got wet and dealt with it!
Instead of staying with friends, I decided to stay right smack in the middle of Thamel, which is the tourist center (kind of like K-du’s downtown). I stayed in the famous Kathmandu Guest House which used to be a former palace. It is a little removed from perhaps the busiest street (and street I use loosely!). It’s quiet, has gardens, rooms to suit all needs, and right in the middle of all the chaos! It was awesome staying there. Alex and I spent the next few days walking around to see the famous sights, visiting my friends, (Alex) doing a lot of shopping, avoiding the downpours, and making arrangements for our trek. We had to leave K-du a day early as our original flight up into the mountains from another town (Pokhara) was canceled on the day we had planned to fly. So, our trek was pushed up a day which was OK as it would give us three more days in Kathmandu before returning to Dubai.
Pokhara is Nepal’s second biggest city, but the tourist area of Pokhara is on the shores of a lake that is surrounded by hills and (when it’s not cloudy) 20,000+ foot mountains are in clear view. It’s very laid back and relaxing in this area – a world away from the hustle and bustle of K-du. We were not to be there long as we had a 7:00 AM flight up into the mountains….or so we thought! We did have the flight which left about an hour late. We passed through some clouds, had pretty good views of the huge mountains, and were descending into the valley where Jomsom is located at around 9,000 feet. And then we turned around. Clouds had rolled in and visibility dropped, which is to say the pilots could not see to land. These small prop planes don’t fly with instruments, so if the pilot can’t see, they don’t land. As the saying in Nepal goes, “we don’t fly in clouds because our clouds have mountain sides in them!” And that’s fine by me as each year there always seems to be a plane crash involving poor visibility or bad weather. We returned to Pokhara to learn that no more flights would be leaving that day. Due to very strong winds (and more on that later) planes only fly up into the mountains in the mornings….and at this time of year, only about 2-3 flights per day. There are a few different airlines, but it takes some luck to get a clear day to fly. We managed to get a flight the next day (originally this was our day, but the flight was canceled.) Due to the bad weather, a flight was added so we were ready to go. Alas, the weather was bad that day and no flights flew. We passed the day be lazy in Pokhara (shopping!) and then hiked up to this Peace Pagoda which sits on top of a hill on the other side of the lake. It was nice and provided great views. We had to cab it to the dirt path and then walk up instead of crossing the lake by boat and going through the forest because it is the leech season in Nepal and we wanted no part of that! All day the owner of the guesthouse where we were staying (and ex trekking guide and now travel agent in addition to hotel owner) was trying to get us on a flight for the next morning. We were busy making alternate plans in case we didn’t get on the flight. That night, still no flight, so we decided to do another trek where we would not have to deal with flights (in the Sanctuary and Poon Hill for those in the know). We would have been between 4,000-8,000 feet most of the time and potentially in the monsoon rains. It’s a very nice trek, quite interesting, and beautiful but you don’t really feel like you are in the high country. Additionally, you are still in an ethnic Nepali area, and though very interesting, it’s not the different culture (Tibetan ancestry) that I wanted Alex to see. Still, we had decided to do this over going down into southern Nepal and doing the jungle on elephant back safaris. Don’t get me wrong, this area of Nepal is very beautiful and another cool experience but we had our minds set to trek and to not be in the heat of the jungle! As luck would have it, we got a phone call at 7:00 AM saying that if we got to the airport right away, we could get on the third flight of the day. After all, we already had our return flight and if we were going ‘up high’ we needed to go on this day to have enough time to do all that I wanted to do. We made it to the airport and sighed with relief (and jumped for joy) when we landed in Jomsom! Jomsom is a village with a main stone road that runs about ¼ mile through the center. There are small buildings on both sides and the road ends into gravel/dirt paths….or at least they used to be paths. NOW they are roads in their own right, and (condition of the road permitting) one can now drive from Beni, at the bottom of the trail all the way to Muktinath. I’ve done this walk down before and it takes about 4-5 days – now in a jeep you can do it in about 4-5 hours – trail permitting! More on this later!!
The plan was to walk down the trail to a small village called Marpha and spend the night. Marpha is famous for its apples and its fields which grow barley and other crops. It has a narrow stone path through it and from time to time donkey/mule trains make there way through. The road bypasses the town and runs just below it closer to the river (for those that have done this trek). Marpha also has a Buddhist site a few hundred feet up a path above the town which is pretty cool and the surrounding ledges and plateaus are famous for having chortens or monument stones indicating various ‘sky burials’ where one’s body is chopped up and left for the birds. The scenery on the two hour leisurely walk was spectacular with the river, cliffs, trail scenes, smaller villages, pray wheels to spin as one passes into Marpha, and the Buddhist site up above the town. As we approached the town the fields were blazing with a multitude of golds, browns, and greens and people were busy cutting, beating, baling, and drying the barley. In the afternoon a jeep passed us taking people down the trail. I immediately hated the idea of seeing it on the road and hearing it beep its horn to let you know it was coming. Technology….I spit on technology in cases like this. Back in the day when I trekked in this area four years before, one never would have imagined a road running through the area. The trekking, trading routes have gone hundreds of years without motorized vehicles, so why not continue that trend. I decided to hate it (unless we needed to use it to get down the mountain at the end of the trek!)
The next day we walked back up to Jomsom and then three hours past it to the most cool (and my favorite) small village of Kegbeni. We stopped in Jomsom to leave our tickets with the place that I like to stay (Xanadu’s for those in the know) and to drop some things we would not need for the rest of the trek. We were to meet a porter but we missed him earlier in the day, and then he missed us when we arrived, so Alex ended up having to carry our backpack, while I carried the two day bags, one in the front and on my back. By noon we were off and it was already getting windy. By afternoon winds blow up the valley in excess of 30 mph sustained with gusts a lot stronger than that. Who cared? We were trekking in the high country and up the vast dry river bed towards the coolest village in the land. As the wind picked up, we keep walking. After a while, we came across a fast moving stream (that I didn’t remember being there, but then again I’ve never trekked in the monsoon season) that we needed to cross. The stream was coming from another smaller valley that ran up into the hills. There was no bridge that we could see and after walking up the valley trying to find a place where it was narrow enough to jump across or cross by using rocks, we decided enough was enough and we would just have to get across it. I saw a Nepali guy who also needed to get across (his motorcycle was on the other side) and he informed me that there was no bridge. He somehow (barely) made it across by jumping on rocks (but then again he didn’t have any packs). Alex, with the backpack on his back, followed this guy’s example and used a rock to get to a larger rock in the middle of the stream. The Nepali guy, standing on a rock on the other side, told Alex to swing him the backpack and he would grab it. Alex did so and the motion (plus 30 mph+ wind) caused the guy to lose his balance on the rock and he stepped into the water! Alex, with no pack now, was able to jump on another rock and made it to the other side. I was thinking, “heck no” I can’t do this, so I threw my hiking boots across the stream and waded across in the fast-moving knee deep water. Sounds easy, but being barefooted and not being able to see what I was stepping on (rocks) with the current and the wind, I slowly made my way across. The Nepali guy was still in the water to provide a helping hand. Once on the other side, we chatted for a while and he turned out to be the owner of the Hotel Bob Marley in Mukintah! I had stayed there before and planned to stay there in two night’s time when we reached Muktinah. (For those in the know, the transvestite that used to work in the hotel a few years ago was not there this time around!) I told him we’d see him there and then we were all on our way. By now the winds was blowing even harder and it literally made us stumble as we walked on the rocks of the river bed. Alex’s ‘801’ hat ended up being the only real casualty of the wind and it swept it right off his head and into the stream! We walked the rest of the way to Kegbeni with the wind blowing into our backs and sand stinging our legs. We came across one of the many steel suspension bridges that cross the rivers in the mountains and stopped for some picture taking. We went to the other side and back (again with the wind howling!) There is no way to be blown off the bridge but the wind did make it hard to walk without steadying yourself by grabbing onto the hand support wires. The bridge is anchored pretty well with all of these additional suspension wires, so thankfully, it didn’t sway much. Once we arrived in Kegbeni, we checked into the guesthouse where I’ve stayed before. Since this is definitely not the trekking season, we were the only ones there. The owners had a little girl, probably around two, and she was so cute. The entire time she just keep shyly looking at us and giving us the “namaste’ greeting with her hands in a prayer gesture and her head slightly tilted forward. She also had a doll baby strapped to her back (papoose style) with a piece of material. What’s funny about this is that the doll was a little white, blond haired doll with blue eyes! That night and into the next day, I never saw the little girl without her doll! (For those in the know, this is the same place – Hotel Asia- that I/we’ve stayed before, but changes have been made! The rooms have been redone and there are western toilets, at least in the room where we stayed. There was also a hot water shower and they provided towels!! And the barn is no longer in the courtyard of the hotel, so there is not the animal smell as in the past. Alas, it’s gotten more expensive…it’s now almost $4 a night for the room instead of the 1.25 we used to pay! Had it not been cloudy we still would have had a clear view of Nigril Peak outside the window).
If you take away the power lines and running water (that some houses and most guesthouses) have, Kegbeni would look like something out of Medieval Europe. The buildings are mostly mud, the lanes narrow and stone covered, and there is livestock running around everywhere. The village is probably at least 700 years old and it is famous for two things: 1) it’s the site of a Buddhist monastery that is 500-600 years old; and 2) it’s the last village before the restricted area known as Mustang. Mustang is a self- autonomous kingdom within Nepal. It has its own king by way of a treaty with Nepal several hundred years ago. You talk about a place that is spectacular and remote. The only way to get around in Mustang is by foot or animal. Being restricted, you can only enter with a permit and the permit costs around $100 a day. A seven day trip is what is usually required to get to the ‘capital’ of the region where the king lives and then back out again. Some day……. We spent a few hours exploring all the nooks and crannies of the village, visiting the monastery, sitting on the edge of the restricted area and admiring the beautiful landscape and watching the clouds change formation, and then having a hot chocolate at Yak Donald’s! Had we been hungry, we would have had to get a Big-Yak cheeseburger and fries! We returned to the monastery the next morning and went inside. Normally, you can’t take pictures inside a monastery, but since they charge admission (a little more than $1) they don’t mind. It is so cool – there are thankas (hand painted wall hangings) and Tibetan manuscripts that are at least 500 years old. We geared ourselves for the four hour walk up to Muktinah, with the first hour being all up hill and the altitude pushing 9-10,000 feet. Alex carried the bag the first hour but was dragging due to stomach issues/altitude, so I had to carry the big backpack the rest of the way. This was a first for me as I’ve always used a porter in the past! As the trail rounds a hill the entire valley opens out before you and it is truly spectacular. Up to this point, the landscape is arid with little vegetation (except where planted by people in the villages), but the valley is ripe with agriculture, trees, and natural vegetation with makes for a quilt-work of different colors. There are small guesthouses along the trail every now and then and some tiny villages. Along the way, we came across the occasional trekker, mule trains, Hindu sadus coming down the trail from the pilgrimage to Muktinath Temple, and the occasional jeep taking lazy Indian tourists up to Muktinah. I say lazy because until a year or two ago, the only way to get to the Temple was to walk or fly in a helicopter! All trekkers look at the Indian pilgrims as sell-outs for not walking!
As one travels, there are often “Kodak moments” when you don’t have a camera ready to snap a picture. And I like those times; somehow it makes the moment more special knowing that you’ll have to remember it in your mind without the benefit of a photo. I’ve had many in my travels….a full moon over the Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania, another full moon over the Sphinx and pyramids in Cairo, watching a whale swim by a boat while in the Galapagos and countless others….and here is another one. When I trek I very seldom listen to an Ipod. I like hearing the noise of the wind, sounds of the trail like the mule/goat bells, birds, etc. Because Alex wasn’t feeling well he was listening to his Ipod with these big earphones to take his mind off the walking that needed to be done. He came across this little boy of the trail who stopped and looked at him. Alex took off his earphones put them on the boy’s head and found him a song to listen to. The little boy was blown away and he had the biggest smile on his face. I was perhaps a hundred feet up the trail watching all of this unfold (and wishing that I had my camera, but then afterwards glad I didn’t have it!) Alex had my camera and ended up taking a picture of the boy with the headphones on. But because he was ‘in’ the picture with the boy, he couldn’t have captured the whole experience. The interaction between the little kid and Alex was priceless and a memory that I will forever have from this trek.
As we approached Jarkhot, an 800 year old village that is perched on a narrow ridge, it started raining. We stopped in for lunch and then continued through the rain the last 45 minutes UPHILL to Muktinah. We stayed in the Hotel Bob Marley and greeted the owner and I thanked him again for his help in crossing the stream the day before. The next day it was still very overcast, but since we needed to get down the mountain before the afternoon winds, we made our way to the Temple. The Muktinath Temple is holy for both Buddhists and Hindus. It is the site of an ‘eternal flame’ which is in a small monastery. We had a look around and while in the process got some glimpses of the ‘real’ mountains that loom around the landscape. We got some fairly good views but not like one gets in the fall or winter. I wasn’t complaining since some views are better than none at all…which is what we had mostly gotten up to this point! I wanted Alex to see the eternal flame, so we made our way to the small monastery. (The last time I was there it was locked and a monk opened it for us…remember Glynis!?) This time, Buddhist nuns were in there chanting. We listened from the outside for a while hoping they would finish and leave, but that was not to be. I inquired about going inside to see the flame and was told it was OK, and if we wanted to stay and observe, to sit on the floor. The nuns were seated in a right angle formation with the oldest one on one side and the two youngest on the other. They had a table, texts, and Tibetan horns, drums, etc in front of them. The lead nun (and Pat for SNL fame has nothing on this woman!) would start chanting and then all would follow. Out of nowhere, the nuns would stop chanting and start playing the instruments with seemingly no rhyme or reason. It sounded like a really bad, really young school band! Then they would start chanting again as dictated by the head nun. The two youngest were paying more attention to Alex and me. They looked bored out of their minds, yawned at times, and tried not to smile when they made eye contact with us. This experience was a perfect ending to our visit to the monastery!
This day was a Saturday, and it was already almost 11:00 as we made our way down the trail from Muktinah to Jomsom which would be about a 4-5 hour walk. The trek was without incident. The weather was clearing, Alex was carrying the backpack, and the walk was almost all downhill. But because of the late start, I knew the wind would be waiting on us as we walked down the riverbed in the afternoon. As we approached the river, I decided that we should cross the bridge and walk down the trail on ‘other side’ of the river. That way we wouldn’t have to try and cross the steam like we did on the way up the trail. I thought, “no problem” since I’d walked both sides of the river before. The wind was howling as we crossed the bridge but because we weren’t in the riverbed at least sand and dust wasn’t being blown in our faces. We followed the trail for about 45 minutes and then it just ended! I guess on previous treks the trail had gone from the hill and into the dried riverbed, but with the monsoon season the river was flowing up against the cliffs. Our choice, backtrack for 45 minutes and cross the other stream or just go for it scoot along the slope and hope the trail picked up a little later on. We opted for the latter and kept on going. The trail didn’t open up and abruptly stopped at a cliff. Our only option was to slide down the incline and cross the big stream! We decided to just hold on to each other’s shoulders and cross the raging stream and hope that it wasn’t deep. It wasn’t – only a little above our knees but with the fast moving water, we didn’t want to risk going barefooted so we crossed in our hiking boots. We made it and had to cross again a bit down stream and then we picked up the trail and arrived back in Jomsom after walking about 45 minutes in the howling wind. We had on sun glasses, skullies, and bandanas across our faces to keep the sand for blowing in our ears, eyes, mouths, and stinging our faces! We looked like we were ready to rob a bank or something!
The next day, Sunday, we planned to fly out of Jomsom….or so we thought! We were on the first flight out so that meant around 6:30 AM. (remember the flights only fly in the mornings before 10:00 or so or else it is too windy). But as I looked out the window I could tell the weather was a little iffy in Jomsom. But it didn’t matter as the weather was raining and poor in Pokhara, so no flights were even taking off for Jomsom. All flights were delayed….and by 9:00 they were canceled for the day. Not too worry since technology has come to the area in the way of a road – we could take the jeep down. Or so we thought! As it turned out no jeeps were running either because of a “strike” two villages down the trail (in Tuckshe for those in the know). The ‘village people’ decided they didn’t like the few jeeps that passed each day (who knows why?), so they built a stone wall most of the way across the road and were manning it to make sure no jeeps passed! That’s Nepal for you!! We faced the dilemma of trying to get a start and walking part of the way down the trail knowing that it would take a minimum of three days to walk out or wait until Monday and get a reservation on one of the flights out in the morning. To make the decision easier was the fact that our boots were still wet and we didn’t really want to walk at least 8-9 hours which is what would have been our goal since we were flying out of Nepal for Dubai on Thursday morning. Anyway, the jeep people assured me that all would be taken care of with the protesters by the next day, so if the flights didn’t fly we could take the jeep out. Yeah, right!! Anyway, we decided to wait and hope the weather was better the next day. So, we woke up the next day and the weather was not good below 8,000 feet but clear above it! The problem was that we were at 8,000 and Pokhara much lower so the situation wasn’t good. And the jeep guy didn’t even bother showing up to face people…the strike was still on and no jeep travel was passing through Tuckshe. The flight office hipped me to the option of hiring motorcycles to take us down the trail, so I got on that and with the help of the owner of the place where we stayed, who contacted her brother who ran another teahouse, and he arranged for two of his friends to take us down the trail for the price of 2,000 rupees each (about $25). What gouging, but what could we do? We had to make a move down the trail somehow that day. It turned out to be a loooooooong, but such a cool day. Alex got to see how the trail opened up down the valley and how the landscape and ethnicity of the people changed (and religion) from Tibetan to Nepali and from Buddhist to Hindu. Plus, there was spectacular scenery, forests, waterfalls, small villages, and the river always to our left. By far the coolest sight was seeing three sadus walking in their robes with their walking sticks, painted up faces, and carrying all there worldly possessions in a bundle on top of their heads! Since this is the monsoon season, the road doesn’t run all the way down the trail uninterrupted, which means we couldn’t go all the way in one motorcycle/jeep ride. You go until a landslide and then you get out and walk until the road is better or until the next village where there might be another jeep waiting. But not today! Due to the strike there were no jeeps really moving up the trail.
So, here was our journey…..we road the motorcycles for about 1.5 hours and were hauling ‘a’ most of the way….when we could. Now, mind you, we had all of our bags, the weather was bad and got worse and we navigated some fresh landslides. At one point the motorcycle that Alex was on fishtailed going up a muddy hill, stalled, and they started sliding backwards and had to lean and bail to keep the bike from almost going over the edge! I was behind and, thankfully, didn’t see that. We got to where they were, and we then walked up the muddy hill as the guys rode the bikes. They took us until they could go no more because of another landslide, but this one had huge rocks in it. After bidding farewell we walked for 1.5 hours until we got to our next mode of transportation. We came upon a little village and saw some people getting into a small bus. We decided to ride on top with the luggage and this took us about 45 more minutes down the trail. Mind you, this distance would have taken several hours to walk. We arrived in another village (Tatopani for those in the know), crossed the river by footbridge and then walked to the next little village about an hour away. I asked about a jeep and someone said maybe in an hour but I noticed people hanging around waiting for something, so I asked what was up? Turned out a big truck was leaving in a few minutes for Beni, which is where we needed to go. Beni is the village at the end of the trekking trail. The truck had a plastic cover over a frame which made the truck about 5 feet high in the back. As the truck prepared to leave, people (including Alex and I) just piled in. There were about 17 people in the back of the truck with Alex and some others standing up inside the tailgate and holding on to the cover-frame for dear life once the truck got moving. One person in the truck was a sadu. He was dressed in a robe and carried a trident, which is like a three pointed iron spear. As we started rolling, he was trying to stand which proved to be impossible if you were over five feet tall and as he swayed back and forth I was hoping he didn’t tumble into anyone or impale someone with his trident. Being a sadu, I don’t think one was supposed to touch him because as he swayed, people sort of moved out of the way to avoid him! Not too worry, a fellow traveler scooted over and made room for the sadu to sit in the front of the truck on part of a tire. The roads are not paved and were muddy and full of potholes. Actually, it’s a wonder the truck could even travel on them. At one point as we were ‘trucking’ along we came to a sudden halt which threw everyone forward. I about did a backwards roll and would have had it not been so crowded! As it was apparent that we were not to be moving anytime soon, we all piled out of the truck to discover that something had happened to the steering. The drivers were looking for something (a screw and bolt) that had fallen into the mud! Low and behold they ended up finding it, but couldn’t put everything back together with what they had. “Crap” I was thinking….it would be at least a four hour walk to Beni and it was already past 3:00 in the afternoon. The drivers somehow worked their magic and jerry-rigged the problem with what they had and a piece of extra wire that was wrapped around tailgate step!! After the 45 minute delay we were on our way again. It was a rough ride to say the least and probably a good thing to not be able to see outside. There are steep drops on the ‘river-side’ of the road and no type of railings or blocks to stop a plunge. But with no ventilation, it made it incredibly hot and I was dripping with sweat in every place imaginable, but I was not complaining because I was not walking! Two hours later we arrived in Beni to discover that there was a public transportation strike going on which meant no busses or taxis! As it was 5:00, all I could say was “f*&k, now what!?” One guy offered to take us in his car for $100. It’s a three hour drive back to Pokhara from this point. I wasn’t quite ready to do that, so I thought we’d just hang and see what happened or at least try to get someone else to take us for cheaper. The next day, as we discovered, was to be a full ‘no vehicle on the road’ strike. That’s Nepal for you!! We came across some other trekkers who were in the same situation as us and then we came across some guys that had been in the truck with us who had come across another ‘more pampered’ group of trekkers who had a guide with them. They had arranged for a bus to take us to Pokhara under the cover of night! We jumped at the opportunity. To pass the two hours, we sat and ate some dal bhat and Alex tried to, and finally did manage, to get into a local basketball game. The play was fast and furious and not so bad considering most of the local were playing full-court in flip flops! I felt bad as I had to pull Alex off the court in mid game so we could walk out of the town to get on the bus since it was now near dark. The three hour bus ride was cramped but there was no complaining as we were moving and were now assured of arriving back in Pokhara that night around 11:00. I phoned ahead to tell the guy who owned the hotel and he was on to trying to get us on a flight out the next day to K-du. Again, there was to be a strike and no other way to get to Kathmandu, so seats on the flights were at a premium! We got to the hotel and found out we had an early afternoon flight. On the long bus ride back (the first hour of the road isn’t paved until you get to the ‘highway’) I told Alex that 13 hours would get me from Charleston, SC to Miami and maybe into the Keys or almost to New York. He said it could get him from Salt Lake City to L.A. In Nepal, it gets you less than 100 miles of motorcycling, bussing on top, trucking, and bussing inside! But our goal of getting to Pokhara on that Monday was going to be accomplished.
After taking another motorcycle to the airport in Pokhara and then a special ‘tourist only’ bus to the KTM guesthouse once back in K-du, our trek was complete. That night I met some people out for dinner. The next day was our last in K-du, so I played tour guide. I showed Alex around Lincoln School and then we went to Pashupati and Boudha – where, of course, adventure awaited! Pashupati is the home of the infamous Milk and Penis babas (we saw neither), other sadus (we saw plenty), and human (Hindu) cremations and we saw plenty that day! We also put an offering in the river which cleansed us of our sins and met a very interesting little boy of about 10. This dude asked us where we were from. I said “Iceland” and he said ‘kroner’ which is the currency of Iceland. Alex said he as from Zimbabwe and the boy said, ‘pound and no you’re not, because you’re not black!” This little dude knew the currency for just about every country in the world and had about 20 different types with him. After talking with him for awhile as he followed us around, I told him I worked in Dubai and Alex said he was really from the U.S. Since he didn’t have currency from either, we hooked him up with a five dirham note (about $1.50) and a dollar bill. The cynical side of me says he probably changed the dollar to rupees but kept the dirham! Who cared, he was cool! As we walked the twenty minutes from Pashupati to Bouddha it started raining. No problem as we had our little umbrellas. However, as school had let out, we were soon walking and talking to some Nepali school girls. The more it rained the more they tried to get under the umbrella and the less I was under it! But because it was a little more unscripted interaction with locals for Alex it was well worth getting wet! We arrived at Bouddha as it started raining even harder so we ducked into a restaurant and grabbed a bite to eat until the rain let up. Eventually, it did and we took our place in the throngs of monks and other Buddhists doing their afternoon ‘kora’ around the stupa. It was most incredible. I’ve done it several times, and it’s ‘muy’ cool each and every time! We ate dinner that night at a Nepali friend’s house and it was a perfect way to end the trip for Alex. A very good dinner with a typical Nepali family. (Rajendra, his wife, and Suraj for those in the know) The next day there was to be another transportation strike in K-du so that morning we did some last minute shopping before heading to the airport. This time for the shopping one of my recently graduated students was with us. Tenzing (Yonten for those in the know) meet me for breakfast. He is Tibetan and speaks Nepali. He made sure we got really good prices for the things we bought that day, much to the dismay of the shop owners who let him know they didn’t appreciate him working on our behalf and not theirs!! But what was Tenzing gonna do; no way he’d sell me out like that!! After finding a taxi that would take us to the airport (at 3X the normal rate!) we were on our way. Our flight left on time and we arrived back in Dubai with a little over 24 hours to wait for our flight back to the US.
I took Alex to eat in the mall where there is the ski slope, but neither of us felt like trying to snowboard. We passed part of the next day at a very crowded waterpark in Dubai. It was pretty nice with the chilled water and all, and surprisingly, provided some great views of Dubai as we made our way up to what is billed as ‘the highest waterslide in the Middle East.’ To put a great ending to a fantastic trip, the 14.5 hour nonstop Delta flight wasn’t half bad either. And then I was on summer vacation…..
The plan was to walk down the trail to a small village called Marpha and spend the night. Marpha is famous for its apples and its fields which grow barley and other crops. It has a narrow stone path through it and from time to time donkey/mule trains make there way through. The road bypasses the town and runs just below it closer to the river (for those that have done this trek). Marpha also has a Buddhist site a few hundred feet up a path above the town which is pretty cool and the surrounding ledges and plateaus are famous for having chortens or monument stones indicating various ‘sky burials’ where one’s body is chopped up and left for the birds. The scenery on the two hour leisurely walk was spectacular with the river, cliffs, trail scenes, smaller villages, pray wheels to spin as one passes into Marpha, and the Buddhist site up above the town. As we approached the town the fields were blazing with a multitude of golds, browns, and greens and people were busy cutting, beating, baling, and drying the barley. In the afternoon a jeep passed us taking people down the trail. I immediately hated the idea of seeing it on the road and hearing it beep its horn to let you know it was coming. Technology….I spit on technology in cases like this. Back in the day when I trekked in this area four years before, one never would have imagined a road running through the area. The trekking, trading routes have gone hundreds of years without motorized vehicles, so why not continue that trend. I decided to hate it (unless we needed to use it to get down the mountain at the end of the trek!)
The next day we walked back up to Jomsom and then three hours past it to the most cool (and my favorite) small village of Kegbeni. We stopped in Jomsom to leave our tickets with the place that I like to stay (Xanadu’s for those in the know) and to drop some things we would not need for the rest of the trek. We were to meet a porter but we missed him earlier in the day, and then he missed us when we arrived, so Alex ended up having to carry our backpack, while I carried the two day bags, one in the front and on my back. By noon we were off and it was already getting windy. By afternoon winds blow up the valley in excess of 30 mph sustained with gusts a lot stronger than that. Who cared? We were trekking in the high country and up the vast dry river bed towards the coolest village in the land. As the wind picked up, we keep walking. After a while, we came across a fast moving stream (that I didn’t remember being there, but then again I’ve never trekked in the monsoon season) that we needed to cross. The stream was coming from another smaller valley that ran up into the hills. There was no bridge that we could see and after walking up the valley trying to find a place where it was narrow enough to jump across or cross by using rocks, we decided enough was enough and we would just have to get across it. I saw a Nepali guy who also needed to get across (his motorcycle was on the other side) and he informed me that there was no bridge. He somehow (barely) made it across by jumping on rocks (but then again he didn’t have any packs). Alex, with the backpack on his back, followed this guy’s example and used a rock to get to a larger rock in the middle of the stream. The Nepali guy, standing on a rock on the other side, told Alex to swing him the backpack and he would grab it. Alex did so and the motion (plus 30 mph+ wind) caused the guy to lose his balance on the rock and he stepped into the water! Alex, with no pack now, was able to jump on another rock and made it to the other side. I was thinking, “heck no” I can’t do this, so I threw my hiking boots across the stream and waded across in the fast-moving knee deep water. Sounds easy, but being barefooted and not being able to see what I was stepping on (rocks) with the current and the wind, I slowly made my way across. The Nepali guy was still in the water to provide a helping hand. Once on the other side, we chatted for a while and he turned out to be the owner of the Hotel Bob Marley in Mukintah! I had stayed there before and planned to stay there in two night’s time when we reached Muktinah. (For those in the know, the transvestite that used to work in the hotel a few years ago was not there this time around!) I told him we’d see him there and then we were all on our way. By now the winds was blowing even harder and it literally made us stumble as we walked on the rocks of the river bed. Alex’s ‘801’ hat ended up being the only real casualty of the wind and it swept it right off his head and into the stream! We walked the rest of the way to Kegbeni with the wind blowing into our backs and sand stinging our legs. We came across one of the many steel suspension bridges that cross the rivers in the mountains and stopped for some picture taking. We went to the other side and back (again with the wind howling!) There is no way to be blown off the bridge but the wind did make it hard to walk without steadying yourself by grabbing onto the hand support wires. The bridge is anchored pretty well with all of these additional suspension wires, so thankfully, it didn’t sway much. Once we arrived in Kegbeni, we checked into the guesthouse where I’ve stayed before. Since this is definitely not the trekking season, we were the only ones there. The owners had a little girl, probably around two, and she was so cute. The entire time she just keep shyly looking at us and giving us the “namaste’ greeting with her hands in a prayer gesture and her head slightly tilted forward. She also had a doll baby strapped to her back (papoose style) with a piece of material. What’s funny about this is that the doll was a little white, blond haired doll with blue eyes! That night and into the next day, I never saw the little girl without her doll! (For those in the know, this is the same place – Hotel Asia- that I/we’ve stayed before, but changes have been made! The rooms have been redone and there are western toilets, at least in the room where we stayed. There was also a hot water shower and they provided towels!! And the barn is no longer in the courtyard of the hotel, so there is not the animal smell as in the past. Alas, it’s gotten more expensive…it’s now almost $4 a night for the room instead of the 1.25 we used to pay! Had it not been cloudy we still would have had a clear view of Nigril Peak outside the window).
If you take away the power lines and running water (that some houses and most guesthouses) have, Kegbeni would look like something out of Medieval Europe. The buildings are mostly mud, the lanes narrow and stone covered, and there is livestock running around everywhere. The village is probably at least 700 years old and it is famous for two things: 1) it’s the site of a Buddhist monastery that is 500-600 years old; and 2) it’s the last village before the restricted area known as Mustang. Mustang is a self- autonomous kingdom within Nepal. It has its own king by way of a treaty with Nepal several hundred years ago. You talk about a place that is spectacular and remote. The only way to get around in Mustang is by foot or animal. Being restricted, you can only enter with a permit and the permit costs around $100 a day. A seven day trip is what is usually required to get to the ‘capital’ of the region where the king lives and then back out again. Some day……. We spent a few hours exploring all the nooks and crannies of the village, visiting the monastery, sitting on the edge of the restricted area and admiring the beautiful landscape and watching the clouds change formation, and then having a hot chocolate at Yak Donald’s! Had we been hungry, we would have had to get a Big-Yak cheeseburger and fries! We returned to the monastery the next morning and went inside. Normally, you can’t take pictures inside a monastery, but since they charge admission (a little more than $1) they don’t mind. It is so cool – there are thankas (hand painted wall hangings) and Tibetan manuscripts that are at least 500 years old. We geared ourselves for the four hour walk up to Muktinah, with the first hour being all up hill and the altitude pushing 9-10,000 feet. Alex carried the bag the first hour but was dragging due to stomach issues/altitude, so I had to carry the big backpack the rest of the way. This was a first for me as I’ve always used a porter in the past! As the trail rounds a hill the entire valley opens out before you and it is truly spectacular. Up to this point, the landscape is arid with little vegetation (except where planted by people in the villages), but the valley is ripe with agriculture, trees, and natural vegetation with makes for a quilt-work of different colors. There are small guesthouses along the trail every now and then and some tiny villages. Along the way, we came across the occasional trekker, mule trains, Hindu sadus coming down the trail from the pilgrimage to Muktinath Temple, and the occasional jeep taking lazy Indian tourists up to Muktinah. I say lazy because until a year or two ago, the only way to get to the Temple was to walk or fly in a helicopter! All trekkers look at the Indian pilgrims as sell-outs for not walking!
As one travels, there are often “Kodak moments” when you don’t have a camera ready to snap a picture. And I like those times; somehow it makes the moment more special knowing that you’ll have to remember it in your mind without the benefit of a photo. I’ve had many in my travels….a full moon over the Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania, another full moon over the Sphinx and pyramids in Cairo, watching a whale swim by a boat while in the Galapagos and countless others….and here is another one. When I trek I very seldom listen to an Ipod. I like hearing the noise of the wind, sounds of the trail like the mule/goat bells, birds, etc. Because Alex wasn’t feeling well he was listening to his Ipod with these big earphones to take his mind off the walking that needed to be done. He came across this little boy of the trail who stopped and looked at him. Alex took off his earphones put them on the boy’s head and found him a song to listen to. The little boy was blown away and he had the biggest smile on his face. I was perhaps a hundred feet up the trail watching all of this unfold (and wishing that I had my camera, but then afterwards glad I didn’t have it!) Alex had my camera and ended up taking a picture of the boy with the headphones on. But because he was ‘in’ the picture with the boy, he couldn’t have captured the whole experience. The interaction between the little kid and Alex was priceless and a memory that I will forever have from this trek.
As we approached Jarkhot, an 800 year old village that is perched on a narrow ridge, it started raining. We stopped in for lunch and then continued through the rain the last 45 minutes UPHILL to Muktinah. We stayed in the Hotel Bob Marley and greeted the owner and I thanked him again for his help in crossing the stream the day before. The next day it was still very overcast, but since we needed to get down the mountain before the afternoon winds, we made our way to the Temple. The Muktinath Temple is holy for both Buddhists and Hindus. It is the site of an ‘eternal flame’ which is in a small monastery. We had a look around and while in the process got some glimpses of the ‘real’ mountains that loom around the landscape. We got some fairly good views but not like one gets in the fall or winter. I wasn’t complaining since some views are better than none at all…which is what we had mostly gotten up to this point! I wanted Alex to see the eternal flame, so we made our way to the small monastery. (The last time I was there it was locked and a monk opened it for us…remember Glynis!?) This time, Buddhist nuns were in there chanting. We listened from the outside for a while hoping they would finish and leave, but that was not to be. I inquired about going inside to see the flame and was told it was OK, and if we wanted to stay and observe, to sit on the floor. The nuns were seated in a right angle formation with the oldest one on one side and the two youngest on the other. They had a table, texts, and Tibetan horns, drums, etc in front of them. The lead nun (and Pat for SNL fame has nothing on this woman!) would start chanting and then all would follow. Out of nowhere, the nuns would stop chanting and start playing the instruments with seemingly no rhyme or reason. It sounded like a really bad, really young school band! Then they would start chanting again as dictated by the head nun. The two youngest were paying more attention to Alex and me. They looked bored out of their minds, yawned at times, and tried not to smile when they made eye contact with us. This experience was a perfect ending to our visit to the monastery!
This day was a Saturday, and it was already almost 11:00 as we made our way down the trail from Muktinah to Jomsom which would be about a 4-5 hour walk. The trek was without incident. The weather was clearing, Alex was carrying the backpack, and the walk was almost all downhill. But because of the late start, I knew the wind would be waiting on us as we walked down the riverbed in the afternoon. As we approached the river, I decided that we should cross the bridge and walk down the trail on ‘other side’ of the river. That way we wouldn’t have to try and cross the steam like we did on the way up the trail. I thought, “no problem” since I’d walked both sides of the river before. The wind was howling as we crossed the bridge but because we weren’t in the riverbed at least sand and dust wasn’t being blown in our faces. We followed the trail for about 45 minutes and then it just ended! I guess on previous treks the trail had gone from the hill and into the dried riverbed, but with the monsoon season the river was flowing up against the cliffs. Our choice, backtrack for 45 minutes and cross the other stream or just go for it scoot along the slope and hope the trail picked up a little later on. We opted for the latter and kept on going. The trail didn’t open up and abruptly stopped at a cliff. Our only option was to slide down the incline and cross the big stream! We decided to just hold on to each other’s shoulders and cross the raging stream and hope that it wasn’t deep. It wasn’t – only a little above our knees but with the fast moving water, we didn’t want to risk going barefooted so we crossed in our hiking boots. We made it and had to cross again a bit down stream and then we picked up the trail and arrived back in Jomsom after walking about 45 minutes in the howling wind. We had on sun glasses, skullies, and bandanas across our faces to keep the sand for blowing in our ears, eyes, mouths, and stinging our faces! We looked like we were ready to rob a bank or something!
The next day, Sunday, we planned to fly out of Jomsom….or so we thought! We were on the first flight out so that meant around 6:30 AM. (remember the flights only fly in the mornings before 10:00 or so or else it is too windy). But as I looked out the window I could tell the weather was a little iffy in Jomsom. But it didn’t matter as the weather was raining and poor in Pokhara, so no flights were even taking off for Jomsom. All flights were delayed….and by 9:00 they were canceled for the day. Not too worry since technology has come to the area in the way of a road – we could take the jeep down. Or so we thought! As it turned out no jeeps were running either because of a “strike” two villages down the trail (in Tuckshe for those in the know). The ‘village people’ decided they didn’t like the few jeeps that passed each day (who knows why?), so they built a stone wall most of the way across the road and were manning it to make sure no jeeps passed! That’s Nepal for you!! We faced the dilemma of trying to get a start and walking part of the way down the trail knowing that it would take a minimum of three days to walk out or wait until Monday and get a reservation on one of the flights out in the morning. To make the decision easier was the fact that our boots were still wet and we didn’t really want to walk at least 8-9 hours which is what would have been our goal since we were flying out of Nepal for Dubai on Thursday morning. Anyway, the jeep people assured me that all would be taken care of with the protesters by the next day, so if the flights didn’t fly we could take the jeep out. Yeah, right!! Anyway, we decided to wait and hope the weather was better the next day. So, we woke up the next day and the weather was not good below 8,000 feet but clear above it! The problem was that we were at 8,000 and Pokhara much lower so the situation wasn’t good. And the jeep guy didn’t even bother showing up to face people…the strike was still on and no jeep travel was passing through Tuckshe. The flight office hipped me to the option of hiring motorcycles to take us down the trail, so I got on that and with the help of the owner of the place where we stayed, who contacted her brother who ran another teahouse, and he arranged for two of his friends to take us down the trail for the price of 2,000 rupees each (about $25). What gouging, but what could we do? We had to make a move down the trail somehow that day. It turned out to be a loooooooong, but such a cool day. Alex got to see how the trail opened up down the valley and how the landscape and ethnicity of the people changed (and religion) from Tibetan to Nepali and from Buddhist to Hindu. Plus, there was spectacular scenery, forests, waterfalls, small villages, and the river always to our left. By far the coolest sight was seeing three sadus walking in their robes with their walking sticks, painted up faces, and carrying all there worldly possessions in a bundle on top of their heads! Since this is the monsoon season, the road doesn’t run all the way down the trail uninterrupted, which means we couldn’t go all the way in one motorcycle/jeep ride. You go until a landslide and then you get out and walk until the road is better or until the next village where there might be another jeep waiting. But not today! Due to the strike there were no jeeps really moving up the trail.
So, here was our journey…..we road the motorcycles for about 1.5 hours and were hauling ‘a’ most of the way….when we could. Now, mind you, we had all of our bags, the weather was bad and got worse and we navigated some fresh landslides. At one point the motorcycle that Alex was on fishtailed going up a muddy hill, stalled, and they started sliding backwards and had to lean and bail to keep the bike from almost going over the edge! I was behind and, thankfully, didn’t see that. We got to where they were, and we then walked up the muddy hill as the guys rode the bikes. They took us until they could go no more because of another landslide, but this one had huge rocks in it. After bidding farewell we walked for 1.5 hours until we got to our next mode of transportation. We came upon a little village and saw some people getting into a small bus. We decided to ride on top with the luggage and this took us about 45 more minutes down the trail. Mind you, this distance would have taken several hours to walk. We arrived in another village (Tatopani for those in the know), crossed the river by footbridge and then walked to the next little village about an hour away. I asked about a jeep and someone said maybe in an hour but I noticed people hanging around waiting for something, so I asked what was up? Turned out a big truck was leaving in a few minutes for Beni, which is where we needed to go. Beni is the village at the end of the trekking trail. The truck had a plastic cover over a frame which made the truck about 5 feet high in the back. As the truck prepared to leave, people (including Alex and I) just piled in. There were about 17 people in the back of the truck with Alex and some others standing up inside the tailgate and holding on to the cover-frame for dear life once the truck got moving. One person in the truck was a sadu. He was dressed in a robe and carried a trident, which is like a three pointed iron spear. As we started rolling, he was trying to stand which proved to be impossible if you were over five feet tall and as he swayed back and forth I was hoping he didn’t tumble into anyone or impale someone with his trident. Being a sadu, I don’t think one was supposed to touch him because as he swayed, people sort of moved out of the way to avoid him! Not too worry, a fellow traveler scooted over and made room for the sadu to sit in the front of the truck on part of a tire. The roads are not paved and were muddy and full of potholes. Actually, it’s a wonder the truck could even travel on them. At one point as we were ‘trucking’ along we came to a sudden halt which threw everyone forward. I about did a backwards roll and would have had it not been so crowded! As it was apparent that we were not to be moving anytime soon, we all piled out of the truck to discover that something had happened to the steering. The drivers were looking for something (a screw and bolt) that had fallen into the mud! Low and behold they ended up finding it, but couldn’t put everything back together with what they had. “Crap” I was thinking….it would be at least a four hour walk to Beni and it was already past 3:00 in the afternoon. The drivers somehow worked their magic and jerry-rigged the problem with what they had and a piece of extra wire that was wrapped around tailgate step!! After the 45 minute delay we were on our way again. It was a rough ride to say the least and probably a good thing to not be able to see outside. There are steep drops on the ‘river-side’ of the road and no type of railings or blocks to stop a plunge. But with no ventilation, it made it incredibly hot and I was dripping with sweat in every place imaginable, but I was not complaining because I was not walking! Two hours later we arrived in Beni to discover that there was a public transportation strike going on which meant no busses or taxis! As it was 5:00, all I could say was “f*&k, now what!?” One guy offered to take us in his car for $100. It’s a three hour drive back to Pokhara from this point. I wasn’t quite ready to do that, so I thought we’d just hang and see what happened or at least try to get someone else to take us for cheaper. The next day, as we discovered, was to be a full ‘no vehicle on the road’ strike. That’s Nepal for you!! We came across some other trekkers who were in the same situation as us and then we came across some guys that had been in the truck with us who had come across another ‘more pampered’ group of trekkers who had a guide with them. They had arranged for a bus to take us to Pokhara under the cover of night! We jumped at the opportunity. To pass the two hours, we sat and ate some dal bhat and Alex tried to, and finally did manage, to get into a local basketball game. The play was fast and furious and not so bad considering most of the local were playing full-court in flip flops! I felt bad as I had to pull Alex off the court in mid game so we could walk out of the town to get on the bus since it was now near dark. The three hour bus ride was cramped but there was no complaining as we were moving and were now assured of arriving back in Pokhara that night around 11:00. I phoned ahead to tell the guy who owned the hotel and he was on to trying to get us on a flight out the next day to K-du. Again, there was to be a strike and no other way to get to Kathmandu, so seats on the flights were at a premium! We got to the hotel and found out we had an early afternoon flight. On the long bus ride back (the first hour of the road isn’t paved until you get to the ‘highway’) I told Alex that 13 hours would get me from Charleston, SC to Miami and maybe into the Keys or almost to New York. He said it could get him from Salt Lake City to L.A. In Nepal, it gets you less than 100 miles of motorcycling, bussing on top, trucking, and bussing inside! But our goal of getting to Pokhara on that Monday was going to be accomplished.
After taking another motorcycle to the airport in Pokhara and then a special ‘tourist only’ bus to the KTM guesthouse once back in K-du, our trek was complete. That night I met some people out for dinner. The next day was our last in K-du, so I played tour guide. I showed Alex around Lincoln School and then we went to Pashupati and Boudha – where, of course, adventure awaited! Pashupati is the home of the infamous Milk and Penis babas (we saw neither), other sadus (we saw plenty), and human (Hindu) cremations and we saw plenty that day! We also put an offering in the river which cleansed us of our sins and met a very interesting little boy of about 10. This dude asked us where we were from. I said “Iceland” and he said ‘kroner’ which is the currency of Iceland. Alex said he as from Zimbabwe and the boy said, ‘pound and no you’re not, because you’re not black!” This little dude knew the currency for just about every country in the world and had about 20 different types with him. After talking with him for awhile as he followed us around, I told him I worked in Dubai and Alex said he was really from the U.S. Since he didn’t have currency from either, we hooked him up with a five dirham note (about $1.50) and a dollar bill. The cynical side of me says he probably changed the dollar to rupees but kept the dirham! Who cared, he was cool! As we walked the twenty minutes from Pashupati to Bouddha it started raining. No problem as we had our little umbrellas. However, as school had let out, we were soon walking and talking to some Nepali school girls. The more it rained the more they tried to get under the umbrella and the less I was under it! But because it was a little more unscripted interaction with locals for Alex it was well worth getting wet! We arrived at Bouddha as it started raining even harder so we ducked into a restaurant and grabbed a bite to eat until the rain let up. Eventually, it did and we took our place in the throngs of monks and other Buddhists doing their afternoon ‘kora’ around the stupa. It was most incredible. I’ve done it several times, and it’s ‘muy’ cool each and every time! We ate dinner that night at a Nepali friend’s house and it was a perfect way to end the trip for Alex. A very good dinner with a typical Nepali family. (Rajendra, his wife, and Suraj for those in the know) The next day there was to be another transportation strike in K-du so that morning we did some last minute shopping before heading to the airport. This time for the shopping one of my recently graduated students was with us. Tenzing (Yonten for those in the know) meet me for breakfast. He is Tibetan and speaks Nepali. He made sure we got really good prices for the things we bought that day, much to the dismay of the shop owners who let him know they didn’t appreciate him working on our behalf and not theirs!! But what was Tenzing gonna do; no way he’d sell me out like that!! After finding a taxi that would take us to the airport (at 3X the normal rate!) we were on our way. Our flight left on time and we arrived back in Dubai with a little over 24 hours to wait for our flight back to the US.
I took Alex to eat in the mall where there is the ski slope, but neither of us felt like trying to snowboard. We passed part of the next day at a very crowded waterpark in Dubai. It was pretty nice with the chilled water and all, and surprisingly, provided some great views of Dubai as we made our way up to what is billed as ‘the highest waterslide in the Middle East.’ To put a great ending to a fantastic trip, the 14.5 hour nonstop Delta flight wasn’t half bad either. And then I was on summer vacation…..
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