Kathmandu. What a great name. This has always seemed like such a far off, exotic place. Now having spent time in the cities of Kathmandu, Pokhara and completed a 5-day trek in the “foothills” of the Himalayas, it’s another country and people that we have come to love and admire.
Babu (our guide) and his wife Bella were very gracious hosts during our homestay in Kathmandu, and Bella’s cooking was plentiful and excellent. Babu was our guide for all 10 days of our stay in Nepal, including the 5-day 4-night trek.
Their home is in a village about a 45-minute drive from the city center, the last 20 minutes on small dirt pothole-pocked roads. His village is dotted with houses and small plots of land where villagers grow rice and other crops. A small store just up the street sold Coke Zero, which was a much sought-after beverage by some of our travel companions.
On the first morning very early, we heard small handbells ringing from time to time in different locations. First we thought maybe it was a breakfast bell, but it was much too early for breakfast. Later at breakfast we learned that Hindus ring bells when the pray to alert the gods to hear their prayers. It was a charming and gracious way to start the day.
Our arrival date in Nepal happened to correspond with a three-day celebration (Kukur Tihar) honoring dogs (day 1), cows (day 2) and our bodies (day 3). This included a colorful and loud parade through town with raucous drum sections, dancers and people dressed in their local traditional clothing. We walked through Babu’s village and took trips into Katmandu to visit Hindu temples and Buddhist stupas, funeral pyres and other interesting locations in the city. Whenever clouds cleared a bit, the Annapurna mountains loomed over Katmandu.
The festival parade was loud and fun
People made colorful mandala designs in public spaces and smaller versions in front of their homes to attract the notice of the gods. Note the painted line into the home to bring the god’s protection inside.
We visited a creamation site in operation in Kathmandu. Families prepared bodies by the Bagmati river, then transported them to the funeral pyre section a hundred meters downstream.
The Trek
On day 4 we flew from Kathmandu to Pokhara. The 30-minute flight saved us a bumpy 7 hour bus ride. Pokhara is a jumping off point for trekkers, so the city is full of foreigners walking around in trekking gear, about to start a trek or having just finished one. Many restaurants and hotels cater to this trekking crowd.
In Pokhara, Babu had arranged for us to attended an event held yearly by the Pokhara hotel association, where children from a orphanage (I believe, sponsored by the hotel association) painted our foreheads and danced. There was a lot of press there and two of our party were interviewed on camera, so we were probably on the news that night.
The next day we drove about 90 minutes out of Pokhara up into the mountains, then spent 5 days and 4 nights hiking through the “hills” below the Annapurna mountain range. The eleven of us has four porters to carry most of our stuff, and two guides. We spent the night in guest houses in Landruk, Ghandruk, Tadapani and Ghorepani. We were very fortunate with weather having clear skies every morning, with some clouds arriving on some afternoons and no rain. Most of the time we were able to see Annapurna South or Machapuchare (Fishtail mountain), which has never been summited.
The first day was perhaps the furthest, and the second day the hardest, as we had a steep 1000-foot climb down on stone stairs from Landruk to the Modi River, crossed on a suspension bridge, then up over 2000 feet essentially all on stone stairs and mostly in the afternoon sun to get to Ghandruk. Our hotel for the night was the highest on this hillside village, meaning even more stairs to reach our destination. We understand how stone stairs might be seen as a practical way up a steep mountain, but we sure were wishing for a few switchbacks instead.
Life in these remote villages is hard, especially for the villages only reachable on foot. Farmers grow rice and millet on terraces built on steep mountainsides. Villages cling to mountainsides where the stone footpath is the main road through the village, and small stores and “tea houses” were available for trekking tourists like us.
A tea house is a rudimentary guesthouse and restaurant. Rooms are spartan, common bathroom/showers were typical. The rooms typically include two firm-to-hard beds and thick blankets. We came prepared with lightweight sleeping bags and sometimes used our backpacking mattresses to sleep more comfortably. Walls between rooms were sometimes just thin wooden boards, so conversations or snoring on either side of your room were easy to hear. Toilet rooms usually double as shower rooms. Bring your own towel, and buy toilet paper, pay $0.80 to $1.00 for each shower and each liter of filtered or bottled water.
The menus were bigger than expected, but simple foods, and about the same at each place. We ate a lot of French fries, soups, “pizzas”, noodle and rice dishes and popcorn. Eggs, toast hot chocolate and oatmeal porridge with apples for breakfast. The little stores sold water, and snacks like Pringles and sometimes fruit. Snicker’s, Twixt and Bounty bars were widely available. Prices were reasonable considering everything we were buying had been brought in by a jeep and for many places, transported the last few miles by donkey.
We hiked above 10,000 feet on the fourth day, and on the 5th day, we left our hotel at 5 am so we could hike up about 1000 feet to Poon Hill (10,500 ft elevation), where we watched the sun rise over the Annapurna range. We had had good views of Annapurna South and Fishtail during all of the days, but the view from Poon Hill provided a broad panorama of the Annapurna range.
We returned to our hotel in Ghandruk, had breakfast, packed our things and headed down the mountain, through lush forests and past rushing streams. We met up with our jeeps in Ullari and had a very slow, very bumpy 90-minute drive down a rocky jeep road to get to the main road.
Then another couple hours back to our hotel in Pokhara. Showers, rest, dinner and sleep. The next morning we flew back to Kathmandu for some shopping and our last dinner and night at Babu and Bella’s. After goodbyes, we came by van to Katmandu to do a bit more shopping, and spent our final night in Nepal in a hotel. The next day, a flight back to Dubai.
It was great to finally experience Nepal. Nepal reminds me of other emerging economies we have visited. Hustle and bustle in the cities, village life outside the cities and in the mountains. The scenic beauty of this country far exceeded our expectations and the people were among the most kind, friendly, and hospitable we have ever met.
Next up, some time in Pakistan!
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