The Challenge That is Nepal - March 2017 by Dick
Mostly known as Birthplace of the Lord Buddha and the Land of Everest, Nepal contains some of the worlds best trekking. Because trekking is one of our favorite things, we gave it a try. In the next few pages I will give you an idea of our time in Nepal, the experience of being there, and the people we met.
Because Nepal has a reputation for being chaotic, when we planed this trip we splurged and went contra to our usual do-it-yourself itinerary and let Hari Bhatta and his Life Dream Adventure Co. take charge of our trip. It was what I consider expensive, but worth it. When we arrived Hari was waiting outside the terminal, holding a card with our name on it. Hari first took us to our hotel, then sat us down and laid out our first day in Kathmandu. The next morning after a satisfying breakfast Hari showed up with our city guide for Kathmandu, he made introductions and we were off on a full day of narrated sightseeing. Kathmandu has had a very interesting history and most of the architectural evidence remains. Nothing can replace being in the place when these spellbinding stories are being told. As we found out Nepal had its heyday around the year 1500. There were, at that time, three competing brothers who were all trying their very best to build the most ornate, lavish and beautiful royal grounds. The competition went so far as to require the killing of craftsmen at the completion of projects to assure that the other brothers would not surpass each other’s efforts. The April 2015 earthquake destroyed a-lot of these historic buildings but most have been renovated and they are beautiful.
Except for the early architecture I was most impressed at how much Nepal is like what I had expected India to be. Cows and monkeys freely wandering the streets, women in bright saris and men with head scarves.
The next morning we were chauffeured by our local guide to the Kathmandu airport for a quick flight to Pokhara Nepal, the gateway town for the Annapurna trek. There we met Sabin, our trekking guide . The first day with Sabin we did a warm-up trek in the town followed by some sight seeing. Pokhara is a great town, everything for trekking, western food, and some very interesting religious sights.
Day one of the Annapurna trek, went as planned. We picked up our porter Uthan, some fruit and then a one hour ride to the starting point Nayapul. Nayapul is little more than a roadside bazaar, but it’s where it all begins for this very popular trek. It’s filled with nervous trekkers, porters and guides. From here we are on our way. A four hour trek later we have entered the Annapurna National Park having met some fun people along the way.
We arrive at our first Tea house around 3PM. A teahouse is a low cost shelter with crude comforts. It has few wants and all of what you need. Only the common area might have heat. If so it will be a 55 gallon drum stove with a water coil in the top to heat washing water. There will be seating around the stove, for whoever gets there first, and cord is strung around the top to dry guest socks, shirts, and jackets. The Tea houses differ little throughout the hike. Each has the same, park regulated, menu upon which there are some familiar sounding names. None of these selections are as you would expect. Vegetarian pizza with cornbread crust, etc. The food served is plentiful with very little meat. The beds have no sheets but a very thick cotton blanket over a 2” thick mattress laid upon a plywood base. The walls are made of one layer of 1/4” plywood with some cracks between the rooms (try not to look). Taking all this into account , the price (from $3-5), the altitude and a long trek, made it easy to get a good night sleep. The people who run these houses live in this remote area year round and seem as tough as nails with friendly caring hearts.
Sabin and Uthan are the best guide/porter pair that we could imagine. Sabin, a painfully handsome person with deep brown eyes and such a calm about him that it brings you into it. He, without any apparent effort, controlled everything around him. Uthan was under his control and there wasn’t a moment when one of these two was not looking after us. Dick got sick on the 2nd day of the hike and he took a day off on the trail to recover. As soon as he recovered Beryl contracted food poisoning which she worked through for the next 24 hours. The original plan was to spend six days on the trek. Partly because of illness, but mostly due to the fact that we were loving the trek, we strutted back into Pokhara 10 days later.
In the rural areas we visited life seems quite normal but operates as if it were 100 years ago. 70 years ago I watched my grandfather plow his field with a single bottom plow pulled by a small walk behind power unit. It looked very difficult to me then but thats how it was. Here in Nepal, today I watched a man plow his very small terraced field with a single bottom plow pulled by water buffalo while his wife gathered greens from the surrounding hills to feed their animals. Life here is truly difficult. For most of the world’s people, for whom life is hard, their sole wish is for a better life for their children. In Nepal this dream seems very remote. While public schools do exist, they are not what it will take to give the children many options in their futures. Books are scarce and they have given up on computers. Rural Nepal has the internet and they can get computers, but the teachers don’t have the skills required to teach them.
We worked as hard or harder on this trek as we ever have. Our second day trek included some 3,300 stone steps and some additional climbing to make a 4,000 ft elevation gain. Some days later we descended 5,000 ft, all on stone steps. Despite some events, normal on in such anadventure, we thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Every step was taken in stunning natural beauty. When the Annapurna mountains were not in clear view, we were in the forest treading under 30 ft tall rhododendron trees with flower petals cushioning every step. Whether in rest stops or on the trail we were enjoying the company of happy fellow trekkers from every country of the world. For us the beauty of the Nepalese people, the grandeur of the mountains and the privilege to visit and enjoy this new culture made every dollar and step worth twice the sacrifice we made.
I love my life and now off to India.
1) for a short history of Nepal and it’s environment of read on.