I’m back in Kathmandu 🙁 but I feel like I haven’t really told much of the trekking story so will try and fill in some of the blanks. Please excuse the typos…..crappy keyboard (because my typing is perfect of course).
The team consisted of Prabin (our guide), Kamal (sherpa), Bhimsem and Lal (porters) and the 4 of us. Ah yes you might note…only 2 porters, they both carried 2 back packs a piece plus their own little day packs. These guys are machines. They tie the packs together and then attach a strap and this goes across their forehead. Some of the Nepalese carry between 80 – 100 kgs this way and it is how things are moved in the higher regions especially when it’s too high for donkeys.
While I complained a lot about how hard it was for me, once we got to our lodgings and had had lunch, the hard work was forgotten about and we enjoyed the views or sat around playing cards. So while it was an effort, it was still enjoyable at the same time. It was unfortunate that I had a very mild case of TD (travellers diahorrea) but the major problem was that when I ate, I felt sick so I wasn’t eating much. One night I had what by our standards would be a small pizza and I ate not quite a 1/4 of it and only managed half a slice of toast for breakfast and I was only eating 3 times a day. So by the time I got to day 4 (the day from hell) I pretty much hadn’t eaten for 2 days and was running on empty which didn’t make the uphill slog any easier. It might have been quite different if I’d been at full strength…oh who am I kidding, it probably wouldn’t have made an ounce of difference but it’s my excuse and I’m sticking with it.
To make matters worse, I wasn’t even carry my day pack. Prabin had whisked that off me on the 3rd day. He offered to take it on day 2 but I said I had to do it of my own accord but on day 3 when I was struggling, he insisted and he kept insisting up to the last day. Well it would have been rude to have refused!!!!! But there were times when I really felt like sitting down and saying I can’t do it but it was a case of there was no-one to take me back down and I couldn’t get up there any other way because the donkeys only carry supplies not people so I had to keep moving. It wouldn’t have been so bad if it had simply been a graded track going uphill but the constant steps was a real killer. I rubbed sports cream into my thighs and calves each night, especially the night we came down the stairs. After we’d stopped for lunch, my ankles seized up and it took me several minutes to walk properly again so I even rubbed the cream into my knees and ankles. They were fine the next day although my calves were screaming at me (I would have sworn I’d done my calves) although we were all walking a little like geriatrics.
Amy and Chris (the English couple) both thought the trek was harder than they thought it would be but graded it at moderate and probably wouldn’t want to do anything harder. Amelie (the French girl) thought it was hard and I obviously class it as hard, much harder than I expected for a trek graded easy to moderate with an average level of fitness.
But anywho, moving on from the trek. Pokhara was a bit of a rude shock after the serenity of the hills. Everyone says that Pokhara is lovely and really the only thing that makes it lovely is the lake besides that, it is just a miniature Kathmandu. When I was in Kathmandu I was surprised not to see any hippies and dreadlocked scummy backpackers and the reason they aren’t in Kathmandu is because they are all hanging out in Pokhara. We weren’t impressed with the hotel we had for the night either. The beds had 6-8 inch thick mattresses filled with lead, there will never be an inner spring problem with those mattresses and hey not even the bed bugs would bother. The bathrooms were grubby, the staff were surly and rude and the food was terrible….besides that the place was great.
Then there was the dreaded bus. We were told we would be on a tourist bus and I guess it probably is in the fact that it’s full of tourists and is in slightly better condition than the locals buses but they aren’t grand by any stretch of the imagination and the thought of spending 6 hours in one wasn’t appealing. Travelling along the river was nice but very worrying when you see them pulling up trucks that have gone over the edge and then come into a town where all the wrecks are…..very disconcerting. We did have the option of paying extra and taking a deluxe bus but I figured we’d still be shit scared just more comfortably. Obviously we managed to get to Chitwan in one piece although the return journey was playing on all our minds because this time we would be on the drop off side.
The bus station is in the middle of nowhere are the dude from our resort wasn’t there to meet us but we managed to get someone to ring them. After the hotel last night in Pokhara and now this brilliant start, we were really unsure what to expect but the place was lovely. Little cottages with thatched roof. They fed us a massive lunch and we went for a walk to the Tharu village just down the road. It’s a traditional village where they live in grass and mud huts, dirt floors, sleep on the floor etc etc and which is something we saw a lot of in the Chitwan area. It’s amazing to see how many people still live like that. Even though they have very little to their names, they are still very house proud and the were meticulously clean. Then we walked along side the river to watch the sunset….at 5pm with some of the Himalayas in the distance behind us. It was very peaceful and I guess a taste of what it must be like in Africa. Then we walked back to the lodge of a very nice dinner.
Talk about an action packed day, we started with a ride in a dug-out canoe down the river. It was the hour from hell for me because I just can’t sit that still for that long. I was slouching a bit when we took off and these things are about an inch out of the water and every slight movement the bloody thing swayed and while the water was fairly warm and an not deep I really didn’t feel like being the cause of all of us getting a dunking and getting all our daypacks wet. But we did manage to see a croc, a couple kingfishers, an osprey and some Siberian ducks or geese (not sure which). The canoe dropped us off and we went traipsing through the jungle….on foot. Just before we set off the guide tell us what to do if a rhino or sloth bear attacks. I’m sure he just does it to put the fear of God into his punters because every sound we heard we just about shat ourselves. Mind you these guys are armed….with sticks which is really comforting….not. We managed to hear some sloth bears having a fight, we found fresh rhino poo and we spotted some langur monkeys. We spent an hour gently floating down the river and he had us doing a fair march back to the starting point in an hour and a half. We got one of the boats to take us across the river to the village and I finally got to sit on an elephant and give it a bath…..actually I was the one that got the shower come to think of it. The guy got it to lie down under water and they can stay there quite a long time although there was a bit of confusion because the little Nepalese dude wasn’t telling me what was going on but I’ve finally ridden an elephant bare back (so to speak) and they feel kinda weird.
It was a very elephant kind of day because after lunch we went on an elephant safari through the jungle. It was all good except our basket like seat thingy was listing, so after some cajoling I managed to get the guys to fix it up but it wasn’t too long before we were back to square one. It wasn’t going to slip off but it wasn’t sitting right and was very uncomfortable no matter where you were sitting. But we got to see two black rhinos, I think one was quite young and they can move pretty fast when they want. We also saw several herds of spotted deer which are very pretty. It was beautiful in the jungle especially being up so high. After the ride we went to elephant breeding centre where the train the elephants for working. There were 2 little ones (about 2 years old) that were loose and wondering about the place trying to eat everyone else’s food and generally being very cute (but they’re hairy).
We got taken into the town to see a Tharu Cultural Dance which I was expecting to be pretty boring but turned out to be really good. It’s the males of the Tharu that do the dancing and some of the dances were more warrior style with sticks so they sounded amazing and looked really effective. These are lads that can do some serious damage with a stick. The show went for about 45mins and then back to the lodge for dinner (Nepalese Dal Bhat). a brief chat around the fire and we fell into bed exhausted.
Today we caught the bus at 9.30 and got in to Kathmandu at 4pm. It was a slightly better bus that the previous trip. Not quite as scary although not without its moments. We all had thoughts that we’d die in that river at some point in the trip. Obviously, it’s not our time. Went out to dinner with the others and here I sit emailing and ready to go to sleep.
Tomorrow is my last day, not sure what I’ll do yet but will definitely go out for dinner with the others and then I will have to be at the airport mid morning on Saturday.
Will probably do a final blog from home to finish off the trip. I feel like I’ve been away for ages which is good I suppose because it means I’ve been having a good time. I assume the rest of the world still exists, I have seen a paper or heard the news for 3 weeks (not that that is much different from when I’m a home).
Anyway, getting tired gotta go.