first day of trek

Today we flew from Pokhara to Jomsom, to an altitude of 2700 m. It was a clear day and the views from the plane were spectacular. We flew up a valley, with Annapurna on the right, and Daulaghiri on the left. Even the hills below were knife-edge sharp, and some were terraced. It took about 30 min to fly to Jomsom. The landing was a rollercoaster ride because the plane has to make a steep banking 180 degree turn inside the valley in order to approach the runway.

Jomsom is a relatively large town for the area. At first sight, the buildings are in the Himalayan village style, but they contain mostly hotels, cafes, internet, and shops for souvenirs and last minute trekking supplies.
At Jomsom we organized our bags, which were put on mules, and started the trek. We walked up a wide river valley with steep brown hills on either side, and the white diamond peak of Nilghiri looming overhead behind us.

We saw several other trekkers, as this part of the trail is actually part of three different treks: Mustang, which we are doing; Muktinath, which is a sacred place to Hindus and many do a pilgrimage there (I'm told the temple there is breath-taking); and the last leg of the Annapurna circuit.

Along the way we passed a man selling trinkets outside his house.

We walked for 2 hours and stopped for lunch. By the afternoon the wind gets very strong. After lunch it was another hour to Kagbeni. This is a village of stone buildings surrounded by the only green in the area, some buckwheat fields by the river and apple trees on the hillside. It has several lodges and there are many trekkers there from the different trails.

After settling into our rooms in the lodge, we visited the local monastery and walked around the village. Tiny narrow alleys between very old stone and mud buildings, some parts of which seem to hold livestock, others the people's residences. It's everything I would have expected in Himalayan village, in terms of the visual appeal and the honest simplicity of the life.

Kagbeni is the start of Upper Mustang, which is the restricted area. This will likely be the last place with internet for a while, so you may not hear from me for a week or so. I'll post as soon as I can.

flight to Pokhara

Up at 5 am today for the flight to Pokhara. A little confusion at the hotel, as 7 groups were leaving at the same time, and the driver left with our bags but not us. We got to the airport eventually, for the 25 minute flight to Pokhara which is west of Kathmandu and part of the Annapurna circuit. On the way I got my very first fews of the Himalayas.

Pokhara is small and seems very laid back. It seems cleaner. We passed over lush green terraced hillsides on the way in. It's also very hot, and its actually lower in altitude than Kathmandu. The lakeside area has things like trekking gear shops and health spas.

market at night

I came back to the old market area this evening. It gets dark about 6:00 pm so the markets are open well after dark. Just as hectic, maybe even more so. It could be more busy than usual because it's festival time and the shrines are open.
I tried to take some pictures.

the people

Just a word about impression of the people so far. The guide books talk about the friendliness of the Nepali people, and it seems true. For example, after I was in the hectic market yesterday, I was trying to get back to the hotel quickly for the meeting, probably flustered, with a hurried look, stumbling on the rough sidewalk. A passing stranger simply paused and said 'namaste' with the slight bow of the head and hands, and it brought me right back on track. Around the same time, while I was stopped, looking at the map, a fellow stopped and seemed to want nothing but to converse for a while, talk about Nepal, maybe practice his English.

Even in the chaotic traffic with the honking and passing, you have to realize that it's not aggressive. My experience in Hanoi a few years ago helps to understand this. The honking is just to let you know they're there, and if you get in the way they just go around.

Politics never seems far from people's minds. The monarchy was overthrown a few years ago. The guide on the sight-seeing tour said that most people actually didn't want an overthrow of the monarchy, but rather a slow change to a constitutional one. However the king was too stubborn to allow any change at all. Since then, governments have changed a lot and people are frustrated with the lack of stability.

On another note, among the tourists in the backpacker area, I hear quite a bit of Mandarin spoken. It seems the young people from China are travelling.

pashupatinath and boudhanath

This morning was a sight-seeing tour that was part of the package for the trek I'm doing. We went to Pashupatinath, an important Hindu temple of Shiva, and to Boudhanath, a large Tibetan Buddhist stuppa. It was great to see these sights, as they are two of the most interesting things in Kathmandu, but they are out of the centre of town so would not be as easy to get to on my own.

We first went to Pashupatinath. This is a temple to the god Shiva, and many Hindus try to get there at least once in their lives. It seemed to be a large, spread out complex occupying both sides of a river. The first, most striking thing you see as you approach along the river is the public cremations. The funeral pyres are set up along the sides of the river, and several were going when we were there.

Our tour guide explained the process, the timing of the ceremonies and cremation etc. While public cremation is very different to Western eyes, I didn't feel anything negative about it. Rather, I felt rather conscious of invading peoples privacy by being there. But then, even that may be my own cultural background speaking.

We continued on to see various statues and structures of the temple grounds, and places built into a cliff where sadhus, or spiritual hermits, go to meditate. We also saw a shelter where sadhus live, where each gets a small space to occupy while they are there.

We then went to the Boudhanath stuppa, one of the largest Tibetan Buddhist stuppas, and many Tibetans have settled in the area around it. I love the 'all-seeing eyes' or 'wisdom eyes' of Buddha, that are painted on all sides, and which are characteristic of Buddism in Nepal.

We also went into the adjacent monastery, and a school for painting Tibetan thankhas.

After the tour we came back to the hotel, where we were given our duffel bags to pack our stuff for the trek. The baggage weight limit for domestic flights has been reduced to 10 kg, and it took some ruthless paring down of gear to get it down to that.

evening of first day

I walked to the tourist / backpacker section called Thamel, just beside the old market area I was at today. Dense narrow alleys clogged with people and honking cars and scooters. Packed full of internet places, restaurants, and shops selling everything from Tibetan Thankhas to trekking gear.

first day in Kathmandu

I arrived in Kathmandu very late last night, wasn't at the hotel until about 1 am, but woke up early. So today was seen through kind of a jet-lagged haze.

Very hot today, probably almost 30 degrees during the day, even though it got quite cold at night. In the morning I met briefly with the tour leader, to give information and pictures required for the trekking permit. I then walked to the old, central part of town, about 2 km from the hotel. Not really knowing where I was going, I ended up straight into the bustling, chaotic main market street, with a maze of tiny alleys branching off everywhere, and a shrine, temple or stuppa on every block.

The biggest festival in Nepal is starting about now, and stuppas are being freshly painted, and there is a lot of activity around the shrines. It's an interesting blend of Hinduism and Buddhism, and most shrines have images or statues from both religions. Practices that would be used, say, in Tibetan Buddhism, like lighting butter lamps, are also used at Hindu dieties without discrimination.

I was shown around for a while by a local guy who was full of information about all the different shrines. Of course it was about asking for money afterward, but it was worth the interesting tour and being able to navigate the maze of streets.

Back at the hotel, there was a group meeting for the trek. There are nine of us. We didn't state nationalities, but I detected Australian accents. It's also an older group. Everyone seemed friendly and easy-going.