Frist 2 days of Trekking

So, as already mentioned in my previous post, we organised a "private bus", or at this point I should rather say "tourist bus" (or something similar... basically no a local bus) to take us to the start of the trek. Faithfully the bus arrives at our hotel promptly at the arranged time and it quickly becomes apparent that even though it does fulfill the requirements of what was promised, it was "not quiet what we expected". Turns out, that the bus is simply just a mini bus (like the ones we pack 30 locals into back home), packed with a few tourists and many locals (considering what we paid, we reckoned, we each sponsored am additional). Either way, the journey was very pleasant, through the winding roads and after a couple of hours we finally arrived at the "end of the road", Besisahar.

Traditionally the Annapurna trek started at Dumre, but the walk been Dumre and Besisahar (820m) is essentially now tarred, so honestly, what is the point. There are local busses, which run to Bhulebhule (two downs down the road), but the road is not tarred (yet) and the walk is friendly enough. So all eager and wide eyed, waiting for out first glimpse of yonder snowy mountains, we check in at the police check post, eagerly waving around our trekking permits and all gearing to "hit the trail" ... after a good lunch of course, where are treated to watching a small Maoist march (this was to be about the only "Maoist" contact we had through out the entire trek).

14H00 and we finally start walking, reaching Khudi (790m ... hey, ain't we suppose to be going up) about 2 1/2 - 3 hours later where we shack up for the night in a very quaint tea house called "River View Lodge", idically situated on the banks of the river running though the town.

In fact, what makes this place interesting, is that the owners build a third suspension bridge, just to attract trekkers to their establishment. The rooms of the place were pretty basic (as most tea house rooms are) and are very cheap. We paid an average of Rs20 - Rs50 (R2 - R5) a night per person. You can practically almost stay for free at a tea house, but then the general "unspoken" rule is that you have supper and breakfast there. Also having 7 people, does provide a lot of bargaining power and so does not having a guide or porter. Apparently most guides insist that the tea house provide them with free food and lodging (even though you've paid enough to cover that), with the threat of not bringing any trekkers in the future to the establishment (and hence pocket the money, which was meant to cover this).

After a refreshing swim in the river, we had an excellent supper (I think all the food, save a few places, was excellent) and retired early to bed. Oh, just one more note on the rooms ... a thin board of plywood constitutes a wall.

Problem with going to bed early, is that you get up early, and the next day we were up and about around 06:30am, breakfast at 07:00am and walking around 09:00am (group inertia). The first town we passed was Bhulebhule (840m), where a lot of people start trekking from and where you are suppose to be able to see Himalchuli (7893m)... that is if there is no cloud cover and you can actually see a blue sky. Generally speaking however, blue skies only occur after Monsoon, when the rain gets ride of all the dirt and dust in the sky. So on we walked past Ngadi (930m), where we had lunch an admired a close by waterfall.

With lunch firmly settled in our stomachs, we tackled the first "climb" (sweaty slog) of the trek, up to a town called Bahundanda (1130m), which is a little ridge-top village. We bunked down in a cosy dormitory in a place called the "Hotel Mountain View". What this sleepy little ridge-top down did not realise when we entered, was that is was going to be the historical site of the first international cricket game between South Africa and Nepal, and I'm sad to say, we lost hopelessly. The Nepali team was proudly (and very enthusiastically) captained by the tea house owners son, who within a matter of a few minutes managed to round up a small team to fact us.

It was good fun.

Kathmandu on Foot

First day in Kathmandu... first item on the agenda was to organize a Trekking permit. Though it was quickly decided over a hearty breakfast (all important decisions, should be made over a good meal) that it was a lot less hassle to just get one of the local folk, who of course graciously obliged (for a small fee of course, an additional Rs 200 per permit), to organize. Also a we needed to decide if we wanted to organize a guide at roughly an additional cost of about $40 a day ... it did not take long to scrap that idea (wisely so, as quite honestly, you don't need a guide for the Annapurna circuit). Did however opt for a "private bus" to take us to the start of the Trek...

So free from the apparent "hassle" of organizing a permit, we had the day to export the busseling sights and alleyways of Kathmandu. Regardless of what some folk seem to think, the city is quite pleasant to walk around, yes it's busy and you need to watch out for taxis, motocycles, bicycles and any other form of transportation man has conceived.


On foot, there is quite a bit to see. Starting with the Kasthesimbhu Stupa (I think that is the right palace), where I had to step carefully avoiding a flying piece of meat, which someone decided was going out the window (not even the dogs, that sniffed at it, found it particularly appealing). Then on to the very crowded Durbar Square, where amoungst other buildings, we visted the Kumari Palace. What is so special about this particular building ... not much apart from the fact that it houses a "living goddess", the "Kumaru Devi" (and no, it's not Miss Nepal). The Kumari Devi is a young girl, whom has not yet hit purbety. She is believed to be the bodily incarnation of the goddess Taleju (don't ask), though only until she menstruates, after which it is believed that the goddess vacates her body and she reverts to common status (quite a step down) and a new Kumari is found.

Onwards, to Swayambhunath temple (after a good lunch of course), which sits on a hill overlooking Kathmandu. We did however miss the memo, that said there would a bit gathering at the temple that day.... was wondering why Kathmandu seemed a empty. This temple however is considered to be amoungst the oldest in Kathmandu. A note on the symbology of the temple design ... The dome at the base represents the entire world. When a person awakes (represented by eyes of mercy and self knowledge) from the bonds of the world, the person reaches the state a bit higher. After that, the person has to cross thirteen stages represented by the tiers before attaining Nirvana. - Swayambhunath

Till next time ...

For more information try Wikipedia - Kathmandu or Wikitravel - Kathmandu.

Finally an update...

So finally an update... though it is very, very late (already finished Trekking) ...

Oh, so we finally arrived in Kathmandu (sometime ago.. ok, a long time ago), though the trip was not without it's incidents, or should I rather say Delays. The flight to Bangkok was suppose to depart promptly around 13:45 ... but after being called for departure, sent away, recalled, sent away again, we finally took to the sky's sometime after 16:00. Apparently there was some technical issue with the on board computer, which loosely translates to "we have no clue as to what the problem is, but we going to go anyway, after all the engine is still attached". .. at least it gave us lots of time to drink duty-free beer.

Thai airways, is really not bad at all, the staff are friendly and helpful. Fellow passengers however are not always, they like family, you can't choose them, but have to live with them. In this case thankfully only for 11 hours. Had quite a character in the seat next to me, some bloke from the DRC, who was apparently doing a PHP in "science" through Unisa, what "science"... he could not tell me. Now, I can handle a lot things and generally speaking I can be quite patient, but what really almost drove me to strangle this guy with his seat belt, was not the music at highest volume, nor the snoring or occasional fart or 101 other irritations, but rather the constant sound of grating teeth... after a few minutes, it really got to me .... Finally landed at Bangkok airport (the place is massive) and found out that the connection flight to Kathmandu was also delayed.

The flight to Kathmandu was awesome, got to sleep a bit and sat next to a really friendly and nice Nepalese lady, whom use to run a tea house on the Annapurna trek. Kathmandu airport is pretty small and if the bodies of a couple of old aircraft lying to the side of the runway don' tell you, you are in the third world, then the tiny, low roof airport, which takes about 2 hours to process one flight of about 100-200 passengers, with an advert display looping a total of 5 adverts, will (luckily there are only about 2 flights into Nepal a day).

So finally in Kathmandu ... after the almost fist fight at the airport, between taxi wallies (smells like India), we finally got dropped in the middle of Thamel (Katmandu's tourist trap area) and left with the task of finding accommodation for the night, which we finally found... a whopping $6 a night for a room (actually by backpacking standards, this is very expensive, but a lot of the cheaper places were already full and it was getting late).



First impressions of Kathmandu ... looks and works like India and there are A LOT of gear shops, selling knock-off North Face products and other cool gear (fake of course, but cheap).

More to follow ... supper calls.