Archive for the 'Himalayas' Category

Monday 16^th January 2006.

Hazardous is an Inadequate Word

After passing through Bharatpur we began the steady climb up through the mountains towards Kathmandu. If I had thought that the road was dangerous previously I was much mistaken. Hazardous is simply an inadequate word. Travelling soon became simply suicidal. There were constant twists and turns, switchbacks and blind corners. Numerous signs, often every hundred metres or so, warned of falling rocks for the road was cut out of a steep cliff. The left side of the road – we were on that side – plunged 200 metres to a raging river below. It was a perfect white water rafting river with many boulders and looked icy cold. Very few barriers separated us from potential disaster. The barriers that existed were mere tokens – 30cm high at best and so infrequent to be almost useless.

White Knuckle Driving

If that wasn’t enough, the driver was determined to get to Kathmandu as quickly as possible. Overtaking the many vehicles now on the road on blind corners and crests was the norm. He was very skilful at avoiding an accident but we came very close on several hundred occasions. White knuckle driving I called it at the time – not so much from fear, thankfully, but merely to stop from being thrown around. I was sitting at the back and the handle on the backs of the two seats in front of me received a thorough workout with my clinging on for dear life. The van’s brakes also received severe testing on several occasions.

Toilet Stop

Half way along we stopped for a ten minute toilet break. The driver also needed a coffee. I didn’t drink anything during this trip; I didn’t need a bursting bladder in traffic like that! I did, however, manage to eat some of the food provided – and keep it down! Actually, I didn’t feel at all car sick despite the rough ride. Jade, however, was feeling a little jaded at times (OK – that’s a terrible pun and I admit it!).

Army Checkpoint

The journey of 140km normally takes about 4 hours. I though we were making very good time as we approached Kathmandu. At 16km from the city centre the traffic crawled to a stop. We had reached the queue for the army checkpoint. For over an hour we only moved about a kilometre. There were many slow moving buses and trucks as well as many private cars. Several times we saw male passengers get off the bus and go to the edge of the road and relieve themselves. On reaching the checkpoint at last we saw why there was such a long wait. The soldiers were asking all bus passengers to disembark, collect their luggage from the pack rack and line up for a bag check.

“Where are you from?”

As we pulled up near one of the buses a soldier opened the sliding door of our mini van. He ignored the driver and the hotel manager in the front seat. He looked at me and asked, in good English, where we were from and where we’d been. I told him we were all from Australia, we’d been to Chitwan National Park to see the animals, that we’d seen lots of birds and rhinos but no tigers. He laughed, closed the door and waved us on. He didn’t even ask to inspect our bags. Obviously he did not consider us a risk.

Nepal – the political reality

Less than a kilometre further on we witnessed the reason the army and the police were being more cautious than last week. We passed the police station that had been attacked and bombed on Saturday night. The Maoists responsible for the attack had come into Kathmandu by bus, hence the thorough checks of all bus passengers and their luggage. Reports of the incident were sketchy but it seems that at least a dozen police were killed.

Safe Arrival

We arrived at the Shangri La Hotel at 11:30am, an amazing time of five hours considering the roadblock and the heavy traffic. We checked in after talking to Ananta and Dorjee who were there to meet us. I washed and changed and then met Jade and Kane in the restaurant for lunch. After lunch I spent an hour sending a long email to Corinne and another to everyone on my mailing list. This latter email was all about my experiences at Chitwan.

I tried to meet with the hotel travel agent to ask him to arrange for me to fly home early. He was at the airport and so I didn’t get to see him until 5:30pm. I have asked him to try to get a seat from here to Bangkok and then to Melbourne on Thursday. This will give me two more days to explore Kathmandu.

During the afternoon I also rang Alexa McArthur in Tansen. We had a lovely ten minute discussion. She was very interested in how we had gone on the trek. She agree with me that it would be too difficult to get to Tansen this week and that there are no guarantees of getting back here in time for my flight on Sunday.

Friday 13^th January 2006:

From Kathmandu to Royal Chitwan National Park

Rose and I slept well. After showering we went down for breakfast. It was a very foggy morning. I will write more about that later. After breakfast we checked our email. I wrote one to Corinne. We then did some final packing before heading down to the hotel lobby. My driver was leaving at 10am and Rose’s at 10:30. We said our farewells to Russell, Linda and Jenny. Russell was leaving the next day while Linda and Jenny were going on to India for a few days. James had left for the UK at 6:30 but we had said goodbye to him last night. Rose and Kath were heading for Bangkok later in the day.

Kathmandu Airport

I was pleased to have the company of Jade and Kane for the trip to Royal Chitwan National Park. The domestic airport was utter chaos, as it usually is I believe. The tickets said our flight was at 11:15am but we only took off at 1:30pm due to fog at our destination Bharatpur. Unknown to us we had to first touch down at Meghauli which is close to the Tiger Tops Lodge. About half of the passengers got off at this point. The airport there is just a small one with a grass runway, which doubled as a soccer field I think. We had ten minutes there to stretch our legs and use the toilet (which was western style and very clean!). We then flew for about another 6-7 minutes to Bharatpur. This has a sealed airstrip with a well kept looking building. We didn’t need to go inside the building and our Peregrine driver took our bags to his car.

Bharatpur to Chitwan NP

I was concerned that his car wasn’t going to make it out of the car park. It wheezed and rattled, the brakes seemed dodgy and the steering wheel shuddered. Little wonder it was in such a state when we drove the 40 minutes to Royal Park Hotel, Chitwan, near the town of Sauraha. Dodging pedestrians, bicycles, motor bikes, buses, tractors, trucks, goats, ducks, chickens, tempos and taxis is a remarkable skill shown by all drivers in Nepal. And all the time those incessant horns are blaring. No-one takes any notice of them so why do they use them? The buses in this part of Nepal are all decorated Indian style, though not quite as elaborate. Most of the road, except for the last five kilometres, is supposedly sealed. Our driver seemed to know every pot hole. There were quite a few of them!

Thursday 12^th January 2006.

In Kathmandu:

Last night out trekking group went out for dinner together. Ananta (our guide) led us on a half hour walk to Thamel. We had a table booked at Kilroy’s of Kathmandu. The menu listed an impressive array of celebrities who had been served by Kilroy’s over the years.

Dead Cow

I ordered a sizzling loin steak. As the waiter brought it in it really was sizzling. It was also delicious. I followed this up with apple crumble topped with ice-cream. It was also great – almost as good as Corinne’s apple crumble! Total cost, including two glasses of Sprite, was Rs800 (about $16). Try getting a meal like than in Australia for so little. One of the waiters had a great sense of humour. He kept asking me if I liked the taste of my ‘dead cow’. Ananta left the restaurant early because his mother was very ill and had been admitted to hospital that afternoon.

Rose really slept well all night but I had trouble sleeping. My nose was very blocked from the pollution and the room seemed stuffy. I also had feelings of being somewhat claustrophobic, a feeling I’ve had on a number of occasions on this trip. I think I like the open spaces we have in Australia.

Shopping in Patan

After a late breakfast we checked and wrote emails. We then went shopping in the Patan district at a shop Rose knew about from her friend Alexa. I bought some really lovely batik wall hangings showing scenes of Nepal. We then caught a taxi back to the hotel.

Kathmandu International Study Centre (KISC)

After lunch at the hotel we used one of the hotel cars to drive us to the Kathmandu International Study Centre (KISC). Rose had arranged for us to meet some of the teachers there, including the current principal, Judith Ellis. She is so enthusiastic about her mission in the school. We also met the new primary principal who hopes to open the year 1 to 5 section in August. I spoke at length to one of the current classroom teachers who is from America.

KISC provides a Christian education for the children of missionaries in Nepal. This comprises about 80% of their students while the remainder are private students. They do not have many from the diplomatic community as they are generally catered for in other private schools. Rose visited because she is interested in coming her in the future, perhaps in 18 months time. The school year starts in July. They are currently looking for teachers both primaty and secondary, so contact them if you are interested in a challenging teaching appointment.

Impressive Programme

I was full of questions and was most impressed with the programme being run. They follow a combination of American and English curricula. Both principals did a very good sales job on me, especially when I told them that Corinne is also a teacher and that we would be basically self funded. It is very attractive from a teaching point of view but it would be very challenging from a living point of view. It would also be a very drastic change of lifestyle and life goals. Lord – I didn’t need a challenge like this!

Christian Leadership

It is doubly challenging from a Christian leadership point of view. Judith said that the local Nepalese need strong leadership training. They are very good at evangelism but very weak at discipling and applying scriptural principles to their everyday lives. It was a very interesting and challenging hour of discussion. They gave me a wad of promotional pamphlets to distribute on my return home.

In the evening we walked into Thamel again. Dorgie took us to the Four Season Restaurant. Again, the food was great and we had a great time talking. We returned at 9pm but at no time did I feel in danger being out at night. I was amused to see three cows wandering the street near our hotel. I wonder where they go during the day?

Wednesday 11^th January 2006.

 Another flight from Lukla to Kathmandu.

 Last night most of us stayed up until about 9:30pm sitting around the lovely fire in the dining room. We listened to some music and talked about our favourite films, music, television series and books.

 We were woken at 6am for a 6:30am breakfast, so a leisurely arising was out of the question. We had a quick cup of tea, washed, dressed and packed our bags. A light breakfast was all I could stomach. After that we waited for the airport siren to summon us to complete the five minute walk to the terminal. On entry to the airport we were again frisked and our carry on bags were checked. We had a half hour wait for the plane to arrive from Kathmandu. This time I had a single seat second from the cockpit. I wasn’t as cramped as the first flight and I had an excellent view of the pilots in action. I also had a great view out through the window.

 Spectacular views

The views from the plane were quite spectacular but the windows were too dirty for effective photography. The ride was quite bumpy in sections, mainly in the first half but quite smooth for the last twenty minutes. Transit through the domestic airport was quick and we were soon back in the Shangri La Hotel, a haven of peace and tranquillity in the midst of this frenetic city.

 Emails home

After unpacking our trekking duffle bags we settled into our room for the next two nights. I then went to the Business Centre and spent the next hour and a quarter writing a long email to all those on my list for the trip plus a short one to Corinne. Meanwhile, Rose had a well deserved bath. Later Rose and I went down to the dining room to have a chicken hamburger each for lunch.

 Shopping in Kathmandu

After lunch Rose and Kath went to Patan to do some shopping. I went for about an hour’s walk up and down the street outside the hotel. I bought some postcards and bottles of water. When I returned to our room I wrote out postcards I was sending to Corinne, Mum and Simon and Leanne. When Rose returned from shopping she was not feeling well and had developed a tummy upset. “Timing is everything,” she said, “it could have been on the plane!”

 Catching up on washing

This morning, when we were unpacking our trekking gear we both sorted through our clothes and each had a bag of laundry to be done. It had to be ready at 10am and I just had a call to say that it is being sent up to the room shortly. It is now 4:30pm so that is a really good service. I didn’t check the prices but I had such a lot to do I couldn’t have dried it in the bathroom in time to leave for Chitwan the day after tomorrow.