Nepal: Mountains, Maoists and Croquet

We've had the most amazing month in Nepal and have both fallen in love with this incredible country. We travelled up from India by land and after a very long, hot and exhausting day being ripped off by bus people on both sides of the border, we arrived in Lumbini - birth place of the Buddha. We found a nice place to stay and relaxed for a couple of days, hired bikes and rode around looking at all the monasteries built by Buddhist communities from all over the world. Obviously this is a pretty special place for them - but being Buddhists they don't all rush here and stampede one another to death, as they fight for a place to pray. It is a ridiculously calm and quiet place where one is invited to use the "meditation platforms" (glorified benches) and reflect on... stuff. The prayer flags gently flutter in the breeze and the manic noise and stress that India has left buzzing around our heads, is blown away. We. Are. Hippies.


Now we just want to see some mountains. Only a 6 hour death/bus ride stands between us and the Himalayas.

We arrived in Pokhara 4 hours later than we'd intended, but were glad to be alive. It was quite cloudy and promised to rain as we checked into Hotel Nirvana, but we had time to walk down to the lake and catch one of the most beautiful sunsets I've ever seen. (All of the most beautiful sunsets I've ever seen have been on this trip!)




See. I told you.





That night we found a restaurant that did a meal deal of lasagna and a glass of red wine. We thought perhaps we HAD died on the bus from Lumbini and in fact this really was heaven. We're not really hippies. We love lasagna and red wine. The next few days were spent eating and shopping for trekking stuff. There was A LOT of rain and the clouds didn't really lift, until day 3 when we awoke to clear skies over Pokhara and suddenly we could see THE MOUNTAINS. And they were massive, towering over the town like giant, snow-covered... mountains. We couldn't wait to get amongst them.








This is us. Yes, I know - we look like dweebs. Well, I look like a dweeb. Sam looks quite cool. What's double-dweebey is that we had matching shorts and bags and walking sticks. It's very, very hard to look cool and be a trekker.





THE TREK


I will resist the urge to give you a step-by-step account of our trek. But it was amazing. After 3 months of touring around India - getting to places, looking at things and eating (and searching for our inner-selves, of course) - it is really, really good to have goals to achieve and a real purpose to each day. I'll be honest IT HURT. We are not gym-bunnies, as you all know, so 7 days of up-to 9 hours walking either UP (very steeply) or DOWN (very steeply) was hard. We did the Jomsom trek, which is in the Annapurna range of the Himalaya and took us to an altitude of 3193m (not that high for the Himalaya) and through the deepest gorge in the world, between 2 8000m plus peaks. The scenery is nothing short of spectacular. I have never felt so tiny as I did walking through those mighty, beautiful mountains. I felt like a hobbit. We walked through villages where people live pretty much as they must have done for 100's of years. Being slightly dim and a Londoner, it just hadn't occurred to me that we'd be going to places where there are NO ROADS - just mountain trails, where a rush hour is caused by 4 groups of donkeys carrying supplies pass through at the same time. When Michael Palin came here for his series 'Himalaya' he said "tremendous scenery, unpolluted air, brilliant light and utter silence.... I know I shall miss these things." And so will we. It couldn't be further from Bethnal Green Road. It was one of the best things I have ever done and we only touched the surface. I think we'll have to come back.





Here are some highlights, in pictures...






We found a lot of weed and met 2 Nepali chicks
Donkey Rush Hour.

Sam, the explorer. This is one of the little villages, with a mighty mountain behind. They are all so clean and peaceful with chickens and goats and yaks chilling out everywhere. The children run up and down the hills to school and home again. If they could see the life of a school child in Hackney, they'd be horrified.

Nice, eh?

A flat bit!! Indiana Bridger
A room with one hell of a view! Not bad for 70p.




The air was starting to get a bit thin at 3210m. Just call me Edmund Hillary.

Worth getting up at 4am and walking for 45 mins uphill for. The views from Poon Hill.





Everyone should do it.





We caught a very tiny plane back from Jomsom to Pokhara. Sadly it was cloudy, so the flight wasn't as amazing as it could have been - but still pretty cool. It was like a Led Zep private jet. I can't tell you how much we hurt when we got back to Hotel Nirvana. And how much we stank. We hardly took anything with us and hot water was a bit hard to come by. Hot showers and more amazing food and red wine brought us back to life.





After a few days recovering it was time to move on. We caught a bus to Bandipur, a beautiful little town in the hills, half way between Pokhara and Kathmandu, made up of lovely 18th century houses and a 'pedestrianised' and paved main street. Our guest house had the feel of an olde worlde 18th century Inn, with dark wood panelling and windows with shutters, but no glass. Frequent power cuts added to the old school atmosphere.


People in this town seem to have a very happy life.





As an aside, I'd like to mention that it was here that we were sharing our room with THE BIGGEST SPIDER IN THE WORLD.
I like this picture. It's Sam looking like Michael Palin or Alan Yentob, leaning against a pillar and looking, thoughtfully, into the middle distance.



It rained a lot while we were here and so we did a lot of reading and eating Momos. Momos are worth a mention and were best described by Len (who we met in Hampi) as "little balls of deliciousness". They are a Tibetan dish and are like little pasta parcels or those Chinese dim-sum things, with anything you like in them - either steamed or fried. We love them and we are going to call our first dog Momo.





We also went on a 3 hour trek to the biggest cave in Nepal. Unlike caves in Europe it has not been high-jacked, lit and opened to the public. You are allowed to go in, but you have to do it with a torch and hope you don't get lost. We hired a local to show us around and although we couldn't see much, we could feel the bats swooping past our faces. I also took photos and blinded us all with the flash.


Next stop: KATHMANDU.


We were very lucky to be invited to stay with a family friend and alumni of my school whose husband has a very interesting job in Nepal with the Gurkhas. Anyone who has been to Kathmandu will know that it is a very busy and dirty city, much like Indian cities. Their home is a beautiful, leafy oasis in the middle of the city and as you come through the gates you could almost be stepping into Surrey. Clean sheets, roast beef, fry ups, lovely brown bread. Heaven.





We have been in Nepal during a very interesting period in Nepali history - as the Maoists came into power and got rid of the King. The day after we arrived in Kathmandu was Republic Day and they eyes of the world were on Kathmandu. There have been several bombs and many marches - but the general feeling of most Nepali people we've spoken to is one of excitement and optimism for 'New Nepal'.







We've had a fantastic week with Fiona, who kindly gave up her time (as well as her home) and took us to every sight there is to see. It's wonderful having an insiders knowledge, especially when it comes to shopping - and Fiona is a Kathmandu shopping expert. Poor Sam has been into far more Pashmina shops than he ever thought possible.





Getting some sense bashed into me! Testing the healing powers of a singing bowl.
with Fiona

Croquet. How British. (sb-nice action eh?)

And so, it's with heavy hearts that we say good-bye to Nepal. We think we'll be back.

We're bracing ourselves for the full force of Delhi, where we fly to on Friday. We hear they are suffering sand storms there at the moment. Excellent.

Cricket, Big Marble Buildings and the Holiest City in India

We've had a very exciting few weeks.
Friends in the right places got us into the Chairman's box to watch the underdogs, The Rajasthan Royal's, thrash the Calcutta Knight Riders. It was SO exciting. It's not like boring old cricket in England (you can tell who's writing this now, Sam loves boring old cricket in England) NO! There are, loud celebration music and lots of shouting and jumping up and down. Not a cucumber sandwich in sight. I'm a convert. Go team Jaipur! (They're top of the league now!)

We then celebrated with the team at their fancy hotel, followed by a Bollywood themed party at a local club. Ya! This is Sam with Manoj and Shane.

And the next day we hung out with them by this pool - before getting on the team bus, for a team outing (followed by the press & army escorts) to the Amber Fort in Jaipur. We felt like we were actually team members of the Rajasthan Royals by this stage.
Sam with his armed guards.The celebrity sports star life-style had to come to an end at some stage and we packed our bags and headed off to Agra to see THE TAJ.

Needless to say, it's beautiful. You've all seen this picture before... the only difference is that I took this one. We got up at 5.30am to beat the crowds. Everyone else did too, sadly.

Agra itself if a bit of a dive, so we hurried on to Varanasi - which has to be one of the most amazing places I've ever been. Anyone who saw any of the India series on the BBC last year will have seen shots of the Ghats at Varanasi - it's one of the images that we came to India to see. It's the centre of the Hindu world and regarded as holy by Buddhists and Jains, the place where people hope to come to die and have their ashes scattered in the Ganges. The river is worshipped as the giver of life. It is at it's most incredible at dawn and at dusk when the activity and bustle of life along the ghats is quite breath taking. It's like stepping back in time.

'Varanasi is older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend, and looks twice as old as all of them put together." (Mark Twain)

People come here to bathe...

...eat, mingle and worship...

....wash their clothes...
....learn to swim...

....and do yoga (look closely for the rows of meditating bodies.)

We also walked past no fewer than 7 games of cricket. There are also the burning ghats - where 100s of bodies are brought everyday to be burned on the banks of the River Ganga. Cows, goats and dogs swim along side people and rubbish is everywhere. Apparently it's not uncommon to see a dead body float along next to the boats, because a family could not afford a cremation but wanted to return their relative to the Ganges. It is amazing that the river still has any life, it is so polluted. The combination of sights, sounds and smells is quite overwhelming.

We took and evening stroll along the banks and then got up at 5.30 for a dawn boat ride. It was one of the most amazing moments I've ever experienced.

We're off to Nepal next. Peace out.