Asian Journal - Chapter 5 - In the kingdom of the Gods (April 2000)

“I salute the God within you” or “Namaste!” as they say in Nepal! Getting on that jet plane from Bangkok to Kathmandu has to have been one of the happiest flights of my life. Not only was I glad to finally be leaving Thailand but I was now almost within reach of one of my lifetime goals – Nepal. With its holy cows wandering the streets and Buddhist carvings in every nook & cranny, Kathmandu was everything I was expecting, and a whole lot more! No more aggressive taxi driver’s, just very friendly faces wishing you “Namaste” every which way you turn. Getting to grips with the city took a bit of time as none of the streets were named, so I spent my first day repeatedly getting lost then finding myself on the steps of another magnificent Stompa or Gumpa decked with colourful Buddist prayer flags. It seems plenty of lost people come to Nepal to ‘find’ themselves, and the place certainly has its fair share of travellers looking for spiritual enlightenment. A hang over from Nepal’s backpacker roots, as getting high (both in the chemical and physical sense of the word) was the original form of tourism. I arrived in Nepal just in time to celebrate Nepalese New Year, the main festival of which takes place in Bakthurpur about an hour out of Kathmandu. I’d met up with a German guy so together we took the bus over and joined in the party, and some party it was! 50,000 Nepalese, mostly men and mostly drunk crowded into the old city for the day and then a good percentage of these took part in the age old Nepalese tradition of street fighting to welcome in the New Year! Things got a little hairy to say the least and I was more than pleased I’d found a tall European guy to hide behind. When things got a little to scary we decided to head back to Kathmandu, only to find all the bus drivers had had their fair share of merriment leaving us stuck in town. Next morning saw the town in ruins and I was surprised to hear only 3 people were killed the night before, but apparently that’s a normal start to New Year in Nepal and otherwise the year 2057 started without a hitch! Having had more than enough of crowds I decided it was time to leave the city and head for the hills so packed the rucksack and took the bus West. Situated at the base of the awesome Annapurna Mountains alongside a beautiful lake, Pokhara is a wonderful place to chill out for a couple of days, which is exactly what I did. Whilst mooching around the town I met up with Giles from Bristol who planned to do roughly the same trek as me, so over a couple of litres of lemon tea a plan was hatched. Neither of us wanted to trek by ourselves due to the recent upsurge in Maoist activity in the area. A couple of the tourist hotels in town had been the victims of armed assaults in the previous week and there were reports of further attacks in the woods so everyone was more than a little nervous. The Maoists had already spoilt my plans once by attacking a rafting group out on the Karnali River and therefore making the area too dangerous to enter so I wasn’t about to let them interfere with my trekking! Having spoken to a local guide we planned a route that would take us from Pokhara at just over 800m, up the Kali Gandaki River route used by Maurice Herzog in1950 and into the Annapurna Mountains. From here we’d continue to climb until we reached Muktinath, our highest possible point at just below 4,000m. After spending a day or too acclimatising ourselves there we would then drop down a way and go up into the Annapurna Sanctuary which is a natural amphitheatre in the mountains with access to the Annapurna Base Camp at just over 4,000m. This route had been closed for the last 2 weeks as avalanches had blocked the pass, but we’d been given the all clear by the mountain guide so off we set. The first part of the journey entailed a gruelling 4-hour taxi ride into the mountains to Beni from where we’d commence trekking. Two hours into the trip I was close to vomiting and bleeding from where my head kept hitting the roof of the car! This was not how things were supposed to happen, but finally we arrived in Beni and the trip began for real. Over the next 5 days we climbed slowly and steadily through stunning forests and terraced farmland with snow-covered peaks towering over us. The weather was with us and most of the 12Kg I was carrying was water to avoid dehydration under the blazing sun. The remaining weight was 90% Snickers bars to supplement the mountain stable diet of Dal Bhat (a rice and curried vegetable dish that manages to be unbelievable bland!) On day 6 the scenery changed dramatically as we climbed above the tree line and out onto the mountain desert. The wind howled about us making standing up difficult even without my pack and when we were least expecting it we were pebbledashed with stones from the dry river bed we trekked along. Giles was now starting to suffer from the altitude and as we reached 2,500m he became lethargic and coughed up blood. After a good night’s rest he was convinced he’d be OK so we walked on. The last part of our route involved a climb of over 1,000m in just 3 hours and at this point Giles had had enough. We found ourselves a place to stay for the night and took some well-needed rest. Although I seemed to be escaping the effects of altitude, effort of any kind at this height was difficult. Next day we awoke at our normal hour of 5.30am to find crystal clear blue skies. The mountains shone as the first light hit them and we both happily spun off roll after roll of film in the hope of being able to capture some of the beauty. One thing photos will never be able to do is give the feeling of being stood at that height watching the world wake before you. Giles now needed to get down a couple of hundred metres to try and clear his head and as we walked it became obvious he would not be able to handle the Sanctuary trek with altitudes of over 4,000m. I was somewhat disappointed at not being able to get up to the Annapurna Base Camp but I’d been lucky so far and if we flew down from Jomsom rather than walking back I realised I’d have time to go white water rafting before I left Nepal. The flights were booked and at 6.30am we descended upon Jomson airport to catch one of the tiny planes back down to Pokhara. As the wind, which hit us on our way up, tends to build during the day there are only 4 flights out of the mountains each morning and these are very much dependant on the weather conditions, but this was another perfect morning so we had no worries as we watched the aircraft come in to land. First priority each morning goes to the rescue helicopters that come up to airlift those with AMS (Acute Mountain Sickness) or other injuries. We boarded as these took off down the mountain and watched them climb over the nearest peak as we taxied down the unsealed runway. I didn’t know whether to be terrified or excited as we banked sharply and another snow covered crag loomed what seemed like metres from the window, but after a serious of stomach churning manoeuvres we were clear of the highest peaks and climbing fast. The flight to Pokhara takes only 15 minutes so both Giles and I began to wonder what was happening when 50 minutes into the flight we were still thousands of feet above the earth. Being only a 12-seater plane we could both see out of the cockpit window and started to grow more and more confused when we saw a large well lit runway spread out before us with huge aircraft at a terminal on the ground below. This wasn’t Pokhara! When the engines stopped and the noise fell away to just the ringing in our ears the pilot turned around and in Nepali embarked on a long explanation of which the only words the could understand were “diesel” and “China”. This was all very strange. Were we in China??? The 6 or so Nepalese people on the plane where obviously un-nerved so to pacify them the co-pilot them produced a piece of paper on which he drew some mountains, some clouds and a little aeroplane above the clouds. At this point I was on the floor in fits of laughter. Giles was doing Rolf Harris style “Do you know where we are yet?” impressions as the co-pilot continued to add detail to his sketch (birds and a smiley sun), and the Nepalese stared at me thinking I was a crazed woman! Surely we couldn't be in China...Eventually another man got on the cramped craft and explained in broken English that as the weather had suddenly closed in at Pokhara and the aircraft had no tracking or radar equipment other than the pilots eyes we’d had to fly on to Kathmandu as we were dangerously low on fuel. We were both somewhat relieved to learn “China” or a similar sounding word is Nepali for empty, so we could relax and forget about having to get ourselves out of an incredibly unwelcoming country. However, I was more than a little annoyed as I’d left a bag of kit in Pokhara, which I wanted to collect before I took the 7-hour bus journey back to Kathmandu. Now I was going to have to wait until we could fly back to Pokhara then turn round and get the bus straight back! Luckily wait didn’t take too long and by 11am we’d touched down safely at our intended destination. Hot showers and plenty of them were top of our priority list and after a good scrub and some clean clothes we were able to sit back and relax in comfort for the first time in 9 days. The 7-hour bus trip back to Kathmandu wasn’t as much fun as the flight but passed quick enough and I’m now preparing myself mentally for the next part of my Nepali adventure, rafting! As I didn’t get to climb to the Base Camp I’m treating myself to a couple of days on some of the best white water the world has to offer. Just 15Km from the Tibetan border the Bhote Kosi is the steepest river in Nepal and is normally graded between a III and a V (VI being dangerously impossible). However when I checked in with the rafting company a couple of hours ago the early monsoon rains had pushed the rating up to V in places so its going to be a very wet and wild time! Now I must push off and by one of those waterproof cameras. Something tells me there are going to be some definite photo opportunities over the next 48 hours!