LOVING NEPAL

 

We have crossed the border with a sigh of relief. Fingers crossed for the Nepal border because it is also Holi festival here today. At least customs & immigration are open and very quiet and orderly. Our paperwork is not correct, but the helpful lady says she can sort it out. We need to pay in Indian rupees (which we used up) or Nepalese rupees.   I head off to town to find an ATM. The first one is out of cash. The second one refuses both my cards. Oh no. Everything is closed, including the row of money-changing shops. Think Lynda. I head into a hotel to ask if they will change US$. No. Walk on. The next hotel says they will. They say the rate won’t be good, but at this stage who cares. I head back to Immigration to sort out visas while John gets the vehicle sorted, and then we ask if we can stay overnight in customs carpark as we need to get a sim in the morning. That’s fine so we head out to explore town. Locals are enjoying themselves and there are lots of coloured faces. The kids even have guns to spray powder. And bonus, we find another ATM that will spit out cash. 

Late the next morning we head off. Today is full of dust, diversions and drama. We had been expecting hills, but this area is very flat with lots of farming, huge dry riverbeds and strings of untidy towns that are not very pretty. The dust & diversions come from miles of road works. It looks as if it may take 10 years to complete. The drama comes when we hear a “pop” noise and some of our electrics go. Bother! When we stop for lunch GR2 won’t start at all. We had been planning to buy batteries yesterday, but it’s amazing really, a guy near where we stopped knows an auto electrician and then a battery guy delivers 2 new batteries straight to our truck on his motorbike. We are now up and running. Much later we turn off onto a narrow road that winds through farmhouses and leads to the Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve where we can camp at the adjacent Aqua Birds Resort. And what a bonus this proves to be as there is an elephant stable. We pop over again in the morning and wait to watch them head out for the day with their drivers. They spend all day eating in the jungle and return at 4pm to their stables.  

Back to our dusty road full of diversions. We drive through more and more forests and cross over a huge, dammed river that flows out to the Ganges. After a mere 160km we turn off on a side road that winds up over mountains to find our camp spot at Kalapani Park. This road continues over the mountains to Kathmandu, but a policeman has said we won’t get through because of all the slips on the road. So, in the morning we return to our flat road, finally reach the main road and head north. There are now a lot more trucks that have come from the border with India and the road is no better!  There are 2 roads to the city. On the map one looks much longer and the other heads directly north, so we take it. Almost immediately it becomes a narrow winding tarseal road that is mainly one lane wide. It is incredibly slow going, incredibly steep and incredibly scenic. At least there are very few trucks. In a straight line it is 32km, but we drive 116km. It takes all day. After much winding and many hairpins we reach Simbhanjyang at 2488m. Then a bit further on we stop for mountain views at Damon. There is even a tower to climb for views of Everest (but not today – it has clouded over.) We meet an Aussie guy who says stay the night and chat, but he must rush off now. As it’s only 3pm we decide to move on. In hindsight we should have stayed! We wind for hours down the mountains passing miles of terraced fields and numerous towns. Not a flat carpark in sight and it’s getting late. Finally, we pop out onto the main road and I spy a great campspot behind a workshop with some other trucks. The views are amazing, and, in the morning, we can see snowy peaks.

We head off bright and early for the drive to Kathmandu. We join long lines of trucks crawling over mountains and through roadworks. Finally, we reach the outskirts, pick up the great ring road and before we know it, we have located Yeti Overland Camp where we can stay while we are in the city. (It has only taken two and a half hours to do 28km today.) We settle in and organize a helicopter trip for tomorrow that, fingers crossed, goes over base camp and alongside Everest. We also spend time on chores and find a great supermarket (always a bonus)

We wake bright and early and arrive at the airport by 6.15am and wait and wait! Finally, we are told our flight is cancelled. The story is that the 3 other passengers cancelled. Very disappointed, we head to the city to the famous Durbar Square. It is amazing. So much Wow in one small area. We wander around looking at countless temples that are practically built on top of each other until opening time at the palace. The Palace has been restored by Americans and Chinese after the devastating earthquake in 2015. When we exit it is time to pop back into the Kumari Ghar home to the living goddess or Kumari. It is a gorgeous brick building with ornately carved black window frames. But we have come in again to get a glimpse of the goddess. The courtyard is packed with tourists (no photos) and once full the doors are locked. She appears at the window for all of one minute before she gets bored and leaves. What a sad life for the little girl who is chosen to be the goddess. She is draped in rich clothes, her face made up and she is not allowed to walk outside, she must be carried in a palanquin. Then when she hits puberty, she is sent back to the outside world. What a shock!

Today we have been enjoying the local food. Delicious, sweet doughnuts, yummy momo’s and famous apple pie. We head into the back streets to see how the locals live. I can’t get over the huge tangle of power lines draped on every pole and hanging in swathes along the streets. By now it is getting hot so we decide to taxi to the New Palace. They have a great app here to order taxis and it even gives you a price – so no haggling for John. Anway, we reach the Palace only to find it is closed today. Our driver suggests the cable car that we didn’t know about. While he and John decide on a price I jump out to take photos of a passing military procession of horses and carriages. Then we head off to the far side of the city to the cable car. And it is another Wow. We are already at 1500m and it rises steeply to 2520m. The longest span is over 1km. The views are awesome with rows of snowcapped peaks in the distance.  Finally, back to Yeti Camp - it has been a long day!

Yet another early start. This time we are collected at 5.20am and again we wait, but at least there are others here so it looks hopeful. Finally, we are in our helicopter, and we are off. It’s sensational. A 45min ride over Kathmandu, then hills covered in terraces and snowy peaks in the distance. We land at Lukla Airport to refuel and then into the mountains where we stop and 3 passengers are set down and wait for the others to fly to basecamp and Everest. Then we swap over. A perfect day with magic views of the mighty mountain. All back in the copter and off to the Everest View Hotel for breakfast with fab views. Time to head back to Lukla for more fuel than back to Kathmandu. The winds are picking up and our pilot tells us that Lukla Airport is now closed. We got out in time and had an amazing day. Not a bad way to spend some of our kid’s inheritance.

After 2 very early mornings we chill out and have an early night. we will be busy again tomorrow. We have an auto-electrican coming because our cab windows have decided not to open, so we are going to head to Patan this morning to explore before he is due. We taxi in and wander back streets before heading to the stunning Golden Temple. Every surface is gilded and there are some rather lovely statues of elephants and monkeys. Upstairs the monks are chanting prayers and people are making candles. Then it is on to the amazing Patan Durbar Square with its cluster of temples and Palace. It is spread out a bit more than the one in the city and now there are hardly any tourists, although they do arrive in their droves later. We wander around, explore the Palace and stop for pancakes and coffee. I even buy some rather gorgeous shoes (one of my addictions.) But it’s time to return to Yeti because our man is due. Of course he is not on time, but when he finally arrives, he spends the rest of the afternoon working on the electrics.  Success!

In the morning we say goodbye to the other campers (Austrians & Dutch) before heading out of the city. Traffic is a bit thinner today as it’s Saturday, but once we meet the trucks at the end of the ring road we are back in long dusty queues with miles of roadworks making it very slow going. We pull over beside the river mid afternoon and relax before a storm rolls in. Head off early for lots more slow driving until the road splits. One road heads to the border and our road heads to Pokhara. Fortunately, there is less traffic and the mountain views are stunning. We can see rows of snow-capped peaks, miles of terraced crops and lush rice paddies. We reach Nepal’s second largest city – Pokhara, by midday and find a great paid carpark close to the lake. Our Swiss friends are camped here too so it is fun to catch up. We wander the lakefront and touristy shops before heading out for dinner with our Swiss friends and a lovely young German couple who have just arrived.

After lots of chatting we set off on the road to Jomsom. We have purchased our $30US permits and are off. We can drive as far as Muktinah in the Lower Mustang area. If we want to go to the Upper Mustang, we must pay $500US. Guess why we aren’t going! We have heard that the road is a tad scary and so are pleasantly surprised by the 3 lane tarseal highway, which of course suddenly shrinks as we hit the mountains, but its still OK and the views down the massive valleys are incredible. Terraced crops spread across the mountainsides. But this doesn’t last. We get sections that are bad and then sections that are terrible. And amazingly there is a lot of traffic, and they don’t think about stopping where it is wide enough for 2 cars, they just barrel through.  It’s a very tight squeeze or a standoff until one of us reverses (and they really can’t reverse!) Once over some huge mountains we drop down and follow the Kali Gandanki River stopping to admire the Rupse Chhahara meaning Beautiful Waterfall and then spy the hot pools at Tatopani. We think we will have a good soak on our return trip.  From here we plunge into the deepest valley in the world. It is here that Annapurna 1 & Dhaulagiri 1 (both over 8000m) are a mere 38km apart. Facts aside, it is stunning. We feel as if we can touch the mountains. As we leave the valley the riverbed spreads out and there are lots of little towns, each one better than the last. Again, we will explore on our return trip. Although it isn’t late the sky is starting to darken, and we find a great camp spot in the huge gravel riverbed surrounded by peaks. We sit and enjoy before it gets too chilly and we head inside for a chilly night. When we wake, we realise we only saw a few of the peaks last night. We are now completely surrounded by them and as the sun rises the tops glow gold. What an incredible sight. I watch in my pjs and ugg boots until it gets too chilly. When the whole valley is full of light, we head off to explore. We stop and get our permits checked at every police checkpoint and at Jomsom get all our paperwork checked and get stamped in.  Jomsom is a real tourist hub with rows of hotels and restaurants and even boasts an airport on the riverbed. We head on to the pretty town of Kagberi where I find the worst possible entry road to get in, park and explore. There is a lovely Monastery, a suspension bridge and what is euphemistically called “a medieval town” which consists of a rabbit warren of cliffside stone dwellings. We also find the entry images of Granddad & Grandma. Granddad has a rather large penis! Kagberi is as far as we can go north, but we can take the side road out to Jharkot & Muktinath which is a pilgrimage site. We wind up the mountainside stopping at the end of the road. There are strings of buses full of Indians on pilgrimage. Not really our scene, so we head back down to Jharkot and explore town. Back at Jomsom our permits are stamped out of Mustang and we head down a back roads to visit the village of Thini. The wind has picked up and dust is flying everywhere (as apparently it does every afternoon), but it is a pretty spot. Then on to Marpha to wander the touristy streets before heading back to the same fabulous campspot. It’s way too windy to sit outside tonight.

We are only halfway through our time in Nepal and  we are loving it!