Nepal Funsights

 

It's time once again to take a look back at some humourous (to us) things we saw while in Nepal. For those people coming to Nepal hoping to find Nirvana (not the band), these directions might be a little confusing. For those coming to Kathmandu hoping to find an earthly Nirvana, the Communist Party will try to get you there (haven't seen a poster like that in years). We were surprised at how many places advertised that they were 'typical' instead of 'special'. We also thought it was a nice touch that the typical guest house offered a special kind of elephant paper (read the small sign). If you want some extra work as an electrician, Nepal is the place for you. We really appreciated that Shower to Shower had come out with Prickly Heat (that's for all your SCTV fans) at the local As You Like It Department Store (but what if you don't like it?). We really felt for this street repair crew (I'm sure the job still isn't done). It's amazing what you can all fit into a ten by ten foot barber shop (we didn't try the massage). And last but not least (Elaine didn't think this was funny, it was her luggage that was lost) I got a kick out of the Complaints Desk sign.

Driving Miss Daisy (NOT)

 

Our travels in Nepal involved taking the bus along some pretty hairy highways. Disney does not have a ride to simulate the roads we traveled from Kathmandu to Chitwan to Pokhara and back to Kathmandu (and I'm sure there are many worse than these main highways). We thought it was crazy in the city but country driving here is one long game of chicken. So you come up behind a slowmoving truck that is so loaded down you can't see around it climbing up a narrow road with an endless dropoff and there is a bicyclist on one side of the road and an ox cart on the other - do you pass since there is a blind turn coming up? Of course you do! You just hit the horn and charge ahead. (This happened over and over and we just got used to it... or turned numb). At one point on one of these insane 'leaps of faith', somebody's phone rings. Guess who? The driver takes the call as he's making this suicidal maneuver. How people on the prairies can have accidents when these folks somehow stay alive I don't know. Truck drivers around here are a different breed (almost like cowboys) and they also express their flair by 'dressing up' their trucks. Almost every truck was colourfully decorated and most also had tassles hanging from them.

And what's up with the horns?! A cacophany (my word for the day) of horns can be heard everywhere in this country. People hit the horn when they see somebody coming, when they come up behind somebody, when they are passing, when they are breathing (just about). From the middle of Kathmandu to the almost empty backroads of the Himalayas, there was never a moment when you wouldn't hear a horn somewhere. We just got used to it like the locals. The most amazing thing was how casually people would let a horn-blaring truck come up behind them and pass them by a whisker as they walked along the road without every glancing back at the approaching vehicle.

Another interesting sight is all the motorcycle drivers wearing helmets while their passengers (usually women and children) were not. Talk about a inverted case of 'women and children first'. With all the weaving in and out of traffic (Lanes? What lanes?), it is a miracle there aren't more collisions. We did see a few though and it made us cringe everytime a motorcycle would cut us off with a child sitting on the gas tank and/or hanging on to the back.

We also were constantly noticing how many different forms of transportation (and animals) there were on the road. If it moves, it was crossing the highway or pulling something along it. Driving may be a way of getting from one place to another but in this country it is so much more than that. If it's adventure and thrills you are looking for, you don't have to drive to find it, you just have to drive (and we can hardly wait to get behind the wheel again back home on our boring straight roads).

Annapurna High

 

 

It has always been a dream of mine to hike through the hills and mountains near Pokhara at the foot of the Annapurna Range in the Himalayas. To finally arrive in this corner of the world was exhilirating. We stayed in a wonderful hotel that had a balcony view of this awe-inspiring set of peaks. After climbing Sangarkot to watch the sunrise and light up the Annapurnas on the first morning, we took two day long hikes in the Pokhara hills. Both hikes involved very steep climbs for a couple of hours but the views were incredible when we reached the top. We then hiked along the ridge for a few more hours past endless terraces and fields and farmhouses and haystacks all set against the beautiful alpine backdrop. We passed people carrying incredible loads up and down the steep paths (or a chicken for supper). We were huffing and puffing up the steps just to take in a view while they were doing their daily (who knows how many kilometres) walk up and down and to and from the well or the market or the field. Everywhere people were either working in their fields or creating something in front of their small huts or farmhouses.

 

Schoolchildren were making the trek to and from their mountainside schools along the paths we were taking. We saw some children doing their homework outdoors early in the morning in the shadow of the mountains. The Everest English Boarding School is located on one of these hilltops and we got a chance to tour it after the principal invited us in. The children were so well-behaved and were completing English exams that we found to be more challenging than anything we were giving our students. They really value education here and see it as their ticket out of poverty but there are many people with degrees doing manual labour or working in tiny shops because this country doesn't have the jobs for them.

When we weren't hiking around Pokhara, we were walking through the neighbourhoods close to our hotel seeing how Nepalese people live in the city. The city had a big village feel to it with people chatting in front of fruit stalls or fixing their bicycles on the side of the road.

It was sad to leave this jewel but we will have lots of pictures to help us remember just how incredible this part of the world is. (Something tells me one of us will be back!)