High road to Lhasa

Cheryl and I arrived in Lhasa on Saturday, being fortunate enough to secure the very last two seats on the last flight from Kathmandu for the year. Winter is approaching now, so the tourist season is coming to a close. And what a fabulous flight it was! We had the most magnificent views imaginable of the Himalaya stretching on forever. We stuggled to recognise particular mountains from such a high vantage point, but could pick out Everest, or Chomolungma, as she is known by the Tibetans.

Lhasa is a most extraordinary place. The juxtaposition of old and new is constantly bewildering. On the one hand we've visited numerous monasteries, many of which were built in the 7th century - a Golden Age of Tibetan Buddhism - and don't appear to have changed much at all in that time. Getting swept along the pilgrim circuits with old men and women murmuring their prayers and spinning their prayer wheels feels like we've been transported back to Medieval times. But on the other hand, Lhasa is an extremely modern city. The Chinese influence is ever-present, and massive amounts of money have been sunk into government buildings and infrastructure. Huge department stores sell all the latest Chinese and Western fashions and pop music blares on the street from Hi-Fi stores.

One of the highlights for me so far has been seeing an old woman with an ancient weathered face and all her teeth missing, dancing in the middle of the street to a Nepali pop song, a big smile on her face, oblivious to all the passing stares and enjoying herself immensely. There is an extreme sense of peacefulnes about the Tibetan people, and none of the hustle-bustle we got used to in Kathmandu. It amuses me no end to see monks in their simple red and orange robes walking barefoot down the street and chatting on their mobile phones!


We hired a guide and driver and tried to get to Lake Nam-Tso, which is the second largest lake in Tibet. It was an incredibly scenic drive, but our efforts were ultimately thwarted by heavy snow on a high pass, some 40km before the lake. Despite the wintery conditions we still managed to drive to the top of Largen La at 5200m (pretty amazing!) where we were greeted with views of the lake in the distance. It was too dangerous to negotiate the steep descent on the other side, so we returned to a nearby village where our guide, Tashi, insisted we join him in playing cards and drinking beer!

We're on a private 2-person tour, but even so the agenda is very much determined by our guide and driver, and it can be quite frustrating to always play by someone else's rules. Cheryl and I are thoroughly enjoying a couple of days to ourselves before we begin the overland trip back to Kathmandu along the Friendship Highway.

We caught one of the pilgrim buses to Ganden Monastery today and had a great time walking the two koras (pilgrim circuits) with spectacular views over the Lhasa River valley. There are mountains everywhere! I was naively expecting a flat plateau stretching as far as the eye could see, but here the landscape is dramatically mountainous. It is stark and majestic. Unlike Nepal, it is intersected by broad open valleys with scattered stone settlements. There are very few trees, and not much greenery at all. The mountainsides look bare and rocky, but there is enough dry grass in the valleys to support huge populations of yak.

The low point of my trip occurred yesterday morning when I got locked inside our hotel's outdoor loo for half an hour before finally being rescued. The Tibetan toilet experience is not a pleasant one, and it was a particularly foul-smelling place to find oneself trapped, an experience which brought me close to tears as I banged and yelled, trying to get someone's attention!

Later in the afternoon, while attempting to follow the Lingkor kora - an 8km pilgrim circuit which encircles the old part of Lhasa and the Potala Palace - we got a little bit lost and ended up climbing a hill above an army compound. The army officer far below was obviously upset and started yelling and pointing back the way we'd come. Having seen the big gun slung over his shoulder, we followed his orders without further ado.


Neither of us have had any altitude problems at all, but find ourselves noticeably breathless after walking up a flight of stairs. Lhasa sits at around 3600m and our walk today from the monastery took us to over 4600m. I'm assuming that our pre-acclimatisation while trekking has helped us to deal with the high elevations here.

With only one week left of my travels, my thoughts are already turning towards home. I feel somewhat restless, not sure if I want to return home or not, and slightly anxious about facing up to 'real' life. I feel frustrated and saddened by the complexities and incomprehensibilities of this world, but at the same time inspired to live simply and be true to myself. I think the thin, dry air of the Tibetan plateau must have a purifying effect on one's soul!

Letters from Nepal

Kathmandu

Well here I am in Kathmandu! Unfortunately my view of the mountains was obscured by heavy cloud as we flew into Nepal yesterday, but I had stunning views of the Kathmandu valley. It's so much greener than I expected! And in between the sprawl of ugly concrete buildings, the lush pastures are dotted with beautiful chortens and stupas. It’s very attractive after the smog and seemingly endless cityscape of Bangkok.

Greg and Marika were delayed at Kathmandu airport for about three hours due to a bomb threat on board their aircraft. We were supposed to arrive within forty minutes of each other, but instead I waited at the baggage claim for a long time, not really sure what was going on. Meanwhile I was befriended by a very charming young Nepali man who sat and chatted to me for several hours until Greg and Marika were finally released from the room where they had been detained.

I am already overwhelmed by Nepali hospitality. In Thailand I felt like I was perceived mostly as an opportunity for making money, whereas here there is an incredible friendliness and genuine curiosity, and I feel respected as a fellow human being. The standard of spoken English is extremely high, although we had some difficulty after venturing away from Thamel, the main tourist area.


We haven't had much time to explore the city or surrounds as yet, having spent most of the day sorting out last minute things for out trek. In this part of the city the streets are lined with so much colour and activity. There is beautiful, brightly-coloured clothing in every second shop and gorgeous handmade papers and crafts. Marika and I bought lovely skirts to wear trekking, but plan to spend more time shopping after we get back from the mountains. Taxis, rickshaws, motorbikes and pedestrians all jostle for space on the narrow paved streets. And although the shopkeepers are keen to offer you a bargain, there's no serious hassling if you politely decline their offers for tiger balm and jewellery.

We've booked a 'super express' bus to Jiri tomorrow, however the 188km journey is still expected to take around six or seven hours! I think we're all feeling excited about stretching our legs and finding a bit more solitude and peace in the hills.


Namche

The bus ride to Jiri was horrendous – a ten hour ordeal with only a ten minute stop for lunch at a tiny roadside village where I almost got left behind! Other highlights included almost tipping the bus on its side while trying to manoeuvre round a truck on a precariously narrow mountain road, and stopping at numerous army checkpoints for inspections by officers wielding guns and serious expressions.

There was great competition for our custom on arrival in Jiri, with several lodge owners promising the ‘best hotel in town’. Eventually we chose one boasting the unexpected luxury of a hot shower. Our lodge was a lot fancier than I expected in other respects too – quiet, private rooms with clean-looking linen, a flush toilet (admittedly, not one that worked) and a restaurant serving everything from porridge and pancakes to pizza and chow mein!

We crossed several passes over the next few days, so the landscape was constantly changing. The land is tilled to capacity with rice paddies covering even the steepest slopes. In amongst the bright green terraces are small stone cottages adorned with marigolds and racks of drying cobs of corn. We have walked through some extremely poverty stricken areas, but the people are resilient and extremely friendly. Children greeted us along the trail with requests for pens and pencils, abbreviated to simply ‘Hello pen?’

There is so much water everywhere – raging torrents of rivers and tremendous waterfalls cascading down steep mountain sides. The monsoon lasted later than usual this year, so we had rain every day for the first week, and are very grateful now for the clear skies.

Walking is a great opportunity for inner reflection, and at the moment I am thoroughly enjoying my place in the world. We tend to spend so much time reliving the past and anticipating the future. But right now I more at peace with myself than I have been for a long while, and simply enjoying our day-to-day existence.


There have been lots of stupas and mani walls throughout the trek, but it felt like we truly entered a Buddhist region yesterday. There are prayer flags snapping in the wind, carved mani stones everywhere, beautiful chortens and the largest prayer wheels I have ever seen!

The nature of the trail changed dramatically after passing Lukla. Until then the trail was very quiet, with few other trekkers to be seen. Suddenly there are tourists everywhere, and we are not such a spectacle to the locals as we were a few days ago. Gorgeous villages have begun to merge into one long stretch of lodges and tea houses.

We arrived in Namche Bazaar this morning after a two hour plod up the hill from Monjo. We certainly fared a lot better than the trekkers fresh off the plane from Lukla. Our legs have been conditioned to big hills over the past ten days, having already climbed almost 9000 vertical metres – equivalent to the height of Everest!

Namche is quite an assault on the senses after the small villages and quiet surrounds we have experienced thus far. It’s like a mini-Kathmandu, with stalls lining the narrow streets devoted entirely to the tourist trade. The food is sensational, and on arrival we sat up at a cafe with milkshakes and apple strudel enjoying the passing theatre and listening to Jack Johnson. It's very strange to reconcile this with the fact that we're actually at 3440m and several days walk from the nearest road!


We will take it easy over the next couple of days before beginning our trek up to Gokyo. Greg and Marika were both quite sick a few days ago. We'd originally hoped to cross Cho La into the Khumbu valley, but won't have time for that any more - it was probably a bit too ambitious in the first place. So we'll just have to come back another time to explore more of this beautiful country!


Raining in Kathmandu

Well it's been a week of ups and downs, both literally and figuratively!

Highlights have been sipping tea at the Everest View Hotel with clear skies and our first spectacular mountain panorama; moonrise over Ama Dablam against an azure sky; reaching our high point of 4000m at Mong La; and our flight back from Lukla this morning.


Lowlights were two days spent in bed at Khumjung suffering from bad gastro.

We didn't make it as far up the Gokyo Valley as we had hoped. We've all had gastro problems, but didn't manage to coordinate them very well! As we left Namche Marika was unwell, but recovered quickly. Then Greg and I both got quite sick and spent two horrid days in bed. We struggled on the following day and I made a miraculous recovery overnight, but Greg was still feeling pretty miserable so we decided to abandon our trek.


Our last night in the mountains was spent at the Buddha lodge, one of only a handful of dwellings in the small village of Mong La. As with almost all the lodges we stayed in, it was the woman who managed everything and prepared our meals. Her two young children were as grubby as ever. At this time of year the men are mostly away from home working as guides or porters. Work is very seasonal, and all the towns between here and Gokyo close up over the winter, with the villagers returning to their homes in Khumjung and elsewhere. It would be a hard life in the high mountains.

From Mong La it was a three day walk back down the valley. We retraced our steps along the banks of the Dudh Kosi negotiating spectacular swing bridges, recalcitrant yaks and innumerable westerners, to eventually arrive at the bustling metropolis of Lukla.

Lukla is a strange town - a sprawling jumble of houses and businesses, with mangy dogs running round all over the place. It felt like we were in a war zone. There were army personnel everywhere in their blue-grey uniforms with semi-automatics slung over their shoulders. Barbed wire surrounded the airport and there were bunkers all around. The runway is sealed these days, but still on quite a spectacular incline. The terminal was utter chaos, with bags getting thrown all over the place and 'security checks' consisting of a manual frisk of the luggage and passengers.

We're now back in Kathmandu and feeling lucky that our flight wasn't cancelled this morning due to bad weather. It's been raining heavily ever since we arrived. There was light scattered cloud in the valleys, but we still had fabulous views from the plane. We traced our whole route back to Jiri, pointing out each of the small villages we stayed in along the way – how wonderful! It's such an amazingly mountainous country when viewed from the air.

And so ends my first taste of trekking in the Himalaya! We are now looking forward to a few days relaxing and recovering our good health before I meet up with Cheryl at the end of the month.


Rafting the Kali Gandaki

Today is our last day in Pokhara and I will be sad to leave this place. I'm sure it would have been quite different 20 years ago - it has become very much the tourist town - but it still has a lovely relaxed atmosphere, tropical feel, great cafes, and beautiful lake and mountain views. It's the sort of place where I can imagine coming for a brief visit and staying for months, if not years... like the French guy we met who has been here for 32 years!

We went whitewater rafting for Greg's birthday and loved it so much we went on another 2-day trip! It was fantastic! I thought I'd be too scared, but we all had the best time. The first day we rafted the upper Seti (grade 2/3 rapids) - just an afternoon trip really. Three of us fell out of the raft within about 30 seconds of getting on the water, but once we relaxed and worked out how to position ourselves it was a whole lot of fun. A bit like canyoning a really big river.

Our 2-day rafting trip on the Kali Gandaki has been the highlight of my holiday so far. After an early start from Pokhara and a long drive through the hills we were on the river shortly before 9am. The first rapids were probably the most exciting, with a couple of grade 4 sections. Our river guide, Calu, is only 23 years old but has already been working as a rafting guide for more than nine seasons. And our happy-go-lucky safety kayaker, Babu, is the most proficient kayaker I have ever met. So we all felt that we were in safe hands.


We paddled through some pretty wild country, but all along the river we passed small settlements and people going about their daily chores. Often we saw children on their way to school, who would run along the mountain paths, waving and calling out to us. Some of us spotted monkeys on the riverbank, we saw lots of eagles and vultures, and paddled under some impressive waterfalls.

Our small group met up with a larger bunch of rafters from the same company at our beach campsite. The Nepali crew were extremely efficient at setting up camp and cooked us an amazing dinner. In the evening we sat around the campfire sharing songs from our various homelands (Nepal, Sweden, France, Netherlands, Israel and Australia). There was lots of dancing, music and laughter under a starry sky. Absolute bliss! The roar of the river lulled us to sleep. It was a lovely group and as is always the case there followed a feeling of loss as we all went our separate ways yesterday evening. This was made up in part by a fun night out at the Busy Bee Cafe with the whole group sharing a meal and a few celebratory drinks.

Anway, enough chatter. I only wish I could stay here long enough to do some kayaking as well. I think I'm a bit of a waterbaby at heart and really loved being on the river. However the kayaking will have to wait, as I'm flying back to Kathmandu tomorrow and then on to further adventures!

Lots of love to all, Jo