So here I've also met up with my friend Sabine, how flew over from Dehli, apparently her plane was having some difficulties to find the landing strip (or maybe this was just a joke made by the guy from our tour organizer), but in the end it turned out well and she appeared in the entrance hall eventually. We first had the pleasure to enjoy a very well guided tour around Kathmandu and its neighborhoods, visiting Bhaktapur, Pashupatinath and Boudhanath, all of them very impressive and sometimes stunning historical and religious sites.
We really enjoyed this tour, even tough it was raining cats & dogs the whole day, which was very unusual for this time of the year. And at this moment we also had just no idea at all that up in the mountains (especially in the Annapurna region) a terrible sad drama took place, where dozens of trekkers lost their lives in the most fatal snow storm in Nepal trekking history ever. We heard many stories about this incident later on, on TV, by people who were stuck up there but made it out, and one can say that we were quite lucky not to be up there during the storm, but also we felt very sad for the people who died and for their families back home.
After the two days in Kathmandu we set off for our village trek tour around the Gorkha region. So after a 7 hours drive along some veery bumpy roads we ended up in an area, where most people live as farmers, taking care of their rice paddy fields, lots of other veggies & fruits their grow, cows, goats & chicken and so on. During our village trek we had the chance to live with the families and to get a little insight in their lives. They live in rather simple houses and especially in the kitchen one could find a medieval stove which produced a lot of smoke, definitely nothing for a healthy lung.
Well, most of all we have met very very friendly families who took good care for us and who made it a pleasant stay in every place. We enjoyed the nice food (Dal bhat in many different variations and tastes), the tea they offered to us whenever we looked like ready for having one, and when we needed something else they were right there to provide it to us if possible. Conversation was not always easy as most of them couldn't speak a lot of English, but a sign with the eyes or hands did solve this in most cases. And wherever you are, a genuine 'Namaste' with your hands folded before your heart helped a lot, making the vis-à-vis smile and knowing, that you're just a human being too :-). During this time we also had the chance to meet with local shamans (a very funny event indeed), to join an English lesson at a primary school and to meditate around the Hindu temples. So this week was filled with so many impressions and I'm glad that I was able to see all of this.
A little unfortunate though was, that our guide found this village trek most of the time very boring, from time to time he's lost his group, didn't know the way but most of all, we didn't feel very comfortable in his presence. So we decide to change things and fortunately we managed to get a different guide for the second part of our trip, the Annapurna trekking.
So it was Madan who became our new guide and he took us from the Gorkha region to Besi Sahar, the starting point for our trek. Actually Madan was the guy who picked us up at the airport, and we were very happy to have him back, as he is just the best guide you could ever have, friendly, smiling and in good mood all the time, caring, funny and a lot more. So in case you will ever come to Nepal, you should definitely book him as your guide.
Having done some trekking for one week already we were quite ready and fit for our next challenge, the Annapurna circuit trek. It starts at around 1'300m a.s.l. and finds its peak at the Thorung La Pass, 5'416m a.s.l. All together it was hell of a (good) experience, we've trekked through so many different views of nature, from the warm climate at the beginning with forests and beautiful gorges and waterfalls up to the deserted heights until the snowy mountain tops above 5'000m. There's so many things you can see on the way, the unreal mountain peaks of the Annapurna range (some of them up to 8'000m high), then you have stupas, prayer flags and monasteries, a lot of animals including mules, blue sheep and the funny & amazing yaks, different guesthouse (some nicer, some less), tea houses & trekker shops and lots more.
Good food and good health is also very important on the way, and you ought to drink a lot of water in order to better adjust to the height. I wasn't always a hundred percent happy with my fitness, especially my digestion felt somehow funny from time to time and above 4'500m my head started aching in a way I didn't really like, but eventually and maybe also with help of a little medicine I got over the nasty inconveniences and made it over the pass at 08.30 in the morning - together with my friend Sabine who did really well all the way up and sometimes walked like some Austrian mountain climber (I guess his name was something like Luis Trenker ;-). Only on the way down she felt a little headache & nausea (maybe she just wanted to stay up in the beautiful mountains ;-) but also this we managed to overcome and we made it safely to Muktinath on the other side of the pass.
So after our success we took an adventuresome flight from Jomson to Pokhara where we had some time to relax and do some shopping. One more day bus ride back to Kathmandu and our great journey has already come to an end. Sabine has left for Vienna again and now I'm planning my next ventures. I decided to have a brief look at Bhutan, which is not so far from Nepal. I will start my trip there tomorrow and I'm very curious in this different country, which has been secluded from the rest of the world until very recently. So let's find out, what secrets and magic can still be discovered. More pictures of my Nepal trip can be found under Photoalbums on the right side of this page. Enjoy and have a good time you all.
We really enjoyed this tour, even tough it was raining cats & dogs the whole day, which was very unusual for this time of the year. And at this moment we also had just no idea at all that up in the mountains (especially in the Annapurna region) a terrible sad drama took place, where dozens of trekkers lost their lives in the most fatal snow storm in Nepal trekking history ever. We heard many stories about this incident later on, on TV, by people who were stuck up there but made it out, and one can say that we were quite lucky not to be up there during the storm, but also we felt very sad for the people who died and for their families back home.
After the two days in Kathmandu we set off for our village trek tour around the Gorkha region. So after a 7 hours drive along some veery bumpy roads we ended up in an area, where most people live as farmers, taking care of their rice paddy fields, lots of other veggies & fruits their grow, cows, goats & chicken and so on. During our village trek we had the chance to live with the families and to get a little insight in their lives. They live in rather simple houses and especially in the kitchen one could find a medieval stove which produced a lot of smoke, definitely nothing for a healthy lung.
On the other hand, modern technology has also found its way through to these people, so you had electricity most of the time, you could see TVs and satellite dishes, and the most funny thing to me was, when I came across an old woman carrying a huge pile of wood on her back, and then something started ringing underneath her clothes so she took out her mobile phone and started talking to someone on the other end, maybe letting him know, what time she will be back home :-).
Well, most of all we have met very very friendly families who took good care for us and who made it a pleasant stay in every place. We enjoyed the nice food (Dal bhat in many different variations and tastes), the tea they offered to us whenever we looked like ready for having one, and when we needed something else they were right there to provide it to us if possible. Conversation was not always easy as most of them couldn't speak a lot of English, but a sign with the eyes or hands did solve this in most cases. And wherever you are, a genuine 'Namaste' with your hands folded before your heart helped a lot, making the vis-à-vis smile and knowing, that you're just a human being too :-). During this time we also had the chance to meet with local shamans (a very funny event indeed), to join an English lesson at a primary school and to meditate around the Hindu temples. So this week was filled with so many impressions and I'm glad that I was able to see all of this.
A little unfortunate though was, that our guide found this village trek most of the time very boring, from time to time he's lost his group, didn't know the way but most of all, we didn't feel very comfortable in his presence. So we decide to change things and fortunately we managed to get a different guide for the second part of our trip, the Annapurna trekking.
So it was Madan who became our new guide and he took us from the Gorkha region to Besi Sahar, the starting point for our trek. Actually Madan was the guy who picked us up at the airport, and we were very happy to have him back, as he is just the best guide you could ever have, friendly, smiling and in good mood all the time, caring, funny and a lot more. So in case you will ever come to Nepal, you should definitely book him as your guide.
Having done some trekking for one week already we were quite ready and fit for our next challenge, the Annapurna circuit trek. It starts at around 1'300m a.s.l. and finds its peak at the Thorung La Pass, 5'416m a.s.l. All together it was hell of a (good) experience, we've trekked through so many different views of nature, from the warm climate at the beginning with forests and beautiful gorges and waterfalls up to the deserted heights until the snowy mountain tops above 5'000m. There's so many things you can see on the way, the unreal mountain peaks of the Annapurna range (some of them up to 8'000m high), then you have stupas, prayer flags and monasteries, a lot of animals including mules, blue sheep and the funny & amazing yaks, different guesthouse (some nicer, some less), tea houses & trekker shops and lots more.
Good food and good health is also very important on the way, and you ought to drink a lot of water in order to better adjust to the height. I wasn't always a hundred percent happy with my fitness, especially my digestion felt somehow funny from time to time and above 4'500m my head started aching in a way I didn't really like, but eventually and maybe also with help of a little medicine I got over the nasty inconveniences and made it over the pass at 08.30 in the morning - together with my friend Sabine who did really well all the way up and sometimes walked like some Austrian mountain climber (I guess his name was something like Luis Trenker ;-). Only on the way down she felt a little headache & nausea (maybe she just wanted to stay up in the beautiful mountains ;-) but also this we managed to overcome and we made it safely to Muktinath on the other side of the pass.
So after our success we took an adventuresome flight from Jomson to Pokhara where we had some time to relax and do some shopping. One more day bus ride back to Kathmandu and our great journey has already come to an end. Sabine has left for Vienna again and now I'm planning my next ventures. I decided to have a brief look at Bhutan, which is not so far from Nepal. I will start my trip there tomorrow and I'm very curious in this different country, which has been secluded from the rest of the world until very recently. So let's find out, what secrets and magic can still be discovered. More pictures of my Nepal trip can be found under Photoalbums on the right side of this page. Enjoy and have a good time you all.
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