November 6 – Kathmandu to Pokhara

Today we travelled by bus from Kathmandu to Pokhara. The distance was only 200 kilometers but because of the road conditions and traffic it took us almost 9 hours (including a 45 minute break for brunch and two fifteen minute rest stops along the way)

Our bus is new & relatively comfortable but the seats are pretty close together so there is no room to stretch your legs. There is no luggage compartment so all that gets tied to the roof – just like the locals!

I guess the upside of this is that our economy class seats on the plane trip home in a few weeks will feel luxurious.

It seemed like we were constantly going downhill through canyons & valleys and there was a lot of traffic going both ways – especially trucks & busses of all sizes. This is the main route from India into Kathmandu so it was literally bumper to bumper in a whole different kind of traffic congestion than what we see at home!

The road is so narrow that when you approach a hairpin turn in a bus or heavy truck the traffic coming the one way has to stop to allow oncoming traffic to use both lanes in order to safely make the turn.

The highway is only two lanes wide for the vast majority of the distance. The concept of no passing zones does not exist here. Its a total game of nerves – when drivers see any opportunity at all to pass they go for it – even on corners & up & over small hills – honking their horns like mad. If you encounter oncoming traffic while passing then one lane slows down to a crawl while the other passes & two lanes with narrow shoulders become four lanes. This is not for the faint of heart!

Along the way we passed dozens & dozens of “highway truck stops” that serve drinks & hot food. Masala chai to go! Some places even had buskers!

These places range in construction from a simple lean to made from bamboo poles & sheets of tin to much more elaborate concrete buildings complete with flush toilets.

The land in this part of Nepal is intensely terrace farmed with crops of rice & several varieties of vegetables including cabbage and cauliflower. All of the farmed areas look very orderly & productive.

The climate is also quite temperate – warm enough to allow year-round agriculture & to even grow bananas!

About halfway to Pokhara we began to get glimpses of some of the snow-capped mountain peaks. We also drove past the road that leads to the village of Gorkha, which is the home of the first Gorkha soldiers & it was also the epicenter of the massive earthquake in 2015.

In late afternoon we finally arrived in Pokhara. This city is beside a beautiful lake & is very popular with tourists. Unlike Kathmandu, the tourist shopping & restaurant district here has wide streets & wide sidewalks – making a much more pleasant experience.

There are lots of Westerners here as it is the departure point for the popular Annapurna trekking circuit. It reminds us a bit of Canmore, just outside Banff, catering to the trekkers and tour companies. Except for the Nepalese street vendors and souvenir hawkers, most of whom are less than 5 feet tall!

Even though it felt like we were going downhill for much of the road trip, Pokhara and Kathmandu are actually the same elevation of 1400 m. which is roughly the same as Banff! From the lakeshore, we can see the Annapurna range and the peak of Fish Tail Mountain – Machapuchare – at 7000 m!

It is revered by the local population as particularly sacred to the Hindu God Shiva and hence is completely off limits to climbing. I guess we will have to find another peak to plant the Canadian flag on!

We were pleasantly surprised by our spacious and luxurious room at the hotel which even has a rain forest shower and abundant hot water. We are soaking it up before we head out on our trek tomorrow morning. The only way we will get a rain forest shower is if the heavens open up along the trail but there is a promise of a dip in a hot spring along the way so Cath and several others have actually packed swimsuits to take. Good thing it’s light weight!

As part of the Diwali festival in Nepal, today is the day that dogs, man’s best friend are honored as protectors of the home. There are feral dogs everywhere & many today were adorned with garlands of marigolds & tika or red marks on their heads & given special food treats. I guess every dog has his day – and theirs is today.

Tomorrow we begin our 3-day hiking trek into the Annapurna mountain range. We are excited and, at the same time, a bit apprehensive. Should be lots of photo opportunities along the way. We have packed most of our trekking items in a large duffel bag that the porter will carry and the rest of our stuff we will carry with us in our day packs. We have packed light and can leave the rest of our luggage at the hotel. Our tour guide Kalpana says it won’t be too cold where we are going but we have lots of layers!

Not sure if we will have any access to the internet at our overnight stops along the way so we may not be able to make any new blog postings for a few days.

Cheers from Wally & Cath

November 5 – Exploring Kathmandu

Today we visited one of the main things on Cath’s bucket list -Boudhanath Stupa – the largest Buddhist shrine in Asia and a centre of Tibetan culture in Nepal.

The drive from our hotel to the Stupa took about 30 minutes. It is in the center of a mostly Tibetan community surrounded by shops, restaurants & monasteries.

We had breakfast on an upstairs outdoor patio restaurant overlooking the stupa and then were able to walk around the base of the stupa with crowds of tourists, monks & pilgrims. As we circled the stupa we spun many of the prayer wheels. Our guide told us that each spin of a prayer wheel is said to represent 108 repetitions of a mantra. It was a spectacular experience under a clear blue sky.

Next we drove to the medieval district called Bhaktapur which had fascinating temples and architecture, very narrow streets with no sidewalks and a continual of barrage of small scooters and motorcycles. Fortunately they drive fairly slowly but sure like to honk their horns!

The temple area had lots of people but no vehicles were allowed in the square.

From there we then went on to a women’s resource centre called Sisterhood of Survival, which was actually started in Nepal in 2008 by a Canadian woman through g-Adventures. It helps girls and women escape from sex trafficking and forced labour. It’s an appalling problem all over the world and Nepalese women are particularly vulnerable due to their poverty and very limited education.

As part of g-Adventures’ efforts to support the program they bring their tour groups for a fun workshop making momos – Nepalese dumplings – followed by a delicious lunch and presentation by staff about their work.

The reasons for this organization to exist are difficult to discuss but it’s a great program that is making a huge difference in women’s lives.

We are holding up well, getting somewhat adjusted to all the traffic, noise and pollution which are the most tiring aspects of our adventure so far.

Today is the start of the Tihar festival which is the Nepalese Diwali or festival of lights so lots of strings of lights are hung outside buildings. It goes for five days. Each day has a focus & today was the honouring of crows as divine messengers. Tomorrow it’s dogs so apparently the dogs will all have tikkas or red marks on placed on their heads and they will get extra food! There are stray dogs everywhere we go and they are in a little better shape than the ones we saw in India. Not sure what animals come next but brothers and sisters are the focus on the last day.

We are heading to Pokhara tomorrow at 7:00 am on the tour group’s bus which is just big enough for all 15 people plus the tour leader and an assistant driver who we think is an extra pair of eyes for the driver. It’s a 6-8 hour drive, depending upon ….. Maybe we should spin a few prayer wheels for our driver Naveen & his assistant Ram!

Cheers from Kathmandu!
Wally & Cath

November 4 – First Day In Kathmandu

Back home in London we are often woken up early by police, ambulance or fire truck sirens. Here it’s roosters, crows and workers beginning their day – and ours – at 4:00am!

The air quality is very poor here. Lots of smog from all the traffic & smoke from people burning small piles of garbage on the street. We were excited to open up the curtains to see Kathmandu & the surrounding mountains but could not see much through the haze.

We decided not to get Nepal currency at the airport last night so we had breakfast in the hotel restaurant and then headed out walking in search of a bank or ATM.

Prior to beginning this trip we watched lots of videos about Kathmandu on YouTube but nothing prepared us for the onslaught of complete & utter chaos of people, cars, motorcycles, small trucks, tractors & bicycles. There are no traffic signs, traffic lights, pedestrian crosswalks or sidewalks – it’s simply a free-for-all & you just have to dive in. Strangely it all works. Everyone respects the limited space & shares it without emotion or road rage.

I especially like the electric grid wiring.

I had our route to the bank all mapped out on my cellphone GPS but there was a fatal flaw in that plan as there were virtually no street signs & the few that were posted were in Nepalese.

After a few close calls with motorcycles we decided that our safest option was to follow close behind a mother taking her young son to school. That strategy worked well especially with Catherine following her first so the lady didn’t think she was being stalked.

After about 90 minutes of wandering through the maze of streets we finally arrived at a bank. I had to join a 30 minute lineup for service & when my turn came I was informed that I couldn’t change any money because I left my passport back at the hotel in a safety deposit box.

At this point we were tired, hungry & frustrated. We stopped at the first reasonable looking money exchange kiosk & traded our US dollars for Nepalese Rupees. With local money in hand we headed for the first cafe we could find. Two cups of Masala chai tea with MoMo dumplings & vegetable biriani did much to save the trip & our marriage.

Fully recharged & feeling confident navigating the chaos we headed back to the hotel. The walk back seemed a lot shorter until I was nearly wiped out by a load of cardboard boxes that toppled off a cargo bicycle. After traveling halfway around the world to go trekking in the Himalayas it would be ironic to be done in by a bunch of cardboard boxes filled with aluminum pots & pans.

Despite all of the chaos there are many surprising pockets of beauty that catch your eyes.

Finally back at the hotel we headed directly for the rooftop bar & I steadied my nerves with a jumbo-sized Gurkha beer. We were also treated to our first glimpse of the Himalayan mountains off in the hazy distance.

We met up with our tour group at 5:30.
The group leader is a delightful Nepalese young woman named Kalpana who has been a tour guide for 8 years. She is very attentive to everyone and really knows her stuff.

It’s a pleasant group of people, the majority are the under 30 crowd and there are a few others our age so that is good. Four people are from the UK, three from Australia, two from Germany, three from Switzerland and one American. We are the only Canadians! After introductions & an orientation talk we walked into the tourist area for a dinner. Safety in numbers with a seasoned local showing us the way. Hope the lights stay on!

Tomorrow we head out to explore the city.

November 2-3 – Toronto to Kathmandu

Our plane left Toronto at 10:00am and landed in Hong Kong almost 16 hours later – at 1:00pm local time.

Catherine was seated beside a kindred spirit – a young Indo-Canadian woman from Markham on her way to a yoga retreat in Thailand. She was a yoga teacher and psychologist who taught mindfulness meditation. They talked for hours! Synchronicity at work! In total contrast I watched endless action/disaster movies.

The plane flew north over Canada and the Arctic Ocean. It was interesting to view our progress on the in-flight map.

Not much going on down below!

We had a 5 hour layover in Hong Kong and amused ourselves with cups of coffee and tea that cost 40 Hong Kong dollars each ($7.00 CDN each) while watching the world literally go by. Where were all those planes going? We couldn’t see much of the city as it was very hazy.

We left Hong Kong at 7:00 pm and arrived in Kathmandu 5-1/2 hours later. The last 2 hours were the longest and the entertainment system in our seats didn’t work so we had to be content peeking over the seats to see what other people were watching.

It was pitch black when we landed at 10:00 pm so we couldn’t see much but probably just as well. The pilot had to really stand on the brakes because the runway was very short and the plane was very long! Whew! Made it!

We managed to stumble our way through the visa process in the chaotic arrivals hall. After claiming our checked luggage we went to the public arrivals area & looked for our airport transfer person. There were dozens of men standing across the road with arrival signs for various tour groups. After fending off several attempts by independent taxi drivers to relieve us of our luggage, I resorted to shouting “ g-Adventures!” and our hosts emerged from the crowd with a small sign bearing our names! Never have we been sooooo happy to have someone say “Namaste!” to us.

We had an interesting ride through dark, smokey & bumpy streets reminiscent of India. When we arrived at the hotel, the metal gates were closed and padlocked shut so the driver had to honk the horn and flash the lights several times to wake the guard up to let us in. After checking in, the porter hoisted our suitcase on his shoulder and took us to our room. It had a bed. We were happy!

Today we travelled all the way from London to a hotel near Toronto airport.

Tomorrow morning we depart from Toronto and fly to Kathmandu, Nepal via Hong Kong. We have a mid-morning flight so we decided it would be best if we came into Toronto the day before instead of getting up in the middle of the night.

Our journey began on Via Rail from London to Toronto. While we were waiting for the train Catherine was busy sorting out all the last minute details of the trip.

I guess I have lost a bit of my “travel savvy” since I retired. This afternoon we caught a shuttle bus from Pearson Airport to our hotel only to discover that we had gone to the wrong location! Unfortunately I did not bother to ask the shuttle bus driver the address of the hotel. I saw “Sandman Hotel” written on the side of the shuttle bus & told Catherine “that’s the one for us!”

When we got to the hotel front desk we were told that we had no reservation there. The desk clerk looked at my reservation papers & politely informed us that our reservation was at the Sandman on Dixie Road – about 10km further away. Bummer!

Back on the shuttle bus to the airport to wait for the “other” shuttle bus to take us to the right hotel. That was almost two hours wasted.

Oh well, we finally got checked in to a very nice room. The hotel had a bar/lounge where a glass of wine, a large draft beer & a big plate of chicken wings helped us forget our little misadventure.

It will be a super long day tomorrow. Our flight from Toronto to Hong Kong is almost 16 hours. Then we have a 5 1/2 hour layover in Hong Kong before we board our (5 1/2 hour) flight to Kathmandu.

Thankfully we have a full day to ourselves in Kathmandu before we join up with the rest of our tour group. I think we will be sleeping in the first day there.

Cheers!