Nepal 2010 Blog: March 2010

March 2010

Emails sent during March 2010

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Mail from 01 Mar 2010: Why Nepal, why trekking?
Mail from 12 Mar 2010: Jiri - Namche Bazaar

Subject: Why Nepal, why trekking?

Date: Mon, 1 Mar 2010 11:08:31 +0545

Dear all,

we're now in Kathmandu. Ueventful flight, though the approach to
KTM, with the giant Himalayas in the backdrop, is always a
spectacular sight (last time we flew direct to KTM was 2003, so
we had almost forgotten about that...). Here it's rather warm
and sunny. There's not a lot to report yet so we thought we would
talk a little about Nepal and trekking in this mail. All the more so
as some of our friends have wondered aloud (with perhaps a few more
wondering silently) why on earth we would go back to a place we've
already seen so many times before. We're now heading to Nepal for,
what was it?,  the 12th time... strange, isn't it?

Well, first of all, there are the Nepalese. Tough, likeable, ever
cheerful and always friendly. And not only by day: Kathmandu, even in
the middle of the night, is still a safe place, as it was 16 years ago,
when we first visited Nepal. Back then, it seemed a mysterious and
promising target... little did we know!

Second, the country. The sights, the smells, the Nepalese way of living,
the food, the sounds, the gods, the temples... we love it. Sometimes the
country doesn't feel completely real, more like something that
inadvertently slipped out of a romantic opera: it's such a bizarre
mishmash of influences, impressions, behaviours that it just doesn't
seem wholly of this world.

Third, there are the mountains, the valleys, the sky, the ice, the
rocks, the air. These wild, desolate, grand landscapes, whether in the
Khumbu or around the Annapurnas or somewhere else in the country, are
something we just can't get enough of.

And last, but very definitely not least, there are the joys of trekking.
It is difficult, maybe impossible, to convey fully the pleasures to be
had on a long trek (say six weeks or more) to those of you who have
not yet done one. Still, we can try.

On this sort of long distance trek there is no pressure to find hotel
rooms, to catch buses, to do sightseeing. The whole walking day, calm,
relaxed, often warm and sunny, as it stretches in front of you, is
itself one long period of sightseeing. And if the weather changes for
an hour (or even a day or two) and turns into an elemental force, this
only adds to the experience. In the evening, after the main meal, you
are tired and feel a bit drowsy, but in a very gratifying way. Even the
odd aching muscle or tendon adds to that sense of satisfaction and
achievement.

Then there's the camaraderie on the trail and in the lodges. You meet
all sorts of people on the trails, Western tourists, many Asians these
days, even a few Indians;-). But nobody cares one blind bit about your
bank balance, your position in the "real world", what cars you drive,
and whether you have a six-bedroom palace or a one-bedroom council flat.
(Group trekkers are a different matter altogether but we won't go into
that as nobody, in the final analysis, is forced to go with a group.)

On the trail, there's no man-made noise, no pollution, no one bothering
you. It's all perfectly natural and after a few days, once your body has
got used to the exertions, the sweating, the occasional panting, you
feel strong and active and healthy, fully in control. There's a lodge or
at least a teahouse every hour: Rest and Be Thankful (with apologies to
the A83: http://arrocharheritage.com/ArrocharHeritageTrail_RABT.htm ).

It's a simple life and though it can be rough at times, with no bells
and whistles (and not too many hot showers either), these "deprivations"
are more than worth it. Indeed, the simplicity of trekking teaches you,
among other things, that many, if not most, paraphernalia of modern life
are superfluous junk: we think (or have perhaps been conditioned to
think) we need them. Do we?

Trekking also means that you are alone with yourself and your thoughts
for long stretches of time. This can be disconcerting at first, but
after a while you begin to see many things, both physical objects and
metaphysical issues, in a different, more disinterested light. You begin
to ask yourself questions you would never dream of asking at home or in
a more stressful, distracting environment. And though the very act of
asking a question and thinking about it is often more important than
getting an actual answer, you sometimes do find real answers.

Having said all that, the one thing that, after a few weeks, really,
really begins to dominate your thoughts is more mundane: FOOD. The
physical effort of walking six, seven hours a day means you need a lot
of it (doing a long trek in Nepal is a perfect diet). True, the big
lodges in and above Namche Bazaar or around the Annapurnas do offer an
amazing variety of menus. (Though off the beaten track the situation is
a lot more restricted: there's dal bhat, or dal bhat, or how about some
dal bhat today? See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dal_bhat )

At any rate, the food on trek is mostly vegetarian and often pretty
bland: it definitely pales after you've had it for weeks on end. You
start dreaming of crispy bacon with fried eggs, a crunchy baguette with
salt butter and Camembert or a freshly baked butter croissant. Not to
mention steaks, chips, fish, a roast... Luckily, all that and more is
available in Kathmandu: most people just carry on and dream on.

And anyway, bland food is a very small price to pay: trekking offers
ample compensation. There are days where you walk for hours on end along
walls of blooming, fragrant rhododendrons, high on a small trail perched
hundreds of meters above a steep valley, as if on a natural balcony,
with views up and down that are beyond description. There are other days
where nature is savage and fierce and yet more subtle and beautiful than
words can tell.

There are also days where you cross a creaking, living glacier in the
morning, walk along a string of greenish-blue mountain lakes by midday,
climb up a steep ridge in the afternoon and watch the sun set, in front
of you a foursome of the world's 14 eight-thousander mountains slowly
turning red and then pink and finally dark blue. (There are also nights
where you stumble down a steep ridge and wish you'd have had the wits
to bring a torch with you.)

This seemingly unending succession of days like these, all similar in
some respects and yet very varied in others ("same same but different"
as they say in Indochina), eases the trekker into a finely balanced
rhythm, physically strenuous and yet relaxing at the same time. (It has
to be said, though, that in more than 45 weeks of Nepalese trekking we
never had problems with altitude or our stomachs. We know people who
have been a lot less lucky.)

Trekking is, for want of a better word, a wholesome activity. It is one
of the very few things we can do for weeks and weeks and weeks and still
feel happy and satisfied and full of energy and wanting more. What more
can you ask?

And so, to conclude this epistle, Nepal is one of the very, very few
countries in the world where you can have the sort of completely
independent long distance trek we enjoy so much: without too much
officialdom getting in your way, with no strings attached, with complete
confidence and with almost guaranteed good weather. We've done many
treks in other countries: coastal paths in England, the GR20 on Corsica,
long hikes in the European Alps, a DIY trek in the Darjeeling/Sikkim
area -- but we've found nowhere else the perfect mixture Nepal offers.

So there you have it, in a nutshell.

All the best

Vero and Thomas

PS: Peter Fleming (brother of Ian, the creator of "My name's Bond, James
Bond") has this to say about travelling in restricted circumstances:

https://books.google.com/books?id=6C2aaB3f9P4C&pg=PA165&cd=1

(If this link is broken by your email client or otherwise doesn't work,
search https://books.google.com for the expression <<fleming "news from
tartary" "good companions">>, verbatim but omitting the enclosing << >>.
Once you've found the book, look for page 165ff.)

Subject: Jiri - Namche Bazaar

Date: Fri, 12 Mar 2010 00:16:19 -0800

Dear all,

so here we are again in Namche! After nine wonderful days of nice
weather and even nicer walking, we have arrived in Namche Bazaar
(3445m), the main village in the Khumbu region. We will stay here a
couple of days to acclimatise and then start the real thing;-) GO UP
INTO THE MOUNTAINS!

The walk-in route was almost empty (we saw only four or five other
trekkers and no group, unheard of!) and even above Lukla (that's where
the fly-ins join us... or rather we join them) there is currently not
a lot going on. It's of course beginning of the season and Namche has
exactly that half-ready feel.

We're in surprisingly good shape, Xmas and other excesses
notwithstanding. It is pretty cold so far but that was to be expected,
so no big deal.

You may remember that we wanted to start in Okhaldhunga and finish in
Jiri. For reasons of timing (we wanted to be in Namche as quickly as
possible to beat the crowds) we switched the two, so we started in Ji.
and will probably finish in Ok. This means we won't do the Rolwaling
(maybe next time;-)) but to compensate we will climb a mountain we
always wanted to climb but which till now required tents (for those
who know the region it's Pike Peak, a mere 4070m).

For the next four weeks we will visit every nook and cranny in the
upper Khumbu region (between 3800m and 5600m)...if the cold doesn't
beat us down to Namche again. So the next mail will come maybe in 26
to 29 days.

So all the best and we'll be back!

Vero and Thomas

Go to April 2010.

Nepal 2010

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March 2010

Emails sent during March 2010

Subject: Why Nepal, why trekking?

Subject: Jiri - Namche Bazaar