On Nepal

After spending 10 weeks in this country, less than twice the size of Pennsylvania, I am more than ready to move on.  In fact I even have the rest of this international trip planned out.  Here's the quick rundown:
Dec 6 - fly to Istanbul and wander around Turkey
Dec 19 - Fly to Israel and visit some friends and family and the sites
Dec 31 - Fly to Kiev, Ukraine (only for new years - gotta love the randomness)
Jan 1 - Fly back to NY

Anyway, this post is supposed to be about Nepal.  I've spent the past week hanging out in Pokhara doing next to nothing except relaxing, reading, catching up on stuff, and planning this next month.  It has given me some time to think about the past 10 weeks here and reflect.

Smog in the Kathmandu Valley

When I first imagined Nepal, I thought about quaint little Buddhist Sherpa villages among giant Himalayan mountains.  Now this does exist, but for maybe 1% of the country.  Having Kathmandu be my introduction to Nepal was certainly a shock.  As you fly in, there is a thick brown haze that covers the entire valley.  Then the taxi ride from the airport was insane, seemingly no roadrules, and people cars livestock and trash equally scattered all about the streets which wander confusingly all around the city.  This is way more like what I have thought of for India, not Nepal.  This was also reinforced once we wandered around a bit, and found that most of the food here is Indian and everyone is Hindu.

Luckily the beginning of our first trek was a great experience (other than Nico being sick for 6 days).  We were doing a section of the Everest Trek that very few people do nowadays.  Because of this the people were all very friendly and genuine, prices were reasonable, and the other trekkers were good company.  When you order muelsi with milk the lodge owner goes out back and milks the water buffalo, and sometimes we be joined on the trail by someone who just wants to talk for a little while as they go about their day.  Little did I know at the time that this would be among the best and most genuine of my experiences in Nepal.  Once we met up with the main trail everything changed.  We encountered mostly large tour groups with no respect for the environment, prices suddenly triple, and the locals are now way more interested in your money than they are in you.

Quaint little village.... before joining the main trail on the Everest Trek

I understand that this is among the least developed countries in the world.  Hence it can sometimes take 11 hours on a bus to go a measly 110 miles, with people luggage and goats all over the bus and even on the roof.  This is fine with me.  One thing that I don't totally understand is the lack of hygiene.  Certainly these people know what soap is, but i doubt many use it.  Staying healthy has been a constant struggle.  I rarely get sick, but I have probably gotten sick from the food here more in the past 10 weeks than I have at all in the past 3 years.  And on most of the treks it is rare to find a group of more than 1 that has not been held up due to someone getting food poisoning or some other illness.

On top of Kala Patthar with the top of the world behind me

Even with dealing with so much crap in this country, the Himalayas are as amazing as I could have ever imagined.  I still think that one of the highlights of this entire year of traveling is that day that we made it up to Kala Patthar and had the amazing views of Everest, the highest point on Earth.  And on the Annapurna trek with Jay we saw constant amazing yet different scenery every day for almost 2 weeks.  I feel an amazing peace with everything when I am just relaxing up high at some amazing viewpoint.

One of the places on the Annapurna trek where I was more at peace than I'd been in a long time... just soaking it all in.

The people here have certainly taken a little while to figure out and get used to.  One of the strangest things is that for them, a shrug of the shoulders and tilt of the head means yes.  Even knowing that it is hard to get used to when you ask if something is okay and it looks like they are shrugging as if they'll do it, but unhappily.  When in fact they are actually saying, "sure, no problem".  Also people here cannot give "I don't know", or "I cannot do that" as an answer.  This very quickly gets frustrating, when you ask some people for information they will tell you something even if they are making it up on the spot.  When trying to see if we could get Nico a flight out from the Annapurna trek, we got 5 different answers about how many planes there are per day and how to even go about getting a ticket.  So when people tell you something, you have no idea if it is true or not.  What also comes from being a major tourist destination is that you never know if someone is trying to genuinely talk to you, or if they just want your money.  Everyone here knows some basic English, which is extremely helpful considering that is the only language I'm comfortable with.  If you are talking about tourist activities, then they are fine, but as soon as you ask something different most people are clueless, but they will respond with an answer to some question even if it is not the question that you asked.

Kids on the trail - they love getting their picture taken

I mentioned earlier about how very few people do the Jiri section of the Everest trek (the first part).  This is because for about the past 10 years, people would be asked for a "donation" at gunpoint to the Maoist party. You would at least get a receipt so you'd be off the hook the next time another Maoist asks for a donation.  As of two years ago the Maoist party was recognized to most of the world as a terrorist organization.  Although recently they have managed to gain control of the government and is now running the place.  There were elections and the people voted them in on their promise to make things better.  But of course after a couple years no one likes them because it was all empty promises and corruption.

One thing that I despise is TIMS - Trekker Information Management System.  Sounds nice as they have tons of trekkers who come through here and it would be good to make sure that they all make it out of the mountains alive.  But in fact it is a croc of shit, where you have to pay US$20 (plus another $15 to $30 on park fees, plus more ridiculous prices on food and accommodation) to just go on a hike.  It might be checked once, your info gets written down, and then nothing ever happens with it again.  They don't even pretend to notice if you've made it out alive or not.

Anyway, so overall, Nepal has not turned out to the hiker paradise that I had imagined before I came here.  It was actually a tough country to be in for so long, and I actually feel a sense of accomplishment for making it this far alive.  Although even with all the shit that you need to go through to get there, small parts of the country do come close to that mountain paradise.  Unfortunately to get to some of it you need a budget about 1000 times what you'd expect in a poorly developed country (one region requires a US$500 entrance permit which lasts only 10 days).  I am really happy that I made it to this country, saw some truly amazing scenery, even learned a new alphabet.  10 weeks might have been just a little bit too much time.  Moving on though, I am very excited about what is coming up in the next month.

On Travel Buddies

It has now been 10 months so far of traveling with a companion, Nico.  Five of those months we have basically been within 10 meters of each other at all times, minus only a few days that we have spent in different places.  I really had no idea what I was getting myself into over a year ago when we started talking about the idea of traveling the world together.  I certainly am lucky that it turns out we've got very similar traveling styles.  But like I said... before this began I had no idea what I was getting into, or how lucky I'd be that even after all this time we actually still talk to each other and enjoy each others company.

It is interesting to see how the dynamic changes when suddenly other people are thrown into the mix.  Jay came for a visit.  We had talked a bit beforehand about what we expected to do together and helped prepare him for what to expect, coming to a developing country for the first time.  It sure was nice to have someone else to talk to and interact with for a while.

Then before Jay even left the country, we met up with Mike and Chris (my old roomates from Ithaca) and Charlie (another friend from Ithaca).  This certainly opened my eyes to a few things that I otherwise had taken for granted.  First of all, we certainly did not have enough communication before they came to figure out what we planned on doing together or what they should expect.  In fact I didn't even know Chris was coming until he showed up with Mike at the hotel, and I didn't know Mike was coming for sure until about 2 days before.  Much of this though is due to the fact that for the 2 weeks prior I was in the mountains with no internet access.  Also, Nico and I spent time in NZ, then Australia, then Singapore before we even went to Indonesia and SE Asia.  Each country was slightly less like what you expect in western culture.  So thinking now about how I've had months to ease into such a different culture, I can understand how it would be a shock to come here straight from the U.S.

Also, 5 is a bit on the large side for a group traveling together – especially if you have no plans.  To make a decision on where to go or even something as simple as where to eat lunch, it all takes at least 5 times as long.  If you are in a resort or have everything planned out beforehand, then I don't think it would be much of a problem.  Everything worked out just fine in the end, but just did not go as smoothly as say, having 2 people.  Although even with all that, I am really glad that Jay, Charlie, Mike and Chris all made it out to visit.  To see some familiar faces in such a foreign place really was quite refreshing.  It also encourages me to do some things that I may not have done otherwise, like have a beer and play cards – a couple things I have not done in a very long time, but really enjoyed with Mike, Chris and Charlie.

As its looking like I might only be on the road for one more month, this probably wont come up again.  But in case it does, here are some things that I learned for next time.
1. Have a plan
2. Inform your new travel buddies about what to expect and about cultural differences
3. Make sure you are all on the same page about how nice of places you want to stay and eat at.

After 5 weeks of having others in our party, it is now back to just Nico and I again.  Right now is in the middle of a week where we have nothing planned and can just chill.  When people come for vacation to a place like Nepal for 2 weeks, hanging out and doing nothing is not really the intent. But since we are constantly on the road, it is very nice to sometimes have that downtime to do nothing and catch up on whatever else happens in life.