Nepal: First Impressions

Nepal_First

Kathmandu. Aug 4 2009 2055Hrs. Another power outage. This is frequent during the monsoon season. I am using my headlamp a lot…to read, to brush my teeh, to take a shower! , to pack…I am sitting here with my headlamp blogging in my room. The visit to Chitwan National Park and Pokhara was good. Disappointing in some aspects but thrilling at some others. One of the big disappointments was not being able to see the view of the famous mountain range from top of Sarangkot in Pokhara. During the dry season (Sept-Apr) you can see Annapurnas 1-4, Daulagiri etc and their snow capped tops from atop the World Peace Pagoda hill and Sarangkot. I chose to go atop Sarangkot because it offered a higher elevation. So I grabbed a cab and climbed as far as I could until my ankle swelled up. Then it was time to stop. Stone steps lead up from Siri village, pass Nepali huts and souvenir shops and some places to stay. The hill was pretty dead since it is low season and no tourists around. Even Pokhara around the Phewa Lake where I stayed (in Central Lakeside) it was pretty dead. So dead that the taxis followed drove up to you to on the street and pestered you for a ride. Though, not in an annoying way. There was a shoe shine fellow near my hotel. Kept asking me if I wanted my muddy hiking shoes cleaned. Evening before I left, I stepped on a huge blob of chewing gum which I could not remove. So I put on my slippers, threw the shoes in a bag and headed down to his corner stall in the rain. Now like nobody cleans their car during rain, who shines their shoes during rain? Anyway I get there and he is not there. So I inquire around the locals and nobody knows where he is. Then I head back to my room to try getting the gum off again. Still no luck. Pretty fed up, now, this was a big glob of gum, I headed out again. This time I stood there by his umbrella until he showed up. After a convincing sales pitch, I end up getting the shoes shined and cleared of mud. But he did a good job getting the gum out, and a hard bargain to bring the price down to NR100 (usd1.30). During the wait while the guy cleaned my shoes, the samosa man dragged me to his stall. Although I only bought one samosa, the fellow was feeding me freebie munchy stuff. So while I waited I ate for free, literally. LOL. I guess I have a knack for chatting it up when I am in the mood. They seemed entertained anyway. While I was there munching, an American showed up. I guess I was making enough noisy conversation that he stopped to see what on earth was going on. At my persuasion, he ended getting his shoes repaired too. As I pointed out, it was cheaper to get them repaired than to buy a new pair. During this time 2 boys appeared. They showed us a letter addressed to “Dear Sir or Madam, we are asking if you would kindly donate to us to buy a football… which will cost around NR1000 (usd13.) We thank you kindly.” The 2 boys aged around 9-11, were well spoken and polite and appeared very industrious. Oh what the hack, we each donated NR50 to their cause. Very nice people. No pushy attitudes and very humble. I find the Nepalese very patient and helpful, unlike south of the border, where every helping hand ends in a requested tip. The Dutch couple I befriended at Chitwan, met me for dinner about an hour later. They had an interesting day which I shall relate here, just to show how patient the Nepalese are. The couple left Chitwan early that morning for Pokhara. The bus was full when they got there so they ended up riding on top the bus until the next town where they were promised seats in another bus. They were with 5 other backpackers sitting on the roof, as told to me “to sit on the rice sacks, and not the glass.” In some ways I wished I had this adventure!! About 20KM outside Pokhara, there was a road accident where there was a fatality. So all traffic stopped for 3 hours. 3 HOURS! So, the Nepalese traffic came to a standstill, people stopped their vehicles, got out and waited… for 3 hours. The dead body was left on the ground until the deceased family and party at fault vehicle came to a compensation, I think, it was monetary. Apparently the police appeared but nothing was done as the “negotiations” and arguments carried on for 3 hours, when an agreement was arrived at and the body finally removed. At which point, as told to me, the patient Nepalese got in their vehicles, started their vehicles and traffic started moving. So, all parties got to where they were headed to 3 hours later. Just another day. 3 hours! Boy, I tell you, unbelievable. Not so for the Dutch couple and all the other foreigners, I bet! Pokhara has 3 lakes. Phewa Lake is the one which is surrounded with hotels, a main drag down one side of it. I went for a boat ride and it was pleasant. Pokhara is a good place to relax, typically for trekkes after a long trek. I found myself, albeit the heat and humidity, reading my book and sipping a cold Sprite along one of the many lakeside restaurants quite a few times. So this was Pokhara. Chitwan National Park was fun too. I hung out with the resident elephants at the hotel outside the park. There was 9 year old Beauty-Kali, 20 year old Lakshmi-Kali, 55 year old Champa and a fourth elephant, whose age and name I didn’t pick up. Beauty-Kali was such as sweetie, very friendly and always so happy to see a visitor. She was so pleasant to be around. I was able to catch a ride on Laksmi-Kali with her keeper when he brought her on her morning walk and breakfast grass eating. I sat on the top with no box seat. It was uncomfortable. An elephant hair is like huge brush bristles and they are rough to the human skin. The elephant’s tail itself could support my full weight as I climbed to get on top! This morning found the river very high which canceled the morning canoe ride so it left us free. It had rained all nigh (monsoon season) and there was no electricity all night. I wandered around this morning to check the river level and asked if I could ride the elephant in case the weather did not permit an elephant safari into the park. Luckily the river level went down and we went on our elephant safari. Four of us on top Lakshmi-Kali and we entered the park. We saw deer, monkey, black rhino (mommy, daddy, baby) and other 2 other elephants with Indian tourists on top. In typical Indian fashion, each of the 2 elephants appeared to have a whole village packed in (honestly there was about 12 people in one of those boxes, more than 4 compared to us, it was ridiculous). On one of the elephant boxes, there was 1 white guy. Squeezed to the edge of the box, so far to the edge, it looked like he was hanging on for dear life. The look on his face was utter annoyance and eyes wide opened looking at us to rescue him. Too funny. I was silently laughing pretty hard and felt sorry for the dude. The highlight and real excitement was the Chitwan National Park elephant breeding center where I got to pat 8 month old male elephant twins! Yeah. Twins. A pair of cuties they were. They were feeding on rice and molasses whey I stumbled upon them. There was another fellow wandering around the trail, outside the make shift divider. I think he or she had wandered outside the enclosure and was butting heads with tourists. I was with an American girl who had a rain coat. This little fellow tried to eat her raincoat with his/her trunk! Very friendly and cute pleasant toddler. I say toddler…elephants live up to 90 years old. So 1 elephant year is equivalent to 1 human year. The 4 of us were on the safari. The Dutch couple, the American and me. The American had just completed a 3 week Volunteer in Nepal (VIN) assignment and was on her way home with a stop at Chitwan, as suggested and arranged by her VIN director. 3 more volunteers from VIN showed up at Chitwan the next day (2 American college girls and 1 Brit). The Dutch couple and our guide had left us at the breeding center and so the remaining 2 of us waited at the office. On the muddy walk in, we had picked up a gazillion grass bits all over my pants (love grass, I call it). So we decided whilst waiting for the Dutch couple to return from their “hike” to pick the grass bits off. We had quite a fit picking the bits off, the flies wouldn’t leave ME alone, and it was humid, muggy, and we were sweaty and hot. Not pleasant, you get my drift. We were sitting outside, on a bench, near the office when these huge flies with shiny blue backs decided to swarm us. God it was annoying. I thought it was the rubbish bin next to us, so I suggested we move into the museum. So we moved. About a full minute later, the flies started swarming us (ME)…inside the museum. What is the deal?! Not Susan, but me! I swear, it must be some damn odor I must be emitting!! That was the last straw, we broke down, in hysterics with the bloody flies swarming me and the Nepalese fellow and another staff member at the adjacent office with the museum staring as us silly American girls in hysterics. Ah, you know, you need these moments. My ankle swollen, mosquito bites among swarming flies, muddy pants, grass bits, sweaty and hot, muggy, yucky and drenched from humidity, you get the drift. The damn flies. Huge ass flies. Not the table variety. Some exotic jungle species, probably and I was honored to be their odor centrale. When we left the museum floor was quite a mess. I was glad to get out of there. It was more mud, across the river to catch the jeep ride back to the hotel. I was glad to get a shower. But the baby elephants were worth it. Back in Kathmandu (airport code=KTM), I had to buy another bag to put my 20kg excess junk (more junk I have bought) on my way home. Less than a month to go before I pass through Malaysia, I am not going to send stuff back. Like I said in my previous entry, I have replaced some outdoor gear since stuff is cheap in Nepal (aka trekking global apparel central). So cheap original manufacture outdoor gear (REI kinda stuff) in Nepal, I am going to have to make another trip back to KTM to buy all these jackets and pants in bulk so I can sell stuff off ebay. Yeah, you know me. Make a small profit. The one thing I have noticed in KTM, Chitwan and Pokhara, is that I have had conversations with hotel staff, shop keepers and travel agents in passing, that have touched upon the subject that the Indian, Chinese and Israeli tourists are not well liked. Ah, why? They want cheap, cheap, cheap, ask why, why, why, and don’t accept the way things are because their friend got it this way, they must also get it at the same price, and why the boat capacity is only 5, why not squeeze another 3 more people in, and why the elephant cannot take 20 people?. You get my drift. Talk loud, so other guests complain. Boil water in the kitchen. Boil water in the room, in the bathroom, for goodness sakes! Clog up the toilets. Spit everywhere. Very rude. It has been very entertaining. Yes. I have noticed this too, the similarities between the Israelis, Indians and Chinese(not the Taiwanese, Koreans or Japanese, but the Chinese). LOL. HaHa. Oh goodness, I am rolling on my sides. Ah the power just came back on. The greatest thing in KTM is that I have been able to catch the new releases (you got it, pirated DVDs !!) like “Angels and Daemons” , “Transformers”, “Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince” and “Star Trek” on DVD for NR100 (usd1.30). You guessed it. I have now seen them all for a fraction of the price at a US movie theater and on non released DVD. Woo hoo! Yep. These are recorded in the movie theater. I suspect these are recorded in German and Italian movie theaters since the subtitles are in either language. But you do see the occasional person get up and go to the toilet. LOL. Hey, but it works. Here in KTM there are many used bookshops. I have been reading a lot of John Grisham lately. About a book every 3-4 days. The good thing is, you can sell the book back and trade it for another. Today when I picked up more bootleg DVDs, I was chatting the sales person into buying back my viewed DVDs. My argument is what to do with the DVD once I have seen it? I think I will hawk them on the roadside for NR10 (usd0.15). HaHa. I am really enjoying KTM. The only thing I can’t seem to find in India or Nepal are panty liners. They don’t seem to make them here. Tibet is next. That is an expensive affair. The Chinese visa and Tibet permit alone is usd200.00 not including the trip cost. And if you want to go further into China, then you have to get another Chinese visa. I guess Tibet is pretty expensive, at least the Chinese government make it.