Home!

Dec 6

It’s 5 o’clock somewhere, technically it is 5:30pm in Delhi and 5:45pm in KTM, so this just makes sense. 

Thanks for the welcome home present Roberta. 

The flight from Delhi was fine - other than a case of restless leg syndrome and feeling totally trapped - I caught a couple of movies and even the classic Christmas Vacation. It is surreal to be home - for starters I have no idea what time it is and what I should do (sleep? eat? laundry? shower go to work?) and it is so weird having this much personal space. I didn’t hear a single horn in the last 24 hours - how is that possible? And the air is fresh. 

What a great trip, can’t wait to go back. 

Until next time Nepal

Dec 5 (from the Delhi airport)
So long Nepal!  What a place.  I was probably done with Kathmandu yesterday, but all the same I still don't want to leave.  Kathmandu is crazy busy, the weather right now is such that you can't see the mountains (haze) but you can't see the mountains from Thamel really anyway because the streets are so packed - ironic because Thamel is the trekker (people heading to the mtns - not to be confused with Sci-fi enthusiasts) headquarters.  On my drive to the airport this afternoon, I saw a bit more of KTM - probably more than I needed to see and at one point I was thinking - oh so this is when I am mugged and kidnapped - I really thought it was when my paragliding experience was stretching into 45 minutes (it was supposed to be 20-30) and I could no longer see any other shoots, and the pilot told me we had just topped 3000 m (we started at about 1500-1600m).  See I can describe all this now, from the safety of the Delhi airport.

Speaking of safety ... so there is an election going on in Nepal right now.  It is a big deal to run elections in Nepal - voting happens in stages and it seems the stakes are pretty high.  There are two major parties - one that may or may not have backers in China, and another (that may or may not have backers from the west, and/or possibly India).  Tensions are high, and as such there have been more and more rallies leading up to the vote in the Kathmandu Valley.  For instance, when we were wandering toward the famous Durbar Square on the weekend (Saturday) we wandered sort of into a voting awareness rally, and then the traffic stopped, and then we left - one of those feelings you get in your stomach that you shouldn't be there.  We (group of 6) made our way back to the touristy places and decided that Durbar Square would be visited on our next trip to Kathmandu.  Durbar Square is famous (also a world heritage site), but it sustained a LOT of damage in the 2015 earthquake, and repairs have been challenging.

Signs outside of Durbar Sqare - making sure everyone remembers there was an EQ.

Garden of Dreams - it is a funny little enclave within one of the busiest places in Kathmandu.  It was built by a Prime Minister's son after he won a funny game of chance.  It has some interesting designs - but gardens in winter are kind of dire.

 

The roof top of my last hotel - you can see the start of the roof top of the world in the distance.

Looking down at the streets - they seem quiet from here.

My final packing... ya I got a new bag - it is bigger than the old one - a poor knock-off of a TNF bag. 
Okay, my internet time is running out, must be time to finish.

Around Kathmandu

Dec 3

Sunshine and maybe there are mountains over there?  The G-Adventures tour officially ended yesterday, and as it turned out all of us also opted for the Everest Flightseeing trip. So we enjoyed one more pre-sunrise meet-up and bus ride. We got to the Kathmandu domestic airport and waited for our flight - which is designated as Mountain in the destination column. It was a fun flight, pretty good views of the Himalayas in general. On the return to Kathmandu they serve champagne to celebrate and hand out certificates. This subcontinent has a thing for certificates- I might need to bring that back to Canada. I have a couple more days in Kathmandu, so this afternoon with a couple others from G-Adventures still here, we checked out Garden of Dreams and parts of Thames, then we watched the movie Everest (😬). Kathmandu is a bit hard to read in terms of entertainment and things to do that don’t involve a vehicle. Today was the first day since before I left Canada that didn’t involve a motorized vehicle?!?  Might check out the infamous Nepal Royal palace tomorrow and likely some more coffee shops and bakeries 😊. 

Getting into our flight - Yeti Airlines. 

Photo of a photo through the window... I mean I could post of real one, but this is so much better. 

One last group photo. 

See a certificate and champagne (really early in the morning). 

Cheers. 

Dinner last night at the Third Eye - so delicious. 

Kathmandu and the monkey temple

Dec 1

Made it to KTM - just in time for a twilight view of the city from the famous monkey temple. 

Monkeys in the moonlight. 

City by moonlight. 

Perhaps not well known, but the road is treacherous- it nearly 3 hours to go 60 km. This wasn’t our bus. 

Paragliding in Pokhara

Nov 30

Yep! So awesome!!!

There is video and more pics to come - but that was awesome!

Just before take off. 

Getting ready - sooo many people!  

Barauli to Pokhara and a sunrise

Good morning. 

Good morning - turns out the camera was tilted...

Nov 29 and Nov 30 morning 

The trip from Barauli to Pokhara is short on distanc, but high on bumps and construction. 

Interesting signs - anyone else curious as to why the falling rocks are so rounded - that doesn’t really make sense. Mind you the slope angle is pretty accurate. 

There are a lot of these foot bridges that connect one side of the valley with the other. 

Reflections from our lunch spot. 

The lake at Pokhara - can’t remember the name of it...

We arrived late in the afternoon (4:30 ish) and had some time to wander a bit before visiting an organization called SASANE that helps women to get away from human trafficking. They run a number of programs - the one we visited runs a mo-mo cooking class (mo-mo’s are a Nepali specialty - a kind of dumpling) for travellers, and is in part sponsored by the tour company that is running this trip (G-Adventures). 

So my post didn’t load last night, so here is the morning update - saw another sunrise. Tone for breakfast now. There was a. It of mishap walking down from the sunrise, the rolled ankle rolled again - and then I rolled on the ground for a bit - kind of crappy - thank goodness it wasn’t at the Peace Pagoda. 

Fishtail

Pano shot. Terraces on terraces - very meta. 

Buddha’s birthplace to basking in the sun in Barauli

Nov 28

After arriving in Nepal and sampling some local beer in Butwal, we headed to Lumbini (Buddha’s birthplace) and then continued onto Chitwan National Park near the Mahabharat Range in the Narayna river valley. We are staying at community stay village. Where the village is geared for tourists that want to visit Chitwan and have a positive (slightly less terrible) impact on the locals. Tourism is an important industry in Nepal, the 2015 earthquake significantly reduced the number of visitors to Nepal, and thus impacted the economy. So although Barauli was not damaged directly by the earthquake the lack of visitors was devastating. It is a nice place and is well-appointed. Fairly reliable electricity and internet. Filtered water and really nice HUTS that are owned by people in the village. Hot water is hot or miss, but it was like that in India too. 

This morning we did a 4x4 tour of parts of Chitwan and saw 6 one-horned rhinos (including two moms each with a baby). The best picture opportunity came with a lone male - we called him Ckevin (the c is silent). 

Ckevin - the one-horned rhino. 

Another rhino - way in the distance in the water. 

There is a stork in the tree. 

There is a deer in there somewhere - spotted deer you can see through the bushes - you can maybe see an antler. 

Kumari is our ‘room number’. This is the hut we have for two nights (two people per hut - it is bigger than some of our hotel rooms we’ve had, it has more power sockets, and is quite comfortable. 

Another safari shot. 

Proof I am allowed in Nepal. 

Where I am blue dot and star in the lower middle), where I was (Lumbini is the star on the bottom left, the town Butwal is where we slept on the 26th, the red dot near my current location is where we spotted the rhinos, deer, mongoose, peacocks, lots of other birds, and someone thought they saw a crocodile, the green line shows where we are headed tomorrow morning (Pokhara). The K for Kathmandu is just showing up on the right hand side. 

So long India, hello Nepal

Nov 26

Today was a long travel day - met at 4:15 am to go to the train station- train from near Varanasi to Gorakhpur, then we got on a different bus - that probably was nice and comfortable when it was new, which might have been in a previous century- or the roads are just that bad. Turns out Gorakhpur railway station has the longest platform in the world over 1.3km, we walked most of it, twice... and it was warm. We stopped for lunch in Purandurpur, then made our way to the Indian/Nepali border. We needed to get a stamp to leave India and then we lined up for our Nepali visas. There was a bit of an election rally or some kind going on in India at the border- this made the walk from Indian immigration to Nepali immigration seem like we were salmon swimming upstream- but instead of a stream it is a parade. We start tomorrow by visiting the birthplace of Buddha, then we travel to the Tharu community where will be staying for two nights in Chitwan National Park. Not sure about the wifi there... but there’s a chance we might see some wildlife on our 4x4 safari. 

Longest train platform. 

Walking toward Nepal. 

Welcome to Nepal. 

Indian visa departure stamp. 

Silk to sunsets - last night in India

Nov 25 - second part

This morning we visited a silk-weaving cooperative and fair trade shop (silk weaving has some dark circles). Varanasi is known as the place for silk-weaving - so much so there is a trade name on Banarasi Saris - it is a big deal, and it is incredible how it is made.

First you start with the design- which is then punched into cardboard cards. 

Then they can make the thread. 

Here the design cards are all strung together and fed into the loom which, then weaves the fabric (silk in this case). 

Another angle. 

Close up. 

An example of a final product. This duvet cover took over 4 months to make and I think it was something like 40000 rupees - it is one of a kind, and it is made with the highest quality silk. Don’t get any ideas, this is not anyone’s Christmas present. 

After lunch a few of us got henna ‘tattoos’ (Mehndi - usually something done to mark a rite of passage or celebration - in our case I think we are celebrating a good time in India). 

My attempt at an arm’s length photo.

Group photo. 

Just after sunset - traffic kept us from getting there in time for the actual sunset. 

And we watched the daily ceremony to celebrate Ganga. It was pretty incredible there are about a dozen ceremonies happening roughly at the same time and are all slightly different. Kind of crazy, but also kind of cool that everyone just goes with it. 

Tomorrow we meet at 4:15am and start our journey for Nepal - which might take about 14 hours... it includes a bus, a train, a bus, the border, and another bus. 

Sunrise on the Ganga (Ganges)

Nov 25

Good morning from Varanasi. 

Sunrise boat tour on the Ganga, past all the ghats (steps into a body of water) along the river. 

Yesterday - or rather in the evening on the 23 we left Orccha via taxis to the train station in Jhansi (might have misspelled that earlier), where we were catching an over night train to Varanasi. Most of us slept a bit on the train, but when we woke up and expected to be more than half-way there it became apparent that there was a delay. There was a derailment ahead of us on the tracks (at one of the stations), there were a number of injuries and several people were killed. So although we were delayed over 8 hours, at least we were safe. 

View from the train crossing a river. 

One of our strongholds on the train. 

Walking down to the river this morning. 

Sunrise (well about half an hour afterward), there is quite a bit of haze and so we didn’t actually witness the sun coming up over the horizon. 

Ghats and buildings along the river. This evening we go for a sunset cruise, this time going downstream (we went upstream this morning). Later this morning we are going to the silk making district - Varanasi is famous for its high quality silks. Due to the delay yesterday, we don’t have as much time in Varanasi as planned. This afternoon some people are going to get henna designs on their skin, some people are going to wander around (that would be me - maybe I will find some postcards and stamps). We start early tomorrow - meeting at 4:30 am - and we head to Nepal. Whoa - so last day in India (sort of - I spend some time in the Delhi airport on my way back home in December).