Nepal

Namaste to Nepal

Kathmandu, Nepal • November 2018 • Length of Read: 8 Minutes

IMG_20181224_144425_513.jpg

“It’s going to bloody hurt,” admitted my GP somewhat gleefully, making no effort to hide the grin on her face. I’d developed a severe ear infection which had kept me up for three days and was now sat in the doctor’s surgery pleading with her to prescribe me with a course of antibiotics to numb the pain. “I’m getting on a long-haul flight to Nepal tomorrow and will be trekking at high altitude,” I explained. “Is there nothing that you can provide?”

“Painkillers won’t help you, I’m afraid,” she shrugged. “The worst-case scenario is that you perforate an eardrum, however, and they usually repair themselves eventually, so I wouldn’t worry about it too much.”

Understanding a lost cause when I saw one, I thanked her for the diagnosis and rose to leave. My doctor had simply told me in medical terms to ‘man up’.

Dad and I were travelling from Glasgow to Kathmandu, where we would have a handful of days to adjust our body clocks to the new time zone before heading into the Himalayas and attempting a twelve-day trek through the Khumbu Valley to Everest Base Camp. We commenced our journey by flying with Emirates through Dubai to Delhi, the Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise keeping me engrossed enough to distract from the continual popping of my ears.

IMG_20181224_143737_203.jpg

Landing in India we were required to transit through customs before checking back in for our onward flight to Nepal. After a chaotic shuffle through the arrivals hall, we eventually reached the front of the line where a smartly-dressed Immigration Officer demanded we provide a printed out paper copy of our electronic visa - effectively mothballing the online application -  but I thought it best not to argue the point. Especially as he seemed sceptical as to our true relationship, confused as to why I had a beard but my father did not. I muttered something embarrassing about me being the lion of the family and he grinned before stamping our documents and wishing us safe passage.

Nepalese Airways operated as the carrier for our final leg of the journey and I found myself sat next to a young Nepalese girl who had moved to London to study economics. She was returning home for the first time in three years to partake in the Diwali festival of light celebrations and could barely contain her excitement the whole flight. It was pitch black by the time we made it through the further immigration checks upon landing, and we exited the bustling arrivals gate to a babble of taxi drivers pawning for clientele. Trying to find our host was a bit like a real-life role-play of ‘Where’s Wally?’ but Dad’s eagle-eye eventually caught sight of a grubby sign with our surname on it being held up by a well-turned-out middle-aged man, his beaming smile as wide as the Cheshire Cat.

Gyan, the owner of the trekking company we’d booked our trip with, greeted us with a warm Namaste as he put a garland of fresh flowers over our bowed heads before leading us to the waiting car. His motor-mouth then proceeded to chat the entire way to our hotel, letting out a high-pitched Billy goat laugh following anything he, or either of us, said. He was almost more excited for our trip than we were. I loved his enthusiasm.

IMG_20181224_143510_578.jpg
IMG_20181224_143421_337.jpg

The Nepalese drive on the left-hand side of the road, a stark reminder of past British East Indian rule, but that’s where the similarity in Highway Codes ends. Forget using lanes, traffic lights, or stop signs. Getting from A to B through Kathmandu felt like a game of Mario Kart. Attempting to bring some form of semblance to the madness, suited and booted police officers took active roles as exquisitely dressed lollipop persons as they waved and whistled vehicles through each junction. We made it from the airport to the tourist district of Thamel in one piece, however, and with Gyan still talking we made arrangements to meet at his office the following morning whilst a bellboy carried the luggage up to our room.

Dad had already tipped the baggage handler at the airport and Gyan’s driver, cleaning out our petty cash, but when the bellboy turned around and coughed, Dad pretended to scrape around his wallet for more loose change. Unsuccessful, and with the glaring eyes of the receptionist leering over us, he ended up handing over $5 for the pleasure which, considering we were only on the first floor, was complete money for old rope. Neither of our bank cards had worked in the airport ATM, so we were relying on Dad’s foreign currency reserves from his last trip Stateside, and that was the smallest denomination he had remaining. It reminded me of Rowan Atkinson’s classic ‘Mr. Bean in Room 426’ sketch, where the bumbling protagonist hands over a lozenge instead of a tip to the hotel porter.

With the horrific air pollution hanging above Kathmandu, however, and the locals coughing non-stop as a result, the next couple of weeks became rather difficult to interpret who was rudely asking for a tip and who was genuinely in need of ailment.

IMG_20181224_144033_240.jpg

Over breakfast the next morning Gyan issued our itinerary and answered any burning questions before offering us his driver for the day so that we could go and explore the Nepalese capital. Approximately 1 million people live in the bowl-shaped Kathmandu Valley, a poverty-stricken area of the world that was still recovering from a devastating earthquake that hit in 2015 and tore the city apart. Hinduism and Buddhism are the dominant religions, with dozens of temples, alters and elaborate shrines showcasing the importance of faith to the Nepalese people.

“If you run over a bull here then you can get fined and charged with up to six years in prison,” our driver nonchalantly announced, swerving around one of the lumbering animals that had drifted onto the carriageway. We were being escorted to one of the world’s most famous Buddhist temples, where devout followers the world over make the pilgrimage to at least one in their lives.

Upon arrival, we were hijacked by a random bloke wearing a lanyard who took great pleasure in guiding us around fertility temples, across a sacred river, and through a crematorium. There was nothing about the bloke to suggest that he wasn’t being genuine, but I have to put my faith in the following being true. Wearing a lanyard doesn’t immediately give you tour guide credentials, and we could have been spun a complete yarn, but at the risk of offending…

IMG_20181224_143651_929.jpg
IMG_20181224_143605_548.jpg

Hindu worshipers wait three days until they cremate the dead, as this is how long it takes for the soul to leave the body. Buddhists, on the other hand, don’t bother sitting around for the 21 grams to disappear and get straight down to the grieving. Taking a seat on the banks of the heavily polluted, but holy, river, we witnessed a genuine dead body get unwrapped from a carpet and scrubbed clean by a family member in the stinking, dirty water. Downstream, peasants dressed in rags were sieving for precious metals, seemingly unperturbed that the river they were waiting in was also being used to prepare a dead body for cremation. I think the only gold they were going to find, however, was the golden arc of urine coming from the monk relieving his bladder on the opposing bank. It was really quite the scene.

Once purified, the corpse is then lifted onto a funeral pyre that other members of the deceased’s family had constructed. Bodies are burned at different platforms along the river depending on their Caste, and depending on the wealth of the family different types of wood are used for the pyre – sandalwood being the most expensive option. Once ablaze, the family will then watch on for hours, mourning the loss of their loved one until the ashes are taken skyward and nothing remains.

Returning to Thamel after this enlightening afternoon, we headed out to explore the maze of colourful night markets and wound up at The Little Buddha Bar for dinner. I’d decided to go completely vegetarian for my time in Nepal, not wanting to risk eating any undercooked meat and end up doing a marathon on the toilet as opposed to up and down the mountain. I opted for the lentil curry dish of dahl baht, a meal that would become a staple part of our diet for the weeks to come.

I was delighted that Dad and I were again getting to share such cultural and adventurous experiences. It was the first ‘boys’ trip that we’d embarked on together in a decade and as we clinked beers together with a cheer I was over the moon that a throwaway idea one Christmas Day had formed into a trip of a lifetime.

Himalayan Helicopter Ride (Bucket List #76)

Lukla, Nepal November 2018 Length of Read: 8 Minutes

5tEKZB6bEalU8FYF117MhzFZetiaZqR6_UVSpEwfw94.jpg

Nestled high in the Nepalese Himalayas, a multi-day trek from the nearest freeway, lies the small mountain village of Lukla. The gateway for hiking expeditions up the Khumbu Valley to Mount Everest, its economy pairs the unusual combination of rural agriculture with high-end mountaineering. You can walk from one side of Lukla to the other in a matter of minutes, meandering through the rabble of tea houses which offer up basic lodging, decrepit huts retailing the latest North Face gear, and bars that serve the finest moonshine your rupees can buy.

At the far end of the town is its lifeblood – the Hilary-Tenzing Airport. Nothing more than a small shack surrounded by a chain-link fence, the terminal isn’t exactly a sight to behold… but its scary-as-shit runway sure is. Every bit of the 12 degrees downward gradient is required to get departing prop planes airborne, with the narrow slice of tarmac collapsing off the cliff-edge only a couple of hundred metres away. The same goes for incoming flights, with a tall brick wall the final measure in place to stop those planes screeching in from Kathmandu. Throw in the regular rolling fog, thin atmospheric pressure, and bone-chilling icy winds, and it’s not difficult to understand why Lukla is often referred to as ‘the most dangerous airport in the world’.

IMG_20181108_160932_066.jpg

This thought was omnipresent in my mind as I slouched over my duffel bag on the floor of the Kathmandu Airport domestic terminal, leafing through a paperback copy of Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 as the minutes ticked into hours. Perched to my left, my Dad raised his voice above the babble of concerned backpackers as he tried to politely obtain any information he could out of our trekking guide, Kim, as to the delay. We were scheduled to depart on the third flight leaving Kathmandu that morning, but the low-lying fog at our destination had kept everyone grounded. With sunny skies in the Nepalese capital, the first flight had taken off without a hitch, but having travelled the full 45-minutes to Lukla it was forced to circle back after an aborted landing.

“We will be on our way soon,” Kim shouted back, the party line that he’d been treading along all morning. His eyes told a different story, however, and his eagerness not to displease his paying guests was getting on our nerves. Whispers began circling the departures lounge that no fixed-wing flights would be taking off for the remainder of the day, but another hour came and went to the same reply. “The fog will lift soon. The fog will lift soon.”

When it hit mid-afternoon, Dad and I felt that there was no other option but to make a firm decision. If our flight was cancelled then we’d be sent right to the back of the queue and would be lucky to get another ticket for that same week. Getting an overnight bus to another town was also out of the question, so this left one final option: to charter a helicopter. In high demand, this came with an eye-watering price tag attached, but we managed to strike a partnership with a German couple to fill the remaining seats and split the cost 50/50.  I was ecstatic, primarily because we were finally on the move but also because I’d inadvertently be ticking off another bucket list item in the process.

IMG_20181115_143307_065.jpg

Before we could get the show on the road, however, we first had to step on the scales and weigh both ourselves and the kit. For safety purposes, helicopters need to ensure that they are never over-loaded and more so than ever at high altitudes. Therefore, it came as much of a relief to see our guide doing mathematical calculations on the back of a napkin as we took it in-turn to step on a set of scales more designed to weigh the vehicle itself rather than its passengers. Once we’d all taken our turn, I looked towards Kim as concern swept over his face. “I think if I just leave my rucksack behind then we should be all good,” he finally concluded after a long pause, stuffing his essentials into the tiny first-aid kit strapped around his waist. How comforting.

Passports checked, we were squashed into a truck with our belongings and shuttled to the helipads. Anticipation lurched in my stomach and nerves started to take over as we then buckled ourselves into the chopper, the burning afternoon sun reflecting off the glass windshield with greenhouse-like intensity. There we sat stationary for a further 30 minutes as I continued to bake like a slow-roast leg of lamb. No sense of urgency, no instructions and no shared agenda. It reminded me of when I was once waiting at a bus stop in Fiji and asked the lady beside me when it was due to arrive. “The bus will come when it needs to come,” she answered, bemused by my sense of urgency. “Stop worrying. No bus in Fiji has ever been late as a result.”

Eventually, a skinny, ginger-haired guy appeared out of nowhere and hopped into the cockpit with a revived sense of purpose that I was beginning to think had been lost in the world. “We have a small window from air traffic control to take off,” he said in an American twang, professionally flipping switches and making final checks as the rotator blades whirled into motion. “Let’s get this bird airborne.”

Swooping away, the bustling pictures of Kathmandu were soon replaced by a panoramic vista of lush green wilderness across the horizon. Dad has been in enough helicopters over the years that he could have fallen asleep, but despite our pilot’s expert manoeuvering I found the first twenty-minutes of flying to be rather tense until by body calibrated to this new form of transport. When that happened, however, I was able to sit back and enjoy the towering peaks coming into view from the distance, snow-covered knives slicing through the lush canopy. A front-row seat to witness nature in all its colossal glory.

IMG_20181125_184216_897 (1).jpg

It was as we began our descent that the mist rolled in, swallowing up massive chunks of the landscape as it swept across the sky. We rounded one final gap in the hills and there it was, a sliver of grey amongst the endless vegetation. A speck of dust in a gaping chasm. The runway at Lukla. Blink and you would miss the turnoff. It immediately dawned on me why we had been shacked up in the departures lounge all day. This was some hair-on-the-back-of-your-neck-raising stuff, and I counted my blessing that we weren’t hurtling towards it in a thirty-seat plane.

As we drew in closer buildings began to appear, then people. Dozens of people camped out on the runway and playing the same waiting game. The yin to our yang. Unlike our fresh-eyed naivety and gusto about the situation, however, the Australian’s I began chatting to upon landing safely showed a more haggard and lackluster appearance. The Base Camp trek had taken its toll on them, physically and mentally, and all they wanted was to return to civilization for a hot shower and proper meal. “We made it to the final camp at Lobuche before I had to turn back due to altitude sickness,” professed a stocky and rugged bloke of similar age to myself, unable to hide the emotion of how gutted he was.

We wished them safe passage home before making our way passed livestock, kids playing volleyball and locals going about their daily chores, before sheltering down in a little guest house called The Nest. What a rollercoaster of a day it had been, and we hadn’t even set foot on the Base Camp trail yet. It suddenly donned on me that this was no joke, and there was a chance that I, myself, may not make it to our end goal at 5,400m.

With that, my stomach wretched and I immediately felt the need to drop a number two. Rushing through the door with the universal toilet sign on it, I took the stairs to the basement three at a time and dived into one of the cubicles to find that it was nothing but a hole in the ground. Having mastered the art of the squat drop in South America, however, I dropped trowel and let it rip, the watery substance free-flowing in this improved angle of release. As comfortable as Western toilets are, they are not conducive to an effective squeeze, the hunched-over posture closing the gut and preventing easy passage.

My insides empty, I reached to my left for the toilet roll, only to find that there was nothing there. Shit. Figuratively and literally. I swept my surroundings looking for something. A flannel? Wet wipes? Nothing. ‘Oh well, here we go again,’ I said to myself as I fashioned my left hand into a pooper scooper. ‘It’s going to be a long two weeks.’