Category Archives: Nepal

A Sudden Change of Circumstances

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As you may have guessed from my previous post, we’ve had to cut our trek in the Annapurna Region short. Scarlett had a nasty fall. She’s OK but it turns out that she has fractured her lower right leg in two places. One small, one larger.

We were four days into our trip and at least 5-6 hours hard walk from the nearest dirt road (probably a lot more carrying Scarlett). From there, if we could find a 4×4, it would be another half days drive to Pokhara. And to complicate matters, there was a general strike on so no public transport or taxis were running.

It was already getting on in the day when she had her accident so would have taken two days at least to get to hospital so our insurance arranged for a helicopter evacuation. They’re also paying for a private hospital room that’s big enough for all 5 of us to sleep in. I guess all that tedious insurance shopping was worth it.

It was all very chaotic what with looking after a very pained and frightened Tettie, a tearful Janet and two alternately bored and worried sisters, carrying Tettie up to a local lodge and then the helicopter landing field, finding someone with a phone that could make international calls, ringing the insurance company, waiting for them to authorise a helicopter and organise one to be dispatched, paying off our porter, repacking all our clothes and gear for our separate return journeys.

We had to repack because Initially the insurance company said only one adult and Tettie could be airlifted out. Scarlet wanted her mummy with her so I was going to walk back with Evie and Jem and our porter. Not ideal but I was just glad Scarlett would get treatment quickly, and we’d soon be reunited in Pokhara. But when the helicopter arrived, the pilot asked how many we were. I held up five fingers and he motioned for us all to pile in. Who was I to question him?

As it turns out, it was very lucky that we stayed together.

The flight was very exiting, high above the Himalayas in a tiny chopper, buffeted by side winds, terraced hillsides below us. Which is why, I think, we didn’t realise until we were over the city that we hadn’t been evacuated to Pokhara at all… but to Kathmandu!

Good for hospital care. Slightly awkward in that all out non-trekking gear was in left luggage at our Pokhara hotel.

Anyway, Tettie is getting great treatment here. She was rushed straight from the helipad to the emergency room and then onto x-ray. Initially she was in quite a lot of pain but it is lessening daily. They put a half cast on when she arrived because her leg was still swollen. But when the swelling goes down, hopefully tomorrow or the day after, they’ll put a cast on her whole leg right up to the hip and give her crutches. She’ll have to keep that on for 6 weeks, then have it replaced with a cast below the knee for a further 6 weeks. Three months of being in plaster!

Despite that, we are hoping to keep travelling around Asia, although there is some question as to whether the insurance company will keep insuring Tettie if she’s in plaster and what follow-up treatment she’ll be entitled to. We have flights to Sri Lanka booked for December 7th so that gives us enough time for the 3 weeks of initial rest the surgeons are prescribing if we do carry on. Then back on the road.

As soon as she’s discharged, we’re planning to get out of Kathmandu. It’s no place for kids at the best of times but with one child immobile and two others bouncing around it would be impossible. There’s nowhere to play, the traffic is terrifying, there’s often no pavements (and those three are are littered with rubble, rubbish and mangy stray dogs), and everything here costs money. Instead, we want to go back to the guesthouse near Chitwan National Park where we stayed for nearly three weeks. It’s all flat, there’s no real traffic except elephants and there lots of space. Sure, there’s also only one restaurant and nothing much to do but we did love it there. Of course Scarlett won’t be able to join in with elephant bath time this time but she says she’s ok with that.

And we have to somehow get our luggage from Pokhara (a 7-8 hours bumpy bus journey away!) as we only have warm trekking clothes and boots with us and it’s sweltering here in Kathmandu.

Anyway, wherever we end up, I’ve promised we’ll read Tettie stories, do drawing and maths, play chess and maybe buy a ukulele to learn chords on. She’s also very excited about learning to use crutches. I think she’s taking it better than I am. Both Janet and I feel terribly guilty.

As for what we’ll do in Sri Lanka, I have no idea. The next leg of our trip was supposed to be all about swimming and playing on beaches. Not something you can do in a pot. I guess one of us will sit with Tettie while the other plays with the other two. And we can still go whale and dolphin watching.

But that’s too far in the future to think about right now. At the moment, we’re just trying to get Scarlett better and deal with the shock of our sudden change of circumstances.

Stair Trekking

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So here we are, three days into the Annapurna Base Camp trek, sitting in a crowded trekking lodge, and still in Nepal. Seeing as we were going to stay here longer after deciding to take in India, we’ve just set off an another big trek. First we’re doing Annapurna Base Camp then extending it with a side trip along the end of the Annapurna Circuit and Poon Hill.

It’s been pretty tough so far. Every day has consisted of climbing seemingly endless stone steps, punctuated only by descending stone steps to cross a suspension bridge. Followed, of course, by another massive by ascent. Who needs a Stairmaster?

It’s been made tougher by the fact that not only do we only have one porter this time but Scarlett has hurt her shoulder* and can’t bear to carry a rucksack, so me and Janet are lugging a lot more weight up all these hills.

But, injuries aside, all three of my girls are handling the hard uphills really well. We’re walking further each day than last time as we are lower down so don’t have to worry about altitude sickness but there’s still been little complaining. Jemima and Evie have even accepted, after a little persuading, that it’s OK for Scarlett not to be carrying a bag. Of course the fact that we got a taxi to a supermarket and spent over $70 on treats and snacks helps with the motivations.

Still, despite the sweatiness and shaky legs, it’s beautiful here and I’m loving being out of the city. Pokhara, where we spent the last week, is a lot more chilled out than Kathmandu but it’s still a tourist trap and, with its fake trekking gear shops, Tibetan nicknack stalls and expensive Western-food restaurants, hardly provides the kind of authentic experience we hoped to get from travelling.

The scenery here isn’t yet as impressive as the Everest Region but the drama is building. Fishtail Mountain grows larger each day and has started to reveal how it got its name, it’s twin summits jutting dominating the skyline. And the Lonely Planet promises it only gets better. By the end of this leg of the trek, we should be in a vast amphitheatre, surrounded on all sides by the Annapurna massif.

And after today, there are no communications at all. No phone, no internet. Just us, Krishna (our guide not the Hindu god) and the mountains. And all the other Trekkers, of course, all after their own authentic experiences.

Janet says I must add that it’s not serious, Nana. Don’t worry.

Epic Haircut

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I have just returned from what I can only describe as an Epic Haircut.

Short version: the whole thing took an hour even though the haircut only took ten minutes. This barber was thorough.

Long version: as best I can remember it, the Epic Haircut Experience went something like this…

  • Arrive at barbers looking like recent divorcee, heavily bestubbled with a mop-head of greying hair.
  • Haircut. So far so good. Resemblance to divorcee receding.
  • Barber’s attempts at internationally-agreed hairdresser conversation number three somewhat stymied by language barriers (“Days many you holiday Pokhara?”).
  • Barber applies Shaving foam the thickness of a rhino hide. Amusement at new resemblance to Father Christmas.
  • Shave with cut throat razor. Amusement replaced with raw fear. Try not to think about Sweeney Todd.
  • Notice barber is flying low. Try not to smirk while he has my life in his hands.
  • Face sprayed with plant mister. Surprise.
  • Second application of shaving foam. If anything even thicker. Santa has really let himself go.
  • Second shave. Skin now feels impressively smooth. I prepare to leave but no.
  • Head massage begins, accompanied by theatrical knuckle cracking. Massage only in the loosest sense. More of a head battering.
  • Surely it’s over now? No. Now begins the face massage.
  • First white cream is slopped vigorously into my face. Not onto, into. Is it moisturiser? Particular attention is applied to my nose. Is my nose lacking moisture?
  • Cream then scraped into piles with a length of cotton thread, and removed with a razor blade.
  • Now orange cream is applied, and removed as before with strange cotton thread technique. Nose still receiving particular attention.
  • Finally amber cream is rubbed in. Not removed this time. Face now feels like it is made of rubber. Surely it’s time to pay now?
  • No.
  • Another head massage. Possibly now qualifying as GBH not just ABH. Am I actually being mugged?
  • Razor blade used to shave neck and hairline. Ah, finished at last.
  • Nope.
  • Shoulder massage begins. Feels pleasant. At first.
  • Barber now moves onto arm massage. Each finger is pulled until it cracks. Then the whole arm. Am worried I may now resemble an orangutang.
  • And to top it all off, a third and final head beating. Is he hoping concussion will prevent me from questioning the price? If so, he’s right. For some reason I tip him an extra 100 rupees as I stagger, shorn, shaven, rubber-faced and battered onto the street.

As I said, Epic Haircut.

A Worrying Development

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Something worrying seems to be happening to me. Sure, it all started with the best of intentions but so many things do, don’t they? And now I’m worried it’s too late to stop, that I’ve passed the point of no return. That the old me is gone.

You see, when we first arrived in Nepal we avoided eating meat because we were about to trek out into the wild where a tummy bug would be a lot more serious than a trip to the nearest doctor. And while trekking we carried on not eating it because there was no refrigeration in most of the places we went to.

That’s right, I think I’m turning vegetarian.

See, after the mountains it became something of a habit. Vegetarian food here is cheaper and often much tastier than food with meat in. And having passed a few butchers, with their half-carved carcasses hanging in the open air, spotted with flies, being splashed with rainwater and fingered by passersby, the thought of meat has become distinctly less appealing. And those are the higher-end places. Several times I’ve passed men skinning animal heads on a tarpaulin by a roadside.

Plus there is rarely beef anywhere. Hindus won’t eat it because it’s sacred. So it’s generally substituted with buffalo (or buff as menus call it – not that making it sound like beef is fooling anyone). You know how a buffalo looks like a bonier, surlier cow… well, that’s all the clue you need to understand its jaw-exhausting texture.

And the only other real choice is chicken, which of all the meats is the one it’s probably best not leave by a roadside in the heat for a few days before consumption.

So it’s been tasty daals and curries, pakauras and sandhekos, naans and rotis… and rarely a piece of meat at all. And it’s been fine… until I realized I might be in danger of turning to the dark side*.

So tonight we go to a post-trek institution: the famous New Everest Steak House, with beef flown in from West Bengal. Hopefully they’ll get me back on the right track.

* Green side?

Moving On

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In the Garden at Traveller's Jungle Camp

We’ve finally decided to uproot ourselves from our lovely guesthouse here in Sauraha – the Travellers’ Jungle Camp. By the time we leave on Saturday, we will have been here two and a half weeks. Not long in the grand scheme of things, perhaps, but compared to trekking it seems an age.

Up in the mountains, we moved on every day. Having to repack all our stuff ready for a 6 or 7am start each morning meant we rarely unpacked much in the evenings which, in turn, meant none of our rooms ever felt much like home. Even in Gokyo we only stayed a few nights before our itchy feet drove us on.

When we got back to Kathmandu we stayed nearly a week but our time there was enforced rather than voluntary. We had to arrange Indian visas, the weather was torrential, and the festival of Desain (kind of like a Nepalese Christmas but with more animal sacrifice) had just begun when we arrived back, meaning everything official was closed and many non-official things like shops and cafés, too, as people went back to their villages to celebrate.

And even with the streets quieter than normal, Kathmandu traffic is still terrifying when you’re shepherding kids around. In fact, there really isn’t much open space in Kathmandu at the best of times, meaning the kids spent much of the time bouncing off the walls of our hotel room or cafés.

All of which added up to Kathmandu falling very firmly into the category of “not much fun”.

So when we arrived in Sauraha it was a double relief. We got to stay still and relax, but we also had space. In fact, we chose a guesthouse based solely their having a resident elephant which was, of course, awesome. But it turned out to be better in even more ways.  The gardens here are long and grassy, and divided up into enough parts that the girls can move around, exploring for ages. The food’s cheap and tasty and we can eat on our veranda rather than the restaurant, which means the girls don’t have to be on their best behaviour.

It wasn’t long before a routine began to establish itself. I generally wake up early so I’d chill out reading until one or two of the girls woke up, then we’d snuggle in a single bed and play Small World on the iPad until Janet or the third girl woke up, too. Then we’d all do sun salutes (Janet’s been teaching us all yoga to make us all into proper hippy travellers) and wander out to the veranda where we’d order a big pot of tea and some breakfast.

After breakfast, the girls would go and take the elephant some bananas then we’d do “jungle school” (mostly Janet teaching maths while I helped the girls hand-code website projects one at a time).

Around eleven, we’d all roll down to elephant bath time for some elephant washing, rising and splashing about in he river, staying there until the last elephant left at which point we’d have to evacuate in case the crocodiles came back.

Then more  “jungle school” until early afternoon before wandering up either the village’s one street or along the river and ending up at the only proper restaurant in town, KC’s, where the girls would play in the long garden while Janet and I chilled out over a beer until tea time.

Later we’d stroll back for story time and bed, ready for it to all start again.

And so day after day passed. It felt like we were in slow-mo sometimes, as almost everybody else in our guesthouse would stay for two or maybe three days. They’d arrive from the mountains by bus, do an elephant safari, elephant bath, jeep safari, watch a Tharu stick dance and take a canoe trip down the river, then shoot off again having done every activity on offer in a matter of days when we only just managed to squeeze them all into over two weeks. And we never did get round to the canoe trip. Nor the stick dance. Although having see Stomp on the Royal Variety Show a few times and heard the stick dance going on from across town, I don’t think we missed much.

If I’m honest, I’m not entirely sure why we are leaving. Sure, we’ve done everything there is to do here (canoeing and stick dance excluded) several times over but we’re very happy. And having decided not to do India any more, we have ton of time left here in Nepal.

Is it because we’re still near the start of our trip and I want travelling to include, well, more travel? Is it momentum left over from trekking? Am I subliminally trying to avoid having to sit on an elephant and be squirted with high-velocity river water again (which was fun the first few times…)?

Whatever the case, we’ll soon be back on the road, heading up into the mountains for another trek; perhaps even the huge Annapurna Circuit.

But even with the soothing routine and constant new horizons of trekking, I think we’ll miss it here. It’s felt like home.

Best Bath Ever

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by Evie

Elephant bath time is a fun and exciting, scary and wet event which is on almost every day; you just need to know the way! You can ask passers by the way if you need.

This event happens in a crocodile-invaded river, however the elephants scare them away! The water is ice cold and dirty so if you get it in your mouth: spit.

Elephant Squirt

For fifty Rs. It is possible to ride on an elephant and get sprayed with water from your elephant’s trunk!

The Crocodile Game

The sound of people screaming has no impact on the lovely effect of this event! This event is extremely fun; in fact three adorable triplets have been sighted at the bath time, jumping and pushing each other over, laughing their heads off!

A Bumpy, Itchy Ride

If you want to ride an elephant, you have to be prepared for the bumpy, itchy ride where you get soaked to the skin. When the event is on, it happens at 11 o’clock and when it is you should go! The best bits are the elephant ride and just playing!

Splashing About

The few dangers with this event are getting washed away and eaten, getting trodden on by an elephant, not noticing the elephants getting out and getting yourself eaten, going too far out and getting eaten and, basically, drowning. Don’t be afraid, it’s not likely at all.

[This was Evie’s ‘Write a Newspaper Article Challenge’. It was typed up, paragraphized and spelling-corrected by Dad but otherwise all Evie’s work. Only 6 wrong spellings, too, which is brilliant.]

A Jungle Bumper

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Mahoot's Awaiting Elephant Safari

by Jemima

Every day in Chitwan National Park people can go on an elephant safari at 7 or 8am. It is a fun activity lasting about an hour that people need a National Park Permit for. Chitwan is in Sauraha, Nepal. The park permit is 1500 rupees per person. Children are free.

There are lots of people there. Some people are tourists and some people are Nepalese. Behind the fence there are lots of elephants with people on the front and the passengers behind in a sort of box with a cushion on the floor for the people to sit on. Some have riders, some don’t.

The elephants are coming and going – elephants appearing out of the forest and elephants walking away into the distance as far as these visitors can see.

When you get on an elephant is best not to spoil anything except that on the ride you get hit in the face by branches and that sometimes the wildlife is there and sometimes not. It is a very bumpy ride but you get used to it.

Elephant Friends

As you wait to go up on your platform, from which you must step carefully onto the elephant’s bottom and into the box, you can smell the hot air and the elephants all around you. When you go onto the elephant, however, you can smell sweet air through the desert of leaves. As you wait you also hear the shouting of mahoots as they urge their giant shopkeepers to the desk! There is also the noise of people chatting as they feed bananas to the elephants who are sticking their heads over the fence to say hello to the newcomers!

Elephant Safari

On the elephant you can hear the chattering of birds and occasionally the mahout telling you the name of wildlife. As the people chatter they are too busy to notice the gentle touch of the elephant and the cool breeze brushing your face, asking you to follow it to the place far from the pouring sun.

As you ride the trees shade you but it is hot. Bumping and jumping you can taste the sweet, sweet air. The elephant’s scent covers up the scent of the human so the wildlife isn’t scared away.

All Aboard our Elephant (Poody)

It makes a lot of people feel like they want to it to carry on forever but towards the end, they start getting hungry and want to get off.

It is 1000 rupees each. To get there you need a jeep for 50 rupees. The jeep is extremely fun but also extremely bumpy.

[This was Jemima’s ‘Write a Newspaper Article Challenge’. It was typed up, paragraphized and spelling-corrected by Dad but otherwise all Jemima’s work. Only 6 wrong spellings, too, which is brilliant.]

Three Small Children Climbing Extra-Ordinarily Big Mountains

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View from Gokyo Ri

by Scarlett

Today, the 3rd October, 3 children were claimed to be seen climbing Gokyo Ri at 6:00am in the morning. They were going up that day because their father woke up very early and saw that the sun was shining. Gokyo Ri is in the Everest region and it can get quite cold. A lot of people claimed they were there when this event took place, so it was very busy.

It is free to go up Gokyo Ri. It is also very, very steep.

We Made It!

Adults with the children numbered four, were 3 men and a woman. It was a tiring climb and they didn’t really enjoy it but the view at the top was amazing! The other people climbing Gokyo Ri were astounded at the 8 year old triplets and kept encouraging the girls. People can’t believe that 3 girls made it to the top since they are only 8 years old. They said it was easy going down. One of the girls got altitude sickness and had to be carried by one of the men.

At the top of Gokyo Ri there is an amazing view of a glacier surrounded by mountains. These mountains have a big lake in front of them. The lake is turquoise and the sun glitters off it. There are prayer flags hung around the top which can have icicles hanging from them. Sometimes it has less snow. It can be rocky.

The best parts of climbing Gokyo Ri are the view and coming back down. Coming back down is amazingly easy!

[This was Scarlett’s ‘Write a Newspaper Article Challenge’. It was typed up, paragraphized and spelling-corrected by Dad but otherwise all Scarlett’s work. Only 8 wrong spelling’s, too, (and not turquoise!) which is wonderful.]