In search of the Himalayas...

Namaste my friends, Aap Kai Se ?!!

Being on the road for almost two weeks now, I figured that it's time for an update :-) Only two weeks from home... and a lot has already happened: new experiences, new tastes, new smells, new colours, I've seen some beautiful places and I've already met many new people... isn't that what travelling is all about?! Right now, I'm typing from my hostel-room, looking over a beautiful valley in Nepal's capital city of Kathmandu, but I'll get to that later...

Let's start from the beginning: last time I've posted something, I was still at London Heathrow waiting for my plane to depart for New Delhi. After quite a comfortable flight and the usual rituals at the airport I was picked up by a friendly Indian taxi-driver from the Hotel who brought me 'linea recta' to a rather average hotel in the heart of the Paharganj- (read: backpacker's-) area where I had booked some nights for an easy start of my journey. First impressions? Well, we were directly stuck in a huge traffic jam: mini-buses, taxis, scooters, rikshaws, motorbikes..., chaotic, dirty, horn-blowing, smelly, steamingly-hot... but hey, this is India :-D

Although Delhi might not seem the right place to get your first impressions from, it is the main entrance for foreigners so I've taken it easy, met some friendly fellow tourists, got some practical things arranged (sim-card, train-ticket to the North, local information) and went to do some sight-seeing around the Old City. Being at the end of the raining-season (monsoon), I've experienced how a single rain shower can actually freeze the hustling-and-bustling city of Delhi for an hour or so: streets normally packed with all kinds of transport, horn-blowing from everywhere, people running around from every direction... within a minute streets became empty, everybody was hiding and only some (holy-) cows didn't seem to care :-) Together with a Canadian guy we went seeing two of the main tourist attractions: the Red Fort and the biggest Mosque of India, the 'Jamma Masjid' which were both beautiful. Although Hindus make up for the majority of Indians (some 80%), muslims are the biggest minority group with about 10% and even in India I was not allowed entrance to the mosque with my shorts... A problem? Not at all, the guy from the ticket office took me to one of his friends who owned a small tailor-shop in a little slum nearby and before I knew, I was entering the Mosque with some spotless (until then at least) white trousers, which the locals are wearing as well! :-)

After a three-days introduction to India, it was time to move on with my first (hopefully many other will follow) train-ride to the city of Rishikesh, some 5 hours North of Delhi. I had arranged to meet up in this holy city at the beginning of the River Ganges (Ganga in Hindi) with a friend of mine (Andrew-UK) with whom I had travelled for some weeks in Africa last year and after a comfortable ride (three meals in five hours) through a beautiful country-side I arrived in this hippy-city where the Beatles are said to have written one of their albums (for the fans only ;-P). With Andrew and his girlfriend, we've enjoyed our stay there with climbing through the rice fields to a very nice and refreshing waterfall and by following an introductory course in yoga/meditation once we got back to the city. I understood that Mister Yogi, or Zen Master if you like, must have been quite amused with my skills: "Mister, was this really your first time?!" uhmmmm, yes?! "Hahaha, I already thought so, hahaha" Alright, so far for the yoga... ;-) Every evening there all the temples, or ashrams as the Hindi say, were holding ceremonies at the banks of the river: during the singing of hymnes and speeches of the Maharesjes (priests?) people would make an offer to one of the biggest Hindi-Gods (Shiva) by throwing a candle in the river and washing themselves with the holy (though incredibly dirty and chemical) water of the Ganga. Quite a special happening and I'm looking forward to seeing more of this in Varanasi later on...

Oh wait, in the meanwhile I got a confirmation from my supervisor about the final grade for my master's thesis, which I handed in the day before I left.... I got a 7 out of 10 and I'm quite happy with that, because it means that I've finally graduated!!! :-D

...Having said goodbye to Andrew and Hannah (they were on their way back to Delhi), my plan was to cross the border to Nepal from the little-travelled and not-so-touristy West-side. A long and noisy (I have to say that not the smell, nor the chaos, but the 24/7 noise is annoying me the most) overnight-bus brought me close to the border and two 'friendly guys' would bring me to customs with their jeep... At least that is what they said... First of all, we had to cross a river to get to the jeep and they had already pointed at my trousers that I might want to wrap them up... having taken a bridge in the end (which was a bit further) the 'jeep' was in fact a bicycle-rikshaw which would cost me altogether about three times as much as a normal taxi would have... No worries, that's also a part of India and after some friendly negotiations I was on my way again through some remote villages to the actual border, and for the final part, I was even picked up by a friendly Indian in his car. The border-crossing ceremony, which remined me of some crossings I've done in Africa, was one to remember: after clearing customs on the Indian side, I walked for about 1km next to a nice river, accompanied by a dozen of singing children, farmers with their cattle and friendly Nepalese looking for a conversation until I finally reached immigration... well, 'immigration' might just be a bit too much honor since it was actually just some sort of hut in the middle of nowhere: happy days!!

Noticing the difference between India and Nepal immediately (much more quite, the people more humble, way more friendly and looking more Asian than the Indians) I decided to stay for the night at the only hotel in the city with the mythical name of Mahendranagar, which turned out to be quite a fancy one considering the amount of private (and U.N.-) jeeps in front of it. Staying the night, and therefor having the chance to get into the feeling for this new country, turned out to be a good decision. First of all, I got a haircut (coupe: 'backpacker') by a friendly muslim-hairdresser for the unreal amount of 0,19 euro... what can I say? Oh, what I look these days you mean? Not too shabby, should go back there one day :-) By coincidence, there was a Nepalese festival going on: everywhere throughout the city there where groups of men singing in a big circle and 'battling' each other with some traditional lyrics, which was fun to watch and which gave me to opportunity to practice my Nepali and to speak with some locals. Strolling for a while through the city, it became quite clear to me that I was going to enjoy my stay in Nepal very-very much, even if it was only for its very friendly/interesting/curious and helpful inhabitants!

Next morning, 04:00AM: waking up to catch my bus to the nation's capital of Kathmandu. Leaving with sunrise, cruising to an landscape which would well do for an 'open-air-museum', picking up everyone and everything (packages) and some chickens and goats along the way and having some stops to enjoy my favorite 'Masala Chai' (tea), I finally arrived in Kathmandu at midnight and I was happy to follow some British girls to the hotel where they were staying to get a room and to get some rest... The next day, I went to find the hotel of which I had read some very positive reviews online and this turned out to be a very good bet! As I told you before, right now I'm typing from my desk in a quite spacious room with two beds and... with hot water all-day-long (!!!)... looking over the beautiful Kathmandu-valley and being in the middle of the Thamel- (read: backpackers-) area. Looking just over the screen of my laptop, on a clear day I could see the Himalayas, the mountain range where I'll be heading for as soon as possible!!! Today and yesterday, I've been exploring the city a bit and I must say: I realised that these kind of places are the actual reason why I love travelling so much: Kathmandu is amazing: I can't say that it's undiscovered by tourists or very clean, but there is just so much to see: around every corner of this very old city there is something to be found: whether it's a stupa (temple), a square, some beautiful wood-carved buildings, statues, souvenir-shops (it's really a Mekka for this), trekking companies, good local restaurants... I'm just loving it :-D

So..., that's where we are now! What's next? Actually, one of my intended highlight-activities is about to start: trekking all the way to the Base Camp of the highest mountain in the world: Mt. Everest!!! My BFF (sorry, not my choice of word either) will join me after a week at Lukla, the place where most people start climbing from, but only reachable by plain. Myself, I'll start walking next monday or tuesday to another place called Jiri (reachable by bus), which will get me in good shape for the rest of the climb by leading me through a (pretty-much) undiscovered valley-landscape to Lukla on the 14th of September... Although you can do the whole trek by yourself (bringing a day-pack is enough, since there are so called 'tea-house-lodges' along the entire way were you can eat, drink and sleep), my initial plan was to hire a 'porter-guide' to accompany us. This is in fact very common, although it might sound a bit awkward... This porter-guide, who is well-respected in his community and who makes relatively quite a lot of money, will carry some of your luggage (max 10kg) and can provide you with a lot of useful and interesting information... However, I think (at least for now) that I will take a bus to my starting point (Jiri) and try to find a local guide there, which might save me some money (and time). With one week to spend, I might go for a short trek, three days by myself, through the valley, sleeping at some places with magnificent views over the Himalaya-range... Will figure that out tomorrow :-)

Any final thoughts? Well, I think I made it clear that I'm enjoying myself quite well and being right now in the a-ma-zing city of Kathmandu, I can say that I'm starting to really get into the travel-rhythm and that things are turning out quite well (so far, at least)... India was fascinating (and after Nepal, I will spend a considerable amount of time there again) but chaotic and noisy (as my first impressions) and I think that Nepal is just what I needed for a welcome change of rhythm... I'm feeling well, haven't had any complaints yet (not even from the food), so far I really don't mind travelling 'on my own', I have met some very nice and interesting people, I'm getting all excited about new places to visit and most important: I just can't wait for the Himalayas, bring it on!!!

Thanks for everyone's messages, it's been very good hearing from all of you! My next update will probably only be by the beginning of October after (hopefully) having trekked to Everest Base Camp... I'm excited!

Namaskar and Topailai Samtse Tsa,

Marijn