Nepal

Our Nepalese driver insured us that we would go slow and drive safely, unlike the Chinese drivers who he described as manic in comparison to Nepalese drivers. Well, the bus driver with a bus load of passages (thankfully none on the roof) driving at a hundred miles an hour on the wrong side of the road around a blind corner was either Chinese or didn't get the memo! A few holy F's passed my lips. It's not worth repeating what Nick said. All this happened within the first hour of a 5 hour drive. Here is more proof that Nepalese drivers are no better.... A common sight on the roads.

Ka Ka Ka Ka Ka Ka Ka Ka Katmandu is Cr Cr Cr Cr Cr Crazy! After the peace and tranquility of Tibet the constant racket of cars, scooters, horns, tuk-tuks and tiger balm sellers we couldn't wait to get into our room and shut Katmandu out. Alas, food and curiosity dragged us out.

Nick was screaming for some western food, well anything but Yak, which lead us to the Lonely Planet recommendation called 'The Roadhouse'. Once we were seated we noticed we were surrounded by other westerners all dressed in the same knock-off Northface puffer jacket celebrating their trek or preparing for their trek. The clothes and conversation may have been slightly different, but it felt all to familiar. We could have been in any restaurant in the UK or NZ not Nepal. It was kinda disappointing after being isolated from Western culture for so long. The food was great, though!

Nick's man flu was peaking and I was refusing to except that I was feeling a bit run-down myself, which most likely didn't help with our first impression of Nepal. We soldiered on regardless making it to Bhaktapur, a Newari town semi void of traffic and tiger balm sellers. Unfortunately, some political party was using Bhaktapur square as a platform to spread their political message. Forcing us to venture deeper in the ancient city. This turned out to more ideal, we no longer had to deal with the crowds or the same annoying boy who seemed to refuse to understand that we didn't want a guide.

The Lonely Planet was no help at all in filling our brains with useful information on Bhaktapur architecture and the many Hindu and Buddhist religious sites and shrines. The Lonely Plant was thrown in favor for just wondering the quieter backstreets of the town observing the normal daily activities of it's residences.

We did strike it luck on day 2 at the town of Dakshinkdi. A Hindu blood sacrifice temple dedicated to Kai, Shiva's bloodthirsty incarnation. Every Tuesday and Saturday devoted Hindu's trek to the spooky open air temple to make an offering of a male un-castrated animal. In return Kai offers protection. Unknown to us it was Saturday, by the time we arrived the temple was already bathed in marigold flowers, butter lamps, coconuts and blood. We managed to get a prime position above the temple that allowed us to watch the sacrifices. First up was a chicken, not so bad, had seen it before. Next was a goat, ok, was a little horrified as it continued to twitch. Then we saw the nearly mature calf! It's legs were tied together and it was being dragged by it's hoofs to it's death. I really didn't need to see it's throat being cut but curiosity got the better of me. I soon wished I hadn't.


Still reeling at we had seen, we moved on to to Bodhnath. A small Buddhist town close to central Katmandu, where hundreds of exiled Tibetans and a few foreign monks call home. At it's heart is the worlds largest Stuppa. Unlike the Stuppas in Tibet, Bodhnath does not contain any mummified Dali Lamas, scriptures or relics, however it was built in AD 600 and no animal were harmed.

To finish the day we visited Nepal's most important Hindu temple, Pashupatinath. We arrived at the conclusion of the Bala Chaturdashi fair. By the amount of plastic bags, barley seeds and straw covering the entire complex it must be a popular fair. As we are un-Hindu's we were not allowed to enter Pashupatinath Temple or other Hindu temples within the complex. We had to be satisfied with glimpsing at Shiva bull, Nandi golden backside from the entrance.

We wondered pass the temple towards the river and smoke. The river is called the Bagmati River, a holy river like the Ganges in Varansi, India. The smoke was coming from large stone pillars along the river. And it was human bodies that was burning! We didn't know this when standing down wind to have a nosey, until a nice young man came over to explain that on paying 10000 rupees you can have your body cremated on this holy river. Moving on quickly while brushing the ashes of the dead off us we came across these guys.....

HOLY MEN, there is nothing holy about them. They lounge around the temple all day smoking weed and charging tourist for taking their photo. Apparently, one day a year everyone is allowed to smoke weed legally on the temple grounds. The young man said there is just as much western hippies as there are locals.

For a change in pace and in hope of seeing the majestic Bengal Tiger, we traveled south to Chitwan National Park. We spent 3 days and 2 night on an island in the jungle, traveling by foot, elephant and jeep searching for a tiger. We were unsuccessful. However, the rare one horn rhino and the shy Sloth Bear with a cub was spotted.

 There is a rhino among the the bush. We were on a elephant who was vibrating! Guessing he was scared or communicating to the rhino.

On the first walking tour, the guide took us deep into the jungle to explain the 'rules of encounter'. In his broken english, we think you stand completely still or hide behind a tree if being charged by a rhino. Standing in a circle making a lot of noise will hopefully scare a sloth bear off, while looking down and backing away will, maybe, stop a tiger from having you for lunch. If all this fails we had a 60 year old man with a bad hip (a result from being attacked by a rhino) and a big stick to defend himself and us. Perfect!

I was also given the chance to bath a elephant. That was what I was lead to believe....

It was so nice to chill out in the sun with a few beers listening to the peacefulness of the jungle.

The highlight of Nepal was leaving! Somehow we had managed to get first class plane tickets. As we settled into seats with the free Kingfisher beers the plane flew at the same attitude as the Himalayas. What a magical sight, seeing the days last rays of sun illuminate the famous snowcapped peaks.

  

TIBET.....the search for enlightment

Tibet is known as the roof of the world. And so it is! Lhasa sits at 3600m above sea level, we were struggling for air. But before we get into that, the train trip from Beijing first.

It was long and our excitement about spending the next 11 days in Tibet didn't help to pass the time either. What broke our attention away from our impending adventure was the passing landscape. Central China's mountainous farmlands gave way to stunning lakes and snow capped mountains of the Tibetan plateau. Rumors were circulating about the actual time the train was arriving in Lhasa. We had heard 9pm, while the guard said it was 730pm. Needless to say we were a bit unprepared when we arrived at 6:10pm.

Oxygen was pumped into the each cabin once the train began it's climb, providing us with a false self confidence about our adjustment to high altitude. The 5 minute walk from the train to our tour guides car, left us panting like dogs on a hot summers day. Climbing the 3 flights of stairs to our room was going to be a grueling challenge. Unless, we stopped at each flight of stairs with a beer to acclimatise!!!

Tibet, what an amazing place. Within a couple of hours we knew we were going to enjoy our time here. Everyone is so friendly and colourful. You can't walk down the street without someone saying hello to you. Most just laughed when we replied Tashi Dele (hello in Tibetan) back. We also had to get use to being a novelty. It is very common for locals to stop what they are doing and just stare at you not matter what you are doing. It can be quite flattering, in a strange way.

At this time of year, the end of the harvest, Lhasa is alive with pilgrims from all over Tibet, who are here to pay their respects to Buddha in one or all of Lhasa's many monasteries. For the poorer pilgrims this is usually a once in a life time event. The result is a wonderful mixture of traditional culture and dress and ancient building with a city on the brink of Chinese modernism.
We could have spent hours capturing the many faces of the Tibetan people but as many believe that the camera can take a part of your soul it was very rare to come across someone who would look into the camera.

Tibet is littered with hundreds of monasteries, thankfully the Chinese Government rebuilt many after the Cultural Revaluation ended in 1966. Chairman Mao and the Red Guards barley left any of Tibet's history standing. This is clearly seen in small villages, where tourism is low. All that remains of a once thriving monastery and home to hundreds of monks is a vague brink outline of what use to be.
Our trip involved visiting 6 monasteries, I was a little bit worried we may get a little......bored. To both our surprise we didn't. Thanks mostly to our guide Kangdol. She was brilliant! We always walked away amazed at what we just saw and learnt.
The most brilliant monastery we saw was in fact a temple, as no monks lived inside. It is the Potela Palace. Built in the 7th century on Red Hill in Lhasa, the Potela Palace was not only the home of the present and past Dali Lamas but was also Tibet's government building. In the 17th century the 5th Dali Lama united Tibet and therefore became it's spiritual and political leader.
Once we conquered the stairs to the entrance of the Palace we saw the present Dali Lamas pray room, meditation room and bedroom. Amazing! It was so odd and wrong to think that as tourist was can move around freely in his home while he can not after being exiled to India in 1959. To top of our tour in the Potela Palace, we vised the 5th Dali Lamas stuppa or tomb as we would call it. Standing at 12.5m tall, weighing in at 3721kg of gold and covered in over 1000 precious stone it put all other stuppas to shame. Inside is the Dali Lamas mummified body in the meditation position.

Buddhism is not a easy religion to get your head around. I think we quite often tested our guides patience with our sometimes stupid and repetitive questions. One aspect we did struggle with was Tibetan funeral procedures. Followers can either have a sky or water burial performed for dead family members. At it's core, both burials involve a Sharman taking the body to a scared place, where he goes about chopping the flesh up and grounding down the bones with barley seeds. For a sky burial the body is feed to the vultures while in a water burial the body is feed tot he fish. If the whole body is not consumed, then it is a sign that that person had bad karma. It is also why Tibetans don't eat fish! We visited one water burial site.

We like to engage ourselves in culture rather than just always being an observer. Tibet was no exception. Due to suffering from the Man Flu (yes it is the worst kind! ) Nick was snorting and spitting like the best of them. While I quite often joined the locals in peeing on the side of the road (it was much nicer than using the toilets). All modesty went out the window when deciding what direction to point my bare backside. Towards the road always resulted in a good laugh!

Our last point of interest in our tour was Mt Everest. For me it wasn't as awe-inspiring as I thought it would be, maybe because it was bitterly cold and blowing a sandy gale. I can't say the same for Nick who just about used up a memory card capturing Mt Everest in very position possible.

We are now in Kodari, a hillside town on the Tibet / Nepal boarder, which is strangely in the middle of the mountains. Tomorrow we leave Kangdol and our driver behind and cross the boarder for Kathmandu. We loved our time here and this blog could have easily been 5 x times as long explaining to you all the aspects of the Tibetan culture that has amazed us. We may not have found enlightment, but we were often light-headed and giddy due to the high altitude mountain passes we went through to get here. And maybe sometimes due to the Lhasa beer. But we think that being light-headed is just as good.