Thoughts on visiting Nepal (reposted with pics)

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fountainhall

Thoughts on visiting Nepal (reposted with pics)

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Over 5 years ago I linked a post here to one on another site with some photographs I had taken in various parts of Asia. One set was of Nepal. But these were not travel reports, and so for anyone interested in visiting that amazing country, I decided to write of my experiences on two visits with more photos.

A year or so after I moved to Hong Kong, I went down with a bad bout of Asian ‘flu. As I was recovering, my doctor suggested I go away for a few days and get some fresh air. As I was wondering where the air would be fresh near Hong Kong, a good friend suggested Nepal where the mountain air could hardly be less fresh (although that in Kathmandu was hardly so). Within a few days I had booked a week split between 3 nights in Kathmandu and three in Pokhara, then a small village with rutted roads set near the foot of the Annapurna valley. It was, though, the starting point for trekkers making the long trip around the mighty Annapurna range. This includes 3 of the 10 highest peaks in the world, another 11 are over 7,000 meters and 16 more over 6,000 meters.

The valley in which Pokhara nestles is literally just across from the lower levels of the mountains. At an elevation of less than 1,000 meters, the mountains literally tower above. It is the perfect spot from which to view to wonders of the Himalaya.

A panoramic post-card showing the full Annapurna Range. Since it uses a wide-angle lens the mountains appear much further away that they seem when you are there.
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On that November 1980 trip, I recall flying into Pokhara mid-afternoon in a thick bank of clouds. When I reached my guest-house (then there was just one hotel and innumerable guest-houses), I asked the landlady when I would see the mountains. She told me not to worry. I should get up at 4:30 the next morning. Turn left to the end of the village where I would see the start of a track. It would take 45 minutes to walk up but I would then get to a vantage point at Sarangot. From there I would see dawn break over the range.

Sleepy-eyed but excited, I was glad she had left out for me a flask of hot tea and a torch for it was pitch black outside. Reaching the vantage point, all I could see was the outline of a few clouds in the darkness. As the dawn broke and the sky began to lighten, I first realised that those clouds were not clouds – they were mountain tops. In the lighter blue of the morning sky, I could clearly see the Annapurna range stretching like a painted panorama stretching left to right in front of me almost as far as I could see. When the sun got closer to the horizon, it hit the mountain tops, turning the snow through a range of colours from pink, to gold, to yellow and finally to brilliant white. There in front of me was one of the most magnificent sights one could possibly wish to see. “Magnificent“ does it little justice. I was in a state of sheer awe. It was one of those moments you can never – ever – forget.

25 years later I happened to dig out my old photos. I was saddened that all from that trip had turned pink and were useless. So I decided I would retrace my steps on a second visit. This I did in November 2009. If you want to get the best view of the mountains, then the end of the year is the near perfect time as the monsoon rains have cleared the air. If you are lucky, the view will be near crystal clear.

I took THAI’s regular flight to Kathmandu. The approach winds through various hills before touching down, but is nothing in comparison to the approach to Paro in Bhutan or the old Kai Tak airport in Hong Kong. There are plenty of western-style hotels but I wanted a more Nepali one bordering the old city. I chose to stay in the Kantipur House Hotel. It was charming, if somewhat basic. It did, though, have a superb chef and I could not tear myself away from the little restaurant in the evenings.

Wandering through the old town is utterly fascinating. Not many tourists that I could see apart from a few young and cute Japanese backpackers. There seems no order to the old city. Amidst the crowds, you bump into a small Hindu Festival here, old men and children there selling all manner of goods from shoes, to flower garlands, false teeth, to dresses hung conveniently on telephone lines, to fish.

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Look through into alleyways and you see fascinating statues and occasional stupas adorned with prayer flags.

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And if you are a bit weary, there are plenty of young guys happy to cycle you around.

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As with many cities, always take time to look up. Nepal boasts a wide variety of beautiful and ornately carved windows

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The main focus at the heart of the city is the centuries-old Durbar Square with its magnificent temples and palaces and not surprisingly the odd cow, holy man and dozens of souvenir shops. Sadly, the 2015 earthquake destroyed some of the temples which are in the process of being rebuilt. To help pay for the reconstruction, the entrance fee has been hiked to 1,000 rupees (US$10). Hopefully it is being restored to something like its former glory

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Nepali guys are not my scene and so I had not expected to make any hook-ups. I did notice some guys sitting on one of the temple steps looking back at me and smiling. Later as I left the Square I realised he was following me. I stopped for a chat, but had no desire for more than that. He wanted to come back to the hotel, but he was not for me. With Nepal’s open attitude to homosexuality, I am sure there will now be lots of guys appearing on the apps. So for those who do seek company, there are lots of willing Nepalis around.

Also in Kathmandu are a number of other major sights including the popular stupa Swayambunath with its pagoda to Hariti, the goddess of smallpox(!) Then, too, there are the cremation grounds, conveniently located on a small river not far from the airport and next to a hospital for old people!

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There are two smaller cities in the Kathmandu Valley not far from the city which are ‘must sees’ and hopefully are now also being restored. To make the best use of my time, I had hired a car and driver for the day at some ridiculously low cost. About 20 kms away to the east is Bhaktapur also known as Nepal’s ‘cultural gem”. Filled with Buddhist and Hindu religious sites and art, the central Durbar Square has a host of superb palaces, monuments and shrines. Along with two other squares nearby these will take up a morning.

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That enables you then to drive south of Kathmandu to Patan, the oldest of the cities in the valley with a rich artistic heritage and whose Durbar Square, like those in Kathmandu and Bhaktapur, is a World Heritage site.

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This Durbar Square has three main courtyards filled again with richly decorated palaces and temples. The Jagan Narayan Temple is especially famous as it has a series of explicit carvings on the roof struts with a variety of erotic scenes illustrating explicit Kama Sutra positions.

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Little wonder that after the earthquake struck, some evangelical pastors in the USA called for this temple not to be rebuilt!

Anyone planning a visit to Nepal now should check on the reconstruction progress for all three Durbar Squares suffered considerable earthquake damage. But then there is so much more to see in Nepal and my primary objective was Pokhara and the wondrous Annapurna Range.

Be warned! You can get to Pohkara by bus, and this is what I wish I had done. This time I was to have only two nights in Pokhara and so only two chances to see the mountains at dawn. Stupidly I had elected to fly. After all, even though these flights operate under visual flight rules and so cannot fly if there is bar weather, there are several flights a day. With a flight on Buddha Air around midday, I felt “what could go wrong?”

First the domestic airport in Kathmandu is the worst I have ever encountered – by far. It was disgusting. Nepal has several internal airlines. At each packed check-in desk there were people with bundles of produce, young animals – and a few with suitcases! There were no departure monitors and the check-in staff had no clue if my plane was on time or not. Having gone through security into what smelled a bit like a sewer, again there were no departure monitors. Flights were called by an attendant of each airline. Having waited two hours, I checked on the status of mine. No idea. An hour later I started to worry. If the flight could not take off before around 5:00 pm it would be cancelled because the weather would be too dark at Pokhara to land. But what can you do? Precisely nothing! And so I wanted . . . and waited . . . and waited . . .

As I started to panic, the flight was finally called at 4:45 pm. Seeing the mountains in the late afternoon sun was amazing although I did not have a window seat and so could not get good photos. As we landed, I was staggered at how Pokhara had grown from a little shanty-town village to a bustling city of 200,000 souls with over 200 hotels, with trendy restaurants, a host of shops selling mountaineering and skiing gear – and the inevitable souvenirs. My hotel by the lakeside was luxury compared to the guest-house of 29 years earlier. The track I had trekked up to get to the Sarangot viewing point was now a paved road for cars. So on my first morning, the trip which had taken an hour took less than 10 minutes.

I have already explained the magical, almost religious, experience of dawn breaking over the Annapurnas. My one regret on this occasion was that there had just been a cyclone in the Bay of Bengal and some of the outer cloud bands both covered part of the valley and rendered the view less clear. So the photographs lack the clarity and intensity of those I took back in 1980. Also, no longer was I a lone spectator. The viewing platform was filled with over 100 mostly young Koreans and Japanese, all with cameras on tripods ready for the first sign of dawn.

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It was still hugely worthwhile. If you love mountains and the beauty of nature, but still seek home comforts, Pokhara is a perfect spot. Even in late November the weather was pleasantly warm in the daytime and cool in the evening.

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thaiworthy

Re: Thoughts on visiting Nepal (reposted with pics)

Post by thaiworthy »

Oh, I see you found a new hosting site. Terrific! You surpass yourself with every post like this. You truly are the Asian Traveler. Thank you for taking the trouble to adding all these wonderful photos. Absolutely exquisite!
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