Nepal to donate unused mountains to EU

Our week of relaxation in Pokhara is coming to an end, on thursday we go back to Kathmandu. Nepal is a strange place. Its the first real third world ahem "least developed" country we've been too, where annual wages average $250. That's 50p a day. Its a complete lack of ports, roads, flat land and a decade long civil war, and unlike say Cambodia, its going downhill.

The King here has just shut down another radio station at gun point. The first one was shut down for broadcasting news, because as everyone knows (and this is a quote), "no country in the world allows news to be broadcast over FM radio". This latest one was going to air an interview with the Maoist chairman. Two letters were delivered simultanously, one requesting the interview not be broadcasted and the other saying that because the first hadn't been responded too, all the broadcasting equipment has been requested, and some armed police sent along to ensure compliance with that request. I have to admire the ingenuity, the King can save face by claiming a warning was sent then action taken. At the heart of all this are the new Media Ordinance laws, which forbid things like criticising the royal family and reports contrary to the spirit of royal decrees.

Its funny travelling in a country with so many problems. Liz commented about the ex-cabinet minister trapped in Kalopani (he was a member until the King dissolved the cabinet, or at least so he claims- truth is flexible out here. Put it this way, in the Sudoku puzzles they feel the need to point out "you can't change the numbers in the grid already. You have to work around them."). We had far more freedom to move than he did - the King is keeping close tabs on politicians, the Maoists are known to kidnap and kill politicians, and police roadblocks mean normal buses take 12 hours to go Kathmandu-Pokhara (the tourist only buses take half that).

The big news right now is that the Maoists and the 7 parties all coincidentaly met in New Delhi, and struck some kind of agreement. The king has repeatedly been accused of surrounding himself with ancient advisors from a bygone era (by the American ambassador and others), of ignoring the people and the 1990 constitution, hmm, I don't know if I should say any more while in the country. He's offered elections, but in the opinion of that cabinet minister, any so-elected prime minister won't have any power. All the parties have boycotted the elections, and if they do ally with the Maoists the King only has the army supporting him.

Its very weird. Nepal is a Hindu kingdom, with strong Buddhist tendancies (Hinduism seems to swallow other religions whole, after all, everything is just an illusion). Beauty comes way above truth, and survival above both. In the country they have lots of space, mountains and fresh air but look incredibly bored. In the city, you can't move for being hassled, you can't believe anything anyone says and don't even think about breathing the air. Everywhere, saving face is the most important aspect of life, you can do anything (forget about rule of law) as long as it doesn't embaress anyone richer than yourself.

This morning, I took a bike ride out of town. There were a few buffalo, rice fields, and lots of kids. People looked at me from a distance, then a flash of recognition passed over their faces -oh, its a tourist- and they went back to doing nothing. I wonder, people wax lyrical about rural lifestyles and talk fondly of Indian-style living in harmony with nature unlike us gluttonous westerners, is this what they're talking about?

Rooster

Rooster, originally uploaded by matthewharrup.

It certainly wasn't wilderness on the Annapurna trek (called the "costa del trekking" by the normaly loathe to print anything negative Lonely Planet). Every village seemed to be doing fine, lots of animals, school kids, motorbikes beeping you off the trails, apple pies that the landlady swears were just baked today, "hot" showers and attached bathrooms - luxury.

Of course, then there were the Maoists, who have to be the nicest hun toting communist revolutionaries intent on overthrowing the fascist bourgois state and uniting the oppressed masses that I've ever met.

Oh well, I think you get out of these things what you put in, and we were pretty tired to start with. I'd reccomend the Sanctuary trek or the circuit - we did the easiest bit not exactly knowing how long we wanted to spend.

Enlighted Yak

Enlighted Yak, originally uploaded by matthewharrup.

Now, just what exactly is an enlighted Yak?

Kalaopani valley

Kalaopani valley, originally uploaded by matthewharrup.

I was a bit dissapointed by the Annapurna scenery - for the first 5 days it was walking through a green littered valley with mountains in the distance. Big deal - all of Nepal has mountains in the distance. But once you get north of Kalopani, it starts getting much more rugged.

Poon hill at sunrise (facing)

Poon hill at sunrise (facing), originally uploaded by matthewharrup.

A few minutes before sunrise, on high exposure

Poon hill at sunrise (away)

Poon hill at sunrise (away), originally uploaded by matthewharrup.

Looks like a painting, but this is a photo.

Sunrise over Annapurna

Sunrise over Annapurna, originally uploaded by matthewharrup.

Annapurna

Just a quick post to say we're OK and in Jomosom, at the north edge of the Annapurna trek. We're thinking of flying back to Pokhara in a few days, when we'll be back in communication - lots and lots of walking done already.

Videos

We took some videos of Mount Everest, the view was just too big to put in on photograph. You can view them here: http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=Panorama+of+Everest+at+dawn+playable%3Atrue

Old Royal Durbar

Old Royal Durbar, originally uploaded by matthewharrup.

This is the old royal palace in Kathmandu.

We should be off to the Annapurna tomorrow, but there's a few things to sort out so we might need to stay in Pokhara for another day. After that, we're likely to be offline for 10 days.

Boudha Stupa

IMG_1345, originally uploaded by matthewharrup.

The biggest outpost of Tibetan exiles, all following Lamaism (Tibetan Buddhism). Surprisingly, there are actually many more Bhutanese exiles, after their king kicked out anyone who wasn't proven 4th generation Bhutanese. Everyone thinks of Bhutan as a cosy mountain kingdom pursuing Gross National Happiness over GDP but round here there are quite a few snipy editorials pointing out the dictatorial nature of the country.

Thamel massage

Thamel massage, originally uploaded by matthewharrup.

Now if only Private Eye would accept email submissions.

Ama Dablam

Ama Dablam, originally uploaded by matthewharrup.

The most photographed "Matterhorn" of the himalayas.

Royal Ghat, Kathmandu

Royal Ghat, Kathmandu, originally uploaded by matthewharrup.

Public cremations are part of the Hindi culture here in Nepal. This is the holiest Ghat (cremation place), on the holiest river in Nepal. This is where the old king/queen/prince were cremated in 2001. The higher the status, the further upstream it takes place.

There was a public cremation of a police officer while I was there - it definitely didn't seem right to photograph it.

More mountains

More mountains, originally uploaded by matthewharrup.

Somewhere in the Everest region. Lizzie likes this shot.

Monkey

Monkey, originally uploaded by matthewharrup.

Around Swyamabhu there were tons of monkeys.

Swayambhu Stupa

IMG_1332, originally uploaded by matthewharrup.

Buddhist monuments out here take the form of stupas, big plastered domes with towers in the center, and the all-seeing eyes of Buddha painted on each face.

The trip has finally been halted, by the mighty Indian Embassy. Despite queueing for 2 mornings we failed to even send the form to beg permission to apply for the london embassy to send us telex clearance to queue again to pay lots of money to queue a final time (we think) to get the visa. Our error was not starting the queueing at 3.00am to be first in line for 4.00am registration; merely 3 hours before the embassy opens wasn't enough. Even if we had queued successfully, 7 working days for the Indian Embassy corresponds to 20 days in the real world (must be good working there!) due to all the holidays. To cut a long story short, we can't be bothered, we're going to get a short transit visa and spend more time in Nepal. We fly back to London on the 16th December.

We're now in Pokhara, about to do either the Jomson or Annapurna sanctuary trek - both about 10 days. Its good to get out of Kathmandu, while its got really good restaurants and hotels, its very dirty and polluted, and the constant touts get on my nerves.

Nepal itself is very confused. We'd originally planned to start the trip here but the day after we booked the plane ticket, the king took over the country, locked up all politicians and journalists, shut off all the phones and internet, and closed the airport. This was an all out attempt to stomp the Maoist insurgency. The new king is pretty universally considered to be incredibly lucky after him and all his children were coincidentally out of the city in 2001 when the old prince(his cousin) accidentally brutally murdered everyone with an AK47 and cremated himself before anyone could ask why the security guards merely called ambulances instead of stopping him (contrary to some previous posts, I couldn't make this one up). Suffice to say, the country's calmed down now but no one really knows whats going to happen. They've signed a ceasefire and there's now a 3 way balance of power between the King, the parties and the Maoists.

Panoramic view from Everest Base Camp (you can't see Everest, its hidden behind the glacier in the middle).



Panoramic view from Kala Pattar at dawn. (Annoyingly, flickr trims the huge 10,000x1500 originals into 1076x100 tiny prints). Videos may be coming soon.

Himalayas

Himalayas, originally uploaded by matthewharrup.

There's more to come, but that's my internet cafe time up. We're now safely back in Kathmandu in the Thamel area which is much much nicer than Jochhe, with some bizzarely good steak houses (this is a Hindu country...). Its Diwali or Deepawli as the Nepalese call it, and it appears to be a mix of trick or treat with carol singing.

Dawn over Nhuptse

Dawn over Nhuptse, originally uploaded by matthewharrup.

Yes, it was damn cold pre-dawn 5700m (18,000 feet) on top of Kala Pattar. The oxygen level is 49%, but that didn't stop the spookily chirpy sherpa from tap dancing up the last 100m of rocks.

Mount Everest at dawn

Mount Everest at dawn, originally uploaded by matthewharrup.

As shot from Kala Pattar. Mount everest is the dark one in the middle; Nhuptse is only 7500m but closer, you can just see Lhotse at 8414m behind that (both on the right)

Japanese character

Mad Japanese man, originally uploaded by matthewharrup.

This guy has been ice bathing in Gorak Shep (5200m) every year since about 1960 (he's now in his 80's).

I think this is the same guy who built the 5* Everest view hotel without a visa or any kind of permission, but the Nepalese authorities couldn't really see the point of evicting him.

Tengboche monastery

Tengboche monastery, originally uploaded by matthewharrup.

Note the Chinese dragon guarding the Hindu carvings - Tibetan Lamaism is a real mix of Hinduism (Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva are everywhere) and Buddhism (they claim to be Buddhists).

Everywhere you see prayer wheels and flags (even some water driven prayer wheels!). Everytime everyone turns one, the "om mani padme aum" is supposedly recited and the turnee gains merit. Om mani padme aum means "hail to the jewel in the lotus", to be read "if a lotus flower can grow out of muck, so can you".

Stupa

Stupa, originally uploaded by matthewharrup.

A Buddhist monument near Khumjing (that's Nyema the guide next to it)

View from Pheriche

View from Pheriche, originally uploaded by matthewharrup.

Those fluffy white things below us? They're clouds.

Its 4200m now and its really hard work, or would be if we had to carry the bags.

View from Tengboche

View from Tengboche, originally uploaded by matthewharrup.

At 3800m, its starting to get cold, snowy and mountainous.

At this elevation, the doctors really recommend you don't climb more than 300m a day to let your body acclimatise, as there's only about 70% of the oxygen as at sea level.

Valley

Valley, originally uploaded by matthewharrup.

This is the scenery at about 3500m in the mount Everest region - valleys, flowers, small trees.

Valleys

Bridge, originally uploaded by matthewharrup.

The habitation follows the rivers all the way up to Gorak Shep, there are loads of pretty stable bridges around (along with the remains of not-so stable looking bridges beneath them)

Yak Jam in Khumjing

Yak Jam in Khumjing, originally uploaded by matthewharrup.

Everything runs on yaks and porters. Commercial porters carry shocking amounts of weight - oen guy had 75kg, he can't have weighed over 60kg himself, and he was going up and down mountains in sandals. They get paid by the kilo you see.

The other stalwarts are Yaks, Naks, half yak half cow thingimajigs... they have about 20 words for yak out here. Its really hard to make a yak move when it doesn't want to.

Nyema Kunta Sherpa

Nyema Kunta Sherpa, originally uploaded by matthewharrup.

In the Andes, we were carrying 15-20kg packs at 5,000m but we'd had 3 months of acclimatisation and also the porters wanted $100 for 4 days. It wasn't fun.

Out here, even though we're staying in tea houses so our packs were about half that -no camping equipment or food, we just felt plane lazy. This guy wanted 4gbp a day (about 8x the national average wage) to carry both our bags and we said OK. He also was a great guide, finding the path, booking all the rooms and food and only occasionally dropping us off at places ran by friends or family - all good though.

I'd definitely recommend anyone to hire well, him, or any porter that can speak a bit of English - it'll be like a walk in the park rather than a hike.

Waterfall outside Lukla

Waterfall outside Phakding, originally uploaded by matthewharrup.

We started off from Lukla, a small unimportant village except its got the 2nd busiest airport in the country (the flight here saves a 12hour bus journey, and a 8 day walk. We took the flight).

The airport is very ingeneous. There's no flat land in the entire area, so they made the runway on a slope. It drops 60m - a 20 storey building- over about 150m in length, which makes sense as landing planes have that huge brake and taking off, well, think how fast a coin would hit the ground if dropped from 20 floors up.

Himalayas

More mountains, originally uploaded by matthewharrup.

We're back in Kathmandu, and fine. We've just trekked all the way to Everest Base Camp and back again, over glaciers, valleys, tundra and mountain streams. I'll let the photos speak for themselves.