G'day from Nepal!

Quite a few weeks ago now i headed back to Dubai for some business for 2 weeks, so while i was there, i decided to scoot off to Nepal, and hike a week in the Annapurna range before heading back to Dubai to finish off my business.

I had always wanted to go to Nepal, but circumstance didnt allow it. Now im hooked on the place and i see myself spending many weeks a year there in the future.

Since i only had a week, it wasnt possible to do a major hike like everest basecamp, although i had toyed with the idea. i had 7-8 days to hike including travel time. Everest basecamp needed 10 days minimum just for hiking, and that was weather dependant, so i decided to hike a smaller more popular peak called Poon Hill in the Annapurna ranges, and part of the Annapurna Circuit.

I arrived in Nepal not knowing too much about the customs and traditions, but willing to learn. Having spent the vast majority of my travels in the islamic world, it was quite a contrast coming to the hindu world, and spending it on the trails with the villagers one of the holiest days in theNepali hindu calender, the sping moon festival of Holi . it was quite an experience and something that i'd cherish for a long time.

so, here's some snippets of my time in Kathmandu, Pokhara and in the Annapurna Ranges.



driving into kathmandu, people getting ready for Holi, the full moon festival


people dress in red for the festival and carry around coloured flour and water.





Phewa Lake in Pokhara

Pokhara was a vastly different place than the hustle and bustle of Kathmandu


no im no giant. me with my guides. I went shopping and the lady there told me that im an XXL in Nepali size. Im usually a medium .

10 minutes into my hike and the festivities begin

at every village the paint got added more and more by the villagers. they thought i was a novelty and were quite amused that a westerner was involved in having my face painted.

a few hours later...


my guide along the trail

our lunch stop

after lunch we were faced with 3300 steps. it took us an hour and a half of constant stair climbing to get over this little baby

looking back down at the steps..glad it was over

the villagers didnt seem to mind the terrain, with many collecting wood before the winter came

the hotel where my guide tried to marry me off to the local girl

arriving in Gorapani

Ale' my porter

checking in at the police station
--- merged: Jun 12, 2012 at 9:48 PM ---
damn 20 image rule...

 

Thank you for posting. Nepal is one of many on my bucket list.

 

Annapurna 2 peak behind me



Daulagiri Range


Arriving at the peak at Poon Hill


Poon Hill, 3210m. Not high by any standards, although the mountains on the opposite side of the range are mostly 8000m peaks, and the view was spectacular




the views were spectacular














arrived in Ghandruk, but there was no hot water since the whole town worked on Solar. It was an overcast day, we i had a cold icy shower and then sat by the kitchen fireplace to keep warm.



The next morning in Ghandruk


Machupuchre Peak


Nepali kids asking for chocolates. We traded muesli bars for a pic




Annapurna Range


Annapurna Range from Ghandruk


An easy hike for me, but im sure ill be back to tackle some harder ones in Nepal in the near future

 

Amazing images, awesome colors, culture and I'm just in awe.

 

Rock star! Good to see you out and about, brother.

 

Lish I love it when you travel and post you pictures. Thanks.

 

Excellent! Holi is a cool festival. It can get colourfully messy.

I have friends who did the hike to Everest's base camp. It's quite a hike... mostly because of the adjustments you have to make to the altitude.

 

thanks for the comments

there is a few more i wanted to post that were taken post-hike, so ill post them later today when i get a chance.

the colours,sights, and sounds of Nepal are amazing, and ive already promised myself that ill be spending a lot of time there chilling out away from the world. hotels are cheap enough that i could even live there, semi permanently. Thats not exactly something that my wife would be thrilled to hear, but its something that'd be pretty cool to think about. Chilling out with hippies on the trail is damn liberating. beats the rat race here thats for sure.


Charlatan, yeah everest is around 5500m altitude from memory, and ive been higher than that.ironically though the everest basecamp trek doesnt give you any direct views of Mt Everest, so id probably wnat to do a side trip to one of the neighbouring peaks near basecamp to make the scenery worthwhile.


Thanks for the feedback, it feels great sharing my travels on TFP again.

 

I must party with you on one of these adventures some day.

 

I second this.
I LOVE hiking, mountains, etc...

 

ive got something big planned for may 2013... toying with the idea of climbing Denali in Alaska..20,000 feet.

I promise not to get too excited since the TFP cruise boat thing went to shit many lightyears ago. I thought if i do a north american peak, ill have more of a chance to get some wackos like me (aka Plan9) to join me. But if anyone's interested, lets talk.

 

Great looking pictures, Lish.

I'm looking to do some nature-exploring and hiking in Japan sometime in 2013, hopefully it'll be as much fun as your trip looks like!

 

Glad to see you still traveling and hiking. Great pictures.
I've got two questions:
-Why on earth were so many people of top of that bus!? Do they actually travel like that?
-What was written on the coloured flags you were holding?

 

These are awesome Lish!

 

Very cool Lish - it is a great sharing. I really liked the close-up of the wind-torn flags with the mountains behind them.

 

Thanks Settie

qn 1) they were all travelling to the Holi festival that started that morning. Seeing that many people on top of buses is quite a regular sight in the third world. They started to wave and jump around when they saw me snapping away. its was quite the scene.

qn 2)the coloured flags are Tibetan Buddhist prayer flags, and not Nepali. Each colour represents a different thing... from memory blue was sky, green the earth..etc etc and they have Tibetan prayers written on them that help ward away bad luck and evil. You see them on the approach to most towns.

Tibetan prayer hyms are really soothing. Om Mani Padme Hum is one of the more popular hyms and really popular with the westerners.

thanks kramus. The picture i took with my guide ahead of me with the walking stick and the big tree ahead of him reminds me of your tree dancer drawings, although your tree dancers are so much better!
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settie, these are for you...





after the hike, i hired a mountain bike and took it around Pokhara just to see the things you usually miss when you're in a car. Here's some pics from that day


these kids also wanted chocolates, but all i could offer was to show them their picture, with their wary father close by.


This pic i took near Pokhara airport


Not a great sight when you arrive at the airport...


fresh meat...i dont remember what the meaning of the swastica above the door way. Im pretty sure it was a hindu symbol hijacked by hitler?


Tomorrow ill post the pics i took in kathmandu

 

Wow, that close-up picture of that mountain top...I love it!
I could never ride on the top of a bus like that. Way too terrifying for me. Don't know how they hold on! I hope that bus driver drives slowly... -_-

 

Very nice pictures
That last point caught my attention....This is directly from Wikipedia and states the etymology of the word far better than I can briefly.
"The swastika is also a Chinese character used in East Asia representing eternity and Buddhism.

The word "swastika" comes from the Sanskrit svastika - "su" meaning "good," "asti" meaning "to be," and "ka" as a suffix. The swastika literally means "to be good". "

Basically the Swatiska is an ancient symbol of peace and good luck that has been harshly tainted in the Western world by Hitler in relatively recent years after several thousand years of meaning things completely opposite of what the Nazis represented.