My Trip Journal
Day One
I'm here! Standing in the carpark of the Tribhuvan International Airport with my luggage on a trolley, waiting for the Peregrine staff to get organised. It's 27th September 2003. Day One of my very first Himalayan trek (actually my first overseas trip, not counting emigrating from England as a kid 33 years ago). It also happens to be World Tourism Day, as proclaimed by the enormous banner that greeted us as we walked from the plane to the terminal. Smiling Nepalese gave us all marigold garlands, traditional Newari hats and greeting cards that said "You are warmly welcome to Nepal We wish you long live with happy atmosphere." Cameras and crew excitedly waited for the 1,000,000 visitor. It wasn't me or Carmel...we were visitors #999,995 and #999, 996. Darn! Missed by that much! Still, we've just been told that the Brisbane Lions have won their third consecutive AFL Grand Final by beating Collingwood by 60 points. Go the Lions! Life just doesn't get any better than this!
Have to confess to becoming a little teary as I got my first glimpse of Kathmandu from the air. Must have been because I've been awake since 8am Friday, caught the 9 hour 11.25pm flight to Bangkok, hung around in transit for five hours before finally arriving in Kathmandu at 1.30pm (local time) Saturday...not cos I'm emotional or anything.
Made a short visit to Thamel to buy postcards and prayerflags and to stock up on bottled water. Had my first experience being scammed by a sadhu, practised saying "No thank you" to street vendors and had a quick lesson in the art of crossing roads in Kathmandu. Completely knackered, we ate in the hotel (the Shanker), nearly falling asleep in our dinners, before dragging ourselves off to bed for some well-earned sleep.
Day Two
After a really good night's sleep, we finally get up at quarter past eight, shower, dress and go downstairs for brekky. Today's plan is to go to Swayambhunath and Durbar Square, then meet up with Carmel's American friend, Angela, for lunch. We get a taxi to Swayambhunath, where we spend a very pleasant couple of hours looking around and taking photographs. One of the bullet shaped shikra, Pratappur, fell down in August. It had caught fire back in June and collapsed during heavy rain last month. Now, it's a huge mound of brick rubble surrounded by bamboo scaffolding. I hope they are able to rebuild it one day.
Whilst wandering around, we noticed that preparations were being made to make fresh lotus petal patterns around the stupa. Keen to see it actually being done, we hung around for a bit, but there was very little action. Men would bring out huge bundles of prayer flags then walk off to have a cigarette. Someone else would bring out some bells and bowls, then disappear again. Well, we thought, it's going to be some time yet. Let's go and explore this square over here. So we did and came back fifteen or twenty minutes later to discover we had missed the ceremony! There was Swayambhunath stupa all beautifully adorned in bright yellow garlands of paint! Still, we got some good 'Before' and 'After' shots for our troubles!.
We decided to walk back into town. Carmel wanted to show me Durbar Square before we met up with Angela at the Kathmandu Guest House. As it turned out, we only got as far as Asan, then had to head north to Thamel if we were going to be on time to meet Angela. What a fabulous walk that was! It was market day and we walked slap bang into the middle of it all. A wonderful kaleidascope of colour, sound, smell and movement swirled around us. Not a single street vendor hassled us...until we stopped to take some photos. Then a little boy tried to sell us some pot scourers (just what we needed), a man offered to 'help' us take good photos (for a fee, of course) and at least two rickshaws converged on us hoping for a fare! We put our cameras away and scarpered off towards Thamel!
We met Angela and had lunch with her at the New Orleans Cafe. Then, it was back to the Hotel Shanker for the first pre-trek briefing, where we met the rest of the group. Our Sherpa leader is Nima. There are two other women - Toni from Canada and Zoe from England. Five of the blokes come from Australia, making 7 Aussies altogether. David also comes from Brisbane. Jack is from Geelong (Victoria). Colin comes from Perth (WA). Glenn is from Adelaide (SA). Richard is from Sydney (NSW). Shane comes from New Zealand. Another bloke, George, is from New York (USA) but won't be joining us until we get to Namche Bazaar. We all went to Kilroy's for dinner and are now all back in our rooms for another early night (most people arrived from overseas today). I loved today. It was wonderful walking through all the local, non-tourist streets. Am totally intrigued by the little doorways and their hidden courtyards!
Day Three
Today was an organised sightseeing trip for the whole group. First stop was Pashipatinath, one of the most important Hindu temples in the whole world. Being non-Hindus, we couldn't enter the temple proper but stayed on the other side of the Bagmati river and watched the cremations and prayer services. In another area, people could pay to take photos with sadhus. I'm sure the same sadhu was there that I've seen in Carmel's photo albums from her previous trips! We all stood and listened to a different group playing wonderful music. As we left, one of the sadhus pursued Shane, demanding money because he thought we had taken pictures!
Then it was off to Boudnath, the biggest stupa in Nepal. This was quite a moment for me...I did a circumnavigation, spinning prayer wheels as I went. Then we climbed up to the dome and took pictures of the whole complex. The stupa is surrounded by a circle of shops and monasteries and is abuzz with people - pilgrims, tourists and touts. Carmel and I bought some katas and looked at thankgas. This was one place I wanted to come back to once we'd finished the trek.
We all went to KCs for a scrumptious lunch, then went our separate ways until Briefing Time. It started raining during lunch and stayed wet most of the rest of the afternoon. Carmel and I bought more postcards. I also bought a wooden walking stick for 60rp and a pack 'raincoat' for 150rp. Back at the Shanker we had our final briefing and got our kitbags. These included down sleeping bags, down jackets and a sleeping bag liner. We also got a map each of the Khumbu region.
Carmel and I met Angela and another friend of Carmel's, Amanda, for drinks and we all went on to the Roadhouse for pizza. Then it was back to our room to pack our kitbags and into bed for an early night cos we're getting up at 5.30am for the start of the trek!
