Pokhara, January 28

As promised: a report about what happened after I left Kathmandu. I travelled through a country where most towns are not yet connected by road.

Public transport is organized here in the following way. There are special "tourist busses" that guarantee every passanger a seat. They only go once a day and I haven't been on one yet. The local busses, on the other hand, look like they have just been assembled from old tin cans and spare bits of alumina. They sound like that too, when driving. Passengers have the choice of travelling inside, crammed into, over and on top of each other, or on top of the roof. While driving, the bus blurts out traditional Nepali music, which includes rythmic drums, high flutes and nasal, high-pitched vocals. This sound competes with the bumping and rattling of the vehicle. And slowly the land passes by: steep mountain slopes covered in jungle, Small villages with bamboo huts, small children playing at the road side, women doing the laundry and men chewing tobacco.

From Kathmandu I went straight to Chitwan National Park in the Terai (the strip of land immediately in front of the Himalaya foothills). And what a pleasant change it was. From the hectic overcrowded city into some sort of tropical paradise. The wildlife visited the garden of my lodge sometimes. In the case of a hornbill that means you take out your camera; in the case of a rhino that means you have to hide inside! I spend two days in Chitwan, one with two rangers inside the park and another relaxing and visiting the park again, this time on top of an elephant. The grass grows high during this time of the year, making spotting wildlife more difficult. Yet I saw a lot of deer, many different birds, two species of monkey, crocodiles and gavials and two rhinos. We even crossed the trail of a tiger once, and the paw prints seemed quite fresh!

From Chitwan I went north, back into the Lesser Himalaya (called "lesser", but still up to 3000 m high), and stayed a day in Gorkha, the ancestral home town of the former Nepali royal family. Perched on top of a mountain, it is a sunny place full of old wooden houses and interesting temples. On the top of the mountain, a 30 minutes climb above Gorkha, is the old castle of the royal family, a small wooden fortress. Because the royal family are considered incarnations of Lord Vishnu by people of the Newari ethnic group, it is also a place of worship. Two goats were led up to the fort's temples for sacrifice. A wooden block, covered in blood and chicken feathers, stood beside the altar and two Hindu priests were performing rituals. I had to buy a ticket before I could enter, and a seperate one for my camera. However, when I took a picture inside one of the priests took offence and told me to get the camera out. As so often with religious representatives, argueing proved futile. I want my money back! I did take pictures of the Himalayan backdrop of the fortress though. The summits of Manaslu (8162 m), Langtang Himal and Annapurna seem to hover above the jungle-covered lesser Himalaya ridges.

From Gorkha I went on to Bandipur, where I met up again with Jitu, a bird expert and mountain guide I met in Chitwan. We planned on trekking in the Annapurna region together, but unfortunately we lost each other in Pokhara. I haven't been able to find him again. Bandipur is another hill top town, much smaller and quieter than Gorkha but very peaceful and clean. It is reached by jeep from the valley junction at Dumre. These jeeps tend to fill up though. And when I write fill, I mean, well: fill all available space. More than twenty people somehow fit in a vehicle, including five on the roof and three standing on the bumper. On the way back I climbed on top: the roof is much more comfortable and perhaps even safer than the inside. Although you need to duck for low hanging electricity wire now and then.

Five days ago I arrived in Pokhara, a much larger city at the shore of a lovely lake (Phewa Thal). I've spend these days with buying equipment, somehow loosing a friend (Jitu), eating nice food and hiking to the hill tops in the vicinity. Together with a nice English lady who stays in the same guesthouse, I climbed to Sarangkot, 850 m above Pokhara, to see the sun rise over the white tops of Annapurna (8091 m) and Dhaulagiri (8167 m), and Machhapuchhare, the local look-alike of Matterhorn (but much bigger and higher). The light on these mountains, first red, then orange and yellow and finally white, was incredibly beautiful. Especially if you consider that they're still so far away. But something as big as the Greater Himalaya just sticks out.

In the coming days I want to go trekking in the direction of Annapurna. The paths are full of trekkers, even though it's not the high season. I chose an easy, well-trodded route over the villages of Goraphani and Gamdruk. Maybe I'll try to walk up to Annapurna Base Camp, if there is not too much snow up there.