NepalKathmandu

We have a busy schedule planned today and we are out the door at 6:00 AM. Our private car turns out to be a very old and very small. There were four of us plus the driver and our stuff for ten days. We should have clarified the type of car we would be getting when we made our reservation. The back seats are covered with what Karen calls the scratchiest material that her back side has ever sat on. We are driven to the airport for our 7:05 scenic flight of Mt. Everest. We selected Buddha Air because they guarantee a window seat for every person. We board a new turbo prop airplane and after a few minutes warming up we take off and head to the Himalayas. The day is gorgeous and once we are up past the cloud line the skies are vivid blue and the snow capped mountains are close and clearly in view. They are tall and steep and we are heading straight for the biggest one. The stewardess directs each person to come up to the front of the airplane for a view from the cockpit. We are also given a map of the mountain range that allows you to follow along as you travel. All of these mountains are huge and it is actually difficult to pick out Mt. Everest. This is probably the easiest way to see Mt. Everest unless you plan on walking for 28 days the only way to see it.



The next stop on today's tour is the Monkey Temple. This is a huge and interesting collection of Hindu temples. It is a pilgrimage destination so there is a lot of action. Activities include open cremations along the river, brahmin holy men, wild monkeys and snake charming. It is really unique but a little dirty and rundown from 2,000 years of use. All four of us went into a small house at the temple to speak with a mantra mediation master. He has traveled to Europe and the US training people in meditation. His hair is over seven feet long and he only drinks milk fresh or powdered. I asked him what he does when he travels and he informed us that Europe and the US have very good milk. He told us he is the most famous holy man in Nepal and nobody has longer hair. It was a pleasant short visit and he looked very healthy and happy for drinking nothing but milk all his adult life. The temple is worth a visit and the guide we picked up was informative. He speaks four languages including Japanese and works hard to make $10 a day. Nepal has a good mixture of Hinduism and Buddhism so our next stop was Swayambhunai a huge Buddhist stupa. It is a bazaar and festive place with prayer flags, prayer wheels, monks, shops, and music well worth visiting.

For some reason we had to head back into town for a stop at First Environmental which gave us a chance to grab some sandwiches and beverages. Part of the fun of Themal Street is the interaction with the locals. They all want to sell you something or have you give them money. The kids are really tough because they are everywhere and have some story to tell you. For the most part they are like any kid that we met begging for money but some are a little smarter than others. The travel rule is never give anything to a begging kid. Because if people do give them money they can make a living begging. If nobody gave them money then they would not be in the streets begging. It is even tough buying them food because for the most part they should be in school and the streets should not offer them an excuse. Education is the key to the future and it would be nice to reward a street kid for having education. In Cambodia you get kids coming at you from all directions and I wanted to ask them what 5 x 5 was and if they got it correct I would give them a dollar. Karen thought this was stupid which after review I agreed was dumb. However, a kid approached me on Themal St. in Nepal and he politely asked me were I was from. I respond United States and he of course responded the capital is Washington, D.C. This was a common occurrence so far in Kathmandu from the street kids. This kid took it to another level when he told me he knew the capital of every country in the world. I, of course, had to test this boldness. I named off easy ones at first but then started with hard ones that I didn't know the answers for. He even knew that Antarctica did not have a capital and laughed at me trying to trick him. He was very good and his reward was $1. He then felt it was my turn to be tested and started asking me to name the different bones in the body and other odd trivia. He, of course, knew all the answers. I did pretty good and was able to answer most of the question but he was not about to give me my $1 back. This kid was sharp and even though he was not in school I think he will do well in life.

It was time for our four hour cramped ride to a small town called Begnas Bazaar the start of the trek. Our driver did not speak English which meant we could sit and complain about being cramped and the heat of the day. For the most part the roads were in good condition but the car was not. Half way through the trip the driver pulled over and a minute later we had a flat tire. This was a normal occurrence in Nepal because every small road side town we passed through had a couple of shacks setup for repairing flats. The spare was put on the car and the condition of the spare meant we would only be able to go at least another 100 feet before it went flat. The next tire shack we came to the driver pulled over and woke up the service guy asleep on his wooden cot. It was only noon a perfect time for a nap. Five minutes later the tire service technician using the latest in modern tire technology had the inner tub patch and the tire inflated. This guy was good and his only weapon was a steel bar, a tire patch kit, and some spit for leak detection. Back in the car for the rest of the journey. We actually got very close and the same tire went flat again. Our driver was at his limits, we were a couple hours late and it started to rain. The driver knew that after he dropped us off he would need to repeat the journey home.

Pulling into a small town, more like a collection of buildings, the rain was coming down in buckets we began to look through the fogged up windows of our car for our guide. We had no idea what he looked like but after five minutes someone banged on our window and we all got out and ran for shelter. Our guide's name was Hari Krishna and he was wearing a blue bag as a rain coat and he was ready to get started. We unloaded our stuff from the trunk and after some reflection we figured we had way to much stuff and no way to carry it in the rain. We thought we were going to a town that would allow us to store the stuff we needed for our tea house trek. But since we were in the middle of nowhere the stuff was coming with us. After a purchase of some industrial strength blue bags we loaded all of our stuff up. We then met two of our porters who despite their small size grabbed our oversized and not well packed gear for a short walk to the campsite. We still did not know what to expect but it was raining and we were not stuck in the car with multiple flat tires.



The Royal Trek got its name because Prince Charles and the Royal family of Nepal trekked this route with an entourage of 90 people. Mick Jagger was also able to do it so we figured it could not be too hard. I imagine that Mick Jagger is in better shape than Prince Charles and certainly in better shape than we are. The trek is described as a 5 day, 4 nights and the highest elevation is around 5000 feet. We arrived at our first camping site to find everything setup. There was a kitchen tent, dining tent, bathroom tent and a sleeping tent. These tents were accompanied by six porters, a cook, a cook assistant, and our guide Hari. We wanted to tell the crew that none of us had royalty in our blood and none of us could even hum a tune. The most amazing thing was that the trek was costing $25 a day per person, so for a total of $100 a day we had 9 people making sure we could camp in the woods. It turns out that everyone was a farmer and they do these jobs to make extra money. Most of them had never worked together before and had never been on the Royal Trek. Hari was an experienced guide and had been doing this type of work for 16 years.