Personal Blogs

After a frustrating mix up with Turkish Airlines, my start was delayed by a day. The missed day was planned as recuperation but wasn’t desperately missed as the plane from Istanbul had 100 empty seats. Sad for Nepal as it reflects the low number of tourists since the earthquake but good for me as I bagged a row of 4 seats and had a really good sleep. I awoke to a clear view of sunrise over the Himalayas at 28,000 feet – awe inspiring.

Kathmandu is a sprawling, basic city. The traffic is incredible, few pavements and narrow streets so everyone is often dicing with the traffic. The main mode of transport is foot followed by cycle rickshaws. The “tourist area” of Thamel, is only distinguished by the trekking and souvenir shops, there are no western style shops there, nor did I see any elsewhere in the city. The main mode of transport is foot followed by cycle rickshaws. Infrastructure is rather basic, every hotel I stayed at had at least one power cut and the poshest (in Pokhara) provided candles and matches! 

 There are unfortunately many signs of the earthquakes, ruined buildings being rebuild, tent settlements, and very poor road surfaces which have only been repaired with gravel. The most evident devastation was in the centre of Kathmandu at the famous Durbar Square where most of the World Heritage Buildings have been badly damaged. Some travelers moan on the bulletin boards that considering this, the £5 admission should be reduced but they need lots of restoration funds. 

After checking in and having a relaxing breakfast I went to a local school. I had brought 100 exercise books as a token donation and it was nice to visit. The school was primary and secondary with some 1100 pupils, several classes were in tented structures on the playground due to damaged classrooms. The children were friendly and seemed relaxed but it was quite formal too. Everyone stood automatically as we entered, they were all in school uniform and even infant aged children walking around had their hands clasped behind their backs. 

The Pashupatinath Temple was built in 1696 on the orders of King Bhupendra Malla, Pashupatinath and is Nepal's most important Hindu temple. It is a very large complex, although none Hindus are not allowed in the centre precincts there was lots to see – eccentric looking monks, ceremonial, pampered goats, bodies being prepared for cremation in the Bagmati River. I couldn’t understand why they bodies were wrapped in so many layers of white cloth, it also seemed as if those involved, presumably the relatives, showed no emotion, it was all quite business like. 

Wikipedia reports that “the Buddhist stupa of Boudhanath dominates the skyline. The ancient Stupa is one of the largest in the world”. Sadly it is less dominating as the tower on its top was completely destroyed. It was still pleasant to walk round viewing the multiple prayer wheels of varying sizes from tiny to gigantic. Another stupa we visited is the Swayambhunath Stupa (aka the Monkey Stupa) on a hilltop to the west of Kathmandu. It has magnificent views over Kathmandu, hundreds of monkeys along with a monkey bathing pool and a lovely pond dedicated to peace on Earth. 

The second day I travelled to Chitwan National Park in an isolated area just north of the Indian border. The local villages had hardly any motorised transport the vast majority walked or cycled. I was very fortunate that almost as soon as we arrived a rhino decided to take a dip in the river opposite my hotel. We had some pleasant walks visiting an elephant breeding centre and bird watching. The elephants work for 15 years and are then left to roam free in the wild, although they often come back for food! They normally live to 70. 

We went on a dawn trek on elephant back through the forest. The elephants were amazing, wading nonchalantly through a fast flowing river with water coming up to their stomach. They seemed completely at ease, stopping for a drink whenever they wished and constantly grabbing grass and leaves to eat. One of my fellow travelers stupidly dropped his mobile phone so we turned round and the mahout got the elephant to pick it up for him in her trunk. Similarly at the end I wanted to give him a tip so he told me to give the money to the elephant to pass up! We saw a reasonably amount of wildlife – wart hogs, lots of deer, monkeys and loads of birds – sadly no tigers. 

On the way back for breakfast, we passed a group of villagers happily playing cricket with makeshift bat and stumps, not what I expected in Nepal.

The final place we visited was Pokhara, in the Himalayan foothills. A pleasant city, with a more western oriented tourist area, but again few trekkers or tourists I think I was the only guest in a large hotel. We strolled along a beautiful lake with mountain backdrop. In the morning I got up at 4.30! to see dawn over the Annapurna range – it has five peaks – Annapurna I, II, III, IV and Annapurna South. We were lucky to get a good view before cloud covered them. 

The driving is absolutely crazy. The main Kathmandu Pokhara road, the M1 of Nepal, is like a small “A” road in England. There are frequent tractors and many heavy lorries so vehicles are constantly overtaking, the lorry that can crawl up a hill at 15kph overtaking the slower one doing only 5. Therefore almost all “normal” common sense rules go, you overtake whenever, forcing traffic coming the other way to slow or even stop. When overtaking you must constantly sound your horn (even when there are clear signs saying no horns). Add this to the frequent patches of poor or completely unmade road surface and journey time is slow 5 hours for 200 km. Surprisingly I only saw evidence of two accidents neither of which seemed to have caused any injuries. 

Education is very much a priority. Everyday, including Sunday, we passed numerous children, walking to and from school, neatly dressed in school uniform.

The company whom I had booked with, Makanamar Travel, were extremely attentive throughout. The owner met me and returned me to the airport. I received a garland on arrival and a prayer shawl as I left. When traveling I always had a guide plus a driver, additional in the Chitwan National Park I had an additional park guide. Despite this the whole package was not very expensive.

All in all I found Nepal a welcoming friendly but hectic place.

Bhutan

I was a little apprehensive when setting out to the airport as the airline – Druk Air – has a baggage policy of 20kg maximum including hand luggage with only very small items allowed on board. I had packed with that in mind expecting a small turbo prop plane. However on checking in – no problem sir take your backpack with – and the plane was a new Airbus 330!

You can only get into Bhutan if your visit is arranged by a local company and they arrange your visa. This was checked very carefully by the airline and emigration in Kathmandu but not looked at in Paro – immigration was quick and welcoming “is it OK to stamp your passport here sir? Welcome to Bhutan”

 

We had more magnificent views of the Himalayas, including Everest, on the short, 45 minute flight to Paro. The airport buildings are built in traditional Bhutanese style – think oriental Swiss chalets. I was greeted by another guide and driver and presented with another shawl J. The 50 km drive to Thimpu, the capital was lovely. Very mountainous and pretty – Thimpu is at 7600 feet, while Paro is 7200. The roads are very well maintained with a speed limit of 50kph maximum for cars and only 30kph for lorries. Moderate traffic but few lorries – so different to Nepal. There was also very little litter – in town there were myriad bins and I in the country I saw litter picking trucks, so different to Nepal.

All road signs where in English with only some in the local language Dzongkha. English is the medium used to teach subjects like maths and science in schools. They kept me amused with messages such as:

·         You educate a man, you educate a man; you educate a woman you educate a generation.

·         Don’t litter it makes life bitter

·         Shooting stones (I assume “danger falling rocks!”)

·         Start early, arrive safely

·         Are you married? – divorce speed 

·         You must be the change you wish to see in the world

Most people wore traditional clothes, including Kado my guide and Khandu, my driver. Men – a loose jacket with white cuffs over a knee length kilt, woman a patterned jacket over a long skirt. However it was by no means worn by all so I can only assume it’s what the people choose. Kado sometimes took the jacket off wearing a polo shirt underneath.

We arrived in Thimpu just after 5pm and went straight to visit the Tashichhozong a beautiful medieval fortress/ monastery built in 1762. It is only open to tourists before 9am and after 5pm as half of it is a government administration building, the other half the monastery – uniting of church and state! On the opposite side of the valley we could see the parliament building. If asked I would have been hard pushed to say which building was oldest but actually the parliament was only built in 2008 when Bhutan, to quote my guide ”became one of the world’s newest democracies”. It is ruled by the King and Prime Minister and there were plenty of election notices around.

We had a good look round Thimpu before traveling on. We visited a 54 metre high statue of the Buddha, about 1000 feet above the city, they have only finished the statue so far but it will all be part of a large complex by 2018. A very interesting place was the institute of Zorig Chusum - traditional arts. Any talented youngster, regardless of wealth, could come here to study the arts of Bhutan – woodwork, sculpture, embroidery and painting. I initially thought that the crafts were delineated by sex, as in the woodwork needlework classes of my youth, but found one boy in a needlework class and several girls in painting. The guide said it was their choice what to study. There were also other class rooms for IT, reading etc and dormitories for those who couldn’t afford to go home.

The roads turned out to not all be good, the journey over a 10,000 foot pass to the lovely town of Punakha was quite rough with frequent landslips. We had to wait about half an hour at one point for the road to be cleared by mechanical digger! However, there was still far less traffic than in Nepal and generally the driving was better. It was interesting to note that the worse roads were in Punakha district – over the pass. In Thimpu district the road was generally well paved and any repairs involved at least one digger. Over the pass in Punakha District there was hardly any decent surface with well over a hundred sets of roadworks. Maybe four or five had diggers or the like, the rest involved purely manual labour, picks  shovels, hoes and hammers (to break up stones) wielded mostly by men, some woman and a few young children (I suspect helping dad rather than child exploitation). Traffic just weaved around and through the road works, one pot hole was being filled by a single lady squatting in the middle of the road as cars passed by. Most road gangs seem to live on the job with makeshift campsites, and often no transport, close to the worksite.

We ventured through very varied scenery, depending on the altitude – including forests, apple orchards and rice paddy and wheat fields – from alpine to semi-tropical. There were lots of cows but I saw none in meadows they were all on, or next to, the road.

Dogs seem to have a very happy life in Bhutan, they rarely bark or seem to get worried, rather lying down sound asleep where ever they are comfortable even if that is in the middle of the road. I didn’t see one dead dog and when you walked past them, however close you go they ignore you – obviously trusting from experience that they won’t be hurt.

The Punakha Dzong was even more impressive, set at the confluence of two fast flowing rivers – again one side administration, the other a monastery. 

The Takstang Monastery (Tiger Nest) is awe inspiring, it’s built in a cave more than half way up a 1200 metre almost sheer cliff. According to legend it is believed that Padmasambhava (Guru Rinpoche) flew to this location from Tibet on the back of a tigress from Khenpajong. This place was consecrated to tame the Tiger demon. Its remote access does cause problems as it was burnt down in 1998 but was restored, by a task force led by the King, in 2005. I have a touch of gout so decided not to attempt the walk L. My guide can do the round trip in one hour but most “tourists” take five hours – one he went with took eight!

Food reminded me in some ways of North Korea –a plethora of small dishes which were all tasty. Interestingly only a maximum of one dish per meal was particularly spicy. There were normally one, or at the most two meat dishes, rice, once roast potatoes plus a variety of vegetable dishes. Very enjoyable.  In my first meal these were served one at a time by two waitresses, when I was close to finishing they returned to try and give me a second helping J

Archery is the national sport of Bhutan. We went to watch practice at the Paro centre. They shoot at a target 150 metres away! One point for being in the dirt close to the target 2 points for hitting it and three for a bull. Safety did not seem paramount, we watched from seats quite close to the target and fellow competitors walked up to the target yelling advice, not worried that someone might fire!

When we set off on Thursday morning we followed a royal cortege for a few miles before they turned off for the Dzong. Khandu told me, the king has four wives and it was the parents of one of them. There were just three cars – one old lady had come out to wave at them. They seemed unfazed that we were a fourth vehicle. The royal family is obviously very revered. The King’s portrait was in every place I visited and there were frequent royal family groups of up to around 100. The King has expounded the view that Gross National Happiness is just as important as GNP. I must say, after my short visit, people seem very content and I saw little evidence of real poverty – although there are extremes of rich and poor. I didn't quite know what to make of it.

Bangladesh

Dhaka was not what I expected! By far the most modern city I have been to on this trip and the first time I have been driven at more than 80kph. Lots of traffic jams, in my view because police where over riding the traffic lights J Many motorway style roads, right into the centre of Dhaka so we were either stationary in a jam for up to 10 minutes, or bowling along at 100+ kph. Poverty is evident but not to the extent I had expected. There were some beggars, surprisingly mostly women, maybe that was because they felt more able to approach me, a solitary westerner, rather than Muslim men.

My hotel was relatively cheap, but very well equipped. I have never received such service from the guards saluting as I entered, the door being opened for me and often someone calling for the lift as I approached! In addition is has a fully equipped gym on the 14^th floor and a pool on the roof, it was quite surreal resting at the end of a length, looking down into the busy streets below.

I had pre-arranged a trip into the country side using local transport. We took a cycle rickshaw to the bus stop and then boarded a comfortable but ancient coach, not at all crowded with fans along the roof attempting to cools us. The trip took about 45 minutes until we reached Sonargaon which was the administrative centre of the medieval Muslim rulers of East Bengal.

We then caught a motorised rickshaw, rather like my electric bike! And explored the area going along rural roads, mainly just raised above the surrounding waterlogged fields (it is coming to the end of a very wet monsoon season). We visited the ruins of the Goaldi Maosque, built in 1519; a small primary school for 90 children, made entirely out of bamboo and a 300 year old palace of the local governor. It is now an army barracks with clear signs in English “restricted entry – No foreigners” – despite this, Setu Das, my guide assured me it was OK and walked past several uniformed soldiers who smiled and greeted us!

We also visited the ruins of a 400 year old Hindu temple. We had to make two attempts to get there because the first route was flooded. Next to the temple is the ruins of a mansion in which lived an old lady who Setu said was very rich but liked to stay in the area. I had a brief talk but her room was full of smoke!

We headed back over the local playing field where children were playing football and cricket. I have heard of rain stopped play but not tourist stopped play, all the cricketers stopped playing and followed us until lunch, it seemed they didn’t see many white people, especially from England. I was asked (through my guide) all about Lords and also the England Australia Ashes series.

They accompanied us on our visit to Panam City, established in the late 18th century as a trading centre of cotton fabrics during British rule. Hindu cloth merchants built their residential houses following colonial style with inspiration derived from European sources. Most of the houses are in poor repair, but there are plans for it to become a government restoration project.

After a good local lunch of chicken a rice we visited the Bangladesh Folk and Art centre which is surrounded by a beautiful grounds with lots of birds, trees and plants, a pond and a number of sheltered walks al in the grounds of a Moghul Palace, built in 1740 and currently being restored.

When I returned to my hotel I had had a very interesting day but my clothes were completely soaked from head to toe due to the humidity – we had no rain. The only downside of the day, humidity aside, was the loss of the final 50 overs against Australia which I could pick up live, along with at least 4 other matches.

Dhaka itself is fascinating, although sapping to walk round in the humidity. The streets are always crowded with roadside stalls, street markets and western type shops. Sadly there are also the odd skips full of rubbish being sorted through by the destitute. I felt perfectly safe wondering around, apart from the odd beggar the only time I was really pestered was by some children at the port – my teacher look dealt with them though!

At the port I hired a boat to row across the river and back – I say row but is was more a matter of sculling. The boat was sturdy but had no seats at all, I had to sit on the floor, however it was a really interesting short glimpse of the river life which is a vital essence of Bangladeshi life.

Several times I caught a rickshaw back to my hotel and I thought I’d planned this well by asking the hotel to write their address in Bengali, I had forgotten, however that literacy rates aren’t high especially amongst rickshaw drivers. I ended having to direct one myself using the SATNav on my phone – it didn’t show the roads that are barred to rickshaws!!

I have this unusual habit of having my haircut whilst on holiday! In Dhaka I had the best treatment ever. A fairly modern salon but, although available, virtually no electric cutters were used – a small battery one was used for my ear hair only. Otherwise it was scissors and cut throat razor - very hygienic though with two new blades used just on me. After the hair cut I had my beard trimmed and a shave – putting the foam on must have taken five minutes. Then finally I had some sort of cream and massage on my face – he insisted I needed it! It smelt of strawberry. The grand total for all this was less than £2.

A final comment. There were demonstrations all over Dhaka on Sunday and Monday against an imposition of 10% VAT on fees for private students. On Tuesday the measure was cancelled! I have never heard of a government reacting so quickly. The demos supposedly disrupted Dhaka’s traffic, it didn’t actually seem any different on Tuesday J nor on the final day when it took me nearly two hours for the 2okm to the airport.