Namaste! (Nepal: 4 Nov ‘22 - 7 Nov ‘22)

Friday November 4th was our D-Day. At last, after years of dreaming, months of planning, days of organising, hours of packing and minutes of stressing, it finally came down to the last seconds of saying goodbye to our apartment and plants in Leuven. At 10 a.m. our personal “Smile & Wave” team came to pick us up and drop us off at Zaventem airport. After having leftover lunch, our international adventure started at 1:35 p.m., with Nepal as our first destination. Himalayas, here we come! The trip to Kathmandu (capital of Nepal) was a tiring one, with layovers in Istanbul and Dubai. Luckily, we were able to catch a glimpse of the 830m tall Burj Khalifa towering over the smog-filled city of Dubai at dawn. A single building higher than the whole of Belgium and Netherlands... On this last flight we finally managed to catch some sleep and as we woke up, the Burj Khalifa had transformed into tall snow-covered Himalayan mountains towering above the smog-filled city of Kathmandu. Looking through the airplane window we could make out some of the world-famous 8000m giants in the distance, such as Dhaulagiri and Annapurna. A sneak peek (no pun intended) on what’s to come!

Touchdown Kathmandu airport on Saturday November 5th around 1:30 p.m., with Mr. Sunshine and 24°C awaiting us. First things to get sorted upon arrival were Nepali Rupees and visas. Roos had no problem getting through customs, Lawrence’s guy on the other hand decided to take a lunch break midway. All good though, after several awkward minutes of watching him munch away a big sandwich. Next critical checkpoint, luggage arrival, as our backpacks contain all our belongings for the next months! No waiting was necessary here, we arrived just as both bags appeared on the belt. All systems go, ready for an adventure!

Upon exiting the airport, we felt like celebrities, with tens of taxi drivers waving and shouting at us. Amid the crowd there was a young man holding a sign saying “Roos”, what a coincidence! Of course we chose to go with this guy, who’s name was Amuel (though we’re still debating the pronunciation and spelling). He turned out to work at the hotel we booked, it was meant to be! Without further ado, a culture shockwave hit us during this short drive to our hotel. Traffic in Kathmandu is one big free-for-all chaos with no stop signs, no stop lights, no road markings and what seemed like no rules. The streets are shared with cars, motorbikes, bicycles, vendors, pedestrians and dogs. Their methodology: go, stop, honk and repeat over and over. Funny enough, it works and without road rage! It only requires determination and balls just to get out of the parking lot. No checks needed though, Amuel definitely had both. While he was busy navigating his way through pothole-filled streets (in many places the street itself was just one big pothole), we were gazing out the taxi windows: a huge monkey crossing a busy six lane street, large birds of prey soaring all over the Kathmandu skies (such as kites and eagles), people walking casually amongst the dense and busy traffic, large rivers and many neighbourhoods filled with plastic, cars and bikes honking all over the place and something happening in every direction we looked. Oh yeah, and dust! Luckily for us, our hotel “Thorong La” was located in Thamel, which is an area of Kathmandu popular amongst tourists and tekkers, consisting of narrow streets filled with hundreds of shops selling trekking gear (all claiming best quality and good price). Also many small bars and restaurants, far less crazy traffic (though still pretty crazy) and a strong smell of incense filling the air.

Arriving at Hotel Thorong La*, we were welcomed with tea. Everyone working here was very friendly, with one of the staff members reminding us of a cousin of ours named Kurtis. From here on we referred to him as Kurtis. Our room was located on the fifth floor. Finally some exercise after sitting down for more than 24 hours! This was also the first time properly carrying both our daypacks and large backpacks. It literally took our breath away… (we quickly blamed it on the jetlag and 1400m altitude of Kathmandu).

*Named after the 5416m high Thorong La mountain pass on the Annapurna circuit.

After refreshing ourselves and adapting to chemically purifying tap water before drinking, we headed outside for a close up look at the Thamel streets. The culture shock continued as we saw locals wearing long trousers, hats, warm down jackets, whilst we were out in T-shirts... Either trekking gear is considered very stylish here or they were promoting local trekking shops. Having said that, the streets of Thamel hardly ever see direct sunlight because of the narrow streets stuffed with flats and buildings. At first, Thamel seemed like a large maze. After a bit of wandering, we came across a small local restaurant, where we had our first and last proper meal of the day, with Opa’s wise words in the back of our minds: “Cook it, fry it, peel it or forget it”. On the menu tonight: garlic naan bread (freshly cooked in a tandoor clay oven), nurmal dal fry (lentil sauce), shahi paneer (spicy sauce with paneer, paneer = fried Indian cottage cheese) and chicken chilly. Despite still having to adapt to the hot spices, it tasted sooo good! And super cheap! After another small stroll to cool down, we headed back to our hotel for an early and good night’s sleep, hoping to recover quickly from our jetlag.

Sunday November 6th, where did we just wake up? Oh yes, we’re in Kathmandu and left Belgium for a long adventure! OK! Next, check the clock: 2 p.m., oops… seems like we didn’t manage to beat the 4 hours and 45 minutes time difference. Time for breakfast, lunch and afternoon snacks all in one! We headed into Thamel in search of some more local food. Stopped at a place where we saw a mix of tourists eating calmly with cutlery and locals efficiently munching away rice curry using one hand. Together, we shared a feast of chow mein veg and chow mein egg (stir-fried noodles), matar paneer (type of curry), masala omelet (omelet with tomatoes, herbs and spices), plain naan bread and a heap of plain rice.

With two full bellies we headed back to the Thamel streets to get ourselves organised for the next day, as we were planning to head up North towards the higher Himalayas for a 7 day trek in the Langtang Valley (one of the most beautiful, pristine and diverse treks in the world). Still on our to-do list: trekking permits for Langtang National Park, Nepali SIM cards, warm down jackets and down sleeping bags, warm windproof trousers, sport T-shirts for Roos and walking sticks. YES, after 3 years Roos was more or less convinced that we needed walking sticks. This immediately put us in the “oldies” category though… With so many shops and so much (fake) on offer, we needed to get an idea of fair prices and master the skill of bargaining. Time to practice… a lot! Like in any other major city, the popular tourist streets of Thamel are filled with people seeking your attention, or rather: your money! What makes Nepali people stand out from the rest is their kindness, giving an advantage to these street vendors. It didn’t take long for us to be caught in a conversation with a very friendly and neat Nepali student named Rosid, studying arts in a school just around the corner. He said he had the day off and was wandering around Thamel to practice his English (which was already pretty good). He was very enthusiastic to show us his art school, and since it was just around the corner we decided to have a look. We were impressed with some of the paintings on display, but we had many other things to sort out. A painting wasn’t going to keep us warm above 4000m. We said “Dhanyawad” (Nepali for thank you) and told Rosid that we were going to shop for some warm trekking gear. Of course he knew someone with a trekking shop, and he said he could help us get a discount. Since we were new to the scene, we thought this could be helpful. Our own personal assistant, though we were not naive. We followed Rosid through Thamel for ten minutes, passing up hundreds of trekking shops, just to end up in a tiny trekking shop with hardly any choice. Roos looked at some windproof trousers, but didn’t see anything nice. We took the opportunity though to practice our bargaining skills, not that we were going to buy it. We managed to get some discount, but it was not convincing and pretty awkward. Again we said “Dhanyawad” and told Rosid we were going to head back. Of course the natural born guide in him came back to life. He suggested that on our way back, we should walk past a nearby temple because of the yearly traditional “Annapurna festival” taking place today (Annapurna = 10th highest mountain in the world, located west of Kathmandu near the city of Pokhara). “It’s only a two-minute walk from here”, he said. We timed our walking. After two minutes we still couldn’t see any signs of festivities, so we called it quits, and told Rosid we were going to go our own way as we still needed to brush our teeth. Perhaps it didn’t sound plausible at 4 p.m., but it was the truth (hadn’t brushed our teeth yet after the 2 p.m. breakfast). At this point, Rosid changed from an art student to a professional beggar (though still very polite). He asked if we could give him some money for his family. At first we refused, telling him that the whole trip was his idea and that he just wanted to practice English on his day off. He basically wasted our time which we needed for sorting out trekking gear. We ended up giving him a little bit of money, just to get on with it. By the time we got back to our hotel, it was already 5 p.m. and we still had a complete to-do list. Out of necessity we added one more day in Kathmandu. Later on we heard that there was no such thing as the “Annapurna festival”, apparently art schools and made-up festivals are the bread and butter of the local scammers. Lesson learnt, just say NO!

After spending some time in our room looking up stuff and organising ourselves for the next day, we headed back to where we had dinner Saturday night. Whilst we were having veggie momo (steamed dumplings with veggie stuffing), we were entertained by the chef’s one-year-old daughter taking on a large bag of popcorn and playing peekaboo with Roos. Again two full bellies, but this time heading for an early bed after a non-productive day. Better luck tomorrow!

Monday November 7th, let’s pretend Sunday didn’t happen! Same to-do list, but this time an early wake and breakfast at the hotel, armed with an efficient game plan for the day. First stop: the Nepal Tourism Board to get our Langtang trekking permits, about half an hour walk from our hotel in Thamel, leaving the touristic area and passing by many local markets. Second stop: Ncell telecom provider for Nepali SIM cards, just around the corner from the Tourism Board. Third stop: lunch! Back in Thamel, again veggie momo as a starter (Roos’s favourite by now), and the notorious dal bhat as a main course (dal = lentil soup, bhat = boiled rice, with unlimited refills). Next to that, we ordered a fresh mint lemonade to wash down all the rice. This didn’t really help as they blended nearly a whole mint plant, causing the straw to clog with every sip.

Fourth stop: visiting tens of trekking shops in Thamel to get all remaining necessary gear whilst fine tuning our bargaining skills. We believe we got a fair price for most stuff. Once the to-do list was finished, we headed back for dinner at our hotel (veggie chow mein and masala omelet to celebrate a successful day). After equipping our backpacks for a 7 day trek, we treated ourselves to an early bed, as the bus to Syabru Bresi (starting point of Langtang Valley trek) would leave around 7 a.m... Sleep tight!