Going walkabout in the Valley

Kathmandu is a great place to be based*, and there is plenty to occupy a brief sojourn... or two... or three. There are monkeys to be visited and steps to be negotiated at Swayambhunath; far too many photos to be taken in Kathmandu / Patan / Bhaktapur's Durbar Squares (in ascending order of impressive-ness); fragrant clear and holy Bagmati river water to avoid at Pashupatinath; and several miles of prayer flag and thirty-six metres of stupa to admire at Bouddhanath.

* its vicinity to the rest of the valley makes it easy to escape.

181m above the bottom of the top of the world

In summary: the best part of three weeks of "maybe little bit up, little bit down" and a lot of "gradual flat".

The supposedly easy part was Kathmandu to Lukla - hindered only by a broken ankle, a no fly day, more turbulence in forty minutes than a lifetime of long haul, and the world's most dangerous airport... but with two feet on solid, traffic-free, yak-populated territory the 150km trek had begun.

Via Phakding (last sleep for thirteen days and nights), Namche Bazaare (yak attack en route), Khumjung (Hillary's legacy), Khunde (yeti scalp), Tengboche (om mani padme hum and sunrise on Everest), Dingboche (getting accustomed to yak dung fires), Nangkar Tshang (never ending false summits and prayer flags), Lobuje (stunning scenery and the start of the snowball fights), Gorak Shep (Everest on fire), Everest Base Camp (the bottom 5364m of the top of the world 8848m), Kala Pathar (awesome (overused superlative but entirely deserved) views), Zongla (sleepover with the stars, the French and the rats), Cho-La Pass (rock climbing, crevasse avoidance, ice-skating with theporters), Thagna (survived), Ngozumpa Glacier (little bit up, little bit down, lots of rocks/ice/snow/scrambling), Gokyo (ready stead snow), Lakes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 (frozen), Gokyo Ri (360' of spectacular Himalayas), Phortse Thanga (the snowballs continue), and then back to Namche (rain rain go away), Phakding (farewells begin) and finally to Lukla ("starbucks" and the Irish Bar on Paddy's day).

An amazing few weeks of mountains, views, walking, sunsets, weekly showers, daal baht, jam-jam, mau-mau, momos, and a welcome absence of AMS. Highlights were, of course, EBCm, 360' panoramas from Kala Pathar and Gokyo Ri, Everest "on fire" sunsets, and crossing the Cho-La Pass...

From ABC to EBC

Before leaving Pokhara and ABC, I ticked off the final few tourist-y things to do: Devi's Fall's [more like a trickle at the end of the a dry winter], the Mountain Museum [combination of sunning Himalayan photography, and GCSE-esque geography/anthropology posters], attempted to enjoy the international paragliding championships [but bizarrely this significantly reduced the number, duration and complexity of flights...], and discovered a second establishment capable of a decent coffee - complete with refills :)

Next stop: Chitwan National Park with a small army of German medics. The usual combo of visitor centre, Tharu village, elephant breeding centre, traditional dance and bird watching were done, but the highlights were of course the big animals... A handful of crocs were up alongside our dugout canoe, bathing rhino seemed content with us watching them from our elephant taxis, and then clambered around on the back of the nellyphants at bathtime in the river. And another few dozen sunset photies to add to the collection too...

Now back in Kathmandu to reorganise, and will be AWOL from until the twenty-somethingth of March...

NEPAL ~ Never Ending Peace And Love

A month in Pokhara, and still not bored of the stunning Annapurna backdrop, the blue-ness of Phewa Tal, the scattering of paragliders over Sarangkot, daily daal baht, or the day to day life at ABC and Manipal.

Climbed up to Sarangkot a couple of weeks ago, watched a very orange sunset and a stunning sunrise, before paragliding from 1500m, via 2800m with 3m eagles and some acrobatics, back to Lakeside.




Have also been out rowing on the lake, wriggled through Mahundra and Bat Caves, scaled the mountain up to Manamakama, not quite fallen off any motorbikes, seen more weddings that you could imagine, experienced a Nepali bank holiday and Tibetan new year, enjoyed more BBQs and campfires courtesy of Hari et al, and finally found something that actually tastes of coffee.



My four weeks of medicine at Manipal is done; met some great interns who really made it what it was, as well as the elective students for far and wide...



Heading to Chitwan in search of the Junle Book cast next weekend, then back to smelly KTM, before the real mountains begin.

Namaste Pokhara

KTM is loud and dirty and smelly, and fortunately only had to be endured for thirty six hours before escaping to the (relative) peace of Pokhara. Have been here a couple of weeks and getting quite used to my morning view of the Annapurnas glowing orange in the sunrise, my commute to Manipal (never let me complain about BGH again), twice daily rice, 9 hours of power a day, of the mid-20s'C daytime and subzero evenings around the camp fire... and of course, the holy cows.

There are mountains to be cycled around / climber up / paraglidied off, the massive Phewa Tal to row across, strikes and powercuts that do/don't happen according to some (seemingly deliberately confusing) logic, as many pashminas, down jackets and Tibetan jewelery as anyone (we likes such things) could ever want, and sunrise /sunsets that are definitely worth the frostbite.



Also, there are some hopitals and rural health camps; one of which, Manipal, I visit six days a week (lets hope the one day weekend doesn't catch on in Lothian). By some feat of Indian engineering, they have built a 700 bed teaching hospital that defies all laws of thermodynamics. Despite the clear blue skies and >25'C outside, the hospital tempreature is maintained a good 20'C below, so hat/scarf/gloves are a routine addition to your average intern's white coat and jeans combo.


Mostly A+E so far, which goes a long way to highlight the (easily forgotten) benefits of the free NHS. And that prevention or at least early intervention makes a real difference, and that pateints do die. There. In front of you, desipte the knowledge and experince of the docs. Money might not buy happiness, but it can get you some saline, paracetamol, amoxicillin and a BCG vaccine.


Anyway, enough of that. Still a bit more general med and surgery to fit in around the sunshine and campfires, and then I shall flee to the (bigger) mountains for a month...


Lfsx


** Autistic thought for the day: tomorrow is 01.02.2010