Varanassi

Our first full day in Varanassi was a Monday, which is traditionally Shiva's day. Varanassi is Shiva's city and Monday is very busy. We were dropped off by tuc tuc on the outside of the old city. We had to cross two round-abouts. The noise of the trafic and the horns was overwhelming. The smell of the roads, the cows, the poo, the rubbish - it was a complete assault. We did not recognize many things; was this the Varanassi that we had visited before? We felt lost and overwhelmed, wondering why on earth we had brought our family here. We found a roof top terrace and got our bearings. We headed for the ghats. The nearest ghat happened to be the main burning ghat. There was no hiding from what was going on. Bodies are wrapped in cloth, and taken by boat to be washed in the Ganges after which they are burned in public. There are about 300 cremations a day that happen at the Ghats in Varanassi. It is quite an industry. About 200 kg of wood is needed to burn one body. This is stored by the river side and constantly shipped in. The family attending the cremation look happy; this is so that the soul of the departed is not disturbed. After the cremation the ashes are spread in the river. We headed upstream. We had decided to go for pizza on the other side of town. We took a boat ride to get there. After about 10 minutes, the body of a baby floated past our boat. Babies, pregnant women, Saddhus (holy men), people who suffer with leprosy  or small pox are all not cremated, instead they are burried in the Ganges river. Again, there was no hiding from what we saw. If there was any doubt, the boat man made sure that we knew what we were looking at. We arrived at Assi Ghat. Surprisingly we made the transition from wood burning bodies to wood burning pizzas remarkably easily. Varanassi itself somehow helps visitors to cope and come to terms with what is on display.

The evening was magical on the river as we hired a boat to watch the evening puja, or worship ceremony, to the Ganges river. Candles are lit and placed on the river as loved ones, alive and departed are remembered. We joined in, remembering family and friends from home, as one at a time, we let the candles and marigolds float downstream.

During our stay in Varanassi, we kept going back to the old city, drawn by its rich tapestry and caleidoscope of life; at once often utterly incomprehensible yet complete; intense and overwhelming but leaving you wanting more; with everything on display but with many layers of hidden meanings.

The children drew quite a crowd and we met many kind and interesting people. In Sarnath, the place of Buddha's first sermon, an Indian elderly gentleman, a Buddhist teacher, sat down with us and explained the essence of Buddhism to us 5.  We met many children from all walks of life, often bumping into them several times. Rickshaw drivers would recognize us from the previous day and say hello. We had all come to love the city by the time we left and I think we will return again one day.

101 things to do with an elephant

We washed them and swam with them.

We made them candies and fed them .

We climbed them and decorated them with colourful chalks, trunk included.

We rode them and went on safari.

We felt rather fond and familiar of the elephants by the time that we left Chitwan.

The Ugly Duckling - Nepali style

We were entertained during our last day at Sapana lodge in Chitwan to see a peacock chasing a chicken around the grounds. The peacock was quite beautiful, but we were perplexed as to it's preoccupation with the chicken. Durgar, the manager of the lodge explained the story: it is a more exotic version of the tale of the ugly duckling. A large abandoned peacock egg was found on a jungle walk one day, and brought back to the lodge by the guide. This egg was added to a batch of chicken's eggs in a nest. In time the egg hatched, along with all the chicks. The peacock hasn't yet had the epiphany that the swan had in Hans Christian Anderson's tale, but surely it must only be a matter of time....

Feet off the ground

During the last couple of weeks that we were in Nepal, we saw many huge bamboo swings erected, and being enjoyed by children everywhere. Our garden rope swing was puny compared with the swing that could be achieved on these impressive structures.

The swings are put up for a month every year to celebrate the Darshan festival, where gifts are exchanged, families get together, and goats are sacrificed. We had wondered why the swings were erected as part of the festival, and were told by someone more familiar with the customs that there was a belief that everybody should get their feet off the ground at least once a year; children and adults included.

Well, amen to that. (Jo, hurtling free fall down a natural waterslide whilst canyoning).

Flying

Mark Twain said:
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

And we are.

Today we all flew together in the skies over Pokhara.



Helena




Sophia





Benjamin



Dizzying spiral

Breakfast

Our favourite spot in Pokhara - the pumpernickel bakery by the lakeside.

Annapurna Base Camp

We have just finished an glorious 18 day trek in the Annapurna region - our aim was to get to Annapurna Base Camp (4130 m) and with the help of our guide Nama and porters, Nima, Ganes, Pasang, we manged to get there.
(Nama explaining the route)


We started in Nayapul (1070m), in a subtropical forest, with rice paddies and beautiful butterflies. It was hot and humid and the first few days we had some last monsoon rain in the late afternoons which cleared the sky for beautiful vistas in the mornings. We saw the clouds forming throughout the afternoon and when the air was heavy and saturated we saw the clouds turn to rain.

We stayed in basic lodges which are all along the trail. Flights to the Everest region were cancelled due to bad weather, so many people choose to trek in the Annapurna region instead, which meant that we had to ring up in advance to book - all porters and guides have mobiles and all lodges have a telephone so this was not a problem.

Prices in the lodges are determined by local committees together with the Annapurna Delvelopment Committee; this means prices are fair and reflect the time and effort it takes to carry supplies to the lodges; the higher you are, the more things cost. The menus are relatively similar from lodge to lodge but interpretation of the dishes is very individual to each lodge, determined by the style of the chef and the availability of certain ingredients and the chemistry of the altitude - a safe and delicious bet is Dal Bhat - the traditional Nepali dish of rice and lentil soup and vegetable curry - and as Nama said - "24 hour power".

The first night we stayed in Hile (1430m). Corn was hung out to dry and we had our first of many plates of popcorn.

The second day of walking was a tough one with 3280 steps taking us to Ulleri (2210m) after lunch in Nangtanti. We passed many beautiful waterfalls and crossed beautiful rivers. This is where we had our first encounter with leeches - Helena had a bite on her leg, but thankfully a kind Russian trekker passing by quickly applied first aid with military precicion. This was again a hot day but getting cooler when the sun went down. That night we had the first glimpses of the snow capped mountains when the rain cleared. After dark a group of Chinese trekkers came in, soaked by the monsoon downpoor. The heater was quickly lit and our guide Nama helped out cooking curry for the group.

The third day we climbed further to Ghorepani  (2860m). Above 2000 metres the trees change to rhododentrons which bloom a beautiful red in spring time. The rhododendron trees are massive with gnarled trunks and many plants and ferns growing on them. The crops grown changed from primarily rice to primarily millet. We were all delighted by many cascading waterfalls and various weird and wonderful moths and other insects.

The fourth day we planned to climb Poon Hill, 3210 m, which is next to Ghorepani. The sunrise is beautiful from there (if there are no clouds). The climb is about one and a half hours and so we got up at 4.30am - it rained however. Sophia Benjamin and Helena insisted we'd go up anyway and luckily for us, the rain cleared and eventually the clouds cleared too giving us beautiful views. The rest of the day we stayed in Ghorepani to acclimatise to the altitude. Benjamin and Helena learned the Nepali game goats and tigers; they scratched a board on the slate patio and played for hours, watched and encouraged by an amused group of porters who offered advice to both players in Nepali which was nevertheless fully understood.

The fifth day we walked to Tadapani (2600m), a saddlepoint village. This was a tough day with several steep ups and downs. Helena only had half an hour in her basket and walked the rest of the day.

The sixth day we walked to Chomrong (2170m), again a tough day starting with a steep descent all the way down to the river in the next valley with after that a slow ascent to Chomrong. We passed a recent landslide which shows how the mountains here are constantly moving and changing.

After Chomrong we took our time and did relatively short days in order to acclimatise to the altitude. The seventh day we stayed in Bamboo (2300m), the eighth day we stayed in Himalaya (2920m) and the ninth day we stayed in Deorali (3130m). The valley was very steep here with shade for most of the day. People dont really live in this valley other than to look after the lodges which specifically cater for the trekkers, so you feel further from civilisation. We were getting higher and higher but not really feeling the effects of altitude other than when we exerted ourselves. With the spare time that we had after a relatively short 2 hour walk, we did another walk to a waterfall. We felt dwarfed by the scale of the mountains and waterfalls. The children ran around looking for beautiful stones and played in the water.

The tenth day we walked to Machapuchare Base Camp (3700m), the first base camp in the sanctuary. The walk was short and we crossed the tree line and meadows of himalayan poppies, some still flowering! We passed the remains of an avalance-a snow cave- a starc reminder of the power of nature, and arrived in the sunshine at MBC at midday. We had a few hours of glorious views and then the clouds came in.

The eleventh day we walked to our target destination - Annapurna Base Camp - 4130m. We again got there before midday after a lovely walk in the sunshine through the autumn meadows. We saw a flock of wild mountain goats high up on the south side of the sanctuary. This is home to the rare snow leopard which our guide has seen when the snow forces the animal to look for food much lower on the mountain. We walked around the base camp which is a collection of a few huts. In the sun the temperature is OK but out of the sun and especially at night it gets very cold. The lodges have basic stone walls with drafty doors and windows and basic zinc or slate roofs so are very cold. We wore all the clothes we had inside our down sleeping bags which we had bought in Kathmandu and we were cosy. That night 25 people shared the dining room (guides and porters and late arriving trekkers who had nowhere to stay - our porters choose to sleep on top of the ceiling just under the roof instead).

The twelfth day we walked all the way down to Himalaya. Walking down is very much easier than walking up - that day we covered the same distance as we did in three days coming up. Near to Himalaya we saw a family group of monkeys playing in the trees!

The thirteenth day we stayed in Sinuwa (2300m), with beautiful views of the Chomrong valley and thunderstorms in the distance.

The fourteenth day we walked to Jhinu Danda (1340m). We had  to go all the way down to the bottom of Chomrong and go all the way up to the top of the village to go half way down the other side. Jhinu Danda is a small and growing place with a riviera feel (Nepali style). 200 meters down from it, by the side of the raging Modi Khola river are natural hot springs. Hot water comes out of the rock and soil here and is collected in stone pools, which are destroyed each year by the monsoon and faithfully rebuilt. We had a rest day in Jhinu and went down several times. On our rest day we saw langur monkeys come down to the river and cross the river jumping from boulder to boulder.

The sixteenth day of the trek we crossed the river Modi Khola on a very long metal rope bridge - during the monsoon this crossing must be truely dizzying. This was the day that Sophia Benjamin and Helena each adopted a pet moth. Moths that survive the night tend to need some TLC and rehabilitation to get back to a flying state. Each left Jhinu with a moth on their shoulder. We gradually climbed up to the village of Landruk passing crossing several waterfalls and streams by more metal rope bridges. Landruk is a typical Gurung village with many traditionally built stone white washed houses. We spent the night in Tolka (1700m). Here we played for hours in the dried rice straw which had been harvested. The lodge owner, local children and our group all joined in a tug of war from twisted together rice straw, tunnelled through the straw, did summer saults and generally mucked about until it was time for supper.

The next day we had one more steep climb over the mountain ridge to the next valley. We spent the night  in the large village of Dhampus (1650m). The view of the Annapurna range in the morning was quite different to the views we had had so far and again stunning.

The eightteenth day we had a few hours steep descent to Phedi (1050m) where we took a taxi back to Pokhara, land of cappucino and chicken sizzler.

All along the way Sophia Benjamin and Helena were greeted with admiration from both fellow trekkers and local Nepali villagers. This took the form of receiving many hand shakes, at times applause, the taking of many pictures and even videos; all this in many languages. Sophia Benjamin and Helena are all proud of achieving something that many grown ups did not think possible for them to achieve. They now have T shirts that proudly say ' Annapurna Base Camp - I DID IT!'

All three were very interested in the life of the Gurung villages displayed around us on the trek - we saw chickens being killed, donkeys transporting everything from local wine to chickens, porters carrying incredibly heavy loads ranging from stones food to furniture, we saw food in all its stages of preparation especially rice being harvested, dried, beaten, and sorted wheat from chaff. All along life happens against a stunning back drop of Himalayan peaks. We were very fortunate to have such a friendly guide and porters and to be made to feel so welcome by all the people we met.