Allright, allright, some of our regular readers reckon my last posting was way too venomous. I have been told to relax, chill out & go with the flow etc, etc. Well, its allright for you, you can't smell the place. But seriously, Kathmandu is just an overcrowded, polluted bunfight. Fortunately, we were able to escape for two days up to Pokhara. This is the start point for the numerous treks in the Annapurna Region, & is situated on Lake Fewa. The scenery in this region is supposed to be spectacular. I couldn't see any mountains at all, because of the haze, but there were some very nice photos in the shops, taken in the early fifties, I suspect. There I go again !
Pokhara is about 200km west of Kathmandu, but it is a long drive because of the state of the road, & the traffic. Our driver turned it into a five hour, white knuckle ride each way. An otherwise likeable enough chap named Bardri, once behind the wheel he turned into a terrorist. Call me old fashioned, but I just don't like the odds of passing trucks & buses on blind bends or crests, with nothing more than a toot of the horn to protect me. It doesn't bother Bardri, or anyone else, it seems. We were bounced around all day like a couple of golf balls in a concrete mixer, with only near death experiences every five minutes for entertainment. I swear my life flashed before my eyes at least every 30 minutes. I think Bardri graduated top of his class at the Nepal Institute of Advanced Driving for the Totally Insane. The scary part is we have been observing the traffic here for about a week & a half, & soon we have to get out there & compete with it. Now I know how gladiators felt before a match.
And they are not kidding!!
Pokhara was certainly nicer than Kathmandu, lots of tourists centred on the lakefront area, lots of shops selling hiking gear etc, lots of good restaurants, & it was relaxing. Bardri took us to several of the usual tourist traps, with the usual hustlers, beggars etc in attendance. Here is one of the more unusual ones.
See, it's in Pokhara, & all this time I thought it was in Gotham City
But on the way, we drove through the really old part of the town. We got out & walked around an area where there were lots of jewellery shops cranking out some really good stuff, & no other tousists to be seen. We were offered an impromptu look at some of the artisans at work, & their skill is just staggering. Later, quite by accident, we discovered a museum dedicated to the British Gurkha Regiments. We spent over 2 hours there virtually on our own, & it was fascinating. The Gurkhas are Nepalese soldiers whose units have been attached to the British Army since about 1850, & their tenacity & courage are legendary throughout many conflicts from the Indian Mutiny, the North West Frontier, through both World Wars, to Bosnia & even as UN peacekeepers in East Timor.
All Gurkhas carry the khukri, a traditional Nepalese weapon worn on the left side of the belt. It's got a surprisingly heavy blade, its razor sharp, and it can really do some damage, its a fearsome weapon. Replicas, some quite ornate, are sold at shops & stalls all over the place, but the museum actually sells real ones as souvenirs for about one fifth of the price. Naturally we both had to buy one. I don't know if I can get it back into Oz, but if not, here it is, its the actual service issue, the genuine article.
Handle with care, unless you want to kill someone.
On the way out of the museum, a uniformed gurkha saluted us, & I have to say I felt somewhat embarrassed at this. I felt it should be me who was showing my respect to him, but that's the Nepalese for you. In spite of the crap everywhere, & the chaos on the roads, they just get on with life in their own way without complaint. We have not seen an angry man since we got here. While I wouldnt want to live here, I wouldn't mind having their attitude to life. So there, I've learned something.
On the way back to Kathmandu, we noticed some of the roadside vegetation. So those old rumours really are true!! Bardri reckons it's grown to give to the cattle when they get diarrhoea. I suggested it doesn't neccessarily stop the diarrhoea, it's just that the cows don't care about it any more.
Typical roadside foliage.
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