Festivals and Friends

Next for the fun…… having recovered from my illness and after six months of listening to very little music, we heard on the traveller grapevine that there was going to be a music festival in Pokhara, the beautiful lakeside resort in Nepal. Because I desperately needed my music/dance fix I jumped at the chance to go and managed to persuade Lucy after some perseverance. With Lucy on board I looked forward to the music, atmosphere and great weather.

The beautiful lake in Pokhara

The festival, called Mountain Madness, was oddly located on the grounds of a five star hotel.It was extremely surreal to see hoardes of scruffy looking travellers camped on the neatly mowed and maintained hotel lawn. I later discovered the reason for this is that the hotel is massively failing, is in huge debt and hence to resolve its financial issues has had to resort to hosting a massively loud festival in their vicinity. We has forty eight hours of heavy, pounding trance music which duely danced to as that's what we came for, but god I realised how much I can't stand Trance music. I'd honestly expected there to be some variety in the music but actually it was all along these lines (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIgAgo7owX8) - too much too much!

People dancing away to the mad trance music

Despite the terrible music and all of the promised 'ayuvedic massage', 'yoga camp' and 'world food' not actually being there we had alot of fun. I had my first beer for months and we had the most incredible storm I have ever seen (so much for the good weather). The lightening was so intense and frequent that at first I assumed that it must have been strobe lighting coming from the main stage. Lucy and I prided ourselves on the fact we managed to accidently fall asleep in our tent at 11.30pm on the second night when we popped back for a snack. How it happened when our tent was just 30m from the thudding, pounding music of the mainstage I can't believe. We must be hardened travellers from India as literally every guesthouse we stayed in would have some form of noise throughout the night. Indians can literally sleep anywhere and through anything. It was great waking up fresh faced and going to dance again in the morning when most of the festival goers looked, well lets say a bit worse for wear, after a whole night of trance and partying hard.

What most of the festival goers looked like after 2 days of partying!

Camping on the hotel lawn

Post festival we dashed over to Nepal's capital of Kathmandu, which I was to end up spending about 5 weeks in in total over my time in Nepal. I expected chaos, noise and havoc, but after an Indian city it is relatively calm, however I can't say it was clean, the air pollution was horrific and I've never seen such a horrible river full of trash. We came to Kathmandu as we were meeting one of our best friends from England - Kate who came to visit for two weeks. After six whole months away it was great to catch up with a friend from home and it was great to see her reactions as she was still a bit overwhelmed by the beeping horns and mad traffic that we have just learnt to ignore. Over the fortnight we explored many parts of Kathmandu and the surrounding valley -and to complete my transformation into a real traveller I brought myself a cheap, small guitar!

Kate and I drinking Cheeah (tea) in the streets of Kathmandu

We were privileged to meet a local Nepalese man who took us to see one of the three famous Kumaris (living goddess) in and around Kathmandu. Nepal is the only country in which they believe that a living person can be a god. The Kumari is bound to her house, apart from during festivals when she is taken on a throne through the streets of Kathmandu, but her feet cannot touch the ground. To become a Kumari the child must go through a series of difficult tests and fulfill a list of strict criteria, she remains the Kumari until she sheds blood, as of course gods can't bleed, which is usually at menstruation. After this she is suddenly no different from any other person and is expected to live a normal life. To me it's all crazy, it was a very strange experience but it's supposed to be an honourto meet her so we are lucky!

Meeting the renowned Kumari

We visited many sites around Kathmandu including Patan and Bhaktapur (cities with a great deal of cultural heritage and beautiful buildings) and Bodha, a quieter part of Kathmandu where there is a beautiful Buddhist stupa, complete with endless prayer flags and the chanting of this song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG_lNuNUVd4) which are imprinted in my mind forever and will always remind me of Nepal (even though technically its Tibetan!). We drank copious amounts of chai and sat talking at the guesthouse for hours about home, life, philosophy, love, nature, science - everything. Then we taught Kate the Indian mantra songs we'd learnt in Rishikesh. They're just really short songs, but they are great to sit and sing for hours on end, you just zone into the tune and lose yourself. They are going to annoy the hell out of my family, friends and neighbours on my return!

Kate, Renee and Lucy in Patan

Kate also managed to persuade us to get in touch with our adventurous side by going rafting. As yet we hadn't really done anything to get our adrenaline rushing so it was an extremely fun experience. We laughed at our pathetic attempts to row until the instructor shouted so loudly at us "LEFT SIDE FORWARD" and I felt a paddle hit me on the head. After that I started really listening. The first day was easy but the second day the rapids were actually quite a challenege. However the highlight has to be when our boat capcized (a practice run of course) and we all climbed back in only to find kate with her trousers down which, because they were so heavy and wet, she was struggling to pull up. Wow she really was the instructors favourite after that!

The three girlies at the Stupa in Bodha

I really like Kathmandu as a city. It's not too big so it is easy to explore, people are so welcoming and friendly and we found a great guesthouse to stay it. It was in an enclove tucked away from the busy street and had a peaceful garden and chillout area meaning that you didn't really feel like you were in a mad city. The only major downfall was the horrific air pollution. Apart from that I have only good things to say about our time here.

Exploring is tiring work

A new chapter

Having been all consumed by India for five and a half months, I'd not even had the chance to imagine what Nepal would be like, but after five and a half months of travel in 'the motherland' my visa was finished and I was about to enter a whole new world. I was overwhelmed by how different Nepal is from India and how much influence a border can have on culture and attitudes. If anyone is considering visiting these countries I would highly recommend doing India first as once you have travelled there exploring Nepal is a walk in the park whereas the other way round you would find yourself deeply out of your comfort zone.

Bardia National Park - no Indians looking at me!

It felt amazing to be able to walk down the street without anyone batting an eyelid. In India you get so many wide eyed looks and endless requests for photos, so ironically within the freedom of travelling you still feel somewhat constrained. As a Western female I found it generally very hard to interact with locals. I felt the majority of Indian men genuinely have a very wrong impressions of what Western women are like (which isn't that surprising having seen what kind of media they are exposed). As a result I avoided talking to many men, only if they looked over perhaps forty or were clearly very educated did I feel comfortable enough which frustrated me as I enjoy talking to different people! As for the women, I would have loved to communicate more with them yet often they were very unresponsive, not even returning a smile. I've been given a few explanations for this by Indians including that they don't expect to be talked to by a foreigner (perhaps who is so 'above' them in the caste system) and also they feel threatened because of how obsessed theIndian men are with white females. So in an odd way unless you stay somewhere for a long time on a project or live with a family, it is hard to interact. Despite these difficulties, I am still constantly amazed and fascinated by India and I guess its part of the learning curve!

I had to resort to talking to goats instead

But Nepal is the complete opposite. I felt like the people, both male and female, were incredibly friendly and lovely to talk to. I never felt intimidated and they are very liberal, laid back and light hearted. It was such a relief to not have to be so much on my guard and it was great to be able to wear sleeveless tops again with the heat in the cities without worrying about what people would be thinking. Although they still have many traditions, they are more Westernised in terms of dress and things like eating meat and drinking alcohol (not that I really did either). They have a better understanding of how foreigners like to be treated giving them more space and hospitality. In India customer service, facilities and ambiance in guesthouses are often lacking (broken toilets, dodgy cables, plain walls, no furniture, staff that aren't so welcoming, pillows you would not want to lay your head on!) yet the Nepalese understand much better what Westerners like and are good at providing this.

Our tranquil accommodation in Bardia

We had the excitement of entering Nepal through the Western border which is not a common entry route among tourist. Immediately we got a taste of the transport we would have for the next few months - bumpy buses that feel like you are on a rollercoaster. To keep your bum on the seat really requires you to use all the strength in your leg muscles otherwise you are more than likely to hit your head on the ceiling (which doesn't happen to the Nepalese as they are so short).

Our first destination was Bardia National park, largely ignored by travellers who enter Nepal from a different direction. It is described as being what Chitwan National Park (Nepal's most popular wildlife destination) was like twenty years before and it really did feel like we were the only tourists there. Staying in a nice jungle hut, we spent some days relaxing, learning Nepalese phrases and getting accustomed to the Nepalese traditional food which is called Daal bhat and is somewhat like Indian food but plainer (rice, daal, veg and pickle).

We had a hilarious experience in the park on our day of wildlife spotting. We were required to have a guide to enter the main park but it turns out that he just wasn't very good! First we heard tales of his three near death experiences which didn't reassure us that we were with the right person. After explaining to us just how dangerous the wild animals were, such as the tigers and elephants, he set off at top speed leaving us to chase after him. It felt like we were on an army training course, no sooner did we catch up with him, he'd be off again having no sense that we may need to rest because of the muggy heat. When I stopped to tie my shoe lace he almost lost us because he just didn't wait and by the end of the day we were exhausted, but about twice as fit.

Renee keeping up with Rambo in Bardia National Park

I also realised how much respect I have for wildlife documentary makers who have to sit there for hours on end waiting to capture a shot. It's all great when there are animals to entertain you, but we sat there for hours at a time, waiting to see something without much luck. Somehow given a 24 hour train journey or a child that can't pronounce a word I can have infinite patience, yet when it comes to waiting around to see an animal, I was so restless. To be fair it wasn't helped by the fact I really need new glasses and even when we finally saw a rhino, I am convinced it was just a rock as I really couldn't see it. One of the problems of being away for so long! However eventually we did get to see a wild elephant, which was so big it was hard to miss, but that was a nice moment.

If you look very close there is a wild elephant somewhere in here!

Next was the town of Tansen which I can't say much about as I was sick for the six days we were there. My stomach problems began on the bus journey there which made it quite a scarring experience but at least when I arrived we stayed in a lovely homestay. The owner thought I was some strange loner who didn't want to come out of my room and couldn't understand that all I needed was water, a bed and to be near the toilet! On this occassion I tried drinking excessive amounts of rehydration liquid and starving myself for 48 hours to get rid of the bug. I had to grind my teeth as I lay in my bed listening to Lucy munch away at her biscuits whilst I went hungry. It was actually quite easy for the first day but then it became very hard. Unfortunately after this didn't work, I was so weak I had to take antibiotics.

Once I recovered I was taught how to make the Tibetan dish 'Momos' - Yummmm

However in Tansen I was lucky to meet a very inspiring sixty year old lady from the Netherlands who had just completed a course of Vipassana Meditation (http://www.dhamma.org/en/vipassana.shtml) . This is a Tibetan Buddhist technique in which you meditate in a very specific way through sitting and observing your breath and body for hours on end each day. You have to endure much physical pain and come to terms with all of your emotions. Other rules are that you cannot talk, read, write or do any exercise. She did this for two months stating her reason as being that after a difficult break up from her partner of thirty years she wanted to be at peace before she dies. She was very interesting to talk to and seemed very calm. She helped me to try and be more Buddhist in my attitude towards my sickness by accepting it and seeing that it is just like everything else - transient, something that will come and go. This really worked well for me (for the first five instances when I was ill!) but I can't even begin to say how fed up I am of stomach problems, since coming to Nepal I've had about seven different occasions. Yet living the traveller lifestyle for so long it is unavoidable and therefore what to do, what to do??? This is my new favourite phrase which works for every problem and sounds particularly good said in a Ukranian accent (Thanks Vika).

The town of Tansen