In KATHMANDU - On the Road Oct. 11th, 2012
I was greeted outside the airport by Tsering Sherpa, one of only two Nepalese on the project that speaks English well enough to communicate and translate. I had met Tsering in 2011 through Adler Adventure Trekking. He was in charge of the company's books. With the time change, my plane arrived well into the evening of Nepal's largest city with more than one million inhabitants it sits at around 1,400 meters. Kathmandu had settled down enough to make driving through the city a pleasant, easy experience to the guest house. The name, Kathmandu is a modern day version of the sanskrit word Kashthamandap, which means “Wood House”. I did not expect the city to be as dirty as it is but urban living is not innate. Trash is everywhere. The water system is seriously polluted, along with the air. Although some Nepalese would love to clean up the city and the government in order to create a more humane living environment, the majority of the people are not in tuned to what life could be like. Organized chaos is the best way to describe the traffic in Kathmandu. It is not as bad as that of Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, but it has its challenges during the majority of the day light hours.

I took the next two days to organize my supplies, picking up items that were too bulky to bring along with me from the States, and acclimating myself to the high mountain altitude. We were able to pick up most of our food supplies at the city's supermarket mall, near the foreign embassies. If you want to have a look at the westerners living in Kathmandu, this is the place to be. My guides believed that I would enjoy western food, more than the traditional Nepalese/Sherpa dishes they were planning for themselves, so we picked up supplies of granola, peanut butter, noodles flour, etc. I assured them, that I would be able to eat most anything that would keep me alive and preferred not to eat a bunch of junk food. They smiled and said “OK, no problem” as the prepackaged food kept finding its way into the shopping basket.

I visited a Buddhist elder, Rinpoche Sherab Gyaltsen. I had been introduced to him during my 2011 trip to Nepal and he was happy to hear I was into wildlife conservation and gave to me good wishes. I explained to him why I had returned and of my efforts to actually find a tiger in the wild. I was surprised when the Rinpoche joked and said something to the effect If I were to see a tiger coming, I would hide, and then run the other way.

The following morning, we packed up the jeep and hit the road east the east in the late afternoon. About six of us in all, excluding the driver. I was made to sit comfortably in front seat, while the others piled in the back. I've never in my life wanted to receive preferential treatment, but I came to realize in this case, the Adler company viewed this as my expedition. I was the customer. And on a cultural level, they wanted me to feel special.. I viewed this as a joint venture and just left weird being the man. So, thus began my first conflict. It's not in my nature to be treated as royalty. If the treatment continued over a long period of time, I would no doubt start to treat those catering to my needs as slaves. A urge I would have to fight.

The roads in Nepal are not the best. In fact, in most of the rural areas, paved roads do not exist. Because of the topography of the country, about 90% of the roads wined in and out. Up in to the mountains, and down towards the watershed. The major rivers here are just spectacular, as are the homesteads and villages carved into the mountains. Whitewater breaking over large rocks ans boulders made me want to break out a raft or kayak and give the rapids a try. The artistic make up of the farms and their organic produce made me wonder if western society hadn't grown so large as to not understand the harmonious relationship we should have with the earth. But then the jeep would hit a large hole in the road or slow down to allow a bus to squeeze by us, and I realized that a happy medium between what I was accustomed to and what they currently have in Nepal had to be found.

If you are traveling from the city to a rural village or town, the most common form of transportation for most is the privately owned bus companies. You'll pay the same price whether you have an assigned seat, sit on the floor or stand up for 12 hours, or ride on the roof rack. I found this unacceptable. Most of the Nepalese found it to be normal and the way things are.

Our vehicle broke down, once. Not a comforting feeling, but we soon had it repaired and continued on our way.

We stopped for lunch about six hours into our journey. A small town nestled in the mountains. The air is a bit cooler up here. We had traditional Dahl, rice, and greens. Tasty. Most of the people outside Kathmandu, eat with there hands. No utensils required. An art form in and of itself. One that I had not mastered.

We also had to stop at 3 police check points along the way. One, close to the border with Tibet, the other two more inland and designed to make sure tourists paid all of their fees associated with hiking/trekking. Some of the fees are ridiculous and its almost as if the Nepalese government believes the path forwards prosperity is to tax tourist.

By 9 PM, we had reached a town at the end of the road. Tomorrow, we walk.

People of Kathmandu

Polluted river in Kathmandu

Nepal's countryside

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