Lost tapes

Jumbesi - Nepal

Thubten Choling — Jumbesi, Nepal.

NEPAL

Maps

I post here a few maps that were missing at the time, I took a few photocopies that I got on the way, nothing very precise. The lack of information can delay, mislead or equivocate the journey. Guides are always out of date or simply don't exist.

Nepal

Jiri - Jumbesi - Região do Everest

Katmandú - Sul Nepal

Katmandú

NEPAL

Budanath

I went to Nepal with almost no information, the decision was improvised after a few days spent in Bodgaya.



Katmandhu was the begining and the end of my journey in Nepal. To run from the unbearable heat of the Indian spring, I decided to cross the border with Nepal and make a drastic change of altitude. It was 40 degrees in Lucknow at nine o'clock in the morning, a merely 100 metres by foot meant to get completely soaked in my own sweat.
That was in April, May. And about eating, that was impossible. My organism was just refusing to swallow any kind of local spiced food, it simply burnt horribly down my esophagus in such a way that I couldn't feed myself properly.



Only cereals, yogurts and such light food were accepted. I must have lost a fair number of kilos after Varanasi. From there I went to Bihar. The extreme heat of one of the poorest regions of India has ended with any residue of good will that was left. I had to go up. To change of altitude. So, Nepal that was.

Swayambunath

The entrance into Nepal is done through the Terai, a region still in the plains at the foothills of the high mountains, with a climate, a vegetation and fauna very specific. A area ideal to see elephants and other big mammals. The region is also sensitive to outbreaks of malaria that are usually heavily fatal.



After the Terai, still very alike the Indian plains, the road starts to climb gradually. A huge difference can be felt between the climates of low and medium altitude. A relieve for the empoverished Western metabolism.



Katmandhu is rather agreeable, despite the abundant hippie folkclore, which, by what I understood, almost disappeared to give place to the regular incarnations of controlled turism. My photocopies mentioned a place called Freak Street which, it seems, was a famous destination in the seventies, if I saw it I didn't notice it.



Katmandhu is a good place to recover energies, rest a bit, and get ready for some more. From there I wanted to get into Tibet through the only border that connects the two "countries", but after a vain research, I've found out, that the border was closed to individual travellers. To find a group of four people, and pay the prices and impositions of the Chinese tourism, would be very difficult and oppressing to me.



So I've stayed a few weeks in Katmandhu, drifting through cafés, bookshops and places before going to Jiri and to the high Hymalayas. Then I came back a few weeks later, the North being a cul-de-sac.



I've tried to take advantage of my spare time to see the local places of interest, but I missed some important spots like the ghats, the shores of the river. I had a few outdated fotocopies as a guide, and nothing else, that's why. Nevertheless I didn't miss a jewel like Budanath, one of the biggest and most impressive stupas of the Tibetan Buddhism universe. Swayabunath, the monkey temple, I also did not.



Aware of the fact that embassies and consulates are located in the capital, I decided to get a visa for Pakistan, my new alternative to Tibet, and another one, a transit visa to cross India to Amritsar, the border with Pakistan. The bloody visa cost me a fortune, contrarily to my Belgian friend, who got his for a much cheaper price, and that probably due to agreements between governments.



As far as I understood, Portugal wouldn't be, at the time, on their lists, nor should have diplomatic relations with Pakistan, a misery. Yves stared at me with a mocking expression, for getting a much cheaper visa than mine. One of his few victories.



We split after a memorable walk through the ways that lead to Everest. I've followed to India, this time by the Western side of Nepal, and then to the border with Pakistan. I don't believe in paranormal phenomema, but extraordinarily, I came to meet him again a few weeks later in Beijing, a few good thousand of miles to the North, and in the middle of a crowd that can only exist in Beijing, a city of more tham 11 million of inhabitants. To my big surprise, there he was standing, enjoying one of those countless popular bawls, usually organised in the street by the neighbourhoods during the hot days of summer.



The big terrace was right next to where we were, full of people, of glasses of beer and of multitudes of Chinese little dishes that are usual in those restaurants in open air. A street thing.



I use to say to myself, the skies are different, the gods are diferrent. A formula that I won't forget, also valid to cross any unknown terrain.

Katmandhu

Katmandhu - Durbar Square

NEPAL

Jumbesi - Thubten Choling

After three days of walk, we arrived at a village called Jumbesi. We had the incredible luck to arrive the day of the begining of the Buddha Purnima, the festivities celebrating the anniversary of the Buddha Shakyamuni, which logically, happen only once a year, and following the obscure Tibetan lunar calendar. Jumbesi is an elegant small village in between green mountains, and it's an interesting halt to do, given all the monastaries that surround it. Looking closely at the well maintained and attractive aspect of the place, it probably receives a lot of outsiders.



When we'd finished exploring the little village, we joined the procession of people who came out of the temple, holding portraits of the Buddha. After a short walk through the hamlet, we ended up at the local monastery, where they left the effigies, and where the population gathered inside. They offered us tea and cookies, and Yves who stayed there longer than me was offered lunch, me, I went out to take a look at the surroundings. Later on, we met again, and decided to go to another monastery, named Thubten Choling which lays further, and is surrounded by an entire village of Buddhist students, who live there to graduate in Tibetan Buddhist philosophy.

Jumbesi - Buda Purnima

We were only three days from Jiri, but Yves didn't want to continue, he was arguing that he had enough, that he had walked more than a week, with the so-called guide paying drinks to everybody, he wanted to go back. To me, it meant to go on with other travellers or to come back with him. The initial idea of the trek that we'd agreed between ourselves, was not to get to Mount Everest but to get the closest possible to have the best possible view of the so named black pyramide. But from Jumbesi, we had no view at all, at least of the Everest. Yves was tired and didn't want to go on.



There was a group of Danish goddesses in our inn, with guides, porters, and gear, a real expedition, in which were only missing the litters, and slaves who would carry them up the mountains.I didn't feel like joining the group, and I was improvising for quite a while, that is travelling with no route, no map, following tides and winds, I decided to go back with him. The period allowed by my visa was also running short. Even though, three days one way added to three days the other, plus the day off, that maked one week in the Nepalese Solo Khumbu. That was enough to taste the local delicacies and other dishes, I would have continued of free will. In an other incarnation probably.



On the way, we've met two Frenchmen who were coming back from the Everest base camp, they were in a terrible state. They told me that Garcia, the Portuguese alpinist who already had done one climb to the summit of the mountain, was in the region for a second atempt. Later, I came to know that the climbing had been successful, we almost met. Garcia had lost one of his companion during the first ascencion. A citizen of Belgian nationality.



I couldn't stop myself from staring at my fellow mate who was doing the trek with me, also of Belgian nationality. What a weird coindidence... Nothing happened to us. We arrived at Jiri, and went on to Katmandhu. We had got a discount from a taxidriver who had brought another alpinism goddess and his guide. Some people are really ready to pay any price to live extraordinary adventures, and agencies who feed that hunger. Well ... We'd chosen the version without guides and travel agencies. It also has its price, but much more freedom of choice and of decision.



I saw a green lizard one meter and a half long cross the road, it almost caused an accident. We had left the highest mountains, and its snow peaks, and went back to the jungle, lowest in altitude, of Katmandhu's regions. The landscapes are always mind-blowing, whatever the altitude.



As the events came to prove it in 2007, 2008, the several regions that I crossed were full of communist graffities, all throughout the country, mainly villages walls painted with communist icons. That was intriguing me at the time, but I came to understand it better when the Maoist made the world news talk about them. As it seems they've abandoned the government with which they'd formed a coalition, not being able bring down the absolute monarchy which reigns for several centuries in Nepal.I don't think that stability will come back so soon to the highest country of the world, both factions are guilty of abuses and crimes that will not resolve, in any possible way the extreme poverty that rules Nepal.

Solo Khumbu - Thado Khola

NEPAL

mali

Once in Katmandu, the initial idea was to get into Tibet through the unique border between Nepal and China. After a long and intensive search, it came up that the border was closed to individual travellers, due to political problems, that was the official version. More probably, because of problems caused by former travellers, who interfered with the Chinese administration policies, of the occupied region. Because of some, others carry the consequences.

the road after Jiri

These are mechanisms that aim to make tourists or travellers form groups of four people, at least, which will be accepted by the Chinese authorities, obviously for being easier to control than individuals. To these groups a guide, a Land Rover, are attributed by the travel agents, and of course at a price that will beat all records. The guide will be in charge to give not to much freedom of movement, in order to let no one interfere with the affairs considered internal by Beijing. I tried to stick to a group of Americans , who were at the Chinese embassy, but the Americans were not in the mood.

sete

So I forgot the Tibetan hypothesis, for being impracticable, and decided to take a closer look at the snow mountains. From the sparse information I had with me, the best option and the closer that I could get was called Jiri. Jiri was the starting point for Everest expeditions, before the airport at Namche Bazaar was built.



From Jiri, you can get a straight walk of 20 or more days to the fifth base camp of mount Everest, or put in other word the foot of the mountain. Hillary, the first to get to the top of the Everest, came out of Katmandhu, I don't have the exact figures but it must have taken more than a month walking. Nowadays, the Namche Bazaar airport, located near the mountain, shortens the initial trail, and offers an aerial base to the expeditions to the highest peak of the world.



In Jiri, I've met Yves, a traveller of Belgian nationality, who looked a bit lost at the time. He told me that he started the above mentioned trail with a Nepali guide, and that he had asked him his payment in advance. It happened that after a week of walking, the fellow had spent all his money in drinks, paying rounds to friends he 'd found at the different stages.

kenja

He had to come back because Yves didn't want to pay for more. It was during these desperate times that I've found him.
After a conversation, we decided to hit the road without any guide. We left part of the weight from our backpacks at the lodge, and followed the same trail he had first taken.

lamajura (3500)

The first day is the most difficult, you can consider it the warming period. I remember seeing Yves waiting for me at the top of the way, at our first stop in Deurali, the pass that leads to the other region, to Bandar.



The walk, the trekking can be compared to a job, you wake up, and at 8 o'clock you start to walk, that is until 17, 18h when you feel like, and after deciding democratically. Anyway, I only was left behind during the first day, after that he started to feel the drinks and the cigarettes at Brussels Grand Place. Why should I excuse myself?

deurali

We stayed at Deurali during the first night, and the following day we went down towards Bandar. I had in mind the 3500m of Lamajura, a bit further ahead, but when we got there, it was a mountain pass on a flat extension of some kilometres, the place was covered by fog, or better we had our heads in the clouds.



Willing to compensate the loss of landscape and the humidity of the event, we've chosen a cosy place with big cushions and carpets, in order to taste the local stews.
We walked like that during three days, enjoying the local delicacies, until Jumbesi, where we decided to take a day off.



These are the mani stones, engraved with prayers, inscriptions and sketches, and other religious ornaments. They are found all through the way, and should be circunambulated from the left side. These are found in Deurali.









After some "exploring" of the surroundings, I've found a field covered with prayer flags, you can find them in all regions dedicated to Tibetan Buddhism. The wind should carry the writings on the flags and take the prayers to every place.



This is a view I got, looking back at the way we'd done so far. It should be in Jiri's direction.

bandar

In bandar, we've found a empty small temple, colourful and full of religious paintings. Demchog, protectors and other irate manisfestations of the deities. Well, Demchog is older than Tibetan Buddhism itself and supposedly subjugated by the guardians of the faith.

jumbesi

The arrival at Jumbesi was something to remenber, the small hamlet is situated in a lush green valley, itself the starting point for numerous treks in the region, namely to monasteries and Buddhist villages. Unfortunately, it was covered by heavy clouds and I remenber it surrounded by at least one high snow peaks.