Getting To Nepal

Vancouver to Hong Kong

On Oct 21 a smaller group left Vancouver and flew with Air Canada for the 14 hour flight to Hong Kong and a 24 hour stay. This is an impressive city, bustling with economic activity, but  also expensive. The new  airport is a marvel of efficiency. Never noticed any “Communist Chinese” influence.  We stayed at the Park Hotel, in Kowloon, also took ferry over to Hong Kong Island and tramed up the mountain for spectacular views. Next morning went for a spectacular  38 minutes run along the waterfront.  

Hong Kong to Kathmandu

Next day, with 2 additional trekkers, we flew with Royal Nepal Airlines to Kathmandu, a 4 1/4 hour flight. There was a lot of cloud cover so were not able to observe any our first close-up views of the Himalayas. The temperature was in the 20’s on arrival and muggy from pollution.  We tend to think of Nepal as being mountainous with 8 of the 10 highest peaks in the world, but the southern part is very subtropical. It lies at 28 degrees latitude, the population is 24 million with an average income of $300 per capita per year.  Nepal was closed to the outside world until 1950 and not until 1956, did Kathmandu get connected to the outside via winding road. Kathmandu lies at 1337m (4386').

 We stayed two nights at the Kathmandu Guest House, in the heart of the Thamel district, two others joined our group and we are now a total of 13. ETC gave us their recommended list of safe places to eat, i.e. that meet certain hygiene standards, breakfast at Mikes, lunch at Casey’s and dinner at Rum Doodle. Went for an early morning run but only for a short 18 minutes, its too congested, confusing and polluted from the vehicles.

Kathmandu is a place of contradictions! All the roads are narrow and crocked, crowed with people, bikes, rickshaws, motorcycles and cars spewing pollution and everybody is honking. Hundreds of temples, shrines, sacred places and monasteries: Hindu and Buddhist. Sacred cows! There is even a bank machine (eg 7500NR  = 159.79$ or 46.93NR/$, NR=Nepalese Rupee)

Sleeping bags with liners were distributed and our group meet for a “weigh-in”, each trekking bag not to exceed 15Kg. On the first round, Ryan and I were both over by a couple of Kg and it was time to start eliminating: power bars, electric shaver, batteries, books, etc.

Nepal follows a different calendar system than in the West. According to this system, 2001-2002 is Bikram Sambat 2058. The New Year begins in mid-April. Like the Julian system, there are 12 months, each month beginning around the middle of a Western month. Festival dates are, however, determined by lunar calendar.