Nepal - A Country of Contrasts.

We spent five weeks in Nepal, covering a wide range of activities and seeing a small part of this exciting country.

 

The poverty touched us the most. Nepal has a somewhat large group of very wealthy people, a very small middle class, and a lot of poor people. This might be because of the dominant caste system, which contributes to a strictly defined system of hierarchy. Everybody in the family has a clearly defined rank. The Nepali language has half a dozen words for 'you', each of which conveys varying shades of respect.

EDUCATION

Dorte is a member of the Advisory Board of Meaningful Journney, which among other things arranges volunteering experiences in India and Nepal. While in Kathmandu we visited two of the projects. The government school has students from kindergarden till grade 8, and they learn Nepali, English, Math Science, and Social Studies. This is the entrance to the school.

The children come from villages 8 to 10 hours away, and this is the only way they can get an education. They move to Kathmandu with their parents and siblings, and live in one big room close to the school. One of the parents might be lucky to get a job during the years they are there. 

The school seemed well managed, and there was a good atmosphere. On their wish list is a library with books in Nepali and English. The children would then be able to borrow them to practice their reading and language skills, as well as to learn to use books as a tool for getting information. They have the room for the library, they 'just' need the shelves and the books.

We also visited an orphanage/seniors home. During the ten year civil war a lot of children were orphaned. There is no support system for children in Nepal. These days the children primarily come to the orphanage via the hospital or the police. The children were all in school when we visited, which was good to see. It cost $150 a year to sponsor education for one child. The seniors living there primarily come because they have no family to look after them. If they only have daughters, the daughters go to live with their husband's family, and her parents are not welcome. The seniors capable help looking after the children, but often it is the other way around, we were told. This place in only run by donation, and the conditions were poor. Each person has a bed, and a little space around the bed for belongings.

This is the kitchen, and they mainly live on rice and vegetables.

"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world"

- Nelson Mandela

WOMEN IN NEPAL

Life is not easy for Nepali women. Their mortality rates are higher than men's, and women generally work harder and longer than men, for less reward. We saw women working in construction of houses carrying brick up tiny bamboo ladders, shovelling sand through a huge sift, and moving baskets with stone - we would never see women doing this kind of hard physical work in the Western world. Women only gain status when they give birth to a son, and a man can take a second wife if the first hasn't had a child after ten years. Nepal has a strong patriarchal society, and thus boys are favoured over girls, who are the last to eat and the first to be pulled out of school during financial difficulties. Nepal's literacy rate is 49%, with the rate among women being 35%. Abortion was legalized in 2002, and since 2005 women have been allowed to apply for a passport without their husbands or parent's permission. Since 2005, it has also been illegal to banish women to a cowshed for four days during their period. The annual festival of Teej is the biggest for women, though ironically it honours their husbands!

FOOD

The staple meal of Nepal is daal bhaat, which is lentil soup, rice, curried vegetables, spicy pickle and bread. It came in many different variations depending on where in the country we were, but it was always good.

Another favourite was momos, which are dumplings filled with either spinach, chicken or vegetables. It took us a little while to get used to the prices on the menu; 100 rupee is $1.

MONEY

We learned the value of the rupees by looking at the animals on the notes.

The front of each banknote features a picture of Mount Everest but no picture of the queen or king, or their children (notice the blank spot on the right of each bill). This change took place due to the 2001 massacre of the entire royal family by a distraught crown prince, and the 2008 abolishment of the monarchy by democratic vote. The abolishment, was one of the conditions of the Maoists, to end the civil war that raged for ten years.

As you might have seen in our blog, the scenery here is amazing; wedged between the high wall of the Himalaya and the steamy jungles of the Indian plains, Nepal is a land of snow peaks and Sherpas, yaks and yetis, monasteries and mantras.

We both loved the warm and friendly Nepali people. We sincerely wish that life gets better for them.

Chitwan National Park: a Jungle Experience

Up early, on with the headlamps. We make our way down the stairs from Raniban resort to the taxi. It took us to the bus station, to catch a public bus to Chitwan. The hotel provided us with a takeaway breakfast, which we had at the train station.

The bus station was a busy and bustling at 6:30am; tourists and locals searching for the right bus - all names and numbers were in Nepali - and vendors selling bread, water and souvenirs. In the middle of the dirt parking lot was a cow, just standing there taking all the chaos in! Our bus was very old, and would never had passed an inspection in the Western world. 

This is the first aid box in the bus and it says it all!

The trip took five hours, and was slow and bumpy as there was only two lane roads, with no passing lanes. The road was full of big holes, and there were hardly any shocks on the bus. We did have some nice views along the way though. Passing other cars and trucks was something you tried not to think about, lots of near misses, seems like the norm for Nepal!

Chitwan which means 'Heart of the Jungle', and this World Heritage-listed reserve in the southern part of Nepal covers more than 932 sq km of forrest, marshland and rippling grassland, and is home to a lot of wildlife. We stayed at the Sauraha Resort, an oasis in the village, and had most of our meals on 'our' patio.

We did a guided walk through this Tharu village. The Tharu people are thought to descend from the royal clan of Sakya, the Buddha's family. They have traditionally lived in elephant grass thatched huts with walls made of a mix of dung and clay, and some still do. Their beliefs are largely animistic involving the worship of forest spirits.

We also visited the government's elephant centre, and these elephants are only used for tourist rides, so they can control the number of tours into the park, as well as the treatment of the elephants.

Then we walked down to the river, saw a wonderful sunset.

We were up early the following morning and did an elephant safari, and it was a great experience. The fog was hanging over the trees and the river, which gave it a spooky look.

It took a while to get used to the movements of the elephant. Our elephant handler took us on trails away from all the other tourists, and we felt we had a private tour. We saw monkeys, wild boar, deer and many different birds.

After breakfast at the hotel we went to see the elephant take their morning bath and it was really funny to watch, as they almost submerge fully under the water, and use the trunk as a 'breathing periscope'.

After lunch we went on a jeep safari hoping to see rhinos or maybe even a tiger, but we didn't have any luck. We also visited a crocodile breeding Center, and they can get really big - good these ones only eat fish!

We had been shown a nice, quiet bar by the river away from all the tourists! And we had a couple of drinks and popcorn (a Schultz family weakness) there while watching the sunset.

Our waiter at the hotel, named Harry by us, as he looked like Harry in the latest Spiderman movie, was not happy with us as we were 15 minutes later for dinner. Oh well! 

The following day we were up early again to do a canoe trip on the river, and we saw a dangerous crocodile (man eater), marabou storks, kingfisher birds and many other birds. It was amazing gliding down the river in silence as the sun was rising and making the fog dissolve. 

Then we visited an elephant breeding center, and the little ones sure are cute.

Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, we didn't see any one-horned rhinos or tigers on our two hour jungle walk, but it would have been amazing seeing just one - across the rive at a safe distance. Our guide did his best to find one, but nature is thankfully not predictable. We had the afternoon off, and relaxed, read, shopped and packed. We visited our usual drinking hole again for the last sunset over Chitwan National Park. And then we saw a one hour Tharu cultural show with various dances.

The following morning we were taken to the highway and boarded a local bus, which would take us to the river rafting place. The locals were very kind and gave up their seats for some of us, but Lars wasn't so lucky....

After about 15 minutes drive, we turned down a small side road, and then the bus stopped outside a house. The house owner and several people from the bus got out, and started loading furniture on to the top of the bus, which obviously also serves as a moving truck. It took about an hour to load the bus, and this must be very common as none of the local seems upset about the delay. We found it very funny, but was a bit concerned that we would be late for the rafting. When we left the house the low hanging electrical wires got caught in the furniture, so a couple of guys crawled up on the roof of the bus and guided the driver through the 'spaghetti' of wires!

The trip took roughly three hours, and was just a slow and bumpy as the previous one. Once equipped with our gear

We set out on a two hour, 20 km rafting trip from Fishing to Mugling. Dorte and Tine were a bit scared during the first two rapids (Class 3) but the rest of the trip was great. 

After lunch, we boarded yet another public bus which took us to Kathmandu, in about four hours. It was just as gruelling a trip as the the other two bus trips, especially after it got dark. It seemed like whoever hooted first had the right away, and the bus overtook lorries and other busses in sharp corners, while scooters were weaving in between. Scary and very uncomfortable. When we reached the hotel, it turned out that they didn't have rooms for us that night, despite the fact that we had booked them in June, but they transferred us to another hotel which had very nice rooms, so it all worked out well.

Tine and Lars' last day in Nepal was spent shopping, visiting a local farmers market, the monkey temple, and the Garden of Dreams, which was a beautiful oasis in the midst of the noise and pollution of Kathmandu. 

And this fellow has a good life in the garden....

Dorte finally got to get a swing on a swing, which we had seen so many places previously. It had been raised for the Dasain festival.

Thank you, Tine and Lars, for joining us, and for sharing some wonderful new and exciting adventures in Nepal - the roof of the world. We had a wonderful time!