Nepal Year 2070!

Namaste! (I greet the divine in you!) This is the greeting in Nepal!

No, we are not crazy or have succumbed to altitude sickness; Nepal's official Vikram Samwat calendar started in the spring of 57 BC, so to the Nepalis 2013 is 2070.

NEPAL

Nepal is 800 km long and 200 km wide, and the landscape rises from just above 70m above sea level at the Indian border in the south to 8848m at the tip of Mt Everest! Nepal is said to get its name from Nepa, the name given to the Newari kingdom of the Kathmandu Valley. Nepal just opened its borders to outsiders 50 years ago, and the monarchy was abolished in 2008 after a decade of civil war. Nepal has around 30 million inhabitants; 80% are Hindu, 11% Buddhist, and 9% are other belief systems, and there is almost no religious or ethnic tension. Life expectancy is 66 years, adult literacy rate is 49%, average age is 21, and it is estimated that the money spent by each tourist supports 10 to 11 Nepalis for one year!  So your dollar goes a long way here! The dominant cultural concept is the cast system, which determines a person's status, career and marriage partner.

VISA ON ARRIVAL

If you don't get a visa for Nepal before you leave home, bring US dollars so you can pay for the visa upon arrival at the airport. We didn't, and the ATM in Arrivals wasn't working, so we had to deposit our passports at the airport, wondering if we'd ever see them again, and pick them up the next day when we had gotten the cash! It all worked out, but the experience cannot be recommended. Furthermore, our Canadian debit cards didn't work at most banks, even when they had the familiar PLUS sign, so we had to take out cash advances on our credit cards - ouch in fees!

KATHMANDU

There is around 1 million people living in Kathmandu, and it seems like they are all out in the streets at the same time, all the time - quite overwhelming. The cars and scooters are hooting as there are not many side walks, so pedestrians are weaving in and out between traffic, and the pollution is uncomfortable, due to the low quality gasoline. Many people are understandably wearing masks covering their mouth and nose. We didn't, so it wasn't long before our throats started to hurt a bit.

We stayed at Annapurna Guest House in the Thamel area, which is the main tourism area, but also quite a central location, as we only had a few days in Kathmandu. Somehow, we managed to exchange the 5:00am Muslim Call for Prayer, which we had heard evert morning for 5 weeks in Turkey and Jordan, with a 5:00 a.m.  rooster wake up call in the middle of Kathmandu! What's next? This rooster was staying of all places, on a 4th floor balcony, directly across from our window! Sometimes, you just can't win!

Because of the rooster, we sure knew when the sun was rising!

By the spring next to our hotel, people were washing themselves and/or their clothes. Many of these people are homeless, or have no washup facilities where they live. There are many of these places throughout Kathmandu.

At Hanuman-Dhaka Durbar Square we had a wonderful cup of Himalayan coffee. GOOGLE?

Durbar Square is a World Heritage Site, and located in the heart of the old city. It is a huge complex (35 courtyards) of beautiful temples and shrines, both Hindu and Buddhist, built between the 12th and 18th centuries, and it was here the kings of Nepal were crowned and ruled - the Palace is now a museum.

Behind Andy is the Maju Deval, a Shiva temple, with erotic carvings on its roof struts. The purpose of these Tantric carvings are unclear; might be a celebration of an important part of the life cycle.The small white temple is to Kam Dev, the Hindu god of love and desire. No wonder Andy is smirking!

Nepal has a living goddess, The Kumari Devi, who is living in the Kumari Bahal building. The girl is selected from a particular caste of Newari gold- and silversmiths when she is somewhere between 4 years old and puberty, and she must meet 32 strict physical requirements ranging from the colour of her eyes and shape of her teeth to the sound of her voice. Her horoscope must also be appropriate. When chosen she moves into the building with her family, and make several ceremonial appearances a year. Once she gets her first period, she reverts to the status of being a normal mortal. It is said that it is unlucky to marry an ex-Kumari, and it is believed that taking on a spoilt ex-goddess is to much hard work!

The huge stone image of Kala Bhairav represents Shiva in his destructive manifestation. It is said that telling a lie while standing in front of Kala Bhairab will bring instant death, and it was once used as a form of trial by ordeal. We kept our mouths shot when passing by.

There were so many people, ricks jaws, motorbikes, taxis and people so it was very difficult to move. We were going to walk the 2 km back to our hotel, but it was getting dark, so we didn't feel like it. We found a taxi, showed him the map and address of our hotel, and in we jumped. It turned out he didn't know where it was, and let us of in central Thamel. We had no idea which way to go, didn't recognize any landmarks, and there were no street signs. We started walking, and an hour later after having asked at several hotels - we were directed to Annapurna Mountain Guesthouse, not Annapurna Guesthouse - we finally recognized our street and found the hotel. We felt safe, and people were very helpful, so we could only laugh at that experience.

The following day we visited the village of Bodnath, which is the centre of Nepal's Tibetan community, and home to Asia's largest stupa. Stupas were originally built to hold the relics of the Buddha. 

The all-seeing eyes of the Buddah at the top, and the 13 levels of the spire represents the stages that a human being must pass through to achieve nirvana (ultimate peace and no re-birth into human life).

Andy is holding a string of prayer flags with a mantra given as a prayer offering.

And off we went to Kopan Monastery to start our 10 day mediation retreat!

Lazy Days In Aqaba

Yay! Vacation time! 

'What?' I hear you say... 'You are on a 7 months vacation, and you need vacation within a vacation?'. Yes, we do! As in Amalfi and Marmaris, we need time to absorb the experiences, catch up with ourselves, and relax. 

So we took another taxi shared with our English friend Helen, to South Beach 12 km south of Aqaba. It took only about an hour and a half from Wadi Rum, so it didn't feel like a lost day of travelling. We stayed at Darna Village which is across the road from the public beach.

We spent 5 days doing nothing but sleeping in, snorkelling, and relaxing. We didn't even bother going in to Aqaba; we were sick of cities, crowds of people, and the general tourist scene.

A room with a wonderful view!

When we opened the door to our room, we were greeted with some towel art, something quite typical in the Jordanian hotel industry.

Our location allowed easy snorkelling access to a 7.5 km coral reef with stunning coral and beautiful fish. We snorkelled every morning around 11:00, ate lunch, rested, and were back in the water again around 4:00!

Friday is the day that Muslims go to the Mosque to pray, (similar to the Christian Sunday) and Friday and Saturday are generally holidays in Jordan. We were quite curious to see what would happen on our beach on the weekend (we arrived on Wednesday). Well, it started the night before, with many Jordanians barbecuing on the beach, with the delicious smell of chicken waifing through the air, yum, yum! Many families put up big tents and stayed the night. Aqaba is a fairly conservative area of Jordan. Most Jordanian men swam in shorts and a t-shirt and most women wore a bathing suit that fully covered their bodies. They were all laughing and smiling, and having a great time. Nice to see!

The sunsets over Egypt were wonderful.

We decided to make our last night in Jordan special by going to Tala Bay Resort for dinner and drinks. Dorte had marinated tiger prawns, and Andy had one of his favourite meals, beef tenderloin, soaked down, of course, with a good bottle of Bordeaux.

Alcohol is severely restricted in Jordan, it is mostly found at international hotel chains such as the Radisson, or Movenpick, etc. In other places such as Petra, it is prohibitly expensive (price gouging by hotelier agreement, I think, being Jordan's top tourist attraction). Jordanian wine is expensive (about 22 Cdn on average), and not that good, for the most part. It is equivalent to a $8-9 bottle of Canadian wine which gives you a headache in the morning ('nuff said!). Named after Dorte?

Andy made the decision not to dive in Aqaba, as it had been about 15 years since he made his last plunge. However, for those as rusty as Andy, there are many PADI dive centres offering 11/2-2 hour refresher courses for about 65 JD (100 Cdn). A full PADI certification would run about 350 JD (500 Cdn). 

The picture below is taken from our hotel on South Beach. If you look through the second lamppost on your left, and across the ocean to the sandstone hill, you have the Egyptian/Israeli border. On the left is Taba, Egypt and on the far right is Eilat, Israel. There was a lot of trouble in Egypt's Sinai peninsula. We were glad of our decision not to go there.

We have travelled Jordan from north (Jerash) to south (Aqaba), a really enjoyable country. We flew to Amman and boarded a Qatar Airlines flight to Kathmandu, Nepal via Doha in Qatar. The flight was full of young Nepalese men going home after having worked in Qatar for three years on construction for the World Cup in 2022. They are home for four months, and then they go back to Qatar for another three years! There were only three women in economy class - Dorte being the only caucasian. An interesting experience! It is raining and 21 degrees in Kathmandu according to our pilot, something that doesn't happen very often in desert conditions of Jordan, and a weather we haven't had since we left Vancouver three month ago.

We are both excited to start the Asian part of our trip (3-4 months), which promises to be very different than Europe and the Middle East. Trekking, mountains, snow, jungles, river rafting, and helping write a hiking guide (our last volunteer experience) all await in Nepal. Stay tuned for our next adventure update!!!

Nomadic Trek in Wadi Rum, Jordan

We took the 6:20 bus from Petra to Wadi Rum, and got dropped off at Jordan Track's office at 8:30. It was a nice ride through desert, but the rocks looked slightly different.

We are only 4 people in the group: Helen (UK), us and Farahd (FuFu), our guide. He is 20 years old, and was born in Wadi Rum village. His father has two wives, and he is one of 8 children. He has a great sense of humour, and he Andy had a lot of friendly banters over the two days. FuFu would claim things like he used an American M-16 rifle to kill 1000 rabbits a year. Andy would laugh at this, and pretend to go along with the story. FuFu also threatened to leave Andy alone at night in the desert to see if he could survive. Andy threatened to leave FuFu alone in the high Canadian Artic for one hour and on it went!

Wadi Rum is a spectacular desert scenery; the mountains rise up to 800 metres from the desert floor, and the corridors of red sand just add to the dramatic scenery.

We walked part of the old caravan route between Aquba and Saudi Arabia, and saw sign posts (the first graffiti?) carved into the rock by the Thamud tribe, about 2000 years ago showing the way for the caravans.

We stopped for lunch and siesta in the shade of this big rock for a couple of hours, as it is too hot to walk in the desert at that time of day.

Up and down sand dunes we walked, through open areas where the sand was whipping us forward due to the high winds in the afternoon, so a true desert experience.

When we reached camp around 16:30 and after 18 km of walking in the sand, we were tired, but very proud of ourselves. We sleep in beds in tents perched along the mountain, and the meals were served outside around the fire pit.

It was wonderful with a hot shower provided by solar energy, and we got a free body's scrub washing off all the sand! We walked away from camp to see the sunset, and caught a glimpse of it.

The 12 other people at our camp, were all on jeep tours, and they were impressed that we had walked all the way to camp. Dinner was literally 'something we dug up', as it was cooked in a hole in the ground with burning wood at the bottom, then the food covered with a lid and sand to keep the heat in. The chicken and the veggies tasted wonderful. 

We walked away from camp to see the stars, and what a sight. The  Milkey Way was right above our heads, and so was thousand of stars. It was almost as if you could reach out and touch the stars, and it was so silent - it was simply magical.

After dinner, the Bedouin guides entertained us with song and music, and then it was a well deserved bed time.

Nomadic Trek Day 2

For once it was a treat going to the wash room in the middle of the night, as the moon was up, and lit up the camp and sourrounding dessert. An amazing sight.

We left the camp after breakfast around 9 am, and took off on our day hike in the dessert. It is an amazing landscape, and hard work, but interesting to experience by foot what the Bedouins have done for thousand of years.

We stopped several times for short breaks in the shade, and the temperature difference was amazing as it was 5 to 10 degrees C cooler in the shade - what a relief.  The movie Lawrence of Arabia was filmed here in the early 1960s.

We had a tea break at this rock bridge, which was quite a challenge for Andy, due to his vertigo, but he made it up there.

I (Dorte) am typing this part in FuFu's grandparent's Bedouin tent in the middle of the dessert, where we had lunch, tea, and a 2 hour siesta as it is too hot to walk around in the dessert. Very nice of them to host us, and another interesting experience. It is a hard life being a Bedouin!

A nap!

The kitchen!

After 14 km hiking we were back at camp, and went in a jeep to see the sunset. Another spectacular sight!

The next morning we were taken out of the desert in a jeep, and we were very pleased we didn't have to walk to Wadi Rum Village in the sand!

This trip was definitely an unforgettable experience!

Petra Kitchen

After a day in Petra, ice cream, a change of clothes, and a beer at the Moevenpick Hotel, it was time to go to Petra Kitchen for a Jordanian cooking lesson. Petra Kitchen is a local initiative for visitors, to get a hands-on experience of Jordanian culture, by working with a team of local men and women to cook an evening meal and then eat together.

It is amazing how many different dishes you can make of largely the same ingredients: tomatoes, onion, lemon and garlic.

Chef Andy cooking Lentil Soup.

The ingredients are all locally sourced, the tableware comes from the women's ceramics workshop, and the aprons, tablecloths, and napkins are all hand-embroidered by Jordanian women.

We had a lot of fun during the 3 hours, and the food was great. We have all the recipes, and will definitely make some of the dishes at home - so watch out next time you come for dinner!

Petra - The High Place of Sacrifice

We made our way through the Siq again, admiring some of the many carvings and geological formations.

We then climbed up yet more steps cut into the rock, 

and after 40 minutes, we were rewarded with a spectacular view of one of the theatres from 170 meters.

The High Place was the venue for important religious ceremonies honouring Nabatean gods (probably including human and animal sacrifice) and it was perhaps also used for funeral rites.

Instead of going back the same way, we took the Wadi Farasa trail, which in a couple of hours would take us down to Petra City Centre. We only met a handful of people, so it felt like we were the only ones there. It was great not having to say "No Thank You" very politely to the many Jordanians trying to make a living off the tourists in Petra, as they were largely non-existent on this trail; Camel/Horse/Donkey rides, tea, postcards, water, trinkets, etc were repeatedly offered, often with the caption 'free" which basically meant an expensive tip was required! The nice thing in Jordan was that when you said 'no thank you' very politely and looked them in the eye, you were left alone. The local Bedouins were generally very polite and respectful!

The Lion Monument had probably been a drinking fountain with water coming from the lion's mouth. Use your imagination to see the lion; hint: right eye is visible!

We descended steps which zig zagged down the side of the mountain, 

to the Garden Triclinium and the Roman Soldier Tomb, wrongly named so as it looks like the headless man in the middle is wearing a cuirass, but the tomb is Nabatean.

We saw more tombs as well as houses built into the slopes, as we made our way back to city centre. We didn't manage to see it all, but we did do all the recommended highlights, and it was truly amazing.

It is difficult to imagine what Petra must have looked like in it's golden age, when it was a wealthy city, home to tens of thousands of people. What today are ruins were once grand temples and buildings, there were lush gardens in what now looks lush dusty waste.

It was so nice to see ruins that were not Roman, having previously travelled to Italy, Turkey and Greece! We spend some time on a bench admiring the Treasury a final time, before leaving Petra.