LANGTANG part one

After spending three weeks hiking the Himalayan Annapruna mountain range, then enjoying another week of recovery in the very beautiful town on the lake called Pokhara, I felt I'd given myself the needed pampering and rest my body had been crying for and was ready to bus it back to colorful Kathmandu. There were a few personal items left at the hotel I'd stayed in a month earlier that needed to be retrieved (hotels look after personal belongings while out trekking) and while there I could have another good look around, enjoy some of the sights and figure out what my next step would be when it came to exploring the visually delicious world of Nepal. Once back it didn't take me long to realize despite all the eye popping color and interesting hustle, Kathmandu was still a big city, one that was inundated with relentless noise and air pollution and at that particular time there were also the underlying tensions stirred up by coming elections. Just so happened the country hadn't see a vote in 6 years (or so the story went) and all parties involved were wanting/demanding their voice be heard. Large groups of Maoists, the Nepali Congress, and the Pastriya Parjatantra party were coming together on the streets and expounding on their platforms. There was some stand off protesting and fighting and the occasional bomb exploding in the city center all of which seemed to be the norm for those living there. I never felt like I was in any danger but must admit that my making the decision to hike the Langtang trail came quickly and a couple mornings after arriving in Kathmandu I acquired my hiking permit, a few things for the trek and without a guide boarded a bus that would take me the 12 hours to the village of Syabru Besi where I would start my journey.
(Gallery of Kathmandu pictures at the end)


Now for those of you who've been to Nepal and risked the perilous mountain roads by local bus you'd know about this experience. For anyone who's never been, well let me say the only way to truly understand what it's like is by direct personal experience. The bus (coffin) I took that day came equipped with bald tires, breaks that squeal far to loudly whenever applied, and was always uncomfortably packed with everything from people and 20 foot lengths of steel rebar to chickens and heavy bags of grain. There were a lot of stops and always people scrambling up and perching on the roof, and if there was no room up there they'd hang on the sides! This made for some interesting silhouette shadow play on the roadside and also had me thinking it could be the safer place to be. The road to Syabru Besi wasn't just rocky with stretches high up where it became more like a goat trail and seemed too narrow for our bloated bus, but in places it also abutted sheer drops that made me nervous and made being inside the bus very difficult at times.....


At least if outside a person had the opportunity to make that leap of faith if they had too. It's a very nerve raking experience bouncing along not being in control and knowing full well if something/anything goes sideways you and a bus load of others could easily slip over and plunge thousands of feet straight down to what would be a very ugly demise. At one point during the journey the bus broke down, something to do with the steering which in itself was a little unsettling. In truth this break down came at a good time as I really had to pee and I wasn't the only one, seemed everyone was scrambling to get out and run for the nearest stand of trees. A 12 hour day of very few pee breaks and a lunch that lasted maybe 25 minutes is a lengthy stretch for anyone, but on those bumpy roads it was unbearable. There's no question that traveling by local bus on the mountain roads of Nepal can be taxing on the nervous system, definitely not for the faint of heart but I'm glad I did it this way. Not so sure I'd do it this way again, maybe next time I'd take the time to hire a vehicle and driver just for the comfort and to be able to stop when I wanted.

THE PICTURE ABOVE IS LOOKING OUT FROM THE BUS WINDOW

     AND IF YOU LOOK CLOSE ENOUGH YOU CAN SEE THE TINY HOUSES BELOW              

There really was so much packed into the trip from Kathmandu to my destination Syabru Besi, more then I could ever try to write about. I went through the complete range of emotions that included my exhilaration of witnessing the beauty of another culture, the land, smells and sounds, to my occasional nervous fear that occasionally screamed we're all going to die, to experiencing my incredible joy and complete exhaustion of finishing up and arriving at the start of my next mountain adventure.

Didn't take me long to find and check into a guesthouse after arriving."The Buddha Guesthouse" was clean, and the owners super nice and friendly. The showers had hot water which isn't always the case and my bed was comfortable which again isn't always the case. I suppose after a twelve hour ride on the rough roads through the mountains anything resembling a bed would be amazing and welcome. I'll leave you with a few more pictures I took from the road trip to Syabru Besi and begin the second part of this story in a few days.

                                     

BROKEN DOWN AND PATIENTLY WAITING

                           

                                                            

ON A NICE DAY BEING ON THE TOP HAS GOT TO BE THE BEST WAY TO RIDE ON A BUS
                                                      MIGHT EVEN BE THE SAFEST AS WELL

RELAXED AND CAREFREE

                                                                   

                                             

JUST IN PASSING

LOVE THE TERRACING

THESE NEXT FEW PICTURES WERE TAKEN OF LIFE ON THE STREETS OF KATHMANDU

LOCAL PUBLIC MARKET 

BICYCLE TAXI DRIVER WEARING A TRADITIONAL NEPALESE HAT

HONING HIS CRAFT                                                            WHERE I STAYED

                                 

JUST LIKE THE CITY WORKERS BACK HOME

       INFRASTRUCTURE OF KATHMANDU









































I DON'T BELIEVE ANY OF THESE CHILDREN GO TO SCHOOL,
SEEMS EVERYONE HAS TO WORK TO EXSIST,  FOR THEM IT'S A TOUGH GO
DAY TO DAY EVERYDAY

THIS ONE SPEAKS FOR ITSELF