This past weekend we trainees were sent on an “Individual
Experience Trip” which is ironic considering we were paired up with another
trainee. The objective of this was to
get us to test out or Nepali, figure out how to get around, and also have a
little time off from our host families.
I had a truly spectacular time.
Saturday morning I met my assigned travel buddy around 7:30
am at the bus station in the town near my village. Most of the other volunteers had the same
time in mind so we all ended up on the same bus for a while. We all had different end destinations so we
got off the bus at different times. The
little place I was supposed to go to is called Chihane. My partner and I got to this “town” with no
problems and found our hotel. This was
easy to do since the hotel is literally the only thing in Chihane.
I had been really looking forward to trying some interesting
street food and was a little disappointed that I wasn’t sent to a town but
instead a wide spot in the road. Chihane
is located at the bottom of a valley and is on the banks of a very glacial blue
colored river. The first afternoon I
wandered up river a bit and found a pretty large boulder on the bank of the
river. I struggled up it, and discovered
that it could in fact be climbed. Then I
down climbed, stripped down to my boxers, and swam out around it to check out
the depth of the river. That river is
very deep in a lot of places. I never
found the bottom. Then I climbed up the
boulder again and jumped off of it.
Repeat several times until very cold. I helped my partner get up on the
boulder so she could jump off from a slightly less scary spot. I had to really launch outwards from the top
to clear the bottom of the rock. What a great way to spend the afternoon!!
Afterwards we wandered about ten minutes down the road to
another hotel we had spotted on the drive in.
This was a bit more of a tourist hotel/camp and therefore a bit pricier,
but they also have activities available, and after some haggling it was decided
that we would go whitewater rafting for $30 each. This included meals and snacks.
So on Sunday after we ate breakfast we went back over to the
other hotel and met up with our fellow rafters and off we went. My raft consisted of some Australian and
Israeli tourists, and the other raft consisted of some Americans who were part
of the American International School.
Apparently this is an outdoor focused school based out of Alaska and
these people were on a three month course.
The first month was mountaineering training and included summiting a few
6,000 meter peaks. The second month is a
Wilderness First Responder course and English teaching in a village and the
third month is a raft guide course including swift water rescue. This sounded like a perfect group to be going
rafting with considering we rafted quite a few Class IV and V rapids.
The river was exceedingly beautiful, but there was certainly
an interesting dichotomy happening which I’ve noticed before when doing rich
person activities in a developing country.
For instance, one part of the river was one of the prettiest sections of
river I’ve ever seen. It was on a corner
and one side was a sheer cliff with some waterfalls stringing down the sides. The cliff was covered in a brilliant green
moss which really complimented the electric blue water. As we exited this part of the canyon we
entered a good sized town. There were
huge piles of garbage streaming down the slopes into the river and people
cleaning chickens in the river water on the shore. It is just sort of shocking to move from one
extreme to another in such a short time.
Further down river we had to get out of the rafts and walk
around a big rapid because a number of people have died in the rapid when their
boat flipped. The guides ran the rapids
alone, and then picked us up at the bottom.
It was fun to watch our guide navigate the rapid, but probably not as
much fun as running it. However, water
scares the crap out of me, so I wasn’t quite as keen on running it after our
guide told me (in Nepali, so I was the only one who understood) that they can’t
run it with clients anymore because of all the people who have died. When we got back to the raft camp/hotel they
had a late lunch buffet out which included PEANUT BUTTER!!! Among other things
I think I had about four peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I was so content after that, and went back to
our hotel showered and then returned to the other hotel for some ping pong and
cards with the other people we had rafted with.
What a great day!
On Monday we got up and hit the road…towards China!! Our goal for the day was to see the border
with China, and also visit some hot springs which are just before the
border. A couple hours and a couple bus
changes later we ended up in a pretty good sized town (actually the same one we
rafted by), and there was very little traffic continuing out of town towards
the border. Eventually, I flagged down a
car and said we were headed for Tatopani (which literally means hot water in
Nepali), and he was too. He had another
passenger in the car and we joined them.
We chatted for about five minutes, and then stopped and the other
passenger got out and paid the driver.
We then realized that we had unknowingly ended up in a taxi. I quickly explained that we didn’t want a
taxi, and asked how much it was to get to the border. The driver said that it was 200 NR each, and
I said, “Sorry, we misunderstood. I
thought the car was free, and we will also get out here.” The driver just said stay put and that he was
going to Tatopani anyways he would take us for free because we are
volunteers. And that was that.
Along the way we chatted with the driver and he pointed out
various interesting things. We passed
the highest natural bungy jump in the world.
The canyon was VERY deep, but the jump was a bit out of my price range,
as well as not being a priority, as well as being way too scary, so we passed
it by. He also pointed out a colony of
gigantic bee hives that were about three hundred feet above the river attached
to the cliff. The road up became more
and more spectacular the farther we went.
There were large sections where landslides had occurred and so were
pretty rough; the canyon became steeper and narrower, the mountains bigger, and
the road more exciting. It was a really
neat shelf road high above the river that snaked along the cliffs and
occasionally there was a bridge. We
arrived at the border a little after noon which means it took us about four
hours to travel the 45 km from our hotel to the border (including a maybe a
half an hour for breakfast).
In the border town we came across a car that was surrounded
by a bunch of monks, and occasionally someone would walk up to the passenger
window and a little boy would reach out and touch their bowed head. One of the monks was French and spoke English
so we asked him what was going on. It
turns out the boy had been named the reincarnation of the one of the gods, and
this was the first time he was brought out in public.
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| A Colorful Temple in Tatopani (the Nepali word for colorful is rungichungi, one of my favorite words) |
We decided to find some food in Tatopani which was 4 km back
down the road, and also check out the hot springs. We hopped on a bus. Since we had gained quite a bit of elevation
coming towards the border it started to rain on the ride, but I’m getting ahead
of myself.
It took us about an hour to get to Tatopani at which point I
realized we were not going to be able to stop for food. We were supposed to be back in our village by
5 pm, and it was already 1 pm. Based on
how exceedingly fast the bus was moving we were not going to make it if we
stopped for food and had to wait for another bus. So we stayed on. This is when it started to rain, and my
enjoyment of the experienced greatly increased.
The rain was a bit uncomfortable and chilly, but not so cold that it was
miserable so I just thought it added to the experience. Now the roads were muddy, and I could see so
much from the bus. The river
was gorgeous through the drifting mist, and I spotted some huge, multi-tiered
water falls crashing down the cliffs across the valley that I wasn’t able to
get a good look at on the way up.
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| Some Lovely Waterfalls |
At one point we came to a police checkpoint. I guess the officers were feeling ornery
because they had all the people get off the roof and walk about 300 meters down the
road. Then, since we were “out of sight”
they all got back on the roof and continued.
This time it took us 3 hours to travel about 20 or 30
km. This was the end of that bus’ line
so we found another bus, grabbed a package of cookies each, and jumped on the
bus as it was leaving. At this point we
were very hungry and both had to pee pretty badly. Luckily, this bus only took about an hour to
get to the next bus exchange. That
driver was a real rally driver: he barely slowed for oncoming cars, but instead
opted to swerve around them and in doing so demonstrated the true handling
abilities of a large bus (race bus).
At the bus exchange I stood and made sure that no one walked
down the slope where my partner was using the facilities, and by the time she
came back up our bus had arrived and we had to get on. So, now it was five o’clock and we were an
hour’s drive from town, and I was a half hour to an hour’s walk from my house
past the town. And I REALLY had to pee,
and now was very hungry. The bus was
standing room only, and the buses are very short so I had to hunch over while
standing. I was a bit uncomfortable, but
I enjoyed the experience for what it was because it was my first (of I’m sure
many) long Nepali transport days. Also,
the sunset was beautiful, and I had had such a great day that I wasn’t going to
be easily bummed out.
I got back late, managed to avoid trouble with our very
overbearing Training Manager, and had a big meal when I got home. I haven’t talked to everybody, but I’d guess
we had the best “Experience Trip” out of anybody. Thankfully, my travel partner was a trooper,
so kudos to her.
Two Random Sunset Pictures (Not from my trip)
Race bus!
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