Wow. The past two-and-a-bit months have been crammed with so much stuff it already feels like I started my trip years ago instead of in October. So far, I have trekked in the Himalayas, survived “the World’s Most Dangerous Hike” and set foot on one of the Seven Wonders of the World – but more about those later.
My first stop was Nepal. At the time of my arrival (October) the country was going through a tough time to say the least. Families were still trying to return to a semblance of normality following devastating earthquakes which hit back in April.
On top of this, there was a fuel crisis. Political factors, such as protests over Nepal’s new constitution, had sparked an unofficial blockade on the border with India, meaning only a fraction of the trucks carrying petrol and other supplies, including medicine, are allowed in each day. As a land-locked country, Nepal is heavily reliant on these imports.
The visible effects of this were inescapable. Queues, two or three vehicles wide, went on for miles and miles at every petrol station. One poor taxi driver I spoke to said he had been waiting in the same place for 10 hours – and all for just a few litres.
It didn’t help that the biggest festival of the year, Dashain, was happening as well. It was described to me as Nepal’s equivalent of Thanksgiving. Everyone goes back to their family home so the lack of fuel made this extremely difficult for some people.
Journeys clinging onto the roofs of buses were fairly normal and I even saw one person climb up with a goat in his arms (each family slaughters an animal as part of the festival).
In my first week I met representatives from a local charity called Lakshya Nepal, which is trying to raise money to build a new school in the village of Chundevi after it was badly affected by the earthquakes.
They very kindly treated me to my first dal baht. A very tasty dish usually consisting of rice, chicken or mutton and a lentil sauce. You eat it without utensils and only with your right hand – the left hand is used for “other things”, so I was told.
We later went to look at some of the aftermath of the earthquakes in the village of Bungmati, just outside of Kathmandu.
Many of the homes were completely flattened, however. the people there were getting into the spirit of Dashain as there was a parade going through and a huge shrine on wheels was being pulled by ropes up a hill.
Despite all this turmoil, the Nepalese people were, in my experience some of the friendliest I’ve ever met. When I got lost once and asked for directions at a nearby hostel, two men who worked there went 20 minutes out of their way to walk me to where I needed to go and they didn’t ask for a thing.
It’s humbling that they have had all of this thrown at them and they are still smiling and striving to get on with their lives.
ASCQ 