Kathmandu, Nepal

[J.] We arrived in Kathmandu, Nepal on 30 November. So often, the airport of a country seems to me like the first mirror of the culture and the people of its country and this felt so true for the Kathmandu airport. I did some duty free shopping in Delhi and while we were busy with the visa application on arrival filling several electronic and paper forms, I left this duty free bag on a shelf in this visa area. After passing the passport control, another security scan and waiting for our bags at the belt, my husband asked me where I have my duty free bag... bleeh, of course I forgot it in the visa area upstairs! I was running back, explaining the situation to the first official person at the security scan checkpoint who smiled and let me pass showing me the way upstairs, some back stairs that are normally not open for tourists. At the first floor, I was explaining the situation again to a second official, also mentioning that I do not have the passport with me (as I was entering again the area before the passport control). He nodded and let me through. I found the bag (including my precious cigarettes, haha) where I left it and could walk back downstairs to the luggage claim area without any hassles, only needed to pass the security scan ckeckpoint again. I was all smiles... the travel guide we used was saying, that tourists come back to Nepal because of its friendly people and it felt so true. 

Outside the airport we started negotiating the taxi fee for the ride to our hotel located in touristy area Thamel. Everyone was telling us that the fees are double the price we expected due to the fuel crisis. I had some question marks on my forehead and thought, well... the stories are so consistant, I need to research this once we had access to the internet again. It turned out that due to the new constitution just becoming into effect a few weeks ago, there were political riots and blockages happening at the border to India. Fuel was short everywhere, 50% of all inland flight were apparently cancelled already and tourists were advised to stay away from any public demonstrations. At that moment, I felt like the worst preparred traveller ever. We checked the travel warnings for Nepal 2 months ago and arrived there what in that moment felt like a huge crisis with us not knowing if we would be able to get around and out of Nepal again. Aaaaargh!
It turned out to be all good and our worries regarding our travel plans did not became true. However, the daily life in Nepal was very much impacted by this crisis as fuel was expansive, black markets florishing, hot showers rarely available and resturants closed or only with a much reduced menu. For Nepalese people, I am sure that the effects of winter coming and not enough heating resources available were much more problematic.

We spent some lazy 5 days in Kathmandu, just organising a hiking trip to the Annapurna region and strolling around the city. The earthquake earlier in May 2015 has destroyed a lot of buildings, also affecting the very old temples at the Durbar Square, which partly were completely destroyed; so, so sad how history has just vanished. Wandering along the alleys and small streets of the old town, the most peculiar thing for me was how very old buildings, temples and spiritual places mingle into the daily life. Somewhere on a square, we found a tiny little statue which accoring to the travel guide is from 6th or 7th century AD, surrounded by shops and dental practices that would not give the tiniest clue of how old this statue is!

With all the outdoor gear shops around and those many 8000m summits in this country with their tragic and sucessul stories I totally got caught by the mountaineering bug or better, the idea about mountaineering. In my mind, I was climbing them all (needless to say that I have no clue about mountaineering at all). I read the book "Into thin air" by Jon Krakauer about the disastrous ascent of the Mount Everest in 1996, which also stated that at that time about 4% of all people attempting the ascent of the summit died. Another book I read was 'Annapurna: First conquest of an 8000m peak' by Maurice Herzog from 1951. Both books are discussed controversial as they only describe the events from one persons view, but still I felt that they are well written, entertaining and give a great impression of what it means to climb in such dangerous environments and how closely related the successful ascents of the summits and the following difficult descents are when the bodies and minds are exhausted.

I was still suffering from a heavy flu I caught somewhere in India, most likely during a night train trip from Jalsaimer to Jodhpur which was freezing cold. I had this flu now for about three weeks without any signs of getting better and decided to take the antibiotics we were carrying with us for exactly this reason. That's how I started the 7 day hiking trip around the Annapurna region beginning with a bus trip to Pokhara.